7 Deadly Sins of Renovating

Hi everyone,

I recently wrote the following article/blog and thought you may find it helpful - particularly if you're about to embark on a reno yourself.

7 Deadly Sins of Renovating

Renovating. Every Aussies dream. And when it comes to the crunch - many an Aussies nightmare. Along with the fairytale renovating stories come plenty of not-so-happy endings. And if you’re planning a renovation soon, then you’ll be looking out for every tip and trick you can to count yourself in among the former.

You will have heard the stories about people who have not had the success with their renovation that they would have wished for – it didn’t look like what they expected once completed, they spent too much, they took too long, the property didn’t re-value up or sell for what they had anticipated… or all of the above.

But what’s the difference between a renovation success story and a renovation nightmare?

What do the successful renovators do that the others don’t?

The answer is that successful renovators know the 7 Deadly Renovating Sins. And they know how to avoid them.

Deadly Sin 1) Not spending the TIME on planning your renovation.

Unless you have a clear plan to follow for your renovation, you will probably over-spend and take longer on your renovation than if you did have a plan.

Time-poor people often fall in to this trap. Struggling to do their day job and then trying to plan and co-ordinate their renovation often spells mistakes and ultimately loss of money.

You’ve no doubt heard the expression “if you fail to plan then you plan to fail”. And this is true for renovations as well.

Without an item-by-item list of what you are going to do to your property, it’s much harder to:

• Create a great looking property
• Get accurate pricing before you start
• Thoroughly plan the implementation of your reno
• Monitor your renovation progress and keep your trades-people on task
• Enjoy a smooth flowing renovation

When you have a clear plan in place there is no confusion, no fluffing around and no arguments about what you need to do to your property. In particular, spend as much time as you can on:

• Working out exactly what you will do to you property to improve it most effectively (see Deadly Sin 3)
• Getting pricing on the things you decide to do to your property (see Deadly Sin 2)

Deadly Sin 2) Not working out your renovation budget BEFORE you start

Mostly, people decide what improvements they want to make to their property and then get quotes on those things.

However, you’re really better to do this the other way around. Work out your budget first and THEN figure out how you are going to improve your property within that dollar value.

I had a client a few months back who started by gathering lots of ideas and putting ‘ballpark’ figures together for his renovation costs. All-of-a-sudden, his renovation was up to the $100,000 mark. But he only had $65,000 available. We went back to the drawing board together and worked out what the most essential things were to do on his property. And voila – a beautifully renovated property for $65,000!

There are a number of schools of thought about how much to budget, but I like to work on approximately 7-9% for cosmetically renovating an investment property or one you are about to sell and 10-11% for your own home.

However, these percentages are not set in stone.

For instance, I would increase that amount if the property is in a good growth area. And I would decrease that amount if the property is not in such a good area. And if you're planning on a structural renovation then this value would need to increase significantly.

You can also decrease that amount if you are experienced. And increase that amount if you are inexperienced to allow for overspending and errors.

For example, let’s imagine you have a $500,000 property in a low growth area that you want to renovate for profit (an investment property). I would aim at 6-7%.

Or if your property is in a high growth area and you plan to live there for years to come, then budget more than the 10-11%. Even more if you are making structural changes.

Deadly Sin 3) Copying the ideas, colours and concepts from other people’s renovations, thinking it’s the right thing to do on your property too

This is a classic mistake. You’ve seen the shows on TV and thought –“mmm that looks great; I’m going to do that to my property”. Or you’ve seen a friend’s house and you’ve asked for the paint colours and got their advice on what to do on your property. Or you’ve been to a seminar or read a magazine article to gather inspiration – and found a few interesting ideas and concepts to use.

Am I right?

Unless you’re a trained designer, then that is probably how you’ve got your ideas together for your own renovation.

However, this is not really the best way to design your renovation. Your property is no doubt different to the one you’re planning to copy – a different style, a different location, a different budget… a different property in general.

My point is that you need to look at your property in its own right. Copying other people’s renovation ideas can lead to disaster if you’re not careful. For instance:

• Using the wrong colours on your property. Even if a particular colour looked great in a magazine or on a friend’s property, it may not be suitable for yours. Be careful not to waste all that money on paint and materials in colours that are not right for the job.

• Renovating parts of the property that will not add value to it (even if it added value to the one you’re comparing to). This is the easiest way to over-capitalise – spending money where there is simply no return. If you’re renovating your own home and adding value is not important, then you may not consider this a potential problem however.

• Making renovating and design choices that don’t suit your property – and therefore spoil and devalue it. I see this a lot – where people suddenly become ‘master designer extraordinaire’ (sorry, excuse the sarcasm!) and use colours and add design features that make the property look worse, not better. For instance I had a client not long ago who bought someone else’s design disaster – a renovated property that looked so terrible that no-one wanted to buy it. At least they got it cheap!

Deadly Sin 4) Not knowing what things cost.

This is the number one way to over-spend on your renovation and it is so so common.

Be super careful when calculating your expected costs and always include a contingency – just to be on the safe side. In particular, you’d be best spend a good deal of time on getting pricing from suppliers and trade-people and prioritising what is most important to implement within your pre-set budget.

For instance I had a client the other day who was convinced his bathroom ‘trick up’ was going to cost $3,000. However, my initial estimate was that his ideas were going to cost him at least $6,000. Because he only had $3,000 to play with, we re-looked at the bathroom design and came up with a plan to renovate it within his $3,000 budget.

Deadly Sin 5) Taking too long to renovate your property.

Let’s face it, you would rather have your renovation completed much sooner than much later. No one wants a renovation to chew up more of their spare time than necessary.

So, follow these tips to help you complete your renovation quickly and effectively:

• Know exactly what you are doing to your property and plan in advance accordingly
• Get accurate pricing from trades-people and product suppliers up front so you know your renovation will come in on budget
• Pre-order your materials and products so they are ready when you are
• Buy everything at once to get considerable discounts
• Book in your trades-people in advance
• Minimise the amount of one-on-one communication necessary with each trades-person by having a clear renovation action plan written down. This way, everyone is working to the same ‘script’ - and therefore minimising gaps and over-laps which may cost you mistakes and money.

Deadly Sin 6) (If selling or renting your property after your renovation) Not knowing your target market

If you’re renovating your own home, then your target market is you – so this deadly sin does not apply. However, if you are renovating a property to sell – or an investment property then you’ll need to identify your property’s probable target market and renovate your property accordingly.

If you don’t know who your target market is, talk to local real estate agents or property managers to find out. Also consider what facilities are nearby to your property so you can ascertain the types of people who might buy or rent there. Are there day care centres nearby, high schools, churches, public transport or shops?

Your target market might be first home buyers with small families, professional couples (DINKys – Double Income No Kids), retirees, students or large families with teenage children. Often it’s hard to define who your target market is going to be, but it is worth the effort – even if you need to cater to more that one of these groups.

Next thing we want to work out is – what do these people want? How do they live? What sort of home are they looking for?

Young families usually want a secure place for the children to play, a bath, an indoor play area and maybe even a parents retreat.

Professional couples want all the mod cons and a low maintenance yard most often. In addition, they’ll probably want a great entertaining area, a study nook or office and a spare bedroom.

Families with teenagers see value in extra living spaces or a media room. Even things like an extra wide fridge space makes a difference – where else will they put their monstrous fridge?

… You get the idea. Think of how your target market lives day to day and do your best to cater to those needs.

If you are simply re-valuing, then this concept is not particularly likely to increase the valuation.

Deadly Sin 7) Thinking it’s better to save money than get expert help about what to do to your property.


Being a DIY nation and with so many renovation shows on TV these days, many of us think we have all the skills to make our renovation a success from the case studies we’ve seen or read about.

I wouldn’t think of doing my own legal work – or accounting work for that matter. And I do recommend that if you’re not a design or renovating professional you get a bit of help with your renovation.

I do cringe at the thought of people spending $30k, $40k and upward on renovating their property but not spending a few thousand of it to make sure it looks the best it possibly can. There are many excellent designers around who will happily guide you. If you just need help with colours, then a colour consultant can cost you as little as a few hundred dollars. Or if you need a bit more help, get onto the internet and search for people who you could call upon.

Make sure they understand what you want to achieve from your renovation and that are realistic about staying within your budget guidelines.
 
I'd say another important mistake (depending on the scope of the renovation) from a financial perspective is giving the whole job to a builder.

If you are capable, you can save an awful lot of money by doing stuff like:

Buying materials yourself, unless your builder has a good trade discount.

Organising some of the stuff yourself, like changing lights/fans - its often cheaper to hire an electrician by the day to change a whole house worth of lights/fans than to get your builder to put in one or two (one of the places I've recently renovated had 4 fans and 5 lights. One company wanted $180 plus cost of fan for each fan changeover. I got a sparky in for $300/day and he changed the lot over all in one go, plus all of the lights, saving something like $700 with a phone call and a trip to the electrical store)

Painting yourself. Painting is something almost everyone can do, and if you cant, as with the electrician, hiring a painter by the day is cheaper than palming off an entire contract

All of the above is in my experience, btw. Not saying that it's the right thing for everybody, and very much depends on the job. I suppose it fits in with your "knowing how much things cost" statement, with the added idea of substitution
 
Thanks for the feedback - Yes very true OA - a great way to save money is to purchase the fixtures, fittings and materials and pay labour only or DIY.

Just a warning though; if you buy a product or material that is not fit for the job (eg faulty, wrong dimensions/specs) and something goes wrong, the trades-person will take no responsibility for it (and will charge you for their time spent getting to the property or installing as much of it as they did until it was found to not be the right thing).

This happened to someone I knew. They purchased all their own light fittings and then paid the electrician by the hour to install. However, several of the light fittings were faulty and this wasn't apparent until they were hooked up. If the electrician had supplied the lights, it would be their responsibility to 'right' the problem. However, because the electrician didn't supply the lights, it was the clients problem.

So, although on the face of it, it seems cheaper to buy materials etc. yourself, it may not ALWAYS be the thing to do.

Just something else to consider...
 
Jane you've nailed it :) Great 7 deadly sins all new renovators need to understand and be aware of before getting their hands dirty :)
 
OA,

I have my building Licence in QLD & NT I would love the name of your sparkie I cannot find one in Brisbane under $400 let alone Darwin.

Just PM me his contact details.

As for painting I will never paint another complete place again, but thats just me.

Thanks
Brian

I'd say another important mistake (depending on the scope of the renovation) from a financial perspective is giving the whole job to a builder.

If you are capable, you can save an awful lot of money by doing stuff like:

Buying materials yourself, unless your builder has a good trade discount.

Organising some of the stuff yourself, like changing lights/fans - its often cheaper to hire an electrician by the day to change a whole house worth of lights/fans than to get your builder to put in one or two (one of the places I've recently renovated had 4 fans and 5 lights. One company wanted $180 plus cost of fan for each fan changeover. I got a sparky in for $300/day and he changed the lot over all in one go, plus all of the lights, saving something like $700 with a phone call and a trip to the electrical store)

Painting yourself. Painting is something almost everyone can do, and if you cant, as with the electrician, hiring a painter by the day is cheaper than palming off an entire contract

All of the above is in my experience, btw. Not saying that it's the right thing for everybody, and very much depends on the job. I suppose it fits in with your "knowing how much things cost" statement, with the added idea of substitution
 
Very good list. Just I got stuck at number 5 - there is no moving those builders when its a small job and they have over-committed themselves! We have subcontracted the concreter and electrician, plumber etc but we need the builders to come in and finish the wall studs. Its only 2 days work but do you think we can get them to come back to finish it! Everything else is going swimmingly and under budget....(except how much rent I am losing while we wait for the buiders).and the other tradies are even working around the mess! Good on them..
 
The builder
The painter
The plasterer
The plumber
The sparky
The landscaper
and my least favourite yet so much more dependable (when it comes to showing up)
THE TAXMAN!!!!!!!!!!

(no offence to any tradesmen out there, I promise none were intended to be injured by this post) :p
 
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