Total Renovation. Quick Question.
Ok, I have a house that pretty much needs everything done to it.
Replace a lot of rotten wood, new roof, refinish some wood, the house is old and has been vacant for a long time, and the area is being regentrified.
Here is my question. Should I hire a general contractor for the job, or should I shop around in the shopper paper and hire a roofer, a carpenter, etc etc hire the people I need myself.
What do you think?
jb
[addsig]
Another question to ask: Is it better to tear the house down and build new? As long as it is allowed, it can be cheaper than fixing old, rotten houses.
A story:
A builder recently did a full remodel next door to me. When he started removing the main floor's walls he found he couldn't patch the floors (and the subfloors were bad) so he ended up pretty much gutting it to the exterior walls and fixing the foundation. Plus, he's stuck with the old footprint, etc.
If he'd torn it down, he would have saved serious problems and money. Now the property is overpriced to make up for all his extra costs and is sitting on the market. Including carrying costs, it'll probably cost him $50-75K.
So , unless the house has restrictions, historical value, or great details that can't be re-used or duplicated, I'd think about tearing it down.
Peter
Seldom have I seen a place so bad is was cheaper to tear it down
Get some bids, get ones from a GC and subs for the work, get at least three even if you have to pay for them (but not too much). Add at least 15%
That way you can see what it will really cost to have the repairs made and can justify it with FMV in the area to see whether it is a good deal or not.
Do you know a good GC who you can trust or do you have the ability to figure out if you can trust him?
Do you know good roofers, carpenters, painters, ect... that you can trust, or do you have the ability to figure out if you can trust them?
With a GC you have one guy. If you get the right guy he will take care of getting the right subs. If you get the wrong GC, it is almost assured that all the subs will suck too.
With gettting all the subs yourself, the chances are you will get a few who suck, but the law of averages is in your favor that just by accident you will get some who are good.
There is no good answer, it depends on you. If you have no idea about any of this stuff I wouldn't do either, I would get a job working with computers, or get ready to roll the dice and spend your tuition money learning all this stuff over time in the school of hard knocks. Hopefully you stay afloat financially long enough to figure it all out.
I have little experience with what things should cost, I have the Robyn Thompson videos rehabbing from begining to end.
They go through entire rennovations like mine and tell about what I would expect it to cost.
Has anyone seen it, how accurate was it?
If I hire the work myself, this is what I'll be going by.
Jason
[addsig]
Quote:
I have little experience with what things should cost, I have the Robyn Thompson videos rehabbing from begining to end.
Has anyone seen it, how accurate was it?
If I hire the work myself, this is what I'll be going by.
This is exactly my point that I have made many times about the rehab queen and people spending thousands of dollars on her boot camps, when you get home and wake up the next day you still are faced with exactly what this gentleman is faced with. No boot camp or video can give you the experience that you will be facing in your world of realestate investing that exists 5 feet in front of you.
Maybe if you intend to do much of this kind of thing this might be a good learning experience to try to handle it with the subs. I have been a carpenter for years and am on my first major rehab and I am learning a lot about running a rehab job and it is costing me some in time and money but I will do better next time. Over the course of several jobs I will save money. Good luck
The most realistic way is to get bids from subs and go from there.
[addsig]
I was lucky enough to find a good GC, and I use him for everything. But that was luck. There are many horror stories out there, so do your homework.
With regard to Robyn Thompson, her stuff is good and a great place to start. In fact, I do attend one of her bootcamps annually just to stay focused on the basics. However, you need to realize that any bootcamp, or classroom training of any kind is designed to get you thinking in a way that will help you on your path to success. It is not going to teach you everything you need to know about every thing you may encounter. As with all classes, you learn, and then after you graduate, you really start learning. Use Robyn's material as a resource, but no book will teach you everything.
A person can buy all the video and programs they can afford or even not afford and go broke and not get a think accomplished.
Rehabbing take experiece which takes time.
Just because a person is a carpenter does not give them the skills to take on the whole project from start to finish.
Im not saying to leave the job to professionals but what I am saying it that it is often cheaper in the long run, as Stockpro and Rehab have said, is to get bids and evaluate each job.
There is no such thing as a typical rehab.
Each has its on unique problems to over come.
There are times when you should bring in a contractor and there are times when you can hire it out.
What a good contractor can bring to the table is experience. He / she should be able to give you fairly accurate estimates, hopefully foresee problems that only the trained eye had dealt with.
They have good subs that are insured which is one of the most important issues when dealing with YOUR investment.
Yes, you have people that will get handymen to tackle all sorts of issue, some in which they are not qualified for.
I am in the middle of writting an article about when to hire a contractor vs. subbing it out yourself ......hopefully time willing I will finish it soon.
Nuts and bolts......how valuable is your time?
How much experience do you have at taking on a project yourself?
Do you have contacts you know you can count on?
Many subs have regular GC's they work for.......and will do yours on the side......if the GC calls him, rest assure they will drop you like a hot potato to take care of their bread and butter.
I concur with Stock and Rehab.
NC