Electrical Costs...the 3rd rail of home improvement.
Good Morning Bigger Pockets!
I have made it my goal to get better at quickly estimating rehab costs. I have gotten pretty good at identifying and estimating almost everything in the house...however, I am still struggling in two very important areas...Electrical and Plumbing costs.
I have read that some investors calculate their cost to re-wire a home at $1.75-2.00/sq ft of the home. However, this is significantly less than what I experienced in my recent rehab.
So, I guess my question is...did I get ripped off? Did I over invest in my property with can lights and other things? This was my first project, and I acted as my own GC. So, I fully expected to pay a little more for some of my contractors. I didn't know what I didn't know yet. I would assume that most of these guys have "contractor rates" and "retail rates".
This is a 1400 sq ft 1950's brick ranch with 1.5 baths. It was clear that it needed major electrical work. We were replacing almost everything in the house, and had to bring the electric up to code. The home still had the original wiring, and most of the outlets were stretched out so that plugs would just fall out of them.
We ended up putting in a new breaker box, re-wired the entire house, installed modern recessed lights, as well as a few other more modern elements such as outlets for TVs.
One of the quotes is pictured below. It is detailed, and the total amount due is $5354. Which if I was to use the $2/sq ft cost estimate...I would have overshot my budget by a mile. This is not the electrician that did our project, however the price is in the ballpark of what we ended up paying.
I would love to hear from other rehabbers on how they determine their electrical costs. I would greatly appreciate any insight that helps me get better at this.
Thanks in advance!