Estimating Rehab Cost Per SQFT

[Doug P.]

Reading the book Flip they have a rule of thumb chart for quickly estimating the cost per SQFT of rehabbing or remodeling a home.

Here is how they chart it.

Standard finish rehab - $15
Designer finish rehab - $18

Standard finish remodel - $25
Designer finish remodel - $30

Is this accurate or something anyone here uses for a quick idea of whether a property is worth further pursuing?

Also in the book I can't tell if they include new floors in a rehab but I assume they do.

[J Scott]

Originally posted by Tom Tarrant:

I've found my best resources in Home Depot parking lot hitting people up (I know, sounds crazy)

Just to follow this up (and no Tom, it doesn't sound crazy!), I highly recommend going to Home Depot at about 6:30am to find good contractors.

The guys who are there that early are the ones who take their job seriously, and get to the work-site by 8:00am. Start handing out your business cards (and collecting theirs), and ask them where they're working and if you can stop by to "visit" the job-site.

This is how we found most of our contractors originally...and most of them have done 5-10 houses with us at this point.

Btw, the guys who are in Home Depot at 10am are the ones who like to sleep late or who didn't do a very good job of estimating their materials purchase the last time they were in there... :)