I know that this is a far reaching question but bear with me.

Pretend you have a 1300 sqft house. Nothing is structurally wrong with it, it's just a fugly mess from the 70s. You have 25k to renovate the house. Assuming you're doing midgrade cabinets, toilets, etc, how far could you go with renovations? In what areas would you buy nicer wares (windows? Hvac? Appliances?) Where would you go lower end?

6/6/2011 8:35:46 PM

paying someone for a new kitchen remodel is probably going to run you 10-20 grand. Toilets you can get for a few hundred each at lowes. They are pretty easy to install if you are a little bit handy. Depending on what your bathrooms look like though, you'll probably want to do vanity and faucet as well. Flooring would be the next big thing in the bathroom.

Windows you could ballpark at $500 per window. HVAC, 3-6k. Appliances you could price out individually. The big box stores will deliver and install for you as well. (fridge - 1000, stove - 500, dishwasher - 400)

6/6/2011 11:07:11 PM

I was close to buying a house last fall that was a 70's style split level ranch and I didn't even reach replacing appliances before I was already over 25k in things I wanted to do to make it personally liveable. Granted there were wear and tear issues due to it being a rental over the last decade but I was looking at HVAC, kitchen cabinets and counters, knocking out a wall, replacing windows and doors, and a few other odds and ends. Once i factored all of these things in and the seller's unwillingness to understand the issues with the house it just became too much for me to go through with it.

good luck, but remodelling isn't cheap.

6/7/2011 10:29:36 AM

^ that's what I'm afraid of. With a 203k home loan we can get up to $35000 in renovation costs but if it'll cost more than that to bring a home back from the dead it might not be worth it.

6/7/2011 10:34:05 AM

I would probably start out with new carpets, paint and appliances just to make the house "feel" better. Then I would knock out any major issues that you might have - i.e. old, dirty, drafty windows/doors being replaced, new exterior veneer, HVAC system. I would do those in order of necessity until my money ran out.

6/7/2011 10:38:51 AM

How old is the current HVAC?

6/7/2011 10:44:55 AM

^^^yeah that's what really deterred me. I was sold more on the lot and location than I truely was the house. I finally got to thinking about it and how it would cost X to make it liveable (liveable for an owner's standards. much higher than a renter's standards) and then I would have to wait Y amount of time before I could move in, or at least move in fully and finally be comfortable in calling it home. It just didn't add up for at the time. You may see it differently.

6/7/2011 10:45:24 AM

How long do you plan to live in this house?

6/7/2011 10:53:25 AM

I am in a similar situation in that my wife and I recently bought a house from the 50s that was a fugly mess. Absolutely everything in the house was dated and/or in terrible shape due to the previous owner having dementia and nobody to check on her. The walls were all dirty and chipped, the carpets were horribly urine stained, light fixtures were literally falling part, the subfloor was missing in the bathrooms, etc. However, the price was great and I'm fairly competent with tools and a paint brush.

Depending on what you are trying to do, and who is doing the work, you can burn through 25k way faster than you thought possible.

I'd definitely watch some youtube videos and read some DIY guides to try to get a handle on what you can do yourself. Things like toilets, light fixtures, faucets, and bathroom vanities are pretty easy and straightforward and can make a world of difference. Painting is also pretty easy but time consuming and from what I understand, tiling is supposed to be pretty easy as well.

this site is a pretty good resource in that it has a lot of ideas and DIY guides that are budget minded.

http://www.younghouselove.com/how-to/

Let me know if you have any questions or would like to see some before/after pictures of our ongoing project house. Everything we've done has been done in a budget minded way although I'm sure there are a multitude of people on here with better insights and experience than myself.

6/7/2011 11:49:46 AM

^ 4 no idea, this for now is a make believe house

^^ 5 to 10 years

^ I'd love to see pictures. I guess I just have a hard time walking into a mess and seeing how it can be saved lol.

6/7/2011 12:21:52 PM

$25k can easily transform a house cosmetically from horrible to fantastic if you are willing to do the work part yourself (and most of it only requires the knowledge of what to do, the process is not hard).

6/7/2011 1:11:05 PM

unless you're doing the work yourself (and even then, it depends on what you're doing), remodeling is going to lose you money

obviously that's not always true, but unless you got the house on a steal, the money you put into it, especially in this economy, is going to be more than you get out of it

6/7/2011 3:42:30 PM

With the 203k loan though the renovations are part of the home buying process. The contractor's has to be approved price wise by an independent party and completed within a short time frame legally. Theoretically depending on the property and what needs to be done you've built some instant equity into the home. The difficulty part is finding a home that makes sense to apply this type of loan to.

6/7/2011 3:48:41 PM

Quote :

"Toilets you can get for a few hundred each at lowes."

toilets at lowes can run a LOT cheaper than a few hundreds dollarbucks.

6/7/2011 3:57:59 PM

^we bought two of these elongated, very plain (as in non-decorative), toilets at home depot for ~$100 each.

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/bath/toilets/glacier-bay/2-piece-high-efficiency-elongated-toilet-in-white-103300.html

Good flushing power and height, but the seats/lids are pretty flimsy. We haven't gotten around to replacing them so I'm not sure if it'd be more cost effective to buy a toilet with a better seat out of the box or simply replace it after the fact.

6/7/2011 4:41:24 PM

work from the "inside" out, meaning the infrastructure.

water heater, HVAC, any electrical issues, insulation/windows, cabinets (you dont necessarily need to replace cabinets...you would be surprised what some creative trim and paint can do)

do appliances and cosmetic work with what is leftover. you can get cheap financing from the big box stores on the appliances and you can do the cosmetic work yourself.

6/7/2011 6:40:41 PM

^ that's exactly the game plan we were thinking of going with if we decide to do this. Pay the electrician to do his thing, I can paint a wall.

6/8/2011 6:50:04 AM

^ & ^^ that is kinda the opposite of what I was going to say...

If the house is just a stepping stone, don't bother with anything that isn't readily seen by someone at a showing.

Big ROI's are Kitchens, Baths, Closets, paint, flooring. Stay away from the bones and work on the skin.

It will be 2 months before the person who bought the house figures out that it is an energy hog, but the hardwoods throughout make quite an impression.

If you plan on living there a while, completely ignore everything I say.

How do you want to make your money on the house? Do you want energy savings while you are living there for 10+ years? Or do you want to "flip" the house?

[Edited on June 9, 2011 at 3:41 PM. Reason : moar]

6/9/2011 3:38:56 PM

We would be living in the house for at least five years before selling.

6/9/2011 3:43:20 PM

Quote :

"^ I'd love to see pictures. I guess I just have a hard time walking into a mess and seeing how it can be saved lol."

here are some before and after pictures of our dining room and living room. i am also in the middle of doing some work to the kitchen and den that i should be able to post some progress pictures of as well

please excuse the crappy before pictures as they were screen caps from a video i made.

dining before


dining now

china cabinet was ~$250 from a thrift store, table and chairs we already had, curtains and rods are from lowes, blinds were ~$40 per window.

living room before

here you can get a pretty good idea of how badly stained the carpets were. the walls were also in terrible shape, and the light fixture was fugly. the entire room smelled like urine. thankfully, there was hardwood underneath the carpet that needed a little work, but was in otherwise good condition.


ikea entertainment center & tv stand, lowes rug, lowes ceiling fan, more lowes curtains & rods.

6/12/2011 8:33:14 PM

sweet! no sound system though?

6/12/2011 10:03:17 PM

a bit off topic but.... What's your motivation for renovations? If you're trying to flip it, I'd SERIOUSLY RECONSIDER. It's a very buyers market right now (neighborhood dependent). So you'll get probably even money for the renovations.

If you're just trying to make it livable for you, and you want it to look nice, then starting on Tdub/Internet it's a horrible idea for researching and budgeting. All of the prices I've seen here are in the range of what I found.

6/12/2011 11:12:30 PM