How to get an estimate for renovations before even making an offer to buy a home....

DH and I are interested in a home but want to know how much it would cost to make serious renovations to see if its even worth buying. Do people selling a home let you bring a professional in with you to get an estimate and if so who do I bring in??? I want to see about making a large extension over the garage of the house as well as knocking down walls and redoing the kitchen. Phew!

Totally clueless about this

TIA

Re: How to get an estimate for renovations before even making an offer to buy a home....

are you looking to negotiate on the price of the house at all?

where is the house? if it's outdated and needs to be completed gutted out, then you can just get ballpark estimates through the contractor. (they may be off by a few, but at least you'll get an idea).

Re: How to get an estimate for renovations before even making an offer to buy a home....

I don't think too many sellers will let someone who hasn't even made an offer yet get estimates on home repairs in their home.

If you're serious about buying, do some research on the general costs. Then make an offer contingent on an engineer's report (as is usual). The engineer will give you some general guidelines about the costs of repairs he thinks are needed... but you won't likely get contractors in for estimates until you at least make an offer.

You *MIGHT* be able to get some people in before contract... maybe if they come the same day as the engineer?

Re: How to get an estimate for renovations before even making an offer to buy a home....

The problem is I'm not even sure that the extension I want is even possible. It is an all brick house built in '88. How do I know if the foundation of the house can even handle that extension. And I don't want the house if I can't add on to this particular side. That is why I was hoping to get a professional in there to let me know what is possible. This house has been on the market for about 1 year. And they've dropped the price. I feel like they would know we are pretty serious if we go through the trouble of having estimates of renovations done.

So if the owners are ok with it....do I call a contractor? a builder? or someone else???? I feel so stupid

ETA: They don't live in the house anymore....its totally empty.

Message edited 1/30/2008 8:22:54 PM.

Re: How to get an estimate for renovations before even making an offer to buy a home....

Well being that they no longer live in the house, I can see you being able to get someone in there to inspect.

Has your engineer been in yet to inspect?

I would have the engineer go there and inspect. the engineer would be the best person to determine whether or not it's doable. Maybe you, the engineer and the contractor could all meet up at the same time and you can tell them what you would like done and they can each assess if it's doable and your contractor can give you more solid numbers.

Good luck!

Re: How to get an estimate for renovations before even making an offer to buy a home....

If you haven't placed an offer, you could place an conditional offer on being able to come in and get home inspection AND construction estimates. Or, your realtor (if you have one, in this case it would be good) could have a chat with the other realtor and express your interest.

If the house is empty, they dropped the price and it's been on the market for one year...chances are they will meet your request to have people in.

For our recent house purchase we were going to do the same thing but because our town is so small, our contractors actually knew the house and were able to tell us the costs and issues involved with everything we needed.

Re: How to get an estimate for renovations before even making an offer to buy a home....

Thanks for the responses everyone. I will call the realtor and see if they are ok with it. Thanks