Looking for average costs for renovating properties

[Andy Robertson]

I am trying to get a feeling for the costs to renovate a home based on how big it is. I know that I am over simplifying things but if I wanted to create a rule of thumb to use when analyzing a property, what would you suggest I use as a starting point? Right now I have five buckets of costs: 1. Renovation estimates 2. Both buying and Selling Real Esate costs (6% on each side of the transaction) 3.Hard money costs at 2 pts origination plus 1 pt per month 4. Money paid to buyer when selling the property normally closing costs. 5.Title fees These are broken into 5 buckets of size: 1000 to 2000 sq ft 2001 to 3000 sq ft 3001 to 4000 sq ft 4001 to 5000 sq ft I am hoping you can provide what numbers you would use for these buckets and any other categories that I should be using. Thank you very much for your input! Andy

[James Triano]

@Andy Robertson

Giving you a blanket dollar per square foot is simply not feasible without knowing details of your market.  In Utah, it could be $50/sq. Foot or it could be $100.  My best advice to you is to 1) Read J. Scott's book on Estimating Rehab Costs and 2) Go talk to people in your local market.  Whether that be actual contractors or other investors.  You're going to need to find a contractor to rehab your properties anyway so you might as well make the contacts now.

Also, understand that your per sq. Foot costs are not going to be exactly the same as you move up in home size.  Your finished will be more expensive for a larger home than they will be for a smaller home.  You may be able to settle on vanilla appliances and flooring in a 1500 sq. Foot house but will not be able to on a 5,000 sq. Foot house.