Another House thread

$785k for a gutted house? Um, no thank you. (Of course, I couldnt afford a $785k fully finished house either)

If it was in my area with that type of square footage I would estimate at least a few hundred thousand if no surprises pop up.

My first thought was, "How much would it cost to heat and cool this 6000+ sq ft?

We're in the middle of a major remodel on our 5 bedroom, 3 bath house that's about 2600 sq. ft. The kitchen was done in 2021, so we aren't touching that. There is some plumbing to be moved in the bathrooms, and we are expanding our laundry room and adding some overhead lighting. We are also replacing doors, floors, and baseboard. We expect that our final total will be around $400,000. Then, we have to furnish.

The house in question need all new plumbing, fixtures, cabinets, and tiling for 8 bathrooms and a kitchen. It needs drywall for 6000 sq. feet. It needs outlets, switches and lighting. I would want to bring in a structural engineer to make sure that the work that's been done so far is okay. So, based on my experience, it will cost as much to fix up this house as it would to buy it--about $750,000. That would bring it to about $1.5 million. That would actually be a great value here in California. I'm not sure it would be worth it in Omaha, NE.

It has so much potential and the exterior is gorgeous. Maybe it can be turned into a B&B since there's either a full bath or 3/4 bath for each bedroom. Then, it could be income property.

I am not a person who wants to manage a renovation, so in reality, it's a hard no. But if I were a person who was willing to deal with a full reno, I think a completely gutted house would actually be a smart way to go. Having everything ripped out to the studs dramatically reduces the number of surprises you're going to encounter. It would theoretically make it easier to stick to a timeline and budget.  

That made me laugh. And then realize… I agree. It’s a moot point as I can’t see myself ever living in Nebraska.

And no, I wouldn’t want to take on that project almost anywhere. For that amount of money and effort, I’d prefer new construction that’s more to my taste.

Given my feelings about old house construction vs. new, a gutted house built in the 1930s is just painful for me. I feel like they took out all of the 1930s craftsmanship, and there's no Earthly way I could ever find and afford people in 2024 who could replicate what has been removed. And that's IF I could even find materials that I would be happy with.

I already have that issue to a small degree in my much smaller house. I personally wouldn't want to take it on with a house more than 3X the size and with so little original anything left to work with.

I would not pay that price for a shell of a house that needs literally everything, with no land to speak of, and the back doesn't even match the front. It has none of its original charm left other than the front facade (which I do like very much, but I hate the back) so to me I might as well just build a new house.

But would you pay that much for a house there. Specifically a house with at least another $350,000 or more work to be done. ( being as generous as I can with that )

I was under the impression housing was cheaper in Nebraska and that’s a chunk of cash because it’s hard to get a mortgage on an unfinished house.


My answer is a resounding no. More due to the massive water damage in 3 separate places - above the fireplace, that wall between the 2 windows which I assume is the back and several places in the attic. Too many issues. Best of luck to its buyer.

Most of the nasty work has already been done, and being torn down to the studs already means there wouldn’t be too many surprises. Having been through virtually the same thing on a much smaller scale, I know DH and I could do the work but I don’t think I would be interested in spending that much money on something that would cost about as much to finish into a liveable state.

When we were house hunting back in the day, we found a 5000 SF house that was in foreclosure. We put in an offer that was accepted but we quickly figured out that there was likely considerable concealed mold inside the walls that would end up costing a lot to fix due to the size of the house and the potential toxic mess we would have to deal with. It would need all new windows and insulation, a lot of water damaged sheet rock removed and replaced, all new flooring, etc. We ended up backing out because the bank that handling the foreclosure wouldn’t lower the price to offset the added expense we would incur to fix the problems.

I don’t know about Nebraska but I would put the cost at more like $1-2m to finish it.

Almost a million dollars.  That needs at least $500,000 additional $ to make it livable…in OMAHA, NEBRASKA?  Malibu, maybe.  Not Omaha.

Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed checking it out, checking the Street view of the area and looking at other listings.