If you’ve seen a run down Old house and you start feeling inspired about renovating it, you need to take a pause before you get started. It always looks very simple and very glamorous to take an old and rundown home and renovate it into something modern and beautiful. You might have seen TV shows where people take fixer uppers and decide to make them look great again. The problem is that it’s very different to take a large project like this and do it yourself compared to what the TV shows you.
For a start, it doesn’t talk about how difficult it is to get council approval when you really need it. It also doesn’t talk about the fact that you need companies such as Underground Service Locating to make sure that you are not digging out old copper wires or fibre optics under the grounds that somebody else had placed before you. If you’re planning on digging down to create a basement, for example, this is something you need to know before you get started, and that’s where some of the issues can come in. There is nothing wrong with renovating your land or your home, but there are some things you have to consider before you get started. Let’s take a look at those considerations below.
- Think about why you are doing it in the first place. Are you looking to improve your home and land for its livability or are you looking to renovate for sale? You need to make sure That you understand whether it’s about comfort or cost. You don’t want to overcapitalize, but renovation is a big budget job. It’s not something you can do on a shoestring. If you want to grow your rental yield or your possibilities of growing your equity, then you have to focus on the financial considerations first and foremost. There is no reason to put money into your house and your land if it’s not going to pay you back.
- Do you know what you’re doing? You spruced up a house before, so you don’t think that this is going to be as big of a job as people tell you. You are going to be wrong there. It’s always a smart idea to hire the experts who know better and do better than you can so that you can either learn from them or watch them do their job. Do you know what permits you’re going to need, or what job you need to undertake to get your basement fixed? Probably not, but that’s OK. There are experts out there to do that for you.
- What kind of time can you spare? If you’re working full time, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to take on a huge renovation project all by yourself. You need to be realistic about your budget and about who you need on site to direct all of those proceedings. This should run as smoothly as possible for you, and if you can’t commit to the hours that it’s going to take, then it’s not worth doing. It’s always worth calling in an expert instead.
- How do you find the right property? So you haven’t yet found the property you want to renovate, but you do want to do a renovation project? You need to make sure that you are speaking to local real estate agents and you are talking to those in banking who are auctioning homes. You need to be able to find a property that has the best development potential. This will help you to realise the beneficial return.
- Can you find the right people for the job? You might be able to comfortably paint your house, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to dig under the ground, lay new piping or install new electrics. And nor should you. You are neither a plumber nor an electrician, but you just are somebody who has a vision for what they want. You need to make sure that you can find the right people for the job so that they can do all of those harder parts while you focus on renovating in your mind
- How much of it are you planning to do alone? Like we just said, there are some things you physically won’t be able to do alone, and so you need to assess how much of it you can do by yourself. That’s things like painting the ceilings or walls or potentially laying down flooring. You may be hands on with a nail gun, but you want to get this right and that means planning it appropriately.
- What about finances? This is something that really should be at the very top of the list because you don’t want to start a renovation project you can’t afford to continue or finish. If you can’t obtain the right finances for this project, then it’s a nonstarter from the beginning if you’re fully funding it yourself, Congratulations.
- Does your budget match your time frame? After the first couple of renovations, you may have a great idea about which people you can trust to handle your house and how long it takes them to do it. Allowing A contingency budget of at least 10% while working out your cost is important. This will help you to create a realistic budget for each renovation that you want to do. Focusing on the aesthetic improvements rather than anything costly and structural will help you to stop eating away at your bottom line.
- What comes next? What do you plan to do with this renovation after you’ve finished with it? Are you moving in or are you having somebody else do it for you? Are you renting it out? Are you selling it on? Some people like to renovate and flip houses, and if you are one of those people, you need to have a plan.
- And what happens if it goes wrong? All of the planning in the world can sometimes mean that things still go wrong. What do you do in that case? What are you going to do with your investment if you can’t get it off the market? This is something you need to be planning from the very beginning so that you have a contingency and something to ensure that you’re not feeling like you’re wasting your time.
