Major home addition quotes...where to start?

CD+AL

It's a complicated story, but the short version is that we currently rent a house that we are considering making an offer on a few years down the road if it still fits our needs at that time and still seems like our "forever home." 

However, there are a few minor things in addition to a substantial addition and repairs that we would want to make to the structure if we owned it, especially given that we would be planning to stay there permanently.  Of course, the expense of these projects would definitely factor into our decision about making an offer and determining the amount to offer on the property.

So, given that we don't own the property, aren't sure at this point if we are serious about buying it and thus doing the work on it and it would be a long term goal (maybe 5yrs from now through completion of all the work but buying it in maybe 3yrs), do we just start contacting a few contractors to see how much this will run us?  I'm guessing that if we did, we'd just need to be up front about the uncertainty of the whole deal with the contractor? 

I just don't want to lead anyone on thinking that they're going to have a big project coming and then feel pressured to go ahead with the purchase and the renovations if we decide this isn't where we want to be in a couple of years, but we need to start planning/saving now if this has even a remote chance of happening the way that we want it to happen.

katharine25

IMO is you are up front about not actually wanting to have work done, a contractor wouldn't waste their time quoting. And your right, it would be really really rude to contact contractors to get quote when you don't even own the home. Quoting is time consuming and involves multiple trades, so your not just bothering the GC but all his tradesmen. And you can bet 5 years down the line that contractor isn't going to want anything to do with you.

It would be better to seek out advise on home improvement boards. Break down the type of work you want done, ie add 300 soft addition to existing structure, renovation floor to ceiling 100 sqft kitchen with medium grade finishes/appliances,) and ask people how much THEIR project cost, and if they are in a HCOL environement or not, etc. DO some research on your own.you can basically price out materials on your own by mock-shopping and such as well.

letranger

I agree with pp. also how much you offe to buy the house isn't based on what you Plan to spend on it but what the home is valued. Just because you want a 100k addition does not mean you should offer 100k less. 

CD+AL

letranger:

I agree with pp. also how much you offe to buy the house isn't based on what you Plan to spend on it but what the home is valued. Just because you want a 100k addition does not mean you should offer 100k less. 

Agreed, but I meant more about figuring in what needs to be done as opposed to what we want to do to it. It's also a situation where it won't be on the market with a listed asking price, so we'll be calculating the original offer and possibly expecting a counter from the current owner.  We need to figure out what that would reasonably be offered given the entirety of the circumstances as a starting point for negotiations.

I don't know that this is a situation where we could really start calculating the expenses ourselves based of of discussion boards though.  Possibly on the addition, but even that will be tough for anyone that isn't trained and looking at the structure.  We're talking some major work...changing roof lines, grading the property for better drainage, possibly new footings.  Some of it is really critical to the structure and some is just stuff we'd like to have, but I really have no idea what else there is beyond what we can see with our untrained eyes.

There has to be SOMEONE that comes in and does this sort of thing professionally, right?

ETA: And we need to have a pretty good idea of the more precise ballpark we're in as far as total costs of what we'd want to do to it b/c if it's over our limit we'll move on to another property rather than buying this one and doing all of this.  

 

TheyCallMeLiz

I agree with PP.

The only thing I would add is to say that if you wanted to call a GC or two just to ask their opinion (not have them come out for a quote), you can get a general cost per SF idea of what a reno/addition would cost you. This should be sufficient enough for you budget/plan.

CD+AL

I'm also not opposed to paying someone for their services to help us with this. I just don't know WHO to go to at this point.

katharine25

CD+AL:

I'm also not opposed to paying someone for their services to help us with this. I just don't know WHO to go to at this point.

 

That is fair. Try Angie's List and looking up contractor there, or asking neighbors/friends for recommendations.  At worst it's a few phone calls.

You should probably also get a house appraisal done before you make an offer. The appraiser can also work comparable for AFTER renovation costs so you can essentially pull your budget from there. Or discuss with a real estate agent about the properties market value.

 

Honestly though, if the building is exhibiting signs of foundation issues from the get-go, I would walk away and find something that suits you as is with good bones. 

letranger

If you are paying an archtect would be a good person to contact.