In short
Value-add renovation ROI and rehab cost estimating (kitchens, bathrooms, plus cheaper “under the roof” and layout/space conversions).
Guests
No guests mentioned; the host is the sole speaker (a real estate investor/renovator claiming 100+ projects).
Key claims
- “Right things” in kitchens/baths can raise value far more than cost; layout changes aren’t always worth it.
- For ROI, focus on desirability drivers appraisers/buyers/renters notice.
- Conservative kitchen estimate: about $10,000; bathroom estimate: about $5,000.
Notable examples (cost ranges and rules of thumb)
- Kitchen: tile flooring $1.50–$3/sq ft + labor $1.50–$2.50/sq ft; countertops $25–$40/sq ft (often $1,000–$2,000); backsplash ~$1,000 for 35–45 sq ft; cabinet doors $1,100–$2,200 (or $8k–$10k for full cabinets); appliances ~$500–$700 range, ~$300–$400 dishwasher, vent hood $50–$80; typical cosmetic kitchen ~$7,000–$10,000.
- Bathroom: tile wet spaces; vanity $300–$1,000; tub $500–$800 plus install $1,500–$2,500; tile surround labor $10–$15 up to $20–$30/sq ft; total bathroom ~$5,000.
- Value-add beyond finishes: add HVAC to unconditioned sunrooms (e.g., $225/sq ft value; < $5,000 for heat/cool + ancillary work); convert single-car garage to living space $3,000–$10,000 (more with bath: ~$7,000–$10,000); convert formal living/dining to bedrooms/offices (no window needed: < $3,000; must have door, window, closet).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOUnderstanding Value-Add Investing
0:46 to 2:03
Overview of how to estimate rehab costs and focus on value-add renovations.
“This is part two of our series on how to estimate rehab costs.”
Kitchen Renovation Essentials
2:03 to 3:54
Key factors to consider when renovating a kitchen for added value.
“When I am looking at adding value to a kitchen, first and foremost, I am looking to see, is the layout of the kitchen as it sits desirable?”
Estimating Kitchen Flooring Costs
3:54 to 5:40
How to budget for kitchen flooring based on square footage and materials.
“If I have a 250 square foot kitchen, 250 times five is about$1 ,250 for flooring.”
Cost of Kitchen Countertops
5:40 to 6:38
Understanding the pricing for kitchen countertops based on material and size.
“I love doing fancy, more expensive tiles in kitchen backsplashes.”
Importance of Kitchen Backsplashes
6:38 to 8:05
Discussing the aesthetic impact and cost of adding backsplashes in kitchens.
“you're still talking about less than a thousand dollars worth of materials.”
Investing in Kitchen Cabinets
8:05 to 9:53
Choosing the right kitchen cabinets and budgeting for them effectively.
“Those people spot them from a mile away.”
Painting and Appliances in the Kitchen
9:53 to 11:03
Estimating costs for painting cabinets and selecting appliances.
“that's custom and what style cabinet door that you have them build.”
Total Cost of a Kitchen Renovation
11:03 to 13:07
Summarizing the typical costs involved in a standard kitchen renovation.
“In my market, it is very rare that when someone flips a house or when someone buys a new house, that it comes with a refrigerator or a new refrigerator.”
Bathroom Renovation Overview
13:07 to 13:31
Introduction to estimating costs for bathroom renovations.
“When I'm estimating a rehab or I'm just ballparking a house as I'm walking through it, I'm usually estimating a kitchen renovation at about$10 ,000.”
Bathroom Renovation Overview
14:03 to 14:39
Introduction to estimating costs for bathroom renovations.
“It's a simple and practical way to make use of an asset I already own.”
Show all 19 chapters
Bathroom Renovations: Flooring Costs
17:25 to 17:59
Learn how to estimate flooring costs for bathroom renovations.
“We just covered renovating kitchens, what it costs and what you should or shouldn't do.”
Choosing Bathroom Vanities
17:59 to 19:25
Explore options for bathroom vanities and their costs.
“And we're spending about$5 on tile for labor and materials.”
Tiling and Shower Estimates
19:25 to 21:42
Understand the costs associated with tiling and showers.
“Now, there's a few options for bathrooms.”
Estimating Total Bathroom Renovation Costs
21:42 to 24:49
Learn how to calculate the full cost of bathroom renovations.
“So labor for installing tile for tub and shower surrounds.”
Estimating Paint and Flooring for the Whole House
24:49 to 27:36
Discover how to estimate paint and flooring costs for an entire home.
“Now, a couple other things to consider when you're estimating these is, we talked about floors and paint for a lot of these renovations.”
Identifying Opportunities for Value Add
27:36 to 27:51
Learn about finding renovation opportunities to add value.
“It allows you to be quicker when you're estimating.”
The Importance of Life Insurance
28:00 to 29:50
Learn why life insurance is crucial and how Ethos simplifies the process.
“Buying real estate has a funny way of making the future feel very real.”
The Importance of Life Insurance
31:33 to 32:29
Learn why life insurance is crucial and how Ethos simplifies the process.
“Sometimes I need to pay someone who doesn't take credit cards, or if I want to split a check, or just to pay back a friend for a shared cost.”
Value-Add Renovation Strategies
32:29 to 41:42
Explore effective strategies for value-add renovations in real estate.
“Almost every move that can still lower your 2026 tax bill expires on December 31st.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Brandon Turner:Spend$20 ,000 on a kitchen and your house is worth$50 ,000 more. This is the whole game of real estate investing, and I've done it more than 100 times. You buy an undervalued house, you renovate the right things, and the value goes up far more than you spent. The hard part is knowing which fixes actually matter to home appraisers, home buyers, and home renters. So today I'm going to show you which renovations pay you back the most and how to estimate the cost of each one before you buy the house. We'll cover kitchens, bathrooms, and even a few of my favorite hacks that really boost your value for a lot cheaper than you think.
0:35Brandon Turner:I'm trying to make you tens of thousands of dollars in this episode, and all you need to do is watch.
0:45Brandon Turner:Welcome, everybody. This is part two of our series on how to estimate rehab costs. Check out part one if you missed it. That's where we covered the very important big five plumbing, electrical, HVAC foundation and roof. Those are your big ticket items. We wanna make sure that you are accounting for those prior to buying the home so that you can get the home at the right price. But today we're covering the things that you can actually do that put the dollars in your pocket. We are talking value add investing. This is my bread and butter. This is what I love to do. And this applies to flipping, but it also applies to rental properties.
1:23Brandon Turner:You can add value pretty easily in single family and small multifamily homes. if you know what to look for, what it's gonna cost, and you know that it's actually going to give you a return because there is a lot of renovations and value add that you can do that don't really add a lot of value. It may look pretty, but it won't always put money in your pocket. So today I'm gonna cover where in the home you should focus on adding value, how much it's gonna cost you to add said value, and whether it's gonna be worth it or not for you to even take on the risk of doing it based on the returns that you could get.
1:59Brandon Turner:All right, since everybody knows that kitchens and bathrooms sell home, let's start with the kitchen. When I am looking at adding value to a kitchen, first and foremost, I am looking to see, is the layout of the kitchen as it sits desirable? Remember, just updating that kitchen is going to add value, but if it's got a decent enough layout, spending the money to rearrange the kitchen completely is not gonna bring you much more value than you just renovating in place. So I would not recommend completely changing the layout of a kitchen unless the current layout is very undesirable for the house that you have.
2:36Brandon Turner:So let's go through each one of these individual factors of a kitchen and talk about what it might cost. Starting with the flooring, I typically don't budget flooring in a kitchen separately than flooring for the whole house. When I'm planning a renovation, the flooring that goes in the kitchen gets bundled into my flooring costs for the entire house. But on average, I'm going to put tile in wet spaces. And in kitchens, I'm typically trying to use larger tiles to save money. So think the 12 by 24 inch brick style tiles, or I'll do a 12 by 12 inch square tile and I'll mix up the colors to make it a little more modern.
3:16Brandon Turner:But think of a tile floor, probably going to spend anywhere from$1.50 to$3 per square foot for tile. So if you want to understand how much it's gonna cost you to put flooring in your kitchen, you just need to measure the square footage of the floor and then multiply that by the cost of your tile and then the cost of the labor. Labor's gonna cost anywhere in my neck of the woods between$1.50 and$2.50 per square foot. So if I'm paying$2.50 for tile and I'm paying somebody$2.50 for labor, that's$5 a square foot. If I have a 250 square foot kitchen, 250 times five is about$1 ,250 for flooring. Next, let's talk about countertops.
4:06Brandon Turner:I am typically only renovating a single family three bed, two bath, maybe smaller, maybe a little bigger home. And on average in that size home, the average square footage of kitchen countertop space is usually anywhere between 35 to 40, square feet all the way up to about 70 square feet. If you're renovating massive homes, you're going to need to be on the higher side, square footed side. If you're renovating smaller homes, you might have a galley kitchen that's a little smaller. Maybe you're at 25 to 35 square feet. A typical price point for countertops, depending on what you get, maybe solid surface, maybe granite, maybe quartz, you can expect to spend anywhere between$25 a square foot all the way up to $40 a square foot.
4:51Brandon Turner:So if you're pricing this, call a countertop company and ask them what do they charge per square foot for an average quartz or what do they charge per square foot for an average granite. If they are charging$30 a square foot and you are installing about 40 square foot of countertop space, well that's just a quick math problem of 30 times 40. That's going to give you about$1 ,200 for countertops. And typically that's what I'm spending. I rarely spend more than$2 ,000 on countertops. I rarely spend less than$1 ,000 on countertops in this space. So I can quickly do math when I'm in a house and look at a kitchen and say, oh, this is gonna cost me about 1 ,500 bucks.
5:30Brandon Turner:The next item to think about, and I would encourage you all to consider this one because it is very low cost, but can have a big impact, maybe not on the value, but on the desirability of the kitchen is to install kitchen backsplashes. I love doing fancy, more expensive tiles in kitchen backsplashes. A typical kitchen backsplash may be anywhere between 15 to 25 square feet on up to 35 to 50 square feet, depending on where the kitchen is laid out or how it's laid out, but it's not a lot of space. So you can spend more money on a nicer, fancier, cooler looking tile and really make your kitchen pop.
6:13Brandon Turner:Now, having a kitchen backsplash versus not having a kitchen backsplash isn't going to make your house more or less valuable. But as I said before, it will absolutely make your house more desirable. The more desirable it is, the more people want that house, the more people want that house, the more offers you get, the faster you sell your home. Materials wise, you're not talking a lot of money. You can buy a five, six, seven, eight, nine,$10 per square foot tile. If you're only installing it on 35 to 45 square feet of space, you're still talking about less than a thousand dollars worth of materials.
6:45Brandon Turner:And then the labor to install the tile is not very expensive either. So for right around a thousand dollars, you can get a very nice kitchen backsplash that I think is well worth the investment. All right, next on the list is going to be kitchen cabinets. Now this is where you're going to spend the majority of your money on your kitchen renovation. Cabinets are not cheap. You have several options when you're doing cabinets. You've got your generic big box store cabinets where you can go and select the different pieces to fit the layout of your kitchen. You've also got much more higher end options, which you can get from custom cabinet makers.
7:23Brandon Turner:Those are typically going to be real wood cabinets. They're going to be much more pricey, or you could go with something shipped in from overseas, like China, to bring in cabinets that are nicer looking maybe and maybe less expensive, but the lead time on getting them can be very long. But cabinets are where you're going to spend a lot of money. And I would encourage you, if you're going to go ahead and spend the money on cabinets, don't cheap out and get the cheapest cabinets possible because cheap cabinets look like cheap cabinets. And people will see your renovated kitchen and see the cheap cabinets and think if they cheaped out here, where else did they cheap out on this renovation in the rest of the house?
8:02Brandon Turner:So if you're going to spend the money, make sure that you spend the money on a decent cabinet. I'm not saying everything has to be real solid wood all the way through, but don't get the particle board cabinets that have like a laminate paper cover over them to make them look like they're not particle board cabinets. Those people spot them from a mile away. If you're just going to ballpark it, I would say between eight and 10 grand is probably where you should ballpark this number for a typical 1500 square foot, you know, three bed, two bath home. But that's not your only option for kitchens. Remember, I said I only put in new cabinets in kitchens if I'm trying to change the layout.
8:42Brandon Turner:If I like the existing layout and the current cabinets are okay, what I prefer to do is not to get new cabinets, but to get new cabinet doors. I can take the doors off of the current kitchen cabinet boxes. If the boxes are in good shape, that's great. Oftentimes you can get in there, you can just clean those boxes. And a lot of the times, if you're renovating a home built in the 60s, 70s, a lot of those cabinets are solid wood cabinet boxes. If you were to replace them, you might not get the same quality. So they're good quality a lot of the times. And so I like to keep them. I will have them professionally cleaned.
9:22Brandon Turner:I will have the inside of them all painted and then I will get new cabinet doors and I will get soft close hinges. And so to the naked eye, people just think it looks like brand new cabinets. That is a much more cost effective option. If you're not going to change the layout, the typical cost for new cabinet doors on a standard three bed, two bath, 1500 square foot house is usually run me anywhere between$1 ,100 and$2 ,200. That's going to depend on the size of the cabinet doors, whether they're a standard size or something that's custom and what style cabinet door that you have them build. The more intricate the design on the front of the cabinet door, the more it's going to cost you.
10:01Brandon Turner:I typically just do a shaker style, which means it's usually just a couple of pieces of trim and it's a whole lot cheaper, But I would much rather spend two grand to get a brand new kitchen look and feel versus spending five to eight thousand dollars for brand new cabinets that look exactly the same and function the same as the ones that were there previously. All right. Next on the list is paint. Again, this is pretty easy. I usually include my paint of my kitchen cabinets. In other words, if I'm keeping the existing cabinets and I'm just painting the boxes and the insides, that's included in the paint quote for the entire house.
10:35Brandon Turner:So just add the square footage of your kitchen into the paint quote, and then that will cover painting the cabinets as well. But if you're going to paint them separately or get a separate quote for painting the cabinets, I've spent anywhere between 500 bucks on up to$1 ,500 to paint cabinets. It's going to depend on what kind of paint you're using and how big your kitchen is, but it shouldn't be too expensive. And last on the list for kitchen is appliances. Yes, appliances are expensive, but you don't always have to put high-end appliances in your kitchen to get more value. So this is where things can get a little tricky because if you are flipping the house, you need to pay attention to your comps and what appliances are being sold with properties that are similar to yours because you don't want to be delivering somebody a house that is missing appliances that they get with other competition that you have.
11:33Brandon Turner:In my market, it is very rare that when someone flips a house or when someone buys a new house, that it comes with a refrigerator or a new refrigerator. Most renovated properties include appliances that are the dishwasher, and it's usually a new one, a stove, oven, or a cooktop, and it's usually a new one. Very rarely are there microwaves, so we're not including those, but we are including vent hoods. But this is very specific to my market. There are some markets where people fully expect a decked out kitchen. They want the fridge. They want the range. They want top of the line. You have to study your comps to know what you're going to spend.
12:14Brandon Turner:But I don't need to lecture to you guys about what appliances cost. You've all probably bought appliances before. On average, I'm spending about$500 to$700 on a range. I'm spending about$300 to$400 on a dishwasher. And I'm not buying refrigerators and I'm not buying microwaves. But I am putting vent hoods in where it's over the stove. So you've got a vent hood that will duct any smoke out from cooking. Those typically run me about$50 to$80. If you've been doing the math, we spent about$1 ,200 on floors,$1 ,200 on countertops, about$1 ,000 on a backsplash,$1 ,500 on cabinet doors, about$1 ,000 on paint, and about$1 ,000 on appliances.
12:59Brandon Turner:That puts us just shy of$7 ,000 for a standard cosmetic kitchen renovation. And that's a pretty typical cost. When I'm estimating a rehab or I'm just ballparking a house as I'm walking through it, I'm usually estimating a kitchen renovation at about$10 ,000. So when you actually put pen to paper, I'm coming in a little under that, but I like to be very conservative on my estimates. All right, that is a standard kitchen renovation. Next on the list is what's it going to cost you to renovate or update a bathroom? And we're going to get to that right after the break. I just booked a trip to the coast, the kind where the morning starts slow and the air smells like salt and citrus.
13:42Brandon Turner:A few days to wander, eat something new every night, and remember why we love to travel in the first place. But while I'm away, an opportunity is available to me that may not immediately come to mind. My place doesn't have to sit empty while I'm gone. I can list it on Airbnb and bring in a little extra cash. And with the co-host network, I could even hire a local co-host to handle the details. It's a simple and practical way to make use of an asset I already own. Find a co-host on airbnb.com slash host.
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17:09Brandon Turner:All right, we are back on the BiggerPockets podcast. We are on our second episode of our series on how to estimate rehab costs. We covered the big five in the last episode, but in this episode, we're covering value add, what actually puts money in your pocket. We just covered renovating kitchens, what it costs and what you should or shouldn't do. And now we're jumping into updating or renovating bathrooms. So what is this going to cost you? We already talked about flooring and how you estimate the flooring in a kitchen. You do the same thing in the bathrooms. In bathrooms, I use tile in the wet spaces.
17:45Brandon Turner:We talked about how much that cost before. It's the same cost here. Typically, an average bathroom in a typical three-bed, two-bath home is going to be anywhere between 40 square feet to 60 square feet. So call it 50 square feet. And we're spending about$5 on tile for labor and materials. Five times 50 is going to give you about$250. Maybe add a little more if it's a little bigger, but just for flooring in a bathroom, three to 500 bucks is probably pretty normal unless you have a massive bathroom. Next item I want to cover is the bathroom vanities. Now, when you're thinking about bathroom vanities, there's a couple of things.
18:23Brandon Turner:I've done both of these options. You can either keep the existing bathroom vanity and you can just update the top. But 90 % of the time, I would say that I'm putting a brand new vanity in. And the reason I'm doing that is because you can get vanities pretty inexpensively. And there's a lot of cool looking, more modern, updated bathroom vanities that you can get that doesn't cost you much more than if you just put a top on the existing vanity. I'm typically spending anywhere between$300 and$1 ,000 on a bathroom vanity. I will rarely spend more than$1 ,000 on a bathroom vanity. There are tons of options for you to get decent looking bathroom vanities for under$1 ,000.
19:09Brandon Turner:You can find them at big box stores. You can find them on online shops. Tons of options. Shop around, know what size you need, and don't overspend. You just want it to look good and you want it to fit in that space and look like it belongs there. Next on your list is going to be your bathing area. Now, there's a few options for bathrooms. Some bathrooms are going to have a tub shower combo. Some bathrooms are going to have a standalone tub and a standalone shower. And some bathrooms are only going to have a standing shower. So when I'm doing a bathroom, I almost always do floor to ceiling tiles.
19:48Brandon Turner:So if it's a bathroom with a tub, I'm tiling from the base of the tub all the way to the floor. If I'm tiling a shower, I'm tiling from floor to ceiling. But I am always pricing tile. I am never pricing putting in a plastic insert. Plastic inserts, in my opinion, just look cheap. It makes the property look cheaper and more builder grade. And it is not a ton of money to buy the tile and to pay the labor to have it installed. So I found for value add, it's just a much better option to always go with tile. If you're doing a tub shower combo, then you want to price the tub and the tile differently.
20:28Brandon Turner:A typical price for a tub is going to run you anywhere between$500 to$800. And then if you're getting that installed with installation, it shouldn't run you more than anywhere between $1 ,500 to$2 ,500, depending on if you've got to move plumbing from one side to the other, because tubs drain in different areas. There's some things you have to consider, but for the most part, just like for like, it shouldn't cost you more than$2 ,000 for a tub to be replaced. All right, so when you're estimating tile for a bathroom, whether a tub surround or a shower, you have to measure the square footage. Average square footage for this space is going to be around 75 square feet.
21:12Brandon Turner:If it's a bigger shower, you need to go up. But just a typical tub surround, if you're tiling from tub to ceiling, consider it about 75 square feet. Materials for that could run you anywhere between$500 to$1 ,000, depending on the cost of the tile that you wanna use. So just take the cost per square foot of the tile, multiply that by 75 square feet, add a little bit extra for the other materials you'll need like grout, and then you have to consider the labor. So labor for installing tile for tub and shower surrounds. It's a little more expensive than installing tile for floors, especially because floor tiles are usually bigger, whereas shower tiles are probably smaller, especially if you're doing like a shower pan with a much smaller like penny tile.
21:59Brandon Turner:So the cost for installing tile for a tub or shower, it may rent you anywhere between 10 to$15 per square foot, all the way up to like 20 to$30 per square foot. So if you're getting bids, make sure you ask them what their cost per square foot is on the install. Don't just look at their out the door price and not understand how that number breaks down. So for the sake of this exercise, let's say we're spending about$800 on materials for 7 ,500 square foot shower, and then $120 for labor for 75 square feet. $20 per square foot times 75 is$1 ,500 plus$800 for the tiles. Puts you at about$2 ,300 to tile a tub surround or similarly to tile a shower.
22:54Brandon Turner:It's not going to be that much more expensive. You don't have the cost of the tub, but you do have added cost of more tile because now you have to tile all the way to the floor and you have to put a shower drain pan in. All right, next on the list is paint. I think we covered paint and we talked about how to estimate kitchens. It'll be done very similarly here. Just add a cost per square foot for that particular room and add that to your total. And the very last thing is going to be all your accessories. That's going to be light fixtures, cabinet fixtures, plumbing fixtures for the tub or the shower.
23:28Brandon Turner:Here's how I essentially estimate those. If you bought a new vanity, it should already come with cabinet fixtures. So you're not having to buy those if you bought a new vanity. But if you kept the existing vanity, you may be replacing the old handles with new handles. It's probably going to run you anywhere between 100 bucks and 300 bucks, depending on how fancy you want to get with those cabinet pulls. I always pull the old mirror off the wall and I order a new modern framed mirror. You can get a mirror on a big box store, or you can get a mirror on an online store for anywhere between 50 to 150 bucks.
24:02Brandon Turner:And then light fixtures, light fixtures are typically going to run you about a hundred bucks per light fixture. So for five, 600 bucks, you can get all the accessories you need. Uh, even the plumbing fixtures, I get my plumbing fixtures from an online retailer for a sink fixture. I'm spending anywhere between like 20 and 50 bucks and for a shower fixture, I'm spending anywhere between like 50 and 100 bucks. So putting all the numbers together, you're spending about three to 500 bucks on floors, about a thousand bucks on a vanity, about 2 ,800 bucks to 3 ,000 bucks on a shower or tub, and then about another thousand dollars on lights and fixtures.
24:41Brandon Turner:That brings your total to around$5 ,000, which is right around where I estimate a bathroom renovation when I'm walking a house. This is a typical cost broken down for you. Now, a couple other things to consider when you're estimating these is, we talked about floors and paint for a lot of these renovations. And I told you when I do this, I actually estimate the paint and the flooring for the house as a whole and not in these individual rooms because there's only gonna be one vendor, typically two vendors who are doing all of the paint and maybe all of the flooring. So when I'm estimating paint for the whole house, I'm taking the total square footage of the house and I am multiplying that by what it costs per square foot to do that work.
25:25Brandon Turner:In terms of paint, what I am typically estimating for painting the entire house is somewhere between$3.50 a square foot on up to$5.50 a square foot. So that's gonna depend on the kind of paint you're gonna use and it's gonna depend on whether that's gonna include the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom cabinets or not. If you're gonna do cabinets, then you're gonna wanna go a little higher than 350. 50, maybe you're somewhere around$5 per square foot. And if you're going to do no cabinets and you're just talking walls, trim, ceilings, doors, then you can stay on the lower end of that cost per square foot.
Read the full transcript
26:01Brandon Turner:So typical 1500 square foot house at$5 a square foot is going to cost you around $7 ,500 for interior paint. In terms of flooring, it can get a little trickier. I am still going to take the entire square footage of the house because I want to consider all of it in one number. but I may be using different flooring in different rooms. I told you I like to use tile in the wet room. So I typically put tile in the kitchens, tile in the laundry rooms, tile in the bathrooms. I do LVP in the common areas. So hallways, living rooms, typically get some sort of luxury vinyl plank. And on a flip, I do carpet in the bedrooms.
26:39Brandon Turner:All of these floorings are all gonna be a different cost per square foot and the labor is even gonna be a little different cost per square foot. but I typically blend all that together and use one number to estimate. So my blended cost per square foot for flooring for a flip typically is going to be anywhere around$5.50 a square foot, all the way up to$8 to$10 a square foot, depending on the level of materials. If I'm doing a higher end flip, it's going to cost more. If I'm doing a lower end flip, it'll cost less. And then I just take the blended cost per square foot and I multiply that by the square footage.
27:15Brandon Turner:So for the sake of this exercise, we'll consider$6.50 a square foot for the total flooring. For a 1 ,500 square foot house, it's going to run me about$10 ,000 for flooring. So that's how you estimate the entire home. That way you're not having to break that out for each individual room when you're estimating because now you've got one total quote. It makes it a whole lot easier to estimate. It allows you to be quicker when you're estimating. It allows you to spot check what you're getting from contractors when you get beds. Okay, so those are your money makers. kitchens and bathrooms. Now you know what to renovate in the kitchens and bathrooms and how much it's going to cost.
27:50Brandon Turner:I want to move on and talk about how to find opportunities within the current roof structure of a home to add value. And I'm going to do that right after the break.
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33:29Brandon Turner:We are back on the BiggerPockets podcast, and we are talking about how to estimate rehabs. And specifically on this episode, which is part two of a series on how to estimate rehabs, we are talking about adding value. We've covered bathrooms, we've covered kitchens, and now I want to cover one of my favorite topics, which is how to spot opportunities to add value within the current home under its current roof structure without spending a ton of money. One of the first things I look for when I am renovating a house is does the house that I'm renovating have space under the current roof structure that is not currently heated and cooled?
34:12Brandon Turner:And if I add heating and cooling to that room, A, can I do it easily? And B, does it increase the desirability of the home or will it decrease the desirability of the home? Is there maybe a sunroom that is under the current roof structure that is not heated and cooled? There is a lot of homes that are built in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s that have sunrooms. Some of those sunrooms are just screened in. Some of those sunrooms are complete actual rooms with drywall and windows, but the spaces are not heated and cooled. It is very inexpensive to heat and cool those spaces if you can just add a run off of the current HVAC system to that room.
34:59Brandon Turner:So sometimes all you have to do is add a little bit of duct work and a vent, and now that room is heated and cooled, and now you can add the square footage of that room to the heated and cooled square footage of the home. And we all know homes are valued based on a cost per square foot. So let's say your home is valued at$225 a square foot. If you add 200 square feet, well, now you've added$45 ,000 in value to your home by just adding some duct work. Now, there's probably some more you may have to do. You may have to obviously do paint and floors in that room. Maybe you have to insulate the walls because they weren't properly insulated as a sunroom.
35:41But for less than$5 ,000, you can typically add heating and cooling, add any other ancillary
35:50Brandon Turner:parts that you need to that room, and you can now add that heated and cooled square footage. So I love looking for those opportunities. Another opportunity to look for in a similar vein is, can you convert garage space to living space? When I am looking to add value to a rental property, if it has a single car garage, I I typically convert it to living space. Why do I do that? Because the more bedrooms I have, the more rent I can charge. And so if it costs me anywhere between$2 ,500 and$5 ,000 to convert a garage to living space, but I get an additional$250 a month of rent, well then that renovation pays for itself after about a year and some change.
36:33Brandon Turner:And then all of that additional new cashflow just goes into my pocket every month. So maybe I didn't add value from the traditional sense of cost per square foot of the home, but I absolutely added money to my pocket because I'm getting increased rent and that renovation pays for itself because I now am able to rent that property for two to$300 a month more. All right, so when you were considering converting a garage, here is what to think about and what it may cost you. First and foremost, you need to understand, is your home on a crawl space or is it on a concrete foundation? The easiest conversions for garage space are homes that are on a crawl space, but the garage itself is on a concrete foundation.
37:15Brandon Turner:This is a very common or popular style. Oftentimes the house will sit up a little higher. And then when you walk into the garage, you have to come down a couple of steps because the house is up on a crawl space, but the garage is down on concrete foundation. So what I like to do in that sense is you build up the floor. So you have your contractor build a base and a subfloor, and then you can make the current garage level to where the current house is. And then it all feels seamless to walk from garage space into house space. That is the easiest way to do that. You're paying for some subfloors and then it's just paying for the cost of the flooring, the cost for any build out.
37:58Brandon Turner:So maybe you're not just raw converting the garage to a big open room, but maybe you're adding a hallway and making part of that garage, maybe a laundry room or a primary bathroom. Then you're going to have to add some plumbing, but you've got now plenty of space to add plumbing because you built up from a concrete foundation up to the same level as the house. And now you've got all this crawl space area under that garage makes it very inexpensive to add plumbing. So I love doing that. converting a garage space can run you anywhere from$3 ,000 all the way up to maybe$10 ,000, depending on how fancy you're trying to get.
38:37Brandon Turner:If you're adding a bathroom, that cost goes up. Remember, we said it's about$5 ,000 to renovate a bathroom. So you might want to consider you're going to spend about$5 ,000 to$7 ,000 for a bathroom, plus you're going to spend what it's going to cost you to convert the garage space. So now you're talking somewhere between$7 ,000 and$10 ,000 for that renovation. But on average, just think five to 10 grand if I wanna convert this space more if you're doing a bigger space, less if you're doing a smaller space. All right, I've got one more value add option for you to think about. This is gonna be a pretty unique situation because it depends on the age of the home or the layout of the home that you are renovating.
39:16Brandon Turner:But a lot of homes that were built in the 80s and older have outdated layouts. And when I say outdated layouts, I mean they have things like formal living rooms and regular living rooms and formal dining rooms and eat-in kitchen dining rooms. To me, that is opportunity to add a bedroom. Now, again, that heated and cooled square footage is already existing in the home. So by converting these spaces, you're not necessarily making the home worth a ton more, but you are absolutely increasing the desirability because you're modernizing the layout of the home. So I, 90 % of the time, will convert formal living rooms and formal dining rooms to bedrooms or offices.
40:03Brandon Turner:So what all is entailed with doing this? All bedrooms must have a door, a window, and a closet. So if I'm converting a formal living room or a formal dining room, typically I don't have to add a window because most formal dining rooms and formal living rooms have an exterior facing wall and should already have a window. But you do oftentimes have to find a space to add a closet. You can just add a closet along one wall of the room or you can build out maybe like a small corner closet if the room is smaller, but that's just gonna be some two by fours, some drywall and some paint in order to build that out.
40:40Brandon Turner:It's very inexpensive. If you are going to convert a room and you do not need to add a window, we're talking less than$3 ,000 typically to convert that room. And you can now get increased rent as a rental, or you can increase the saleability or desirability of that home. And I think it's money well spent. Now in the rare situation where you've got to convert one of these rooms and you have to add a window, the cost can go up substantially depending on what type of house it is. But without adding the window, very, very inexpensive and absolutely something you should consider. All right, there you have it.
41:18Brandon Turner:Now you've got all kinds of numbers, the ones that I specifically use for my projects. Make sure you do your own research. Labor and materials cost more or less in different parts of the country. So don't just take what I told you and use that blanket and hope it works for you. Do a little bit of legwork, use some AI, use some contractor bids, dial in your numbers, build your own spreadsheets, and you'll be analyzing renovations in a snap just like that. Thank you for tuning into this episode of the BiggerPockets podcast. I appreciate you watching. Hopefully this is valuable for you and we'll see everyone on the next episode.
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From the publisher
Investors have used the same proven formula for decades: Buy a discounted property, renovate it, and increase its value by tens or sometimes even hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s a simple investing strategy, and yet it’s one of the best ways to get rich through real estate investing.
But there’s a catch that too many investors miss. You can’t renovate just anything; you have to renovate the right things. After over 100 real estate deals, Henry knows exactly what moves the needle, and in part two of our series on estimating rehab costs, we’re showing you what to prioritize on your next renovation project.
First, we’ll walk you through the typical “moneymakers”—kitchens and bathrooms—what to improve, what not to improve, and what you should budget for these updates. But then, we’ll share three upgrades many investors never think about, yet they can have the greatest impact on property value (and rents!).
Whether you’re flipping houses or updating a rental property, this is the exact value-add playbook you should be using in 2026!
In This Episode We Cover
High-ROI renovations to prioritize on every investment property
Low-cost upgrades that can add value to your rental property
What actually makes a difference when updating kitchens and bathrooms
The typical cost of a cosmetic kitchen or bathroom renovation
Common renovation mistakes that will make your bathroom look “cheap”
And So Much More!
Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1329.
Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email advertise@biggerpockets.com.
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