Buying a house: how to estimate repair/upgrade cost?

[gergg]

I'm just starting the process of looking for a house to buy.  I'm having some trouble doing the mental gymnastics to figure out how much repairs/upgrades will cost - and therefore what I need to have available in cash after closing.  Obviously it's somewhat variable, but I just want to get in the ballpark.  Is there a chart or table somewhere to help with this?  Say I'm looking at a house and everything is fine but the carpet is gross, what does this cost? What if I need to redo a bathroom?  What if I want to rip out some wood paneling and put up drywall instead?

[Thinkum]

There are sites where you can punch in your zip code or state and get all the average costs for house repairs/upgrades. The most important thing you can do though is take your time and do your due diligence.

[bobechs]

It seems like what most residential buyers do is insist that the seller make the house 100% up to their standards, either by never looking at less than pristine listings or using the inspection and appraisal reports as leverage to demand repairs and upgrades.

Of course, they wind up paying a premium even if they think they are getting over with the second method.  The seller is not likely giving anything that he doesn't get back in purchase price if he can help it. I suppose they are willing to play it this way either because they don't know better or it is of paramount importance to them to roll the repairs into the mortgaged amount.

If you are authentically looking for a fixer-upper be aware that the seller may have built the expectation that you are going to demand perfection and has built the cost of add-on demands into the asking price.  In other words, you may wind up leaving money on the table.  Then again. maybe not.