Hey Crashy,

Thanks for your comments. At this stage it is something that I am fleshing out, finiding out what to expect etc, so what you have said is exactly the kind of stuff I want to hear.

What you are doing is exactly what I have been thinking about, is only doing my PPOR and hence no CGT. So I imagine that your projects are quite extensive renovations? Taking so much time and returning such high return. Not having a trade behind me I was thinking of starting small, short (1-3 month) and basic renovations and then as skills and knowlesge go up I can tackle bigger renos.

I will be doing my first proper reno while still working full time, which will take longer, but wont expose me to as much risk by giving the day job the boot.

So do you buy / reno / sell your properties then? And live off / reinvest your profit? When you started how did you set yourself up? Did you put aside $50K for instance to live off while you did your first reno? Where you working full time still?

12 hours per day is not an issue for me, I do that already, but behind a desk, I'm looking to get out from behind that desk, and do what most people want to do, is be their own boss. I think the biggest risk for the inexpirenced is to over capitalize on the renovation and spend too much and add little value…. But research & expirence will help diminish this risk.

I'm also working on a spreadsheet to calculate renovation costs, once done I plan on using this against one of my existing properties to calculate the cost of a test reno and then compare the property against similar, renovated properties on the market to get a ball park figure of the estimated value. I'll use this as a test plan of expected returns as part of my research.

How do you do your planning / budgeting? Do you do all your renovation calcs before you actually buy the property?

Cheers

Sebsez.