San Mateo Home Remodel

This San Mateo home on Humboldt is prime real estate. After our first walkthrough, we thought that the property was dated but didn’t need a full remodel. In real estate, we call this a “lipstick remodel.” We do this type of work on homes for sale that needs a little updating on paint and floors.

As we were going through everything, it was becoming clear that we could do a lot more to this place to bring out the best in it. As the realtor, it’s my job to bring out the potential for homebuyers. Truthfully, many homebuyers looking for real estate don’t necessarily have a great vision and can’t see what is possible.
In this remodel, everything got some attention and sprucing up- a full kitchen remodel, remodel the bathrooms, renovate the floors, and a lot of other minor things.

Realtor Connection to Contractors

I gave the contractors a lot of freedom. In real estate, it’s nice for realtors to have reliable contractors that they regularly work with. Realtors need to trust the contractors through the remodeling process.
We ended up choosing the floors. My wife and I went to the home improvement store. My wife, step-daughter, and I ended up selecting these luxury vinyl floors. We went with something that was a little bit more neutral and that we felt kind of had this beige-ish, grayish undertone to it that we thought would match the kitchen well.
I chose the kitchen cabinets and appliances and counters for the kitchen.

Maximizing the Space in a Home

I also want to think through how we can maximize the space in a home. 606 S Humboldt St. #1 was easy to do this with because the space is open with incredible natural light. I think this asect really shines in this remodel. Especially so, because it’s not a large house like other homes in San Mateo.

The bedrooms are a good size, and really where it’s smaller is the downstairs kitchen, living area. It was tricky to figure out how to stage it but I think it ended up looking fantastic.

I think we pulled it off well. And I think the new homeowners will be excited and happy with this townhome.
All in all, we spent under $80,000 to do a full remodel. This includes all of the materials, including the permit fees, and everything in a month and a half. We netted at least an additional $30K-$50K, which isn’t fantastic but considering that the condo/townhome market slowed down quite a bit during this time, I think we did pretty well.

Watch the remodel process!