What a 19132 rowhome rehab actually cost us

730 sq ft, two bedrooms, one bath, porch front. Every line item from our own ledger, including the $10,538 that shows up in no rehab calculator anywhere.

Settled January 21, 2026 · 80% complete as of September 2026 · Philadelphia 19132

We built RealBuild because we're Philly investors ourselves, and finding trades who actually show up is the hardest part of the job. So rather than write another cost guide from national averages, here is one of our own active projects with the books open.

This is a real ledger, 128 transactions from earnest money through last week. Nothing rounded, nothing left out.

The deal

Bought from an estate. Purchase price $55,000, closing costs $7,536, which included $2,518 in city and state transfer taxes and $1,162 in title insurance. Target rent when finished is $1,400–$1,600.

Eight months is a long time, and here's why

We're not going to pretend this ran on schedule. Two gaps account for most of it, and both are worth naming because they're the kind of thing that gets left out of project write-ups.

We didn't start immediately. Settlement was January 21. The first trade payment went out February 5, about two weeks of permits, insurance, and getting a crew lined up before anyone swung a hammer.

Then we pulled off the job for roughly 45 days. Personal events, not the property. Between mid-May and early July there isn't a single trade payment on the books. Just interest, the porta potty, and the utility bills. The house sat.

That's the real lesson in the soft-cost table. The carry didn't pause. Interest, insurance, porta potty rental, and utilities kept running the entire time at roughly $700 a month combined, which means that break cost around $1,000 in pure carry before a single additional dollar of work got done. A schedule gap isn't free, even when nothing is happening.

Money out: hard costs

Trade	Spent to date
Demolition & cleanouts	$10,635
Masonry, concrete & fencing	$8,250
Framing & structural	$7,500
Drywall & painting	$6,000
General carpentry & roofing	$4,461
HVAC partial	$4,000
Flooring (LVP)	$3,248
Materials & fixtures	$3,246
Tile	$2,300
Insulation	$2,186
Windows	$2,166
Kitchen cabinets	$2,084
Trim & doors	$2,000
Total hard costs	$58,086

That's $80 per square foot in hard costs so far, but electrical and plumbing haven't been touched yet, so treat that number as incomplete.

Two lines are worth flagging. Demolition being the second-largest item surprises people: it ran in four separate phases, plus a cleanout after framing and another after drywall. And the masonry line covers more than it sounds like: basement parging, yard concrete, new steps, and a privacy fence, all bid as one job. Bundling that with a single mason was cheaper than pricing four separate scopes, which is worth remembering when you're putting work out.

Money out: the $10,538 nobody budgets

This is the section we wish someone had shown us on our first deal.

Item	Spent to date
Loan interest, three separate sources	$4,730
Insurance: builders risk + general liability	$1,311
Porta potty, 7 months at ~$199	$1,250
Engineering letters required for the permit	$1,150
Neighbor costs: tree, wall sealing, a punctured tire	$840
Permits & city fees	$654
Utilities during construction	$518
Misc: coffee for the framers, cash tips	$85
Total soft costs & carry	$10,538

A few of these deserve explaining.

Interest is the silent killer. $4,730 across a construction loan, a bank line of credit, and a margin account, and it accrues at roughly $500 a month whether anyone is swinging a hammer or not. Every week of delay costs about $115 before a single trade shows up.

The neighbor line is real and it is not optional. $400 to take down their tree, $825 prepping and sealing their side wall before siding, and $440 for a new tire after demo debris punctured it. Party walls mean your neighbors are part of the project whether you planned for them or not.

A failed inspection costs $100 to re-book. Ours was the basement stairs. Cheap on its own, but the schedule slip is what actually costs money. See the interest line.

We got broken into in September. New locks, door reinforcements, and porch lighting. Not in anyone's budget template.

What we still owe

Here's where most project write-ups quietly stop. The house is roughly 80% complete by scope, but not by dollars. The two most expensive trades haven't been paid at all yet.

Still to come	Estimated
Electrical, not yet started	$10,000
Plumbing, not yet started	$10,000
HVAC, balance on the contract	$5,000
Known remaining	$25,000

Plus kitchen install, appliances, and punch list, which we haven't priced. And carry keeps running at about $500 a month until it's rented.

Where it lands

Purchase price	$55,000
Closing costs	$7,536
Hard costs paid to date	$58,086
Soft costs & carry to date	$10,538
Spent so far	$131,160
Known remaining	$25,000
Projected all-in (minimum)	$156,160

Spent so far works out to $180 per square foot. Projected, it's $214 per square foot, on a house bought for $75 per square foot. Hard costs alone will land near $114 per square foot, which is at the top of the range most Philly contractors quote for a full gut.

At $1,400–$1,600 a month against projected all-in, that's a gross yield of roughly 10.8% to 12.3%. Against money already spent it looks like 12.8% to 14.6%, which is exactly the kind of number people quote when a project isn't finished. The lower one is the real one.

We'll update this page when it's done, rather than quietly leaving the optimistic version up.

Figures are from our own project ledger and settlement statement, current as of September 8, 2026. This project is approximately 80% complete; final numbers will differ. Shared as market context, not as investment advice. See also our Philadelphia rehab cost guide.