photo by Josh
“Dear PoPville,
We currently rent a townhouse in DC that is a bit of a fixer upper. We are considering making an offer to buy from our landlord, but want to get a ballpark understanding of how much it would realistically cost us to renovate, and we want to factor that into our decision and potential offer. Does anyone have any recommendations for an inspector or a contractor that could do this for us? We have both structural and safety (e.g. potential mold) concerns and remodel questions.
We figure a contractor would be the best bet, but are unsure whether they would give us an estimate given we don’t even own the place. We are happy to spend a few hundred bucks and are okay with having to schedule a month to two out. If it matters, we are more interested in doing a remodel that maintains some historical aspects of the house, as opposed to a gut reno.”