Quick question for all you homeowners

I have a quick question to all you guys who own homes and have done or are doing renovations to your house.

Im planning on buying a house in the next month or two. But i need to get a 2 family/apartment house because of my parents situation they need some help. So instead of paying 2 seperate rents i should invest on a house.

I found this house in Newark thats in my price range (donmat i know but its the ironbound not the ghetto lol)

Its got everything im looking for and in great shape 2 year old roof, updated kitchen and bathrroms etc) Only problem is the land is big but the house itself is kind of small. Both apartments are just 1 bedroom kitchen bathroom and a small room. No real Living room.

I wanted to find out what you guys think an extension to make the apartments a little bigger would cost. More like a 2 bedroom and living room.
I know i need to get a real contractor to give me the price but i wanted to see if any of you guys have a ballpark figure.

And this would only need to be done in case i have kids lol

i would appreciate any info i can get Thanks

I do all my work myself, which will include a new room add-on someday, so I couldn't tell you even in the vaguest terms, though challenges include 1) a foundation down to below your frost line (36"), new siding, and new roofing.

You could or should time it so that if you do go to replace your siding, that's when you do your add-on, and then everything will still match (unless you're lucky enough to be able to match your existing siding).

Or, go ahead and start adding on a living room and a bedroom, maybe on each side. This can be done one room at a time, as finances allow. Just have a plan for the final finished product. I would think you'd want to add two (or more) bedrooms, a living room, and maybe some storage (pantry, laundry closet, or even a playroom).

Yeah thats exactly what i want to add..a Living room and 1 or 2 more bedrooms.

It would have to be an extension to the back of the house since theres no room to the sides. ( urban properties suck)

But then it gets a little more complicated since there's a set of stairs and door from the basement out to the backyard exactly on the spacd where oart of the extension would be.

Im not much of a handyman so i need to find a contractor.

Merc and I use to be contractors here in Maine. The hard part about answering your question is, you are talking about Jersey and Jersey prices. Let's say you are talking about adding: say (going generous) a living room that would be 14 x14 feet, two bedrooms at 12 x 12 feet. Single story addition most likely with a basement? That would bring us to around 500 sqft at let's say the going rate is 150.00 per square foot = $75,000. I think that would be a conservative estimate. I hope this helps.
Vince

And you'd probably enclose those basement stairs and make it part of the house... or remove them completely.

Wouldn't you skip adding onto the basement? Unless it's finished, it wouldn't add value.

the basement is finished with a full bathroom and a kitchen

Hey vince thanks for that info...it really does give some kind of idea now. This is a picture of the back of the house.I was thinking to either knock down that deck and stairs and fill out that space with an extra room on each floor. But then theres the Basement door at the bottom. My other idea was to just build out the first floor of the house out until it reaches that small gate before the grass which might be what your talking about vince 1 livingroom and maybe 2 bedrooms. I have no idea how big or many square feet that would be. Vince would you be able to give me any more perspective on it with the pictures?

I think what you have in mind is most likely the best way to add on. Best bet is to have an architect draw up some plans, which may cost a few hundred bucks. After the plans are completed then you can get an accurate estimate of cost.

Vince

is that fenced area your whole backyard? is that standard in the city? i recommend installing a firemans pole to get from upstairs to down. i wish I had a basement. good luck with the house, hope you all enjoy it.

Yeah fridge its a pretty big lot. It has a Fig tree Grape vines a shed and a bunch of other things back there. Im thinking im gonna put down concrete on the side that the shed is on so i have a table put right under the grape vine for shade.[img][/img][img][/img]

Lots of space back there to do stuff with. very nice.