Renovations: Cheapest way to add value to your property

Hi Derek

We find white paint, new blinds and carpet can transform a property. This can be achieved for under $2,000 for a 3 bedroom house.

And like JacM says above, be prepared for some elbow grease if you buy a property under value. Basic landscaping can give a property street appeal which I think is very important for tenant appeal and re-val figures.

Photos of renovations we have completed in the past can be found on my blog (link below)

All the best mate.

We do most of the work ourselves accept for the laying of the carpet. Get yourself 3-4 quotes and play companies against each other. I find the prices almost always have margin for a considerable decrease based on the first quote. Another handy hint is to re-use the underlay if it’s in ok condition, which I find has been the case 90% of the time. It’s amazing how much they’ll try sting you for the stuff. We also buy the rock bottom cheap carpet. This suits our target market nicely but obviously alter the standard depending on the quality of home and area.

We tend to go with vertical blinds. Functional and clean. You can get them made up cheap or purchase from a place like spotlight. They’re fairly easy to install.

Getting to know what your renovation needs tends to come from experience and a little vision. I’ll get quotes from builders for stuff like roofing or carpentry that don’t have time to, or can’t do, myself. Mostly these quotes can be used as a bargaining tool during the BPI clause. For one purchase we got $3000 of the purchase price for a leaky roof, that ended costing us $300 to fix!

Do up a budget plan and include a time frame for delivery. Some people use a Gant chart but I find a spreadsheet table works fine. Most of all read up on what has worked for others in the past. Look at you-tube clips, google images, read forums and create a board with all your ideas. Get stuck in and give it a go. If your adaptable and willing to change plans at a moments notice it’s amazing what you can pull off. Good luck.

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by  sciencesurf.

Ahh ok, I’m with you. Firstly I would suggest not borrowing for a renovation if at all possible. You don’t want to have to be paying loans back for value-add on top of the regular mortgage. The less risk the better and this will put you a step backwards in your property journey. Saying that, it depends on the situation. People have been very successful flipping properties quickly after borrowing the renovation costs.

The usual process we take is as follows.

We have a solid picture of our target property type before we start looking. This information is relayed to all real-estate agents servicing our target area. This game is all about relationships. Network and treat people well and most of the time the good buys will come to you.

Usually we are looking for people who fail to look after their property cosmetically, but the bones are still ok.

First inspection. I-pad in hand I take a hundred or so photos. Go nuts! The 20 minutes you may have in a property is never enough and it’s great to have your own reference photos to work off. The real-estate photos are deceiving and use-less. Anything that catches your eye as a possible flaw or renovation target, capture it.

We then review photos and plan out the needs in terms of priority. Ask yourself questions like…What will provide more comfortable living for the tenants? What will increase the rental demand in your target area? What is not a necessity and can be avoided? What needs to be fixed to ensure a well maintained property? Are there hidden costs like water damage, termite evidence, asbestos etc.

We then will seek quotes, but this all depends on time. For our last purchase we had to move very quickly so there was no time to act and have tradies attend the property. All quotes were completed during the BPI and finance clauses. This time is invaluable as if the quotes start to sky-rocket you will have an exit available from the contract. 21 days if possible.

If you’re interested in getting professionals in to help I’ve heard of companies like ‘hotspace’ that do a complete renovation evaluation schedule to suit your target market for around $1500. Everything from paint colour to tile choice. This may save you money in the long run but it’s not something that is needed for the cheap renovations.

I’ll see what I can dig up re spreadsheets. The following is an example schedule for a previous renovation we completed.

http://sciencesurf.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/renovation-schedule-5k-special/

I’m sure there are spreadsheets lurking in the depths of this forum. Can anyone help?

Hi,

* Move non structural walls in properties with wasted space to turn 2brm home into 3. – A lot cheaper than you would think. Increase yield and equity if done well.
* Introduce natural light – windows, skylights
* Subdivision – get to the approval stage without doing
* Find properties on the market (comps ) that you aspire to be like that have the same bones as yours – devise the budget to copy and see what the cost versus equity gain might be. Would have to back this up with sales data as opposed to just listing prices

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by  Don Nicolussi.

Derek where are you located?

I’ve done many reno’s in Sydney. If you are in Sydney send me a message. I may be able to steer you in the right direction.

I’ve called out to see a few people’s properties just to give them ideas of where to start, order of reno etc.