Hi everybody,
just wondering if anybody has experience to share with renovating units. I have bought my first property (a unit) and am looking to increase both rental return and property value. Last rented at $135 week although other units in the complex are renting at $160, and i believe i should be able to bring my unit at least up to the standard of those. Bought at 100K (7% return). How much scope is there for increasing value, given it is a 1br unit
Hi Judah,
Yeh Ive reno'd quite a few and may have some cost effective ideas. Tell me more about the unit i.e. describe kitchen/ bathroom, what floor is the unit on i.e top? And, how skilled are you? I find the key to the cheaper units is to spend as little as possible as there is generally not a huge margin.G'day Ken,
The unit is approx 40sqm, batroom is in good condition, with fairly new tiling and paint job by previous owners. Kitchen is functional though very small workspace. I think this will be the main area for imorovement and value adding. Plan at present is to put in a DIY flatpax kitchen, new sink, oven, stove and fridge. Also aim to replace washer and dryer and repaint throughout. Rough budget suggests around $5,000-$6000 all up. Should virtually be able to complete most things by myself.
Sounds like there is not a huge scope to do much more. Re kitchen: I recently reno'd a one beder and managed to get a very contempory result for approx $500. Here's how. Cupboards boxes themselves were in reasonable nic but the doors were shabby and discoloured and the benchtop was revolting. Removed, patched and repainted doors with a semi gloss paint and a good quality gloss roller, can get very good results if a bit of care is taken, cost approx $50. New handles approx $50. New flick mixer ($35 from auction). And new benchtop. Tip for benchtop, dont get one custom made, instead check local post form manufacturers and they generally have a selection of offcuts, cancelled orders or bodged jobs. Providing you can find the size and are not too fussy re colour you can then get them to adapt to your required config at a fraction of retail. All up my bench cost me $180 and thats with a brekky bar return approx 6m in length all up. With the splashback I went for the glass look which is normally approx 400 p/m. I used 6mm perspex and rolled the back with again a semigloss, you wouldn't know the difference….cost $200.
That's it except for appliances. I always get my stuff at auction or the trading post, save yourself a fortune!Hope this may give you some ideasKI renovated a unit and transformed the kitchen benchtops with a reconstituted granite facing. Half the price of granite tops and looks identical. Spend a bit on contemporary door handles on the units and you can get away without a new kitchen. Also good value is to rip down vertical venitians and put up DIY wooden slatted ones. There is good money in renovating units but make sure that it is a crappy unit in an otherwise tidy block.
HI
I agree with the above – the thing you need to ensure is that you don't overcapitalize esp. on a 1 bedder which is a bit more limited in growth than a larger one. I'm all in agreement however about the "worst unit in good block" strategy.
Have been looking for some of these myself.
Regards
Hi guys,
thanks for the ideas. Just found out that one of the units upstairs in a similar condition to mine has just had a rental increase to $175/week, so i think that with replacing the kitchen and repainting i should have no problems achieving something similar. On the over capitalizing issue, i think a budget of 5-6k shouldnt (i hope) be too much.
Another question for attrill, how does the price of reconstituted granite compare to say laminated benchtops?
Jude
It was only a small area, and I found that the granite facing was twice the price of a new laminate top, and half the price of a stone top as I said. It ended up costing $1000, but I had a choice of colours and was well worth it. I renovated a 2 bed unit. I spent $12,500 and then had it revalued at $40,000 more. At the time I didn't know of Ken's idea of offcuts from manufacturers. In a one bedder you may still have pleanty of choice of offcuts, as it is only a small top you will be dealing with.
Thanks for the info, i liked the idea of the composite granite, but struggled to find pricing. I think, like you say at wice the price the result would be worth the extra cost. Will also check out Ken's suggestion re offcuts.
regards, JudeThanks for those tips everyone – we haven't ventured into the reno side yet, but are hoping to down the track. Just an observation from past experience on furnishings though (washer, dryer and fridge). We originally furnished our flats and found the standard of tenant was lower than with them unfurnished, and we seemed to be continually having to fix things. We now rent them bare and have had a lot fewer hassles. Trish
Thanks for the perspective Trish. Have thought about the situation of a furnished property attracting a lower standard of tenant, and more likely than not more transient too. I believe the rest of the complex has whitegoods and some part furnished, so not sure if i should do the same. The unit came with a kitchen table, chairs, bed and whitegoods, however the whitegoods are probably nearing the end of their lives, so not sure whether to just get rid of the lot or to replace whitegoods and leave the rest of the furniture as is.Any thoughts?
Hi
We are considering doing our first unit renovation and was wondering if there are any tips or traps with dealing with Strata Boards and if there are limitations on the renovations that you can do. The unit we are considering is a 1 bedroom unit in Sydney. It is in a good building but the unit needs a lot of work to bring it up to date. Also are units easier to sell with or without tenants? Any suggestions would be great .Thanks!
One for juder. The company I used was http://www.granitetransformations.com.au It's a franchise so you could email them and see if they are in your area. They came round and gave me a quote the day after I called them.
On the white goods issue, I once heard of someone who replaced the white goods in their own house with new ones, and put the old stuff in their rental house and claimed the depreciation on the new stuff. It would of course be deemed as tax avoidance and could not be recommended…..
thanks attrill,
um yeah i think i might give the whitegoods swap idea a miss. Think thats something along the lines of tax fraud. Might be frowned upon by our freinds in the tax office : )
Thanks for the info on the bench tops tooHi Boobiejo,
in my experience with bodies corporate they can be a little slow in responding. However if you give them a call and run your ideas past them this should give you a pretty good idea of what you can and cant do. Really I think any structural changes may be challenging to have approved but cosmetic changes to the interior should be fine. As to selling a unit i am yet to find out, but from my perspective, if i was buying i would probably prefer to have a tenant in place as i could know that the unit was renting for 'x' amount and the tenant has been here for so long… Probably a slightly different story to selling a house as there is probably more chance that the potential buyers would be buying it as their PPOR and therefore may want if vacant. Only my thoughts though, someone more experienced in this area may have a better idea?
Hi everybody,
I always lay ceramic tiles/mosaics on the damaged, wear out kitchen bench tops of the units I renovate and re-sell. To me is the best solution ever. Easy to lay, shining, strong, durable, and cheap.
Cheers,
Tera
For a small one bedroom unit do you normally have a bar fridge or a full sized fridge?
Do you provide the fridge?
Has anyone provided a small washing machine – say in the bathroom – probably a small front loader – in a block that has a shared laundry & shared washer, to make it a more attractive proposition to a tenant?Thanks
For a small one bedroom unit do you normally have a bar fridge or a full sized fridge?
Do you provide the fridge?
Has anyone provided a small washing machine – say in the bathroom – probably a small front loader – in a block that has a shared laundry & shared washer, to make it a more attractive proposition to a tenant?Thanks
For a small one bedroom unit do you normally have a bar fridge or a full sized fridge?
Do you provide the fridge?
Has anyone provided a small washing machine – say in the bathroom – probably a small front loader – in a block that has a shared laundry & shared washer, to make it a more attractive proposition to a tenant?Thanks
I have a unit that is in a complex with no shared laundry. I found that a washing machine that saves time and effort for the tenant to be well worth the money. An extra $20 a week will soon pay back a second hand (tax deductable) washing machine and may turn a negative cashflow property into a positive one. In my experience all the white goods are negotiable, but I have found that a fridge is appreciated and the larger the better. Once you have a few units you will find that you accumulate these items that can be moved around your properties as required.
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