Remodeling Tips

Common Mistakes To Avoid When Remodeling Your Home

Some people enjoy remodeling their home and making it their own. Others not so much. In this write up we will cover some of the things that you should do and mostly things you should avoid when planning and executing any remodeling in your home.

But first, if you think you have to remodel your house before selling it – think again. Here at Mandich Property Group we will buy your house in as is condition. Even if you have things you don’t want to take with you – it’s not a problem. Reach out to us at (770) 756-8680 or visit our website to complete a brief form and we will contact you shortly.

Now – on with some tips on Remodeling your home!

Create A Budget

This seems like a no brainer, but is often overlooked. Planning a budget is a must. If you have to go to an outlet store and start getting prices – do it! As investors we can tell you from experience that we almost always run over budget. We do try to stick to it, but in the end we want a product that we are proud of and that a new home owner will enjoy. The last thing you want to do is cut corners at the end of a project just to get it completed, only to not be satisfied with the end result.

Ayn-Monique Klahre from Real Simple goes on to explain even more about the importance of planning a budget:

Since the general rule of thumb is that it’s going to cost more and take longer than you think, make sure you have a big enough cushion in there that you’re not breaking the bank (adding an extra 10 to 20 percent more to the initial estimate is a good start). “If by some miracle you come in under your number, you’ll be happy to have a little extra for decorating!” says DiClerico.

As a general rule, you’ll want to spend more on things you interact with—like cabinets with doors you’ll open and close dozens of times a day—versus things you use less, like decorative tile.

Read The Full Article “The 7 Most Common Home Renovation Mistakes to Avoid“

The last sentence in that snippet is extremely important. If you are doing a kitchen remodel you don’t want to spend all of your money on marble tile and granite counter tops only to have to buy cheap appliances because you are out of money.

Know Your Limitations

Just like Clint Eastwood said in the movie Magnum Force – “A man has GOT to know his limitations”, the same holds true when it comes to remodeling your home. There have been countless times when we have gone to a property that someone wants to sell and it’s very obvious that

they did the remodeling work and had no clue as to what they were doing or
they hired a sub par contractor or may have took the lowest bid

In either case we knew that the work would have to be redone.

Donna Boyle Schwartz talks about this in her article from Bob Vila’s blog:

Be realistic about your DIY skills. You may be a wizard at painting, and you may even be fairly proficient with Sheetrock and decorative molding, but certain projects are best left to the pros. Indeed, many communities require that plumbing and electrical work be performed by a licensed contractor. The last thing you want to do is take on a project that is beyond your level of expertise and then have to pay a professional to come in and fix your mistakes. Figure out what you can and, more importantly, cannot do yourself before you start a project.

Read The Full Article “The 7 Deadly Sins of Home Remodeling“

It’s extremely important to remember that if you are doing any kind of addition you should always hire a licensed contractor for plumbing and electrical work and get the proper permits.

Choose Your Contractors Carefully

So now you may know that you can’t or don’t want to do everything in your home remodel. Maybe you just don’t have the time, that’s totally fine, the last thing you want to do is get in over your head.

When it comes to hiring a contractor do yourself a favor and get quotes from at least 3, more preferably if it’s a larger project. Nationwide’s Blog (yes, the insurance company) has some great tips on choosing your contractor:

Don’t rush your decision on hiring a contractor. Interview multiple contractors and reach out to their references and previous clients. Make sure each contractor understands what you want. Don’t hesitate to ask them questions about materials, layout and the construction process. Don’t select your contractor based on price alone; compare price quotes and references, and make sure you can work easily with them.

Read The Full Article “The Biggest Home Renovation Mistakes to Avoid“

We would add that you should also research them on the web. Look at their Google listing and check out their reviews. If they have a lot of bad ones – well maybe you should think twice about using them.

Every homeowner (including investors) want the same thing from a contractor, Good, Cheap, Fast work. The problem is that really only two of those at a time is possible. Here is a diagram that helps explain:

For example, if you want good work cheap – then it won’t be fast. If you want cheap work fast – then the quality of the work will suffer and if you want high quality work done quickly – you guessed it – it won’t be cheap!

Doing Projects In The Correct Order

This is something else that is commonly overlooked. This can be really important if your storage is small. You don’t want your new appliances delivered before they are ready to be installed and you have no place to put them.

Tami Brehse from Business Insider explains more:

Budgeting is an obvious part of the planning process, but many homeowners neglect another important part that requires strategy: workflow. Poor planning here can result in delays and added costs.

“When remodeling, things need to occur in a certain order,” Helling said. “For example, you don’t want to refinish flooring and then paint.”

Paint — or a crew of painters and gear — can easily damage brand new floor coverings, so flooring should almost always be done last in a renovation project.

Another commonly overlooked part of the workflow is cleanup. Will your project require a dumpster? What about a truck to haul away debris? Think through your project from start to finish to ensure you’ve accounted for all the necessary steps in the process.

Read The Full Article “The 8 biggest mistakes people make when remodeling their homes, according to real estate agents“

Finally here is a quick video from News 5 out of Cleveland that gives some quick pointers:

Summing It Up

Remodeling can be a daunting task, but if you plan properly you shouldn’t have as much stress and will be able to save some of your hair 😉 . Create your budget, check out your contractors and in general – plan properly. Try and have fun and don’t yell at your spouse or significant other to much!

Want to learn more about how We Buy Houses? Then check out this article.

Make An Itemized Budget For Your Renovation

The first thing that you need to take into consideration is your budget. If you get to the home improvement store and just start picking out things you will soon discover just how much your remodel is going to cost you and may run out of money. It’s best to have a set number in mind about how much you can spend, then shop for the materials that you want to use in your project.

Curbed has an excellent article that will give you some more great tips about how to properly budget for your remodel:

Create a detailed budget and revise as you go. In our case, we were working with a contractor and an architect. The contractor’s fees included some materials (including paint) but not most fixtures and finishes—that’s the grab-bag term for tile, flooring, countertops, kitchen cabinets, faucets, lighting, door knobs, appliances and more). We made a room-by-room spreadsheet of all the things we’d have to buy, and then did initial research on prices. We labeled that column “Budget.” As the project progressed and some of the prices seemed too low or too high, we adjusted them in a column called “Projection.” Finally, as we ordered each item, we filled in a column called “Actual.”

The three columns let us create a budget, revise it as we went without losing sight of our original plan, and track the amount we actually spent. We used a similar system for keeping track of what we paid the contractor and architect over the course of the project.

Don’t forget taxes and shipping. When you’re researching costs for your initial budget, it’s easy to forget additional costs. Especially if you shop online regularly, you may be used to free shipping. But, counter-intuitively, lots of major purchases you’ll make for your renovation have serious delivery fees. And while taxes are relatively palatable on, say, a $100 pair of jeans, the taxes on $3,000 worth of kitchen cabinets makes them cost $270 more. I wish our budget spreadsheet had included a column automatically adding 9% for taxes and $100 to $500 for heavy deliveries, like cabinets, tile and appliances.

Read The Full Article “What I wish I’d known when budgeting for a renovation” Here

That is excellent advice on using a spreadsheet for a detailed budget for all of your fixtures and materials. More than likely though, no matter how much you allocate for your remodel, there will always be incidentals, to so don’t forget to have some money allocated for that.

Proper Planning Will Go A Long Way

Just starting to rip things out and planning your renovation by the seat of your pants just won’t fly. Without some careful planning you will run into more issues, make the project take longer and in the long run may cost you even more money. The last thing you want is to complete your renovation and it not be functional, or look like it was haphazardly done.

Zillow just put out a good article that talks about space, which is probably the biggest thing to consider before and during your renovation:

Check the space allocation

Having enough space, especially in bathrooms and kitchens, can make or break a home. You can install gorgeous flooring, countertops and fixtures, but if your knees touch the wall or the bathtub when you’re sitting on the toilet, the amenities won’t make up for it. And if you forget to take large kitchen appliances into consideration, you can end up with a cramped space that only looked great on paper.

Before you gut the house and start moving walls, take the time to triple check your measurements.

Draw out your space with accurate measurements of desired appliances included before you change a wall or buy a tub. Make sure there is enough room for doors to open and close with ease. Ideally, you should be able to open your cabinet door and your oven door at the same time.

Remember — it’s easier and less expensive to make changes before you buy new appliances or knock down a wall.

Read The Full Article “4 Things to Do Before Gutting a Home” Here

Space allocation is probably the biggest problem we see with do it yourselfer’s projects in kitchens and bathrooms when we inspect properties to purchase. Unfortunately many times the owner thinks they have done a wonderful job, when in reality they have made a huge mess that needs to be completely gutted and redone.

Summing It Up

Make sure you sit down and do some proper planning before starting any renovation project. Without proper planning you may run out of money, may not end up with a functional space, or worse yet may not even finish the project. Be sure and have enough of a budget to get your remodeling job done.

If you don’t want to deal with all of these hassles, don’t forget that here at Mandich Property Group we will buy your house as is, without you having to do a single thing to it.