If you are in the market to buy a house and have contemplated the idea of purchasing a fixer-upper home with the intent on fixing it up and reselling it, read on for some helpful tips.

Snagging a fixer-upper in a good neighborhood for way below market price and investing some time and money into it to make is a desirable place to live sounds like the perfect idea.  Often, it is. But buying a fixer-upper can be fraught with peril. So before you take the plunge, make sure you have a realistic idea of what you’re getting into.

First you’ll want to do the math.  Figuring out what you should pay to buy a fixer-upper starts with a simple equation. First, add up the costs to renovate the property based on a thorough assessment of the condition of the house. Be tough with this estimate, which should include materials and labor — yours and other people’s. Next, subtract that from the home’s likely market value after renovation, drawn from comparable real estate prices in the neighborhood. Then deduct at least another 5 to 10 percent for extras you decide to add, unforeseen problems and mishaps that have to be dealt with, and inflation. What’s left should be your offer.

It’s essential that the real estate contract include an inspection clause. At best, the inspection will assure you that the house is a good investment; at worst, it will help you back out of the deal. Often with fixer-uppers, it’s something in between. The inspector will document a serious problem or two, and you can use the findings to get the seller to pay for repairs or negotiate the sale price downward.

If the house needs significant structural improvements, many real estate experts recommend avoiding it altogether. That’s because major repairs — plumbing and electrical system overhauls, foundation upgrades, and extensive roof and wall work — are usually “invisible” and hardly ever raise the value of the house enough to offset the cost of the renovation.

Make sure your project will pay you in the end. The ideal fixer-upper is that which requires mostly cosmetic improvements — paint touch ups, drywall repairs, floor refinishing — which generally cost much less than what they return in market value. New lighting fixtures, doors, window shutters, and siding, as well as updated kitchens and bathrooms, are also lucrative improvements.

Falling in between structural and cosmetic renovations are major additions needed to bring the house in line with its neighbors, such as a family room or third bedroom in a community of three-bedroom homes. Such projects usually cost as much as or more than they return in market value (the exception to this is adding a bathroom, which can be worth twice as much as its cost).

Sometimes it’s possible to fold cosmetic improvements into a structural repair to increase the value of a fixer-upper. If you’re replacing the roof, for example, you could add a skylight at the same time. Or you could install a bay window where there was dry rot in a wall. But you also don’t want to overimprove: For maximum resale value, remodeling investments should not raise the value of your house more than 10 to15 percent above the median sale price of other houses in your area, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

In places where housing costs have run up significantly and are approaching a peak, even a fixer-upper that seems reasonably priced may be too expensive. A large-scale renovation job can take many months, if not years, to complete, and if home prices fall or stay flat during that period, it’s possible to come out at the end of the project with a house that’s not nearly worth the investment.

Get ready to get your hands dirty. Whatever renovation is required, it’s usually most cost-effective when homeowners pitch in.   If you’re not the hands-on type, be prepared to devote a considerable amount of time — months or even years — to closely supervising contractors. But remember that all of your financial gains could be wiped out if the project goes over budget because of mistakes or unnecessary delays

Make sure you have all your money lined up.  One of the most challenging aspects of purchasing a fixer-upper is paying for the renovation. Understandably, most people don’t have much extra cash after making the down payment and paying closing costs, so coming up with additional money to cover repairs or remodeling can be difficult.

For small projects, credit card debt is an option. Interest rates are high and the interest isn’t tax deductible, but there are no up-front costs, such as appraisal and origination fees. It’s also possible to borrow against the cash value in a 401(k) retirement plan, life insurance policy, or stock portfolio. In each of these cases, there’s no credit check and the interest rates are relatively low — on par with that of a typical mortgage — but again, the interest is not tax deductible.

By far the most popular funding choice for a fixer-upper is a renovation loan, either through a home equity line of credit or a mortgage. Home equity lines can generally be borrowed against 90 percent of the equity that the homeowner will have in the house after the repairs and remodeling are completed. To illustrate: If a person buys a $250,000 fixer-upper with a down payment of $25,000, and the house will be worth $425,000 post-renovation, the homeowner will have $200,000 in equity. Even before the work is done, the borrower is eligible for a $180,000 home equity loan. The interest rate on a home equity loan is about the same as for a mortgage, but only up to about $100,000 in interest is tax deductible.

Do it yourself projects are a great way to spruce up your house here and there.  The Lawhead Team would like to share some do it yourself tips to make sure the job gets done correctly – all disasters avoided.

Some of us figure out our talents early in life; others take longer. But for the majority of us, those talents have nothing whatsoever to do with the construction sciences, so to speak. Nonetheless, tight budgets and hours of home improvement television watching, shelter magazine perusing and Pinterest board-fixating have stirred up the jones to do-it-yourself in many a homeowner. The widespread perceptions that contractors charge exorbitant amounts and are difficult to manage have only increased the sense that doing home improvement projects ourselves seem like the way to go.

The fact is, there are many home projects that are fun and smart for a home owner to try their hand at. But do it yourself project veterans can attest: do it yourself is by no means the no-brainer way to get every type of home project checked off your to-do list. In fact, a bad project can turn your experience of your home from an exciting project to a mortifying money-pit in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, whether your home improvement project goes swimmingly or scarily is well within your control from the very beginning – and hinges largely on making the right decision for a given project about whether to hire a contractor or go it on your own.

Here are seven questions to ask yourself as part of that decision-making process, in order to avoid a do it yourself disaster:

1.  What’s the project?  Define the do it yourself project, in writing, as completely as possible. This will equip you from the very start to outsource some or all of a project that is beyond your skill set, rather than running to a contractor in a panic in the middle of a project (when you’d certainly be charged a panic premium price). Depending on your aptitude level and the time you have, what seems at first glance to be a highly DIY-able room refresh with paint and new wood floors can snowball beyond the realm of reasonable DIY-dom if you add in a lighting or plumbing project.

To do this, sit with your project, your magazines or your Pinboards for a few days, weeks or even months, keeping a running list of the things you want included in your project as you live in your house and your desired post-project lifestyle changes come to mind.

2.  Does your do it yourself project require permits?  Generally speaking, electrical, plumbing, major renovations, erecting new walls and structures and adding square footage are all projects highly likely to require permits. Hint: if you use the word “gut” when describing what you’re planning to your friends and relatives, chances are good you’ll need a permit. If you’re not sure, a quick website visit or phone call to your City’s Building Services or Building Permits Division should clear things up.

Building code requirements can be exceedingly arcane, and the process of applying for and obtaining permits if you’re not well versed in them can be tedious, stressful and time-consuming. It can also be full of unsuspected pitfalls, like doing one home improvement that triggers a City requirement to add a slew of new outlets or a new sewer line.

Call the city and/or talk to a couple of licensed contractors as soon as you’ve fully defined your do it yourself project – but before you’ve started any work – and get a good sense for whether it will require permits to stay in good graces with the City.

Cities are required to grant permits to homeowners, but the more complicated the permitting process gets for a given project, the more sensible it becomes to have a professional contractor or at least a professional permit expediter involved to avoid running afoul of the city, incurring penalties for unpermitted work and to maximize your ability to get an increased resale value for your home as a result of the upgrades.

3.  Are there health and safety issues?  High decks (i.e., decks, balconies and similar structures that are tall enough that a collapse would cause injuries to those standing on it), additions and gas/electrical work are things home owners should rarely do on their own. Now, it doesn’t mean you can’t install track lights or change a light switch to a dimmer. Rather, if you’re doing work in these categories beyond that level, calling a contractor can avoid a disastrous outcome.

4.  What are the relative hard costs? Just because you can do a project do it yourself, doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the smart thing to do. It also doesn’t mean that the hard, financial costs of doing it yourself are necessarily much cheaper than hiring a professional.

Don’t automatically assume that doing a job yourself is the cheap route to go, or that it will save you scads of cash. Until you’ve actually gotten 3 bids from reputable contractors or vendors, based on the full scope of the job, and have compared that with the cash you’d spend to do it yourself, you cannot know for certain which is the less expensive way to go. They might qualify for bulk discounts on materials that you can’t get, and you might have to rent a truck, equipment or tools that they already own. In any event, calling contractors out can be educational in terms of understanding every element of the job and troubleshooting things you might not otherwise have anticipated.

So, unless you’re uber-handy and just love to do projects, or know for certain the project will be uber-cheap for you to do, get a few pros to come out and give you real bids for what it would cost (including supplies, labor, any subcontracting, permits – soup-to-nuts), and compare that to your own do it yourself cost estimate.

5.  What are the relative soft costs? Cash is just the beginning of the resources required to get a home improvement project done. They also take time – which some might see as opportunity costs. Ask yourself the question: what could I do with the time I’ll have to spend on this project?

There are also the energetic and emotional resources involved.  Some people simply have sharp mechanical and logistical aptitudes, have the spare time and love to use it bettering their homes and have infinite patience for figuring out workarounds when the project doesn’t go as planned.

6.  Is it really DIY-able? Remember, the ‘Y’ in do it yourself stands for YOURself.  The decision whether to do it yourself or call a contractor in for a job is not based on whether your Dad, your neighbor down the street or Bob Vila made a similar project look simple. Rather, it needs to be made based on your own, personal:

• skill and experience level
• aptitude for whatever sort of work you’re completing
• patience level
• frustrate-ability
• spare time available for the job, etc.

If you’re not excited about the prospect of doing the project, and you can afford to have someone else do it, don’t let the wanna-be handypeople in your life talk you into biting off more than you can chew.

7. What could go wrong?  If your project is uber-simple, like replacing a toilet or painting a wall, there are a limited number of worst-case scenarios which might be annoying and inconvenient, but are far from the end of the world. The kitty-cat wallpaper might be harder to get off than you thought – that sort of thing. But as the project grows larger in scope or more complex, the more potentially disastrous your worst-case scenarios are – and the more costly calling someone in to fix a DIY-gone-wrong will be.

When it comes to home improvement projects, the many moving pieces and relative inexperience of the average home owner suggest that an abundance of caution is just plain old smart. If your project’s do it yourself worst-case scenarios conjure up visions of bodily harm to your family members, buckets catching the rain or virtually anything caving in think long and hard before you take it on yourself, versus calling in a pro.

Check out The Lawhead Team’s do it yourself fixes for the busy mom.  Remember to pick on area of your house to focus on fixing up.

Between taking your kids to school and their many after school activities along with keeping up with your own work schedule and everyday tasks, small home maintenance projects seem to go keep getting pushed lower on your to-do list.  A helpful suggestion we’d like to share was to pick one area of your home to focus on and make that a priority for the month for your do it yourself project.

Check out these do it yourself fixes for busy Moms from The Lawhead Team:

Slow Draining Bathtub – Do you have a slow draining bathtub?  This is an easy, inexpensive do it yourself fix that you can do all on your own.  In most cases, 90% of the time a slow draining bathtub is due to hair being caught in the drain.  To fix this, locate the overflow, located just below the waterspout of your tub.  This is the part of your tub designed to keep water from spilling onto the floor if you forget to turn off your tub.  There should be one or two screws holding the chrome piece in place.  Use a towel to cover your tub’s drain and remove the screws and the plate.

Once removed, you will see a pipe – take a wet rag and push it into the pipe to seal it closed.  Now, fill the bathtub with two inches of water.  Take a plunger, and while holding the rag in the pipe, start plunging the drain.  You will be amazed at what comes up!  Make sure to use a pair of rubber gloves to pull all the buildup out and throw it in the trash.  After a few plunges and easy clean up your drain will be running like new, just in time for your kids bath time!

Say Goodbye To Your Running Toilet – Does your toilet run frequently or take two flushes to work properly?  If so, you need to change the water level and replace the flapper.  This do it yourself task is easier than you think!

Pesky toilets are common in many households and easier to fix than you may think! First, look inside your toilet for the up-right standing tube, know as the overflow.  The water in the tank should be about a half-inch below the top of the tube.

To adjust the water level you will either have to turn a screw on the top of the fill valve, which is directly above the water coming into the tank or pinch a metal clip to lower or raise the float.  If it is a screw, tighten the screw clockwise to lower the water level or counter-clockwise to raise the water to the proper level.  If your toilet has a metal clip, push the float closer to the bottom of the tank to lower the water and lift it up to get more water in the tank.

The flapper is the rubber piece that is connected to a chain.  Over time it can become deformed and not seal properly, which will result in a running toilet.  A new stopper costs as little as dollars and of course can be found at Ace Hardware Carlsbad.  First disconnect the chain, then pull the little clips off the side of the overflow tube and simply replace the old flapper with the new one and re-connect the chain.

Revamp Your Shower and Bathtub – If your shower and bathtub are older and have been put through a lot of use, the caulking begins to wear and look less than new.  The good news is there is a simple way to make your shower and bath shiny and new!  If you’ve decorated a cake with someone’s name on it, you can re-caulk your bathroom with ease.

First, remove all the old caulking.  To do this, you will need to first soften the caulk by applying caulk remover.  Once it is softened, slice through it using a sharp razor knife or plastic putty knife and most will fall free.  Now, use bathroom cleaner to thoroughly clean the area where the caulk was removed and set a small fan to blow air on the shower area overnight to dry it out.  This step is especially important to making your repair last.

Once it is dry you are ready to re-caulk.  In order to get a clean line and prevent any excess caulk from getting on the tile, use painters tape above and below where the caulk will go, the area also known as the “joint”.  Now, apply your caulking into the joint.  Squeeze enough to get all the way into the joint and then use your finger to draw a smooth edge that will spill onto the tape.  Once done, carefully remove the tape and you should get a nice clean professionally looking job.  Make sure to allow the caulking to dry overnight before using your shower or bathtub area.

There you are! Quick and easy do it yourself fixes explained.