250k is really not “cheap.” It only appears so because many design + build firms add multiple layers of costs and inefficiencies and profit (and also potentially systems for delivering a better, more reliable product, depending on their experience.)

Let’s say the house is 2500 sq ft. 250k is 100 sq for renovating. 100 a sq ft has is just a bit low on the sticks and bricks of building a new 2500 sq ft home from scratch (though pandemic has messed with hard costs, but it’s starting to come down a bit.) But it gives us a cost baseline from which to work.

Digging out a basement CAN be expensive, but a lot of that stems from particular engineering complexity and how tall the basement it is to begin with, how much extra engineering needs to go in, etc.

If it’s a simple job, dudes literally go in with jackhammers and shovels and then pour a new foundation and footing walls after. Labor shouldn’t be more than 10 grand (3 - 5 dudes over a weel - 10 days) plus cost of materials, plus profit for the sub.

Once you have the blank canvas, you’re building from scratch-ish, but the main expensive pieces should be electrical, plumbing, and hvac. None of which should be more than 15k or so for systems (excluding finishes.) add in some structural changes here, plus reframing interior walls, let’s just round up to 100k before the finish out.

A decent Ikea kitchen should run around 10 - 15k, bathroom for material and labor should be 7.5 - 25k per depending on complexity, (let’s call it 15k for an average for 3 bathrooms - 45k), then another 10k for drywall, 10k for interior painting, 10k for flooring (refinishing original hardwoods and adding LVP in basement) then 10k on lighting fixtures and other odds and ends. That gets us up to 200k. These are rough rough numbers but more or less ballpark if you’re working with a one man shop GC and not a build + design firm.

Throw 50k on top for windows, finish trim work, exterior painting, landscaping, permits, and extra overhead, and 250k is achievable. There will be a lot less handholding, a less bespoke experience, and a lot more design + supervision heavy lifting for the homeowner. A guy with his own dedicated crew on payroll can likely achieve the above for around 150k, which is how the dedicated flippers make money on deals homeowners can’t.

Agreed. Chitchatting some of the developers in the neighborhood in DC, it sounds like that’s what they spend for houses that are going over $1.3m. But how? Finishes are nice. And Bosch appliances.