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Rehab cost calculator.
A budget built from area and scope. The starting point for a conversation with a contractor, not a substitute for one.
Unit costs are market estimates rather than my terms or a contractor's quote: paint at $3.25 and flooring at $6.50 a foot, a kitchen at $19,500, a bathroom at $9,500. Permits, dumpsters and temporary utilities are added at 8% of the hard costs. Leave a line at zero and it drops out. The figure to sanity check is the cost per square foot, not the total, and the budget it produces is what belongs in the rehab field of the other tools.
Rehab budget
$84,021, or $60.02 a foot. That is a heavy rehab with systems work, which is a normal figure for a property that has been sitting.
Get terms on this deal
This sends the numbers above straight to me. You get a written term sheet inside 24 to 48 hours, and a straight answer if it does not work.
How to read it
What the number means.
A rehab budget is the document a lender reads most carefully, because it is the one that decides whether the project finishes. A number with a word in front of it, full gut or cosmetic, is not a budget. It is a hope with a label.
What this produces is a defensible starting figure from area and scope, which is the right shape for testing a deal before you have contractor bids in hand. It is not a bid and it cannot see your property.
The line that sinks most first projects is not a price that was too low on any single item. It is the absence of a contingency, because something behind a wall is always different from what the walkthrough suggested.
Questions
About the arithmetic.
How much contingency should I carry?
Enough that one surprise does not end the project. Older housing stock and anything involving systems rather than finishes deserves more, because that is where the unpleasant discoveries live.
Does a lender accept an estimate like this?
As a starting point for a conversation, yes. Before funding, what gets read is a real scope of work with a contractor's numbers broken out by line, because that is the document that can be drawn against.
Why does cost per square foot vary so much?
Because the same square foot costs a different amount depending on whether you are painting it or moving plumbing through it. Scope drives the number far harder than area does.
Should the budget include permits?
Yes, along with dumpsters, temporary utilities and anything else that is not a finish. Budgets that only count visible work are the ones that run out before the visible work is done.
Method
Where these numbers come from.
What a rehab actually costs per square foot
Rehab is the number investors get wrong most. Here is what each level of work costs per foot, and why the rate is easier to check than the total.
Contractor bids: what a lender checks before funding a rehab
Bids get reviewed before close, not after. What that review is actually looking for, and why the cheapest bid is usually the one that fails it.
What a lender needs before releasing a rehab draw
A draw request is a documentation exercise, not a negotiation. Here is the checklist, and why incomplete requests are the most common cause of slow draws.
Other tools
The rest of them.
Hard money loan calculator, Fix and flip calculator, ARV calculator, BRRRR calculator, DSCR calculator, Construction loan calculator, Rental portfolio calculator, Transactional funding calculator.
This is an estimating tool. It runs arithmetic on the figures you enter using the assumptions stated above, and changing an assumption changes the answer. The result is not a quote, an approval, an appraisal, a valuation, or a prediction of what a property will sell for, and it does not commit anyone to lend. Costs, taxes and market conditions vary by location and change over time. Check the numbers that matter against your own contractor, agent and professional advisers before you commit to a deal.
When the numbers work
Get it priced.
A calculator cannot see your property. Send the deal and you get written terms in 24 to 48 hours, with no credit pull to get a number.