How do I get an idea of how much renovations will cost when shopping for a new home?

DH and I saw some houses today that need work....a lot of work. While I am not opposed to do some work to update a house (I am being realistic for our price range), I do not know if we can afford it as I do not know what the cost of these "updates" will be. Is there somewhere I can go to get an idea, before we consider making an offer on a home? Example: How much does a new roof cost? New siding? Rip up all carpet and put in middle of the line. How much does it cost to finish a basement? (DH would not be doing the work himself)

Re: How do I get an idea of how much renovations will cost when shopping for a new home?

When DH and I were in the market for a house, we saw one that we liked (location, size, potential) that would have needed alot of work. We had a contractor come out to the house ad give a free estimate. Based on the estimate, we realized it was way over our budget so we didn't bother putting in an offer.

I'll tell you that we found a house we loved even more. It didn't NEED work, but there were some things we wanted to update/change. It was estimated to be about $30,000 to do the renovations. We are easily up to $50,000 now. My point is, while you can get an estimate, things come up that are unexpected while you're in the middle of it. So you have to plan for the possibility that it will be more (in our case, much more) than what you're quoted.

How do I get an idea of how much renovations will cost when shopping for a new home?

We bought a house that needed a bunch of work but we did 99% of it ourselves.

We knew paint and flooring would be minimal so we didn't even budget. We then decided on what had to be done asap and what we could live with. We did our kitchen right away. A kitchen can be done for next to nothing or tens of thousands dependign on what you want.

Same with floors. carpet, wood tile.

If you know a contractor you trust they can look at it and give you prices befor eyou make an offer.