If your house needs a lot of repairs, you may be horrifically surprised at the cost of those repairs. Â Most sellers I speak to have no idea how to estimate repairs or form a realistic rehab budget.
Not too long ago, I visited the house of  seller whose house had not been updated since the early 1940s.
When we visited the house, our renovation estimate to bring the house to the current FHA standards was nearly $80,000. Â The seller’s best guess was $15,000.
Clearly, we didn’t see the same amount of repairs.
How not to be deceived on the rehab budget.
You might feel that the real estate investor is blowing smoke when it comes to a rehab budget.
Here is how not to be deceived.
Get your own contractor estimates.
I have often told homeowners that to understand the nature of the repairs needed to their handyman house, they will need to get their own estimates of repairs.
If you want to know for sure that the real estate investor is giving you a realistic rehab number that they are calcuating, then go and get your own price for rehabbing your house.
I found this little video that shows how you could potentially talk with a contractor to help you get that rehab budget.
Make sure a real estate investor’s estimate of rehab is in line with contractor estimates.
That will give you the confidence to know that you will be treated fairly by the investor who is offering to buy your house.
To help yourself understand the rehab budget, get your own contractor estimates.
An experienced investor will know a rehab budget
If you wish to sell your handyman special to an investor, they will calculate a rehab budget into their offer price.
An experienced investor will know a good rehab budget, whereas an inexperienced investor will likely make a guess and guess wrong.
If your rehab budget is beyond your ability
If you find that your rehab budget to fix your handyman special is way too far out of reach for you, we’d be interested in buying it.
We promise that we will give you a fair price for your handyman special as is.
Our team has been buying handyman specials since 2004 and we have a pretty good knack for determining a realistic rehab budget that will influence our offer price to you.
Call me during normal business hours or fill out the form here and I will give you a call