Estimating costs and best process

Neetu, Bathrooms and Kitchens are the highest cost items. Do you need flooring, lighting and electrical update, millwork (new doors/finished closets) as well? If so, you are talking about gut-reno as far as apartments go. Otherwise, for nice job appropriate for 2000 sq ft apt, you can do Kitchen for 75-100k (subzero, Wolf etc but not fancy brand name cabinetry). Bathrooms for 25-50 each without using slab marble and Dornbracht/eqt but depends on how big they are. CAC is 50k due to ducting etc. When Kitchen and Baths look nice, suddenly the rest of the apartment has to keep up as well. I would say $400k to $600k with all fees included without going for top-end branded finishes.

BTW, sometimes it is not a bad idea to start with a max you want to spend and make adjustments to what you want accordingly. Let us say if you wanted to spend only $300k, you will need to go for Bertazzoni instead of Wolf range. One thing I will recommend is to get the flooring to your liking as that is hard to re-do once you are in. If you are going to change it in 5 years time, change it now.

There are a fair amount of posts regarding renovations, but most people will say you will need to budget about $150/ft at a minimum if you are using a General Contractor. If you want high end - which included high end millwork, hardware, appliances, etc. you will be closer to $300/ft. As 300 Mercer mentioned, floors are a big ticket item, so if you are merely doing a refin, rather than all new floors, it could be less expensive. Same for electrical - if it has already been upgraded, it can save you another $25K. I recommend bringing at least one contractor in (whose work you have seen) to get an estimate prior to signing your contract. Also keep in mind that some buildings won't let you do a traditional central air due to the location of the compressor - so you will wan to clear it with the building prior to your contract if having it it is a deal breaker.

Doug Perlson
www.realdirect.com

douglasternyc is right on bringing a contractor before you sign. I just did this and am in contract to close shortly upon board approval.
I made a room by room spreadsheet of what I wanted done and used a Fiverr (it's a services website you pay like 5 bucks for anything) to create my floorplan.

I printed that out and gave it to 3 GCs and 2 architects. I scheduled them for a walk through and they all gave me their idea of how much. I tacked on 20% and was able to see how much I might have to spend to gut reno my new home.

Now, most sellers won't entertain you doing a walkthrough without a serious offer. So, if you really like the place, make an offer that is contingent on a walk through with your GCs.