I get potential customers who want free estimates before buying. I offer them a consulting contract and never hear back. Apparently I'm supposed to invest my time and expertise for free for the opportunity to bid against competitors after they close. No thanks.

If you aren't familiar with market prices on renovations, you need to pay someone who is. I'd be surprised if you could do all of what you are describing for 300K. Midscale kitchen, 60K, whole house flooring 30K, hall bath, powder room, and master bath 100K. Abit of addition 100K. Unless it's a closet in a garage.

I'm not a pro, but I agree with Sophie and Joseph that you should expect to pay for the information you seek.

Whether or not you should make an offer (with or without advice from a remodeling contractor) depends on how badly you want THIS house, and how badly it needs the updates.

How custom/fancy are we talking? Need more info...

Some people order cheap cabinets online & some people have $$$ custom cabinets made for their space/specs. It all depends on your expectations. Flooring can range from 99 cents a sq ft to over $15.. Again, what kind of house are we talking?

200k is a hefty budget for remodeling, unless of course you're wanting the Rolls Royce of everything in the home.

Architects are often willing to accompany you when you are looking at a house to buy and renovate. I've been asked to do it many times. Construction cost is not the only aspect of the house you need to evaluate and a contractor can't tell you what something will cost if he doesn't know the scope of the work.

It depends on what you mean by "needs work".

Do you mean mere updates or actual repairs? For things like a failing roof or wet
basement you'd be better off getting an estimate on before bidding. Something that just isn't to your taste, on the other hand, would be less pressing. A Tuscan kitchen will function just fine.

Unless this is a real 'special' house, I would pass, in favor of a home that's in better condition.

Okay, so you need either an architect or a remodeler or both to provide their input before plunking down a couple of hundred thousand dollars on a home that you know needs some work.

The best way to get a reliable estimate is to employ the professionals you want to work with and pay them for their input. A thousand or two thousand dollars is a small price to pay for making an informed decision on a home that costs a couple hundred thousands of dollars pre-renovation. I would rather pay a thousand dollars to understand the possibility/probability of a nightmare than be stuck with the actual nightmare. Just don't expect an architect to give you an accurate estimate of remodeling costs.

Unfortunately, I haven't been given the option to pay for an estimate. I would be willing to do that. I haven't gotten anyone to respond. I, myself, am in a home improvement industry and go out to people's houses all the time to give them estimates without compensation. Sometimes spending 2 or 3 hours with them. Maybe I'm in the wrong business! I was just wondering if any homeowners had gone down that route (buy now and worry about reno numbers later) and did it turn out ok for them? Thank you for the responses!

I close the sale from my Laz-E-Boy or my truck don't start. lakeview28117, you need to learn to qualify prospects.

I never turn down a request to look at a house from a prospective buyer. When people need help that's the time to meet them face to face on the site and give them the advice they need before someone else does.

I accompanied a couple to see a house and the wife pulled me aside and asked if it would be possible to renovate the house for a million dollars. I said yes and they bought it. We had seen a half dozen houses that week.

I got a call from a man who was at a house he was thinking of buying and renovating. He asked if I did that kind of work and I said yes. He asked if I would come to look at the house, I asked when, and he said now. I met him a half hour later and he asked if I could measure the house later that day. The cost of the completed project was 1.6 million.

Those two projects have led to a half dozen similar projects.

The only thing I dislike about these kinds of projects is measuring the house with a realtor waiting to lock up the house. The worst was a house that had extensive water damage but it led to a much larger project from the same owner.

Because the renovation cost is impossible to predict on the initial visit, it is often much greater than the owner's initial budget regardless of the extent of professional advice received. There are simply too many things that cannot be known before the structure is exposed. The second project mentioned above had no footings although they were shown on the original permit drawings. The first project above needed a new septic system that required filling a huge part of the property; rock needed to be blasted for an addition; and getting permission to use the carriage house as a garage required a year of hearings and haggling with the town. Many major renovation projects have required rebuilding beams, floors and roofs and underpinning of foundations. Previous renovations are often so poorly done all of it has to be torn out.

Major renovation is not for tight budgets or the faint of heart.

It's doubtful that most contractors or designers encounter the prospective client with a million dollar plus budget these days. Instead, renotainment TV and ''seminars'' has convinced everyone that they can flip houses as a weekend get rich quick scheme and it will only cost them 10K to remuddle grandmas dated little house with the 60 amp electrical panel and 30 year old roof into a painted gray monstrosity. "Give me a discount now, and I'll use you on the next one.'' and other idiocy. Real world costs are often a big shock to the TV crowd that probably doesn't even own a hammer or know how to sweat pipe themselves. Everyone is too busy for that. And no one wants to pay a 5K retainer for someone to give them a reality dose about a half dozen fantasy home properties.

The size of the project is not relevant; the same approach works for any size job. My point was that you cannot know the value of a renovation project or hold the interest of the owner if you aren't willing to go see it.

I rarely turn down a project but I find it difficult to manage more than four at a time so the larger projects are desirable. But my fee for a renovation project is always greater than for new obstruction and a small project can require a higher fee than a large one.

Here's a photo from yesterday of a small but unusually complicated renovation project:

My best recommendation would be to walk around the neighborhood and find contractors working on homes and ask them to stop by with you. If they are doing work in the area they likely have a good idea on the typical standard of finishes, and of course they know the cost of labor, so they can give you a pretty good rough idea of the costs involved. I've never heard of a contractor asking for $ for this, because it is part of the business - just like realtors don't charge to evaluate a house for a potential seller. These are quick back of the envelope things.

I imagine the likelihood of a project going from concept to reality is much greater if the person already owns the home. If you are just thinking of buying a house, then the odds of the contractor actually getting a job out a bid or estimate is much lower. So that's why you'll have less interest from them.

Unfortunately, I haven't been given the option to pay for an estimate. I would be willing to do that. I haven't gotten anyone to respond.

What message are you leaving for the contractor? Just "call me"? Or are you giving some brief details? If the latter, then include the fact that you'd be willing to pay for their time.

As far as your question about whether to move forward with the purchase anyways, it depends on the actual renos that you'd like to perform. Are they just cosmetic? If it turns out that you can't afford them, would you still be happy living in the house? Or would you be able to sell the house without doing the renos?

Think of the worse case scenario and whether you could live with that. That's your answer to whether you should buy it without any information about reno costs.

Want to start working with some current tech? Just use your phone to take pics, closeups of anything questionable and video of the entire house. Send that to contractors and keep it for discussions with subs if you want to manage some segments yourself. This should help you get feedback from guys too busy to spend time on a site visit at this stage.

"I was just wondering if any homeowners had gone down that route (buy now and worry about reno numbers later) and did it turn out ok for them? "

we did.

whether it turned out ok? well it depends on what you call OK lol. we survived. took 2 years. when i look in the mirror-seems like six:)

never rely on what a realtor says or laymen like me say (because the defense mechanism really makes you forget at least 20% of costs when somebody asks you numbers). only whoever is going to build it will know.

we do love the house.

would i do it again? hell no

or maybe hell yes since you get this unhealthy addiction to the process, much like you got used to living in prison or something. and you know so much more by the end, it's unbelievable.

in terms of finances and time and health though...I was right when I tried to explain to my DH we should get a (much more) expensive house right away. In order to qualify we had to list our previous place though. He didn't want to do it then. So we had two houses for more than two years plus a gut remodel with addition.

Depends what stage in life you're in. If I was younger maybe it'd be more.. amazing experience. I don't know. But it was draining. Very expensive-and it was not luxury high end or something even though we went for good finishes, designer tiles, custom cabinets ..trying to save like crazy on other things, sourcing them everywhere-floor sales, open box, second hand in its various forms, you name it.

I can see both sides of this. On one hand JDS would be nuts to turn away from something that's working for him. On the other, I had a guy email me his red tag from inspection with pictures of the work he needed a licensed contractor to do. This flipper put the house in the name of his LLC, so now he, as the stockholding homeowner, can't work on it legally.

I told him I needed a $1,000.00 retainer to begin discussions with inspection before any work could even begin. Of course, I heard nothing from him again. It's all good; he's not my type.

If I take my lawnmower or chain saw to the shop they charge me a diagnostic fee to determine what's wrong with it. If I walk away and decide not to repair it, they have been compensated for their time. Ditto for my car @ $99/hr. Like a remodeling project, the guys at the shop might find additional stuff wrong with it once they start making the repair, but they made a good-faith effort and I made an informed purchase decision based on it.

Busy professionals need to be compensated for their time, too. I submit that paying a professional for their expertise to get a good estimate of the costs to remodel a home prior to purchase is a good investment. Of course, if you're willing to risk an investment in the hundreds of thousands of dollars on someone's back-of-the-envelope free guestimate of what it might cost to remodel the home, that is your option as the buyer.

Just wanted to add something..when we bought the house we haven't decided just yet how far we're willing to take the remodel. It could go different ways. Took us two months or so to decide to take the most painful one (including simply being in shock lol) . Then we started calling people, getting their opinions, bids, etc.

If I have a dent in my fender, I don't pay the body shop for a quote - they are free. Similarly, the OP here knows what the problems are, she just doesn't know the cost to fix them. I have never heard of someone paying a contractor for a rough estimate, those are just part of their marketing expenses.

I guess I agree with greg_2015. When you're in the house already and decide you remodel-you choose a pro to go with. As he chooses whether to go with you too. Kind of a mutual interview.

If you're just thinking of buying a house and calling a pro to roughly estimate..it's a bit different. You don't choose a pro quite yet. You're still choosing a house. So it's less of an interview for a future job together..more like a separate small job. I imagine that now, with the ongoing boom in construction, few if any will take their time and do this separate small job for free. How much should it cost? I frankly don't know. Angie's List runs all sorts of promotions from various pros..like "A GC for a day" or "On site consultation" or something..maybe check what they've got there in your area. You can use these coupons you purchase pretty fast. They contact you back within 24 or 48 hours, you schedule with them. Didn't use such service when looking for a big bid..but smaller jobs/estimates, like a quote on landscaping, yes.

I've done this twice in the last five years (buy a fixer-upper house without contractor input), and it has worked out fine, but I've spent a lot of time educating myself about construction and construction costs. For something where I need to hire an outsider I estimate what I think it should cost and double the number, and that works pretty well. If I'm doing the work myself I estimate the time required and then triple it. That also comes out pretty close.

A rough guess based on square footage can also get you in the ballpark. In our area it works pretty well to assume about $300/sf for new construction and $400/sf for renovation work, assuming typical levels of finishes for the area.

I assume you would have a home inspector inspect the house for deficiencies.

I use the "double what you think its worth" method of cost estimating after testing it watching the Price is Right. But its getting a little low as time goes by.

Over the weekend my wife and her sister looked at a condo to buy for a rental. The Realtor brought a trusted contractor to help us inspect and estimate a cosmetic remodel. The condo is on an island in the Gulf and is subject to salt and wind. This is an estate sale by an attorney 500 miles away. She gave him a 10% low offer which was returned with a 5% low counter offer. The contractor came in at their budget, so she went back to the Realtor with the same 10% low offer, all cash, with a 2-week closing. It was accepted. Had the contractor come back with an estimate that was double the expectation she would have rejected everything and moved on. She will get a formal inspection by a professional. The purpose of the inspection is to make a list of things that should be repaired or upgraded to today's standards - not to reject the purchase.

JDS : "I never turn down a request to look at a house from a prospective buyer."

For free? What a guy!

Context is everything. It depends upon who is asking, how they were referred, and their qualifications to buy.

I'll second Joseph Corlett's list and add one more: it also depends how busy the architect/builder/remodeler is. If you can "be there in an hour" it may send the message that you do not have much work in progress.