Good evening wise forum members. I live on the Gold Coast and think that "work" in the traditional sense is overrated. I would like to buy a property, renovate it, and make $100 K in a 12 month period. Does anyone think that is possible? And if so what tips do you have for me. Thanks.
Can I live off renovating?
- Thread starter futuretycoon
- Start date
I think you're asking a lot. If this is your first property development, I would probably keep your day job.
Do a search around the forums and you will find a lot of information. You first have to realise what property development you want to do. If its just renovation I dont know if 100k is realistic, but hey you'll prove me wrong
Have a good night/day.
Roachy
Do a search around the forums and you will find a lot of information. You first have to realise what property development you want to do. If its just renovation I dont know if 100k is realistic, but hey you'll prove me wrong
Have a good night/day.
Roachy
Have a chat to an accountant, if its your full time job the good news is you dont have to pay CGT, the bad news is you need to pay income tax on the profit.
personally, if I was any good at renovating, I'd work for someone doing it for a couple of years, and then go out on my own renovating for other people as a business. In the meantime, I'd be investing in fixer uppers, renovating them and renting them out to keep for the long term.
personally, if I was any good at renovating, I'd work for someone doing it for a couple of years, and then go out on my own renovating for other people as a business. In the meantime, I'd be investing in fixer uppers, renovating them and renting them out to keep for the long term.
Yep, its possible.
Just go for it.
- Speak to as many people as you can who are already doing this
- Work out if you will do most of the work yourself or use contractors
- Research your market and work by numbers as much as possible
- Dont let emotion get in the way
Also, check out Nathans Work. Seems he knows his stuff when it comes to making a profit where most would just see a loss. Wonder work.
Cheers
Mick
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That's a good question that I think I am qualified enough to answer,
If you buy an old house,yes,you can live in that house,save yourself rent,however unless you have money to live on in the 12 months and also for the reno material costs.
Lets not forget the insurance,mortage repayments,rates living expences etc.
I believe it is only possible if you keep your day job,while working hard on your renos.
After you do a couple of them,you should be able to do it if you are not to worried about your quality of life for yourself or your family.
If anyone can do it,I can,yet I chose to keep on working and another factor is my quality of living is quite high and I don't intend to give that up for anything.
Dear Future Tycoon
TIPS
Please list you skills, knowledge and abilities related to renovation and building!
Do you come from a family that has been involved in property renovation?
What are you currently employed as?
How much money do you have to buy the property you intent to renovate?
You have written a goal which is to buy a property, renovate the property, increase the value of property by 115K (15K REA costs and solictor fees) so as to make 100K off property by selling within 12 months.
Anything is possible but it helps if you do a self assessment of your skills, knowledge, abilities and self motivation
BTW
Can you write a list of your renovation tools as well, FWIW we just purchased a new rechargable cordless drill today then the jigsaw blade broke so we will go ack to Bunnings tomorrow to replace the blade + we are looking at spending 1000K on some carpentry equipment.
Bottom line
Are your prepared to work 12 hour days that is 7 days a week for 6 months?
Regards
Sheryn
PS
I am not laughing at you. Just being serious.
Friends, family and bank laughed at me on my first project - that was about 10 projects (not renovations) ago.
Looking forward to your reply.
Dont listen to anyone who is not a professional renovator themselves.
You are not going to make $100k on a $350 etc. property, however if you got a bargain (buying is where you make your money!) for above $500 in a fabulous position like on a canal or something, did a fabulous "wow" factor reno and lived in it for a year, you probably would make $100k. Most people buying around the $700 or up mark have no idea of hands on skills and make their money elsewhere and just want to shift into something finished. I found a beauty a couple of years ago at the end of a canal, had really been let go and a terrible waste of space in the floor plan, (I could have fitted in an en suite, wir and study, no kerb appeal, however it went too high at auction for me, and thankfully as the bum fell out of the market within 3 months. The Gold Coast is really down at the moment and has been for about 2 years, so I would not count on CG helping at all as I don't think it will come up for quite a while. Usually first to go down and last to go up. Unless you have tons of money I would keep my day job, start on a cost effective model, thinking to make $30-$50k for the first one, and then move up. If you had a 5 year plan and ploughed the money back in each time, you would do well, however, keep in mind, tax dept may deem you are earning a living doing this, although I believe it is quite legal to buy and live in another house each year.
Anything is possible, oh wait, this is
Do you have any skills? ie are you an electrician/plumber/carpenter? Do yo have plastering skills? Do you have a network of people to assist you? ie tradespeople
What income do you want to achieve? You may find you will need a few properties on the go at one time. Is this feasible?
Do you already have a cash reserve to start with?
I have just about completed my third renovation. There are always challenges, budget overruns, scope creep and unexpected surprises. I would not want to rely on this as my fulltime income source. Maybe I am not that good at it. Its just a nice little kick along in terms of equity (and cashflow for rentals) and sometimes this equity kick doesn't happen straight away.
I tend to look at Melbourne suburbs (10-12km from CBD) and have almost never seen a reno's delight being purchased at a price point that would enable anyone, other than a very skilled builder to purchase, update, sell and make enough money to justify.
Have you ever done a renovation? I would start with a simple 1 bed flat/apartment, depending on the area that you live and see how you go. That may answer your question. Good luck.
Do you have any skills? ie are you an electrician/plumber/carpenter? Do yo have plastering skills? Do you have a network of people to assist you? ie tradespeople
What income do you want to achieve? You may find you will need a few properties on the go at one time. Is this feasible?
Do you already have a cash reserve to start with?
I have just about completed my third renovation. There are always challenges, budget overruns, scope creep and unexpected surprises. I would not want to rely on this as my fulltime income source. Maybe I am not that good at it.
Its just a nice little kick along in terms of equity (and cashflow for rentals) and sometimes this equity kick doesn't happen straight away.I tend to look at Melbourne suburbs (10-12km from CBD) and have almost never seen a reno's delight being purchased at a price point that would enable anyone, other than a very skilled builder to purchase, update, sell and make enough money to justify.
Have you ever done a renovation? I would start with a simple 1 bed flat/apartment, depending on the area that you live and see how you go. That may answer your question. Good luck.
Renovating as a job was discussed extensively here: http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50515
Happy reading
Happy reading
Yes, it's possible. Just like it is possible to become a brain surgeon, lawyer, accountant etc.
The fact that you're asking indicates that you're probably a novice. The problem is that novices think that they can make money more easily with investing and specialized areas of it such as renovating, than other means.
If you say that the other avenues take too much time to invest or you're not smart enough, then it applies to renovating as well.
Given the high valuations, it's going to be very difficult to make money through renovations over the medium term, so my recommendation is to forget it.
You not only have to make the $115k you also have to make on top of that the costs involved with the renovation. (the supplies used, the expenses in holding the property, any trades help you need).
So to actually make $100k you will have to actually increase the value of the property by a lot more. If you don't then your $100k profit will soon get eaten up and the bank will look twice when you try to finance your next project without a day to day wage.
Gools
Futuretycoon
Hope you are not a 1 hit wonder, its been a week and some poeple have taken the time to contribute to your post and have asked follow up question to assist you. Please ensure you are not another fly by.
On your post, it would be good to know your budget of what you are wanting to buy for, obviously once you include CGT/Stamp Duty/Selling costs etc if you were to buy a 500k place it not just about selling it at 600k to get your 100 k profit, infact if you were to sell it for 700k you still would not make 100k profit
Jezza
Hope you are not a 1 hit wonder, its been a week and some poeple have taken the time to contribute to your post and have asked follow up question to assist you. Please ensure you are not another fly by.
On your post, it would be good to know your budget of what you are wanting to buy for, obviously once you include CGT/Stamp Duty/Selling costs etc if you were to buy a 500k place it not just about selling it at 600k to get your 100 k profit, infact if you were to sell it for 700k you still would not make 100k profit
Jezza
Maybe don't look at making 100k from one property, maybe look at making a profit of 50k each from 2, or 35k each from 3. Sounds more realistic to me, only problem would be time constraints.
I agree with buzzlightyear, start small first off. You wouldn't want to give up your career for renovating only to find that your not good at it or don't like it! Renovating sounds like fun, just like painting, but then once you start doing it and start running into problems it can be a pain in the ****.
You have to be confident in what you are doing (handyman, financials, motivation), really know both the local market of the area and the buyers target market. You can't just find any 'average' property and spend 50k on it expecting to make 100k profit.
I agree with buzzlightyear, start small first off. You wouldn't want to give up your career for renovating only to find that your not good at it or don't like it! Renovating sounds like fun, just like painting, but then once you start doing it and start running into problems it can be a pain in the ****.
You have to be confident in what you are doing (handyman, financials, motivation), really know both the local market of the area and the buyers target market. You can't just find any 'average' property and spend 50k on it expecting to make 100k profit.
