Reply: 2.1.1.1.1.1.1.2.1.1.1.1.1.1
From: Jane Pryor
Geoff Doidge does some excellent renovation workshops - I've done one myself, and both he and Paul Eslick are really nice and helpful people.
Using Geoff's due diligence (which he covers in great detail in his workshop), I found an old queenslander in original condition on two blocks of land already subdivided, 6km from CBD, good surrounding infrastructure. Wow, development potential. I negotiated access during the settlement period to work on the outside (starting this weekend, actually) and a long settlement 4 months
queenslander. It's high set, beautiful features including floor boards, fretwork, vj's, 3m high ceilings, gabled roof etc. Sad lookin' kitchen and bathroom, but that's ok. I'm painting in and out, polish floors, minor maintenance to roof/boards/kitchen, new kitchen knobs, mirror for the bathroom, towel rails, soap dish etc, wooden veneitions (I agree, they look fantastic), and a few other things. My preliminary budget comes out to only about $8k and initial valuations by agents comes in around $280k - bought it for $192k 3 months ago. Not bad, eh. I love capital growth. Number crunch the figures and work out your ROI on $8k : being $68k. I'm a happy girl, too.
Most of the strategies I've used are from Geof Doidge's workshop. I would highly recommend doing the workshop, as I think you'll find him/them very professional as well as very down to earth and "layman".
I'm careful not to over capitalise and $8k may not sound like much, but it's all I need to do to increase the rent in this area. You have to do your due diligence on this each time for specific scenarios. Friends of my, however, just renovated and spent $30k. They got a good increase in value, but could have got that by spending half. So ya gotta watch out!!
I'll let you know how it goes in a few weeks. Same things as above, I'll only spend 2 weeks on it after settlement and have tenants in it at that point. The rent will increase because I'm adding a bedroom to make 4 and doing the renos; so renos not only increase capital growth but increase the rent, and increased rent is also great from improving capital growth (higher income) babble, babble. ANyway, I'm excited.
I don't have any affiliation with Geoff, other than being one of the participants.
Cheers
Jane P
PS Geoff's website is www.financialsuccesssystems.com