W
WebBoard
Guest
From: Colin Mills
The good is where you do no work, the bad is where you do too much work and the ugly is where you lose money. As somebody who has been there and done that I was intrigued to hear a friend of mine telling me about a seminar he attended recently. You know the ones - they advertise in the Sunday rags and reckon anyone can make a squillion virtually overnight (mind you this is all done in your spare time!!!)Anyway the seminar speaker touched on renovating property as one of the ways to make your squillions.
Hmmmmmm....... Heres my two cents worth on renovating.
1/ Your local council. Last reno I did took 9 months to get council approval. My guess is your local council is just as useless and lazy as mine. Sure the nice lady or gentleman in the council call centre will tell you it only takes 30 or 90 days to get approval but try multiplying that by 3 or 4 to get an accurate time frame. Throw in the hassles from the neighbours and you will discover that the process can be a real pain in the you know where. The idea that you can make "quick" money from renovating is preposterous. Your local council will ensure that never, ever happens.
2/ Tax. Buy, reno and sell (other than your home)more than a couple of times and the ATO will treat it as a business. Paying marginal tax on any gains makes it a very iffy proposition.
3/ The competition. Yes there are people (tradesmen who know what they are doing)who do this for a living. They know about all the good deals long before they are advertised to the general public. Anything you see advertised has already been rejected by the pros. If this doesn't make you think twice nothing will.
4/ You will get ripped!!! I really hate saying this but the average tradesman who sniffs out that his boss is a white collar, 9 to 5 guy totally out of his depth will ........ do I really have to state the obvious?
Sure there is money to be made from renos. If you have a trades background and can do some or preferably all of the work yourself or at the very minimum have contacts in the building game who won't rip you off then you stand a good chance of making a profit if you initially buy well. The idea that somebody with no experience or contacts in the building game can come along and make some fast easy money is totally unrealistic. The people who run the above seminars have a lot to answer for.
The good is where you do no work, the bad is where you do too much work and the ugly is where you lose money. As somebody who has been there and done that I was intrigued to hear a friend of mine telling me about a seminar he attended recently. You know the ones - they advertise in the Sunday rags and reckon anyone can make a squillion virtually overnight (mind you this is all done in your spare time!!!)Anyway the seminar speaker touched on renovating property as one of the ways to make your squillions.
Hmmmmmm....... Heres my two cents worth on renovating.
1/ Your local council. Last reno I did took 9 months to get council approval. My guess is your local council is just as useless and lazy as mine. Sure the nice lady or gentleman in the council call centre will tell you it only takes 30 or 90 days to get approval but try multiplying that by 3 or 4 to get an accurate time frame. Throw in the hassles from the neighbours and you will discover that the process can be a real pain in the you know where. The idea that you can make "quick" money from renovating is preposterous. Your local council will ensure that never, ever happens.
2/ Tax. Buy, reno and sell (other than your home)more than a couple of times and the ATO will treat it as a business. Paying marginal tax on any gains makes it a very iffy proposition.
3/ The competition. Yes there are people (tradesmen who know what they are doing)who do this for a living. They know about all the good deals long before they are advertised to the general public. Anything you see advertised has already been rejected by the pros. If this doesn't make you think twice nothing will.
4/ You will get ripped!!! I really hate saying this but the average tradesman who sniffs out that his boss is a white collar, 9 to 5 guy totally out of his depth will ........ do I really have to state the obvious?
Sure there is money to be made from renos. If you have a trades background and can do some or preferably all of the work yourself or at the very minimum have contacts in the building game who won't rip you off then you stand a good chance of making a profit if you initially buy well. The idea that somebody with no experience or contacts in the building game can come along and make some fast easy money is totally unrealistic. The people who run the above seminars have a lot to answer for.
Last edited by a moderator: