10 Life Changing Tips When Buying A House To Renovate

If you’re shopping for a house these days, chances are that most of you are considering buying a house to renovate. It’s nuts how many houses are sold in record timing with zero updates leaving the burden of bringing houses up to date on new homeowners.

This is probably intimidating, trust me I have been there. But I am going to take you through my 27 tips on buying a house to renovate in this article to hopefully ease your nervousness.

Why should you listen to me? I bought my first house in 2016 that needed a complete overhaul and have since always bought a fixer. This has been great for building equity and forcing appreciation while keeping my monthly mortgage low relative to houses that are “move-in” ready.

This post is all about buying a house to renovate.

Buying A House To Renovate

1. Get as many inspections as you can

During a normal 30 day escrow, most buyers will have about half that time to conduct inspections before removing contingencies to back out of an offer. During your due diligence period, get an home inspection and then any specific areas that are called out on the inspection as worrisome, get bids on repairing or further inspections to understand the costs of renovating. This gives you an opportunity to go back to the seller and negotiate the repairs. If you are planning on doing all the work or need extra funds to complete the work, ask for a credit at closing so you have a lump sum to start the project.

2. Mortgages that allow for financing the renovations

FHA 203K is a popular one that bundles the purchase and renovation cost of a home to be wrapped up into one loan product. There’s a lot of regulations around how this needs to be done but it’s a great solution for buyers looking to get into a property and renovate with not a lot of expense out of pocket each month.

Looking to understand more options around financing a renovation? Read this article to learn more!

3. Plan your renovation from beginning to end

To ensure you know everything that needs to get done, you need to have a complete plan for all your renovations. Know everything you want to do and the timeline for doing each project. This is huge for planning budget and knowing where you will need to be (like actually live) when these renovations take place. If they’re going to be over the long term, this will give you time to save up to complete all the renovations. If it’s over a short period of time, you will need that timeline to ensure you stay on track and all the subs/contractors do as well.

4. Shop all your materials

Never buy anything full price if you can avoid it! At least that’s my motto. This bathroom was done on a major budget and it turned out super cute! The vanity was on clearance at Lowes, along with the tile for the shower, light fixture and hand towel rack. I do a lot of renovations so I’m always buying when it’s a good deal knowing I will end up using it down the road on a remodel.

If you shop your materials you will get better rates and understand where to spend and where to hold back. Just walking into any tile store is a mistake. Materials like this can get so out of hand on the pricing side so do your research first!

5. Leverage sales

Like I mentioned above, I always shop the sales for fixtures, vanities, tile and flooring. Another great hack is looking for sales on countertops. Depending the design plan a couple ways to save money here are to do butcher block countertops, they’re so cheap and easy to install. Another great hack is buying what are call “orphan” slabs at slab yards for counter tops. Two tone counters are in and orphan slabs are cheap, like 70% off. So do what you want but this is the best hack I’ve found for cutting costs on countertops!

6. Get multiple contractor bids

And always have contractors send itemized lists breaking down labor and material costs. You can for sure negotiate your bids but you need to understand the break down and make sure everything looks reasonable. When you get a break down you can research estimated costs on each item so you negotiate from a position of strength.

7. Start with necessary updates

If you can’t do everything right away, do the necessary items first then add the projects as you can afford them. You’re probably wondering what’s necessary? I mean anything to make your space clean, safe and livable. Think new floors, new plumbing/electrical, new paint and new HVAC. All of these items would be necessary to live comfortably while you wait for the right timing to do the rest of the updates.

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8. Know your end goal before you start

Are you looking to leverage this house into your next house or is this your “forever” home? This will largely change how you invest in the property. If you want to leverage this house into your next home, set a specific budget you feel comfortable spending and stick to it. Don’t over improve anything in the house that the next owners might not care about.

If this is your forever home, go crazy! I know I will when I’m in my forever home one day. And I can’t wait!

9. Updated kitchens and bathrooms sell

As you plan your renovations, know that kitchens and bathrooms sell a home. Keep these spaces well designed and not too personal for finishes. You want to appeal to a larger audience for any updates made so you have other potential home owners visualize themselves living there as well.

10. Are the bones of the house good

As you’re doing your inspections, you want to ensure the house is built well. Are there major structural or foundation issues? These are budget eaters and not fun to deal with. Quite frankly, I’d stay away from them completely for any inexperienced homeowner looking to get into their first house and remodel all at once.

What other tips would you include when buying a house to renovate? I’d love to know in the comments below!

This post was all about buying a house to renovate.