Thanks for the post – great thread!
I’m really interested in hearing some success stories for DIY works that have resulted in capital growth and/or increased rental yield.
I say this because I’ve just purchased a new PPOR, and am going develop some skills by attempting a very basic cosmetic reno. It’s a small 60’s three-floor walk up, and all it really needs is new paint on the walls/cieling (floors are fine – they were recently renovated with floating timber floorboards). The windows are old metal ones, and I was thinking about painting them, then removing the ugly vertical blinds, and replacing them with custom-fitted plantation shutters. Kitchen and bathroom are fine; just need some painting.
Once this is completed, I was thinking I’d use the skills and contacts I’ve made to then conduct a cosmetic reno on one of my IP’s. But this is where I come unstuck. I have an IP in greater western Sydney (St Marys area). It’s a very old top floor red brick apartment. Great bones but needs new paint (cheap and easy), new carpets, new kitchen, bathroom, and laundry, plus, new window coverings are needd. I think I’d be in for $20K plus. Problem is, I think it’d only gain me an additional yield of $20, maybe $30 pw. This means only $1560 revenue in one year. Sure, there’d be some great depreciable claims for tax, but with the property becoming so positively geared, I’m wary of doing to much work on it.
Thing is, the unit is in dire need of renovation. So it’s one of those ‘damned if I do; damned if I don’t’ things.
Any suggestions for me?
Thoughts are to try and do some of the works myself (painting). The place is actually floorboarded; it’s just the two bedrooms requiring new carpet. The real expense is kitchen/bathroom/laundry. I could maybe get away with just a tart-up (so instead of new cupboards, appliances, tiling, electrics, basins, sinks etc, could I get away with just: painting existing cupboards (chaging all the handles, knobs, spouts etc to be more modern), basic ‘extra large’ wall tiling (which I could do myself; see; extra-large tiles are cheaper and easier to do, with the imperfections less noticeable. As for the window coverings, perhaps the cheapest possible vertical blinds? Or maybe just new curtains?
Great post xdrew. You've got a good thing going on there!
amyhunz wrote:As the unit is still in the cooling off period I'd prefer to retain privacy at this stage. As I said, I'd be happy to email pics to individuals and I have.
Is it safe to post some pics yet Amy??
Also have a couple of places in St Marys, you'll find if you do spend the extra cash (ensuring you will get those returns making it break even as such), you will be able to be more picky with your tenants. Then again, leaving it as is means you won't need to worry too much about 'damage'.
Is it rented at the moment? Will you loose rent during the renovations? I think most places will rent there renovated or not, just depends on the quality of tenenant your after.
Cameron McEvoy wrote:Thanks for the post – great thread! I'm really interested in hearing some success stories for DIY works that have resulted in capital growth and/or increased rental yield. I say this because I've just purchased a new PPOR, and am going develop some skills by attempting a very basic cosmetic reno. It's a small 60's three-floor walk up, and all it really needs is new paint on the walls/cieling (floors are fine – they were recently renovated with floating timber floorboards). The windows are old metal ones, and I was thinking about painting them, then removing the ugly vertical blinds, and replacing them with custom-fitted plantation shutters. Kitchen and bathroom are fine; just need some painting. Once this is completed, I was thinking I'd use the skills and contacts I've made to then conduct a cosmetic reno on one of my IP's. But this is where I come unstuck. I have an IP in greater western Sydney (St Marys area). It's a very old top floor red brick apartment. Great bones but needs new paint (cheap and easy), new carpets, new kitchen, bathroom, and laundry, plus, new window coverings are needd. I think I'd be in for $20K plus. Problem is, I think it'd only gain me an additional yield of $20, maybe $30 pw. This means only $1560 revenue in one year. Sure, there'd be some great depreciable claims for tax, but with the property becoming so positively geared, I'm wary of doing to much work on it. Thing is, the unit is in dire need of renovation. So it's one of those 'damned if I do; damned if I don't' things. Any suggestions for me? Thoughts are to try and do some of the works myself (painting). The place is actually floorboarded; it's just the two bedrooms requiring new carpet. The real expense is kitchen/bathroom/laundry. I could maybe get away with just a tart-up (so instead of new cupboards, appliances, tiling, electrics, basins, sinks etc, could I get away with just: painting existing cupboards (chaging all the handles, knobs, spouts etc to be more modern), basic 'extra large' wall tiling (which I could do myself; see; extra-large tiles are cheaper and easier to do, with the imperfections less noticeable. As for the window coverings, perhaps the cheapest possible vertical blinds? Or maybe just new curtains?Hey! Great job on your success. That’s actually pretty good. I’ll be sure to recommend this method to friends.
xdrew wrote:Here is one for when you get professional.I have an old lockup shop that I purchased many moons ago for a pittance.
Its no longer any real value as a shop .. since the area has a proper mall nearby. So i got it as a commercial space .. for a couple of bucks instead of a heap of bucks.
It has residential upstairs, so that has got rented out for a cheap but fair rent. I basically own the shop outright so as long as there is someone paying for upstairs thats fine by me.
But here is the kicker.
Downstairs is used as a storage compartment for everything i might need. Its got all the tinkery things I need for sprucing up a place .. a set of chairs, a cheap lounge setting .. a couple of vases … a bit of intricate lively carved bits of wood, a bookshelf and some blandish important looking books. Boxes of old documents and papers .. its like a storage facility without the ongoing hire costs. Cheap .. useful and brilliant. The renter pays the bills for me and the lot downstairs for storage is a freebie.
The shop has a professional looking frontage so it looks occupied the whole time. It has a business title and no business phone number. This is basically done to make it look occupied and prevent theft.
So to sum up, I have turned a useless old shop into a storage area for my sprucing up stuff and old documents, and have a renter paying my overheads on the place. Capital gains? sure .. but in the meantime its got a use too.
To scare you as to how cheap I purchased it .. it cost me 120,000 and I paid in cash. So eight years down the track .. its been not only a great idea .. but a hell of an investment too.
*** salivating ***
These are great websites. Definitely if you're time poor this is the way to go. For me, I'm in a stage of life that I had the time to source, buy and style things myself. It takes alot of time and effort but at the end of the day, it cost us $200 in styling products in addition to the $400 in paint and $1900 in carpet. So a total of $2,500 for what we believe was a value add of up to $25k.
I'm trying to get my hands on the high res versions of our Agent pics for you all to see what we did. This was our first go at property styling and I'm now a big believer of it!
Excellent work Amy, do you have any before pics?
Hi Amy
REALLY loving the mirror and the dinning table/chairs. I think red is a good colour to use to grab attention also. Thanks for sharing your pictures
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