All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Hey Everyone,

One of the biggest questions I get is how long will this project take to get done. It is not always a straight forward question to answer but I wanted to put a basic idea together for investors so they can get a grasp of construction and what is involved.

The first thing to note is what goes on that creates time. So one of the key things is obviously the time it takes a sub or labor to complete the line item, installing cabinets, paint etc. This is different based on the level you are hiring, if you hire someone cheaper they are usually a one man crew or very busy and doing volume of jobs, so they we usually take longer. If you pay more for something then they are usually hiring help and focusing on quality so they will be faster because of the help and also because they will have more time to get your job done. Next there is the order of construction, the flow, obvious things like you can't put a floor in till after you paint, to the less obvious of you would want the plumber in before the electrician because pipes are harder to get around things then a wire is so the plumber should pick his route first. Also an electrician will have more trouble running wire if there are a bunch of other subs in the way as he tries to run the unwieldy 50-100ft wire through a wall. Also permits come into play, typically you can get them in and approved within a month, but if you are applying for just one it could be quicker. Also if the town needs an architect to create plans then it will take longer. 

I have included all these items into the timelines below MINUS any common delays like the town taking longer to approve a permit, or subs being booked on other jobs, or weather delaying exterior work, or draws coming in slow form lenders. 

So lets start with a Cosmetic rehab-(lets say it includes) Updating everything in the bathrooms, updating everything in the kitchen, new paint, new floors throughout, new trim where needed, new int and ext doors, new light fixtures, drywall repair where needed, new outlets, landscaping clean up, putting in a few new windows, power washing the house, servicing all mechanicals, inspecting all electric and plumbing.

Lets go by sqft

Single family:

single story houses up to 1500 sqft- about 6-8 weeks

Single story houses 1500sqft-2500sqft- about 8-10 weeks 

single story houses 2500sqft- 3500 sqft- about 10-12 weeks

Two story house up to 1500sqft- about 7-9 weeks 

two story house 1500sqft- 2500sqft about 9-11 weeks

two Story house 2500sqft-3500sft about 11-13 weeks

Multi Units:

2 unit 2000sqft-3000sqft 10 weeks-14 weeks

2 unit 3000sqft-4000sqft 14weeks-17weeks

3 unit 3000sqft-4500sqft 15weeks-18 weeks

4 unit 3000sqft-4500sqft 17weeks- 20weeks

Now lets say it was a full gut rehab (all items from cosmetic) plus running all new electric from panel to the outlets, all new hvac forced air or boiler both heat and ac, and new plumbing through out. A new roof and new siding. everything but any major framing changes 

Single family:

single story houses up to 1500 sqft- about 12 weeks 15 weeks

Single story houses 1500sqft-2500sqft- about 13-17 weeks

single story houses 2500sqft- 3500 sqft- about 17-20 weeks

Two story house up to 1500sqft- about 13-16 weeks

two story house 1500sqft- 2500sqft about 15-19 weeks

two Story house 2500sqft-3500sft about 18-21 weeks

Multi Units:

2 unit 2000sqft-3000sqft 15 weeks-19 weeks

2 unit 3000sqft-4000sqft 17weeks-20weeks

3 unit 3000sqft-4500sqft 20weeks-22 weeks

4 unit 3000sqft-4500sqft 21weeks- 25weeks

Now remember these are all general breakdowns. There are absolutely times it could be faster or (unfortunately) slower, but these are good safe estimates to go with to make sure you factor in construction holding time. 

Please let me know your thoughts and experiences as well!

@Jose Palma

I would recommend Christine Lacey from unity title! They have experience with double closing and wholesale deals. I use them for my wholesaling.

You can direct message me for contact info If you can’t find it in a search. Don’t know if I’m allowed to put it on here.

@Hridoy Debnath

The 203k loan is a great idea for the house hack, There are a lot of requirements to come with that type of loan, but it is definitely a really good one if you can get the house approved. He would want to talk to a mortgage person about all the parameters you have to hit.

As far as what kind of property to look for, you would want to balance out Between having enough units to cover whatever your mortgage payment would be when you take out your unit, and how many units you think you could take care of as a landlord. As far as a certain area being good to look in you would want to talk with an agent that’s familiar with that area, I would recommend @jackquigly. I believe he covers that area.  he would know what properties would be possibilities.

As far as renovation, first thing you want to determine is would you want to look at something that's more cosmetic or go on with something that's a full gut. Benefits being for cosmetic easier and less time, benefits forgot being more equity in the end and brand new everything for the rental so less headaches of trying to fix things later. Next you want to see what Your type of loan will cover, FHA sometimes doesn't cover full guts. To estimate the cost I would recommend getting multiple contractors through, Its the most guaranteed way to have a good number and to start to understand what things cost because you'll start to see a pattern.



@Hridoy Debnath

Great plan! I know a few people who have gone that route successfully. I am a contractor and investor in NJ, would love to connect! Fee free to reach out!

@Eric Whitman

I am a wholesaler in that area, please send me a pm and we can talk more!

Talk soon,

@Kunal Mishra

Not currently but I will look into those areas and find you some, I’m going to send you a pm to talk more

@Nick Cucci

I whole sale properties in south jersey and some one to reach out to about wholesaling in north jersey would be @Joseph Cameron

I mostly find flips but Joseph has some rental properties he finds.

@Davey Seidenfeld

I’d be happy to help however I can.

Talk soon,

@Davey Seidenfeld

I recommend @Jack Quigley he works with quite a few investors and has a passion unparalleled for helping his clients! He has helped me look for deals in South Jersey myself.

Good luck!

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to discuss rehab. It's a major part of RE investing and it is something every investor needs to be familiar with. You always want to know at least a general knowledge of each part of investing so when you hire someone for that job you can tell if they are truthfully knowledgable or not. Below is and outline of how I started understanding rehab, and what I have developed to do a standard estimate for any property I am looking at.

Step 1: The first piece is education. You need to learn what to look for when walking a property or looking at pictures. I personally this by becoming a RE Agent and scheduling myself private showings of distressed properties and walking them to see first hand what they look like. I scheduled about 10-20 a week. While walking the properties I took pics of anything new I saw or anything thing I had a question about. I then would take these pics to fellow investors, contractors I knew, and inspectors to ask what it was and what the repair could cost. Other ways you can increase your education is by attending rehab walkthrough in your areas, Ask another investor if you can shadow them through their properties, you can also ask a contractor if you can shadow them. Also joining local networking events for investing are great to find these potential contacts. 

Step 2: After I started to get myself aquatinted with what distressed properties looked like I picked one property that had almost everything wrong with it and I called every contractor I could find and walked them through it with the same Scope Of Work. This way I got a bunch of estimates on numbers and got to take averages for my estimate sheet. Not every contractor would come through because I didn't own it but I still found a good amount. I called GC's, I called Subs, I called project managers, and I varied it from companies with remodeling in the name (which are usually more expensive) to companies that were just names (IE Bob's construction). I would ask questions every time I went through with a contractor. This way i could learn what I was looking at. The point of this step is to get someone who knows the numbers to tell you so you can get a record together.

Step 3: The next Item was to test myself so I found another property and did my own estimate. I walked the property with my estimate sheet and filled in everything I could. After I got my number I did the same process of getting all the contractors through and seeing how I matched up. 

Step 4: The last step was to go through and buy a property and see if the numbers worked out after a rehab. 

This is what I did to learn rehab. It was effective for me because I learn by being hands on and by visually seeing what I'm talking about. When I was creating my sheet I used EXCEL and put all the line items in under their category and set it up so that it could automatically fill in with the numbers. IE, say General Landscaping was $300 a day for a 4 man team and I believe it would take 3 days to clean out, the chart would set up to multiply $300 by 3 to get $900. I did this for each line item to make My life easier and faster when I estimate. I also set up things to carry over so say I have down for the electrician to put in an outlet rated for a Gas stove, it would carry into the materials to get how ever many stoves there are outlets for, so 3 outlets, 3 stoves. I did this for SQFT and anything else I could carry over. This made it even faster. I practiced analyzing properties with my sheet till I started seeing patterns in amounts it took to do certain amounts of work. This really helped me when I got in construction myself and now I have my own company and my detailed sheet has really helped. 

(I wanted to attach my estimate sheet I came up with as an example but i couldn't find a way, If you know one please let me know, If you PM me I will send it over as well) 

What has everyone else done to learn rehab and construction? What have you come up with to do your estimates?