Were you able to stay within the $30K budget? If not, what happened?

We went $5k over budget, mainly due to the replacing of the septic tank which cost $3500 and we decided to go the extra mile in finishing the downstairs room so that is where the overages came from. All in all we feel those improvements will lead to a slightly higher sales price than we originally thought so it will make up for the overage in budget. 

This is a house we bought sight unseen with someone living in it, so I'm actually not that upset about going over like we did. Like with every project, we learned a ton.

Thank you for sharing valuable information. 3500 for septic system seems very low, but I don't have experience with septic work. If I ever need one, I'm calling you :)

@Shirley R. It was just the tank itself that needed to be replaced. Not the entire system so that saved us some money I am sure. 

Great job, Mike! Could you detail the final rehab numbers? How much did that hardwood refinishing end up running you?

@Victor S. Roughly $2.00 a square foot for the refinishing. 750sq of flooring for $1400.

@Michael Noto Why did you decide to replace the septic tank if the inspection showed it to be in fine working order? Just for added peace of mind for the buyer? Also, I am guessing the home was not connected for natural gas and that is why you decided to go with propane heat. Do you think propane heat / hot water could cause hesitation for some buyers in the area as opposed to natural gas? Any experiences with converting a home to natural gas and what kind of ROI you could expect from that, if any?

Love the way you outlined everything in this thread btw. It was an extremely fun read and very educational! I am going to search the forums for more threads like this.

@Chris Ravettine Although the septic inspection revealed there was nothing major wrong with the tank it was very old so that was the main reason we decided to replace it. We did it because of exactly what you said, piece of mind for the buyer for what we thought was a good trade off given the cost. 

Ideally we would like to have natural gas but it is not available on the street and the nearest line is to far to tap into. Since the heating system is new we do not see it impacting ARV. Propane in this area is more desirable than oil and electric for sure.

Thanks for taking the time to read the thread. We have outlined several of our projects on here and the links to most of them are at the bottom of the page in the “related discussions” links. 

Great to know. I am just beginning my journey in real estate and often the properties I have been looking at have old Oil heating systems. Propane has slipped my mind as a viable option until I read this post. It is good to know that there is a "middle ground" between the often expensive route of converting to natural gas and the less buyer friendly route of keeping the Oil system. 

Was the house on Propane before or did you convert from Oil? If you converted what did you do with the old oil tank? I've seen some properties where they are in the basement or buried somewhere in the yard. I could imagine the latter could turn into a real nightmare to remove. Any advice for dealing with homes with old oil tanks buried somewhere on the property?

@Chris Ravettine Heating in the home when we bought it was electric baseboard and we converted to propane forced air system. 

@Michael Noto I have to renovate 1 apartment in a triplex soon. There's electric baseboard heat there too (the other 2 apts are natural gas baseboard). I contemplating upgrading to a natural gas.

What do you think? Worth it?

@Shirley R. how many bedrooms is the apartment you are renovating?

2 bedrooms 3rd fl. Projected rent $900

@Michael Noto   Great posts Michael and appreciate it!  Two questions on my side please:

- The louver door by the furnace - there's not a requirement for a fire rated door there?  I had a similar door up here in VT, but it was flagged and I had to replace it.

- The propane furnace - $5k including duct work, but did they break out just the furnace and installation?  I'm pricing some out up here, and think it would similar.  Switching out oil forced air to propane forced air.  Unfortunately for us there's natural gas only in a limited part of the state.

Thanks in advance,

- Tom 

We put this property under deposit last week. 25 days on the market. Not bad and right in line with what we expected. Inspection is Thursday, hoping to close it out mid-late September.