Estimating Repair/Rehab Cost

[Edgar Gonzalez]

What general rule of thumb do you follow on a square footage multiplier when you are calculating rehab cost for a potential flip? what are flippers and contractors in the Triangle area doing to find these numbers? i have a general idea of what to aim for but would love to see what local flippers/contractors are doing!

[Will Barnard]

Quote from @Edgar Gonzalez:

What general rule of thumb do you follow on a square footage multiplier when you are calculating rehab cost for a potential flip? what are flippers and contractors in the Triangle area doing to find these numbers? i have a general idea of what to aim for but would love to see what local flippers/contractors are doing!

The problem with this question and most of the answers is the question itself. You don’t use “rules of thumb” or average price per sf pulled out of thin air to estimate rehab costs. There are very few shortcuts that still get you to accurate. You must identify each line item needing work and place a labor and materials price to that line item. The shortcuts come from doing this long hand over and over and over and over again until you get to the point where you know numbers in your head for line items or groups of line items. 

Don’t believe that you can get accurate rehab estimates using some arbitrary price per sf.
As a simply example, 2 homes, model matches sit next to each other. Home A needs new windows, roof, hvac system plus new kitchen, baths, flooring, paint. House B needs all the interior but no roof, windows, or ac. If you used a price per sf, you are about $30k+ off on your numbers.

There are books and literally thousands of threads here with this very same question and a few good answers.