Contractor Recommendations for a Fixer-upper (Lake Ridge, Fairfax: fit in, short sales, real estate market)

[Nova Mom]

As I watch HGTV shows such as Property Brothers and Love It Or List It, I realize that buying a fixer-upper is the only way I will get my dream home BUT, I have no idea where to even start looking for a contractor. I see a few homes on the market in Fairfax and Prince William that are being sold as is, in well established neighborhoods, with great schools. But the two houses that I am considering need to have a wall or two knocked out, with bathrooms and a kitchen that needs to be completely gutted. I need a contractor that has experience in total renovations and that produces quality work? Any recommendations? Thanks.

[NovaOne]

There is a national association for remodeling contractors. I had to dig a bit but their DC metro chapter has award information for jobs of various budgets:

COTY Awards : NARI Metro DC Chapter

These are some of the best remodeling general contractors in the area.

Another route you can take, is to find an architect/interior-designer who can do the design and manage the job for you and get paid a percentage over the cost. These people would have a network of contractors who can do the work that they've designed. I don't have much experience with independent designers but I see that Houzz.com has a ton of listings for designers in our area, along with reviews. You can look through their portfolio on their to see if they've done any jobs with a style that's similar to what you are after.

Good luck.

[kutra11]

From what I have read, buying a fixer-upper and turning it into a dream home works out cheaper only when the buyer is the one making the remodeling changes as it can lower the costs dramatically. Once you start having a contractor fix the house and make changes, the cost can roughly be the same as buying a nice well-maintained house in that same neighborhood. I don't know if this still holds true in today's market.

[Fredesch]

I recommend A Carney Construction. Barry makes sure thing are done right. Barry remodeled my home eight years ago. We bought this home from my mother in law who had left it unoccupied for three years and it was a total gut of the basement and first floor. It was a big job, but my wife appeciates that we rehabbed her childhood home.

[SmartMoney]

Some of the best kept secrets for who to hire are kept by Realtors. I found my contractors that were hired by a local agent working on the home next door. They were so nice and helpful, very conscious their vehicle wasn't in my way, I was so impressed at their thoughtfulness, I offered to take their cards into our office for the general public and they said they didn't have cards work by referrals only. I didn't need their services then, but I kept their number and I called them for my home about 6 months later. It's a husband and wife team that complement each other.....she has the eye for what is aesthetically appealing and he's the skilled one (but she's not slouch either). I have to say I was wowed, and everyone I've provided their number to has also been impressed. So, ask a few Realtors.....the foreclosures and short sales have slowed down, I'm betting their contacts in their little black book would like some more work.

And, have them start with something on the small side (without telling them more is coming)......if you like the job they do, turn them loose on the bigger job.

[RamblingMan]

I have to agree with Kutra11. If your plan is to remodel to create the house you want, you might not have a lot of choicess. On the other hand, if your plan is to save money by buying a fixer-upper, you are unlikely to save any money if you don't do a lot of the work yourself. Most remodeling projects add less to resale value than they cost (if done by professionals), so if you buy a house that has already been rehabbed, someone else is eating that cost (and the house filled with dust, the hassles of dealing with contractors, and the risk of cost overruns). Of course, if you do the remodel, it will be brand new and you get to choose exactly what you want.

If saving money is part of your motivation to rehab, keep in mind that if you buy a house that has had $75K invested in removing walls and remodeled kitchen and bathrooms, you should normally pay $75K or less in added value, and that cost will be built into your mortgage with tax-deductible interest. If you buy a similar house without the work done for $75k less and then hire a contractor to do the remodeling, you'll still pay about $75K for the work, but probably lose the low-cost financing and tax deduction. BTW, if you do choose to do the rehab yourself, save your receipts. If I understand correctly, the money you spend would add to your cost basis when you sell.

All this aside, I hope you find a house you love and can afford.

[NovaOne]

The benefit with getting a fixer-upper is that you can customize the home to your own wants/needs/tastes. So if you must have a specific kitchen design and other well maintained homes in the neighborhood doesn't offer that, then the fixer-upper with remodeling will offer that to you, possibly at not much of a price premium over other similar homes.

[Nova Mom]

Thank you for the replies, they are helpful. We do not want a fixer-upper for the reason of saving money. We are considering the fixer upper so that we can purchase in an "older" community such as Lake Ridge/Lynwood/Westridge/Old Bridge Estates within our price range of $425,000 - $475,000. The most important spaces for us are the kitchen, basement, and lot size. Occasionally there is a house on the market in these areas that need some TLC. The biggest problem with some of the homes in our price range is the unfinished basement. Realtors have told us that to finish a basement in Prince William County requires a specific exit in order to meet the county fire code. If the house has a nice kitchen and finished basement, we are finding that they are above our price range which leaves us having to buy one that needs some work. If we can buy a home slightly under market value, around $400,000, and put in about $75,000 worth of work, I am guessing/hoping that the end product will be a home we will enjoy and be able to sale for a reasonable profit in 5 to 7 years, which is when anticipate moving again. Finding a great contractor is a key player in our home decision.

[ACWhite]

After reading your latest post, I think the points others have made must be reiterated. You say you aren't doing this to save money, but then your later statement seems to contradict it. The costs of contractors (especially "great" ones), materials, etc., and other workers, are much higher than many people imagine (and MUCH higher than they presented on HGTV, especially on the flip show and Property Brothers), such that it will likely cost you more for your mortgage for a fixer upper and the "work" you are envisioning, than the total cost for updated houses that may be available. Because inventory is low and you may not like the particular choices made in existing homes (that's pretty common), that still may be a good option for you. But we are just cautioning you that the reason to do it is not to save money, because it will likely cost you more in the longer run than you imagine. If it cost much less for someone to buy a fixer and do what you want than to buy an existing home, those existing homes soon would not be above your price range, because they would have too much competition from these alternatives--especially given that most of them have at least a bit of depreciation since their updates were done.

If you notice on the Property Bros., the buyers are always getting a much smaller house that also lacks a lot of other desirable features or location that the over-budget dream property has. That's the only way that they can afford it. Apples should be compared to apples (plus there is always TV "fluff", plus many programs provide the labor and/or materials and design fees at a discount in exchange for the owners' allowing their experiences to be used on TV).

Also, you aren't likely to buy a home at "slightly under market value", at least not MV for that house. That's the nature of competitive real estate markets. What you pay WILL be the market value. The market value for a fixer upper will be lower than for a home that has been updated in an appealing way. You have to separate the fluff on the TV shows (and outright misstatements) from reality.

I say this as someone who has owned three homes, two of which were major fixers, and who has met and screened many, many contractors and repair people. YMMV. I'm not saying any of this to discourage you but just to agree with others here about what is realistic.

Hope that everything works out for you to get what you want.

[jillybean720]

Please keep in mind how unrealistic the prices are on HGTV shows like that. I know, I watch them, too. For starters, many of them take place in Canada, which is a drastically different market. Second, they get discounts for being on tv (advertising) and whatnot. I know I've watched the CA couple on "Flip or Flop" redo an entire kitchen for under $5k...NOT realistic. It cost us nearly $10k to redo just a bathroom in our Lake Ridge townhouse in 2011, and that was without moving any plumbing fixtures, just replacing everything. Once you really dig in, the expenses add up very quickly. Heck, just to replace the sliding glass doors out to the deck of our Lake Ridge townhome cost about $2k per set (double level deck, so two sets of doors) because the doors were not a standard size, which is something you really don't know until you go to get a price for those new doors.

We would love to redo the kitchen in that townhouse still (we rent it out now, but to at least increase marketability and then resale value), but I know that will be at LEAST a $15k job (after our bathroom experience, I assume this is a very low estimate) due to the size of continuous countertop on the island (the larger a piece of countertop you want without a seam, the more expensive), replacing the appliances to stainless steel, replacing the ceiling light fixture, replacing or refacing all the cabinetry, replacing the flooring...and some kind of problem is almost ALWAYS found when you get into that kind of work. In our bathroom, the overflow drain was not connected properly behind the wall, and it was leaking, so that had to be fixed. I'd hate to see what they would uncover in a kitchen!

$30k+ can easily be eaten up by a full kitchen remodel, depending on how high-end you go, whether you're moving major fixtures, etc. Think about Love It or List It and if you'd be okay with maybe getting everything on your list EXCEPT the basement as that gets cut from the budget when they uncover an expensive structural issue upon knocking out a wall...

I do wish you luck, but I would suggest you find a home that is at least livable as-is for a few years in case you're not able to fix/change everything you want to do immediately. That's essentially what we did; we bought our current SFH last year focusing on our priorities of a decent fenced back yard, location, open living/dining rooms, minimum number of bathrooms, etc., and we just plan one large project per year to work on as we go along. This year was less visible in that we replaced all our windows. Next year will likely be our back yard/patio overhaul. Eventually, we'll open up the wall between the kitchen and the living room. All in good time