I think any time you talk about gutting to the studs, you are over whatever line you may have had. Just our kitchen for a pretty average home was 80K a few years ago. We only took down one small wall.

My ballpark guess is that what you propose will cost about what the current house is worth.

I have seen houses (with basements) torn down to the concrete foundation walls and rebuilt in a completely different configuration from there up. Many factors weighing the decision - whether you need to live thru it, budget/ROI, permitting, grandfathering, extent of retrofitting, . . . .

I have also seen many houses that have remodeled and reconfigured existing so much, that the final product was bastardized and looked it, so they should have just started over from scratch. And in the same vein older houses where people have spent near to new-construction money on updating/improving, but couldn't overcome original shortcomings (e.g. low ceilings) where in their new value range some things are expected.

It also depends on how much you paid for the land + house and how much they are worth individually. In the Los Angeles area, it can easily make sense to tear down and start over because the land is usually 2/3, or more, of the total cost. In FL, in most cases the structure is worth more than the lot. Waterfront will have higher land values.

You need to do the math for your particular area and neighborhood. If you rebuild, will it matter that you might have more into the whole property than your neighbors, at least for several years? Are others in the area doing tear downs?

Lots of variables, so it can't be answered by strangers who have no information!

One more point, there is high demand for construction in FL right now, so prices are high for building and remodeling. You might also not be able to hire the better/best contractosr any time soon.

I went through down to studs remodel plus addition, albeit in So Cal, and to rebuild would be easier. Maybe not cheaper, but easier.

It's a huge job you're describing, our gut remodel took us 2 years a few years back, now prices of lumber, steel etc went up, and everybody is busier than ever.

Absolutely agree with chispa. I live and work in the greater Boston area. Land worth way more than the structure (most of the time) in addition to the fact that unless you are very far out, there is little to no land left to build on. Tear downs are commonplace in desirable communities.

@Chispa and @Inside Out thanks for your comments, you are both correct - land in this area is pretty expensive and hard to find. People are starting to tear down the old houses in the area.

We are in South Florida and did a complete gut reno to the studs on our 36 year old home, it took 9 months. Half the exterior walls, pool/pool deck, driveway and roof are the only original things left in the house. We have a wood frame house on 1.5 acres which is unheard of in this area but we got it for a steal in 2019 and had our contractor do the big stuff including new 2x4s, drywall, filling sunken LR floor, insulation, impact windows, bathrooms, plumbing, electrical and all the permitting... and we're slowly redoing the rest ourselves. Probably cost about half of what anyone else would have paid since we did a lot of the finish work ourselves. I'm not sure if you're handy but we did all the baseboards, door trim, painting (even exterior painting), siding, landscape, kitchen install, tile work (outside of showers and waterproofing), etc. I can't imagine getting any kind of great deal down here right now so I'd price everything out, look at comps and make sure it's worth it in this market. We had our contractor come before making an offer.

@Itsourcasa we’re very handy! That’s exactly the kind of thing we want to do. We’re not sure any contractor will take half the work though in this competitive market. I think we’ll probably save for a year and try again later when things are hopefully a little normal. My dream is to take that Reno money and build a new structure - then do the finish work ourselves.

We bought a tear down and built new. For us the tiny bungalow and a huge city lot didn’t make sense but the lot was dreamy. So it worked for us.

Ironically our neighbor is currently doing a down to studs rebuild and addition. They did this because the house location on the lot is grandfathered. If they went new they would have to completely relocate the home and where it is now is infinitely better.

You need to familiarize yourself with Florida's 50% rule before you do anything.

"I’m looking at a 40 year old, 3,000 sq ft home"

Looking at it, meaning you haven't bought it yet; or do you already own it?

Thanks for the 50% rule article. Here in NC we have a addition to that rule - the house also has to be in compliance with ocean erosion limits if the rule kicks in - ie has to have 60 feet of protective vegetation from the ocean. But boy was it juiced for a Hurricane Florence rebuild. A friend (truly) has a 40yo shack on the ocean. Probably around 1200 sqft. Before the latest run up in prices, at the time of the hurricane, it was a $600k house with $400 land $200 structure. And that was generous on the structure side. He got $150k between flood and wind insurance - ie more than 50% of value. I even asked why he didn't tear it down and he stated that his lot was unbuildable - meaning there was enough erosion that a rebuild was not allowed without pushing back - and he didn't have room to push back.

So the 50% rule was a joke. By the letter of the law, his should be an empty lot.

We're not in FL, but we are completing what started as an addition and bloomed into an almost-whole-house reno in the DC area. We're surrounded by teardowns and arguably it might have been a better route for our house. But even though the addition and reno are a LOT of money (and time and stress), a full teardown would have been at least 50% more and probably double what we're spending now. And at least another 6 months of work. It's possible that would net a better ROI in the long run, but I'm not sure, because of the specifics of our situation. In the end, our house doesn't have high ceilings and other advantages of a new build, but the builder did beautiful work and it will be a pleasure to live there. If we sold tomorrow, we'd probably still be at or near the bottom of the price range for SFH in our neighborhood.

The only advice I'd give is to find an architect and a builder (or design-build firm) that you can trust and work through the options with them. People on these forums often insist it's better to just tear down but every situation is different.