80K in renovation.

[woody516]

Originally Posted by twingles

Totally agree with previous posters. There is no way anyone can give you info on what you are saying. I know someone who spent over $100K on a kitchen renovation. Other people can do a kitchen for a quarter of that.

And this is exactly what's wrong with a county thinking they can give an assessed value for homes in calculating their taxes. Your neighbor could be paying a fraction of your taxes, yet could have sunk 100k into his kitchen while you're living with a relic from the 1950s.

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by woody516

And this is exactly what's wrong with a county thinking they can give an assessed value for homes in calculating their taxes. Your neighbor could be paying a fraction of your taxes, yet could have sunk 100k into his kitchen while you're living with a relic from the 1950s.

Would you really want to open that Pandora's box -- inviting the town/county into your home to show them what you have in order to be taxed on it?

[Chrisk327]

Originally Posted by twingles

Well, if you're talking about updating, it depends a lot on you and your choices. You can go high end on everything or you can go basic. Makes a big difference.

Although this can be the case, if you're paying someone and doing most everything in a house, even basic can cost a lot.

I wouldn't be looking at houses that needed $80K in renovations if you don't know a bunch about renovations, or have someone you trust who does.


The comment about fully renovating a ranch for that price.... it really depends on what you mean by fully. replacing all plumbing electric, doing 2 bathrooms 1 kitchen all new flooring sheetrock siding and roofing..... you're probably going to be over 80K unless you do it yourself or aren't using licensed electricians and plumbers.

[Thehouse]

Originally Posted by Chrisk327

Although this can be the case, if you're paying someone and doing most everything in a house, even basic can cost a lot.

I wouldn't be looking at houses that needed $80K in renovations if you don't know a bunch about renovations, or have someone you trust who does.


The comment about fully renovating a ranch for that price.... it really depends on what you mean by fully. replacing all plumbing electric, doing 2 bathrooms 1 kitchen all new flooring sheetrock siding and roofing..... you're probably going to be over 80K unless you do it yourself or aren't using licensed electricians and plumbers.

why wouldnt you look at a house that needs 80k in work?

lets say you purchase the house for 100k. reno it for another 80k. now the house value 300k; wouldnt that make a lot of sense?

[Crookhaven]

Originally Posted by S.I.B.

"Are you gonna make it all 220?"

220....221, Whatever it takes

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by Thehouse

why wouldnt you look at a house that needs 80k in work?

lets say you purchase the house for 100k. reno it for another 80k. now the house value 300k; wouldnt that make a lot of sense?

Are other comparable homes worth $300K in good condition? If so I would question why the $100K is so much cheaper. Chances are it needs more than $80K in work.

Of course your numbers are hypothetical, but where would someone be able to put $80K into a home and realize an increase in value of $120K above the cost of home and repairs? Many of the calculators and articles show returns less than the amount of money sunk in.

[Chrisk327]

Originally Posted by Thehouse

why wouldnt you look at a house that needs 80k in work?

lets say you purchase the house for 100k. reno it for another 80k. now the house value 300k; wouldnt that make a lot of sense?

because you don't know whether it needs 80K or 200K in work. b/c you don't know if you're getting 30K in renovations for your 80K price tag.

All I'm saying is that if you have no idea what is wrong with the house, what it needs, and how much it will cost to fix, you really are playing russian roulette if you're buyng a fixer upper.

if it "needs" a kitchen updated, that is one thing, it can be expensive, but its definable.

if it needs a full gut renovation... good luck. It ain't cheap and you will get a big bill from the contractor doing the reno, and thats assuming the contractor isn't ripping you off, which although a bunch are honest, do you know enough that they can't BS you about what was found behind the walls?

I looked a a house I was thinking of purchasing that had an interesting piece of property, and an interesting accessory apartment. the main house needed updating, I thought it was going to be a good candidate for me in my house search. Looking at the house with my brother in law who is a contractor, we noticed that A) the foundation was compromised in 1 spot, B) the main beam had a section 3 feet long completely cut out, and C) the sump pump in the basement was pumping water into a stream that was next to the property.....

I'm sure a good inspector would have caught these things... the house sold for close to its last listing price which probably would have been fair value if it didn't have those issues. I'd venture a guess that the inspector who did the inspection for the buyers of the house was not unbiased or didn't catch these issues.

my point is that you could argue that house needed 80K of updating, but there was another 20K of structural work there to do that could have been missed. Also that 80K of updating could really be 110K, and that 20K could be 30K, and you could have counted on spending 80, and now you're at 140K. I'm not saying every house is like that... but most renovations have both scope creep, unexpected things that need fixing, and people putting material in that costs more than the origional budget.