Estimating Residential Construction

[Chucktown PE]

So here's the situation. We've been renting a house since we moved from ATL. I still have all the cash in the bank and have been waiting on a deal to come up on a house. It appears that maybe my patience has paid off.

I found a partially built house in a nice neighborhood where the builder went bankrupt. The house is going to the foreclosure auction in two weeks. The house was dried in, and drywalled so it has insulation, rough in plumbing, rough in electrical, and wood floors were installed in most of the house.

I've been calling around like crazy trying to get quotes for finish carpentry, finish plumbing, kitchen cabinetry, finish electrical, concrete flatwork, garage doors, etc. Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing. Any advice would be appreciated. I've been through the house pretty detailed and am meeting a "consulting" contractor over there today to see if my ballpark numbers are good. If so I'm probably going to try to buy this house and finish it.

 

[Road Guy]

residential is so different from area to area and house to house, I have seen lots of estimating books / guides around college bookstores, barnes 'n nobles, etc, but the effort to build a $600,000 house and a $150,000 house are going to be fairly different I imagine.

It would be worth it to get some hired help like you said or get quotes for each type of sub contract work thats left to do (then double each one?)

Did each step get permits / inspection sign offs? plubming, framing, etc?

But it doesnt sound like an impossible tasks, just a time consuming one..

 

[csb]

I would echo the permit sign offs and also make sure you get an inspection done beforehand. We've had a lot of developers go bankrupt lately and it's been pretty evident that prior to them going belly up they were trying to cut every corner.

 

[Chucktown PE]

this guy definitely didn't cut corners. I've inspected the house pretty thoroughly. I have checked with the town and the house passed all permits. I even managed to get the names of the plumbing and electrical contractors. They're supposed to be giving me estimates to finihsh the work. We'll see what happens. Wish me luck.

 

[bigray76]

Chucktown - I estimate commercial construction for a living and my residential experience has been few and far between; however my inlaws decided to build a house in PA (ended up not building it)... I think they were around $110/sf for all in costs.

Without knowing the size of the house (SF, # of rooms, etc.) and assuming you would need all kitchen finishes (flooring, cabinets, appliances, fixtures) and bathrooms (fixtures and finishes) - depending what you are looking to do (custom versus contractor grade, etc.) you are probably looking at $10k - $20k in the kitchen (again it also depends on the size); $5k - $10k a bathroom (again, depends on size and features)... To paint the entire inside of the house (again assuming flooring, base, doors & trim are in) you are probably looking at $5k - $10k... plus whatever exterior landscape or hardscape features still need to be completed.

If you choose to go with specific plumbing or lighting, you may end up having to buy those yourself in lieu of the contractor grade fixtures that the builders normally supply.

 

[Road Guy]

and dont forget youve got to grease the local building inspector, oh and the zoning commissioners, they will want some pay-up as well, and dont forget about the sanitation department, I dont know if your familiar with who runs that outfit but it aint the boy scouts......

sorry, it reminded my of Rodney Dangerfields "back to school" line....

 

[Guest]

CT - my FIL-2-B is a GC for residential housing work and costs vary tremendously depending on location even for the limited area of his work (northwest Florida). Without knowing anyone in the biz in your locale, it might be tough to nail down a reasonable rate for supplies, craft, etc. Anything of a specialty nature of course will drive the price up.

One things to be wary of - GCs and subs are going out of business left-and-right; make sure you have reputable people working for you. My FIL-2-B was nearly forced into bankruptcy because of some of the things a partner was doing - he's had to shift license/assets to a different company.

Good luck - it sounds like someone's misfortune may turn into something good for you.

JR