Home Fixer-Upper ???

[WillysWagon]

So I’m considering purchasing a fixer-upper and wanted to know if anyone has ever added an addition onto their existing house. I’d prefer to have a contractor do the work, but wanted to know an estimate of how much it was per sq ft, I’ve read anywhere from $50 to $150 per sq ft. The addition would go on the main level of a ranch to extend the master bedroom, easy work as far as additions go.

Thanks for any input,
Kyle

[7idl]

fwiw, ymmv, etc..

in my experience..any minor expenses going into such a project prove to be the most costly. If you got lots of time and money.. go for it!

[JohnTRourke]

a good rule of thumb is $100/square foot.

Another good rule of thumb is take your best estimate, double it, add 20% and that puts you in the ballpark. [Tooth]

Renovations can be tricky because you really don't know what's behind that wall or under that floor.

Anyway, plumbing and electrical (plumbing esp.) are where all the expenses lie, try to avoid touching those two areas and the costs can go down dramatically. Adding additional square footage can many times overtax the A/C/heat unit so you end up redoing that also (big bucks, not foreseen)

You'll probably need an engineer too to sign off on some of the foundation and extension beams work.

[mightymouse]

I'm in the real estate business and here's my advice, having done it a time or hundred for people who don't know better.

In most cases: Don't.

If you overbuild and add square footage to a house in a sub division (unless its a truly eclectic neighborhood), you end up with a house that might be significantly more valuable than the rest of the neighborhood. Later, when you go to sell and have find a buyer, their lender has it appraised and it comes back overpriced for the neighborhood (in RE terms, 'the house doesn't comp) and no one can get a loan on it.

Seriously, take the money that you'd spend on the addition, save it towards a larger house that meets your needs. You'll thank me in the long run.