Final Result After Reno
Hi All,
Been some time since the discussion on this thread but thought I'd better get back on and post the result for those who are interested. I sought advice about alot of different areas of the reno work, some of which were discussed in other threads. We moved out a couple of months ago after completing the reno.
The background was this. My wife and I purcahsed our first IP in Kensington Sydney (Eastern Suburbs, neighouring Randwick). We are not tradies and have minimal experience in handyman type work so we were always going to have most work done by Tradies but co-ordinate it ourselves.
The Unit: Large 2 bedroom, with separate dining / 3rd bedroom if enclosed, 2 bathrooms (1 ensuite), internal laundry, large lock up garage with storage space, in a quite street a short walk (100-150ms) to shops, transport etc. 108 sqm floor space including balcony. Garage space on top of that.
The unit was in average but not terrible condition when purchased. It had Peach coloured paint on walls that had been pretty roughly done. Had been tennanted and previous tennant had cats which meant the average light tan carpet (that looked peach at times because of the walls) had to go. It smelled of cat and had some staining (from the cats I'd say). Also, given we were going to live in it for 6 months or more, and my wife had just had a bad experience in a rental where we had some sort of lice or mites in the carpet that bit hell out of her, the carpet was always going.
The Kitchen was older & intact but the stove elements were rusting and the oven wasn't working. There was no dishwasher or space for it within the cupboard set up.
The Bathroom - inside lip to the toilet bowl in the main bathroom was broken. Bathroom toilets and vanity etc were caramel. Vanity was chipboard and starting to rot. It had older wired glass style shower screens with some cracking. Tiles were ok white with faint traces of caramel / tan pattern, but the grouting in some area's was poor. It was chalky and chipped away easily.
There were no built ins in bedrooms, older light fittings, crappy old blinds or none at all.
We decided to target middle - upper middle income professionals (probably couples) as tennants. The area's proximity to the CBD (15 min bus ride), Centennial Park, and the Shopping & Beaches etc of the Eastern Suburbs is somewhat attractive to such tennants. Uni of NSW is nearby and provides students at the right time of the year in case we had trouble getting our target tennant group. The reno was to be a cosmetic one with no structural work required.
Paid $480k for the unit. Was rented for $370 when purchased. Lived in it as our PPOR claiming FHOG & Stamp Duty Exemption. Stayed for about 8 months before moving out for financial reasons (cheaper to rent elsewhere and rent out our unit than live in our own unit). During our stay we completed/organised following renovations;
• Painting througout done ourselves with acrylic paints purchased from Nutech Paints: Used a total of 24Lts of Undercoat Acrylic Sealer, 24Lts of Washable Interior Low Sheen 'China White' for walls (matched to Dulux colour charts), 8Lts of ceiling white, 4 Lts of gloss enamel in 'Stowe White'.
Total cost including freight = $445.55. Could have been even less but we were slightly short of paint and had to re-order.
• New White Venitian Style Blinds throughout with some Role Down blinds in the lounge room (from 'Vista') throughout = $1405
• New Vinyl Rubber Bassed Imitation Wood Floor Planks from 'Classic Floor Coverings' (
www.classicfloorcoverings.com.au). Actual product was 'Designer Planks, Natural Spotted Gum'. Worked out at about $80m laid = Total $6420 laid.
There is some discussion regarding this type of flooring on another thread (Classic Floor Coverings) and I must say that I was very happy with the result. Both in terms of look and liveability.
• New Carpet from Harvey Norman for the 2 bedrooms = $1230 laid.
• Large Stegbar Built In mirrored cupboard in Main Bedroom = $1650.
• Bathroom work;
- 2 x bathroom shower recesses re-grouted etc = $990
- New Toilet in main bathroom & Plumbing = $649
- New Vanity in main bathroom (purchased at autctions) = $393.75
- 2 x shower tap sets (purchased at autctions) = $123.75
- 1 x bath tap set (purchased at autctions) = $56.25
- 2 x new shower screens = $465 & $330
Bathrooms total = $3007.75
We possibly could have got away without the re-grouting but as the tiles were older we were concerned if tennants dislodged any we'd have dramas trying to match them. So went for the safer option.
• Light fittings throughout:
- Lights = $246.37 (purchased at auctions)
- Installed cheaply by a friend (qualified sparky) for $50.
• New Kitchen;
- Tiling = $450
- Tiles = $227.50
- Plumbing = $450
- Electrical = $495
- Kitchen Removal = $352
- Kitchen Installation = $1045
- Kitchen Cupboards etc = $6232.60
- Andi Appliances (Oven, Cook top, Range hood & Sink) = $1250
- Dishlex Dishwasher = $849
Total = $11 351.10
We used "Kitcheners Kitchens" (
www.kitcheners.com.au). They are very flexible and target investor renovations primarily. You can use them to do it all or do alot yourself. They can do the kitchen design & purchase the cupboards and put you in contact with their subcontracted tradies, or you can use your own tradies. Advantage if you were a tradie or have friends or family who are tradies. Either way the fact you can elect to co-ordinate the tradies yourself (they just give you their phone numbers) allows you to save money on the 'service' side of things. Same with all the appliances and fittings. You can source your own and see if their suppliers can beat the price, or just select from the different levels of appliances etc they offer which were pretty cheap as is. We puchased our own tiles and the tiler just turned up to put them in.
TOTAL RENOVATION COST: $25 805.77
When we moved out in April 06 we did so after receiving advice from our RE Agent that this time of the year (leading into winter and after Uni etc has gone back) sees a drop off in competition for rental properties in the area. We did so anyway giving precedence to personal considerations like the fact my wife is pregnant and we wanted to move early in the pregnancy rather than late and the fact that the sooner we got out the sooner we'd start saving money (cheapre than living in it).
As a result it took us 4-6 weeks to rent. It is now rented for $430 a week on a 12 month lease to 1 lady with the Defence Forces (on subsidised rent). Although the RE Agent Rent Appraisal was $465, and we thought it was worth $450 a week, given the bad timing $430 was acceptable. We'll review the rent at a good time demand wise after the 12 month lease is up. Either way, we got the target tennant we were after who in the early stages appears to be a good secure tennant.
So we acheived an increase in rent from $370 to $430 (About a 16.2% increase in rent by my calcs) for an outlay of $25 806 (About 5.4% of the purchase price).
I had a local RE Agent do an informal valuation after the reno was complete. He is a friend who new we weren't selling it and who I asked for a realistic estimate which he provided as "at least $550k". He's worked selling real estate in the eastern suburbs for over 10 years so I'd hope he's somewhere near the mark.
I'd be interested in your opinions on how good, bad or otherwise this overall result is?
We were also fortunate that according to Residex figures Kensingtion was one of the only Eastern Sydney suburbs to go up in value last year. A 10% increase being listed for Kensington (last year I think). Council upgrades of the commercial area / street scape etc at Kensington Junction (still occuring) may have something to do with that as it was previously one of the few suburbs that hadn't been fixed up.
I was going to attach come photos but apparently my photo files are bigger than the forum limit per photo. Most of my before photos had been accidently deleted anyway but I had enough to demonstrate the basic colour and flooring changes and show the unit in its renovated state. Doen't matter I guess.
What I learned from this was that I would only ever want to co-ordinate the reno, not do to much of the hands on work. Apart from the fact that I don't have the skills in most areas, I don't have the time. We both work full time jobs earning reasonable money and study on top of that. Also, with a baby about to arrive on top of that I can only see the time pressures increasing.
So the way I see it (and specific to our circumstances only) I could earn better money doing extra hours in my current job than the savings I'd make out of doing it myself. It would get done quicker, and hopefully better. In which case paying a professional for most stuff seems the way to go for us. I don't know if we'd even do the painting next time but would where possible still co-ordinate the reno. I found we saved a fair bit of money just be doing that ourselves instead of handing the whole project over to someone else.
I've heard people talk about the stress renovating (especially live in renovating) can put on relationships and while we had no major dramas I could see there being problems if it had been any more intense or had dragged out much longer. My wife was pregnant which might have made things slightly more trying when you're coming home from work, painting until late, catching a few hours sleep and starting over.
Thanks to everyone who contributed with advice to this and related threads. Let me know what you think.
MF35