Realtors, Architects and Design Build firms can help you to realistically assess the success of a home remodeling project. They are crucial at anytime, but especially in poor real estate market.

Call a Good Realtor first
Lets assume that you can afford what it will take on your home remodeling project. You also have some reassurance from a Realtor who specializes in your neighborhood's houses that you are not over building.

Her competitive market analysis has compared similar home sales with your house and you have an idea of the current value of your house and how much you should put into a remodeling project.

You’ve also sharpened your pencil and remodeling makes sense financially and emotionally in terms of how long you are going to stay.

Time to Call an Architect or Design Build Firm
There’s only one way to ensure that you’re going to get what you want and that involves consulting with a good architect or design build firm, and builder. We are partial to architects and design builder firms, because even smallest jobs can get very expensive if the work isn’t completed in a timely manner.

Armed with your hypothetical budget, call an architect or design build firm and ask them to look over your project. Specifically ask them can give you an idea of what you can get for that money. You should prepare a typed wish list of what you want out of the remodeling project. Give this to your architect or design build firm and then tour the home with them.

Give them an idea of your life style and some insight into what you want in the remodeling. For instance if you want to enlarge your foyer entrance and want it in Italian marble then say so. If you want your entire bathrooms tiled, including the ceilings, say so. Being as specific as you can will help the architect or design build firm provide you with a better idea of what it will cost and if it will turn out as you wish.

Why Remodeling is so Expensive?
When remodeling a home, we tend to think that because we are redoing an existing space that it should be less expensive. This is usually not the case. Some homes actually cost more to remodel then if they were just bull dozed down and you just started over again.

I often watch new homes being constructed in the Washington DC area and am amazed at how fast the framing goes in and the subcontractors can completed work. Most subcontractors prefer new construction to home renovation work. They can clearly see things, plan their work with few interruptions and complete it much faster.

When HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning), plumbers, electricians and other subcontractors renovate your home, they have to work around the existing systems. Simply put, this takes much more time and effort then if they were just running HVAC, plumbing and electric wires through open framing.

Also, you never know what you or your contractor are going to find behind walls and under floors. When we started demolishing a bathroom or kitchen, we found small leak in our master bathroom that had done some serious damage to the joists. You should plan on unanticipated costs during your remodeling project.

Pay attention to your Architect or Design Build Firm
Sometimes an architect or design build firm is the bearer of bad news. Either they can do the project but it breaks the budget or they can do the project, but it will not be what we want. We recommend interviewing several architects and design build firms to get a better idea of costs. Most firms can give you reasonable ball park estimates.

If you feel comfortable with an architect, ask them to have a builder that they work with look it over. This will cost you about $300 (just covers time to look over project) and you'll get some very good feedback on costs. You can do this prior to have plans drawn.

On the other hand, all the money in the world may not get you what you want in a home remodeling project. Here's an example. We interviewed a very respectable architect regarding an ambitious remodeling project that we were thinking about. After looking at our wish list and talking to us, the architect told us point blank that the project wouldn’t meet our needs.

He explained that the work just on the main floor would entail knocking down walls and rearranging the space. That would eat up 50 percent of our budget and after it was over we still would not get what we wanted. We didn’t do the project and are grateful to this architect for being so forthright.

In a nutshell, we believe that if you’re going to spend money to remodel and be inconvenienced by construction and dust for several months, there’s got to be a reasonable chance that you are going to be very happy with the result. If there’s any doubt, don’t do it.