Tips before buying a shell?
I’m looking at a bank-owned property that needs a full gut renovation. This is my first time buying anything. I’m up for a project, but wondering what major risks I need to look out for? Does anyone with experience here have any guidance? Can we do a gut reno for $200k or less on a…
I’m looking at a bank-owned property that needs a full gut renovation. This is my first time buying anything. I’m up for a project, but wondering what major risks I need to look out for? Does anyone with experience here have any guidance? Can we do a gut reno for $200k or less on a 3 story, 4 unit place (2000 sq ft)?
We are in contract for a 3 story brownstone that is basically in decent condition – certainly not a gut. But it does need a lot of work – reconfiguring, new floors, new kitchen, baths, exterior work, etc. The lowest estimates we’ve gotten have been 300K but more people say 450K is more realistic. The slightly fancier architects say 500-550K. And this is with modest finishes (we are not fancy types). Overall, $200/psf seems a very conservative estimate. Good luck!
i renovated a shell six units for about 350k. my contractor did everything.
thanks everyone for your comments. useful points about the financing part.
when i say ‘gut renovation’ i mean there is nothing habitable – or even salvagable – from the interior so it would need to be removed and totally done over. it is not currently safe to go upstairs, and barely safe to walk around the ground floor. i would want to make it a single family – so only one kitchen, for example, not 4 separate units.
does anyone know anything about the small building loan program offered by HPD for rehabilitation jobs?
When you say a shell, I think of a hollow building. Nothing on the inside, no floors, just the joists. Is that what you mean?
Or do you mean a building with floors, walls, doors, just no bathrooms, kitchens.
or a building with everything just in really bad shape.
It’s tough to buy a shell. We looked at a house a while ago that was un-inhabitable. We loved it. It had all the details, etc. but you couldn’t live in it, no kitchen or working bathrooms and holes in the roof.
We couldn’t get a mortgage for it or $ to renovate. So we had pass.
Unless you have 600K to throw into renovations and cash to buy it. You can kiss your shell goodbye.
you can cut some corners in the finishes, but please don’t cut corner when doing the mechanicals of the house; plumbing, electrical, etc.
You want to cut cost, cut it in the price of the sink you buy, not the pipe you use for waste.
we did a “cheap” gut reno – plumbing, electrical, walls, floors – and it cost us over 400k and we do regret some of the corners we cut. it is a huge job and you can only do it that cheaply if you do it yourself, and do it well, or else you have to pay a lot to have it fixed by a pro…
A ‘Gut’ Renovation is when you replace EVERYTHING.
You strip the house down to it’s guts – brick or wood structural wall, joists, beams, stairs, remove all existing plumbing and risers, electrical, etc. and replace it with all new.
In a renovation with average finishes, this will run you about $250 sq. ft. and about 9 monthes of construction.
And don’t plan on living there, cause there won’t be a stair case, bathroom, floors, etc.
A downer view on this — hate to say it but this doesn’t sound like an appropriate project. If you do not have enough experience to gauge a ballpark cost estimate for the construction (or you don’t have a team of professionals in place that can advise on it with some accuracy), perhaps you should try a smaller scale project or less ambitious purchase to get some experience first.
The success stories you hear about with things like this are more often with people who work in the industry, do it for a living, or have related expertise. Don’t let those stories fool you into thinking that this sort of renovation is easy.
It’s beginning to seem like this sight needs a glossary. I think of “gut” renovation as involving everything including all new mechanicals: all new plumbing for heat and water, all new electric, all new walls, floors, ceilings, fixtures, kitchens, baths, etc.
People seems to use the word here when they talk about doing anything.