This reminds me of Skater's renno

[arungounder]

HI Skater,
This reminds me of your renno but not bad for the price, Brick house on a 600Sq block. What do other's think?

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...0&p=10&t=res&ty=&snf=rbs&ag=&cu=&fmt=&header=

Cheers
Arun

 

[skater]

Hey, I like that.

I would be interested in it if I was a local. Although it is in better condition than mine was. No fire, no termites, brick exterior. Hey, it even looked like it had a fair bit of salvageable gyprock still on the walls.

 

[Sultan of Swing]

Wow, I wish it was a bit closer too. I take it Cessnock is western Sydney?

 

[lizzie]

cessnock is hunter valley - about 40mins from newcastle.

hmmmm - land value only ... nah, after $100k of reno it would still be only worth around $200k, not worth the effort.

 

[willair]

There is the potential in a property like this,imho it's not as bad as
it looks,everything is still in place .for maybe less than 5 k in materials
four weeks work you would have this property back in the rental pool.
But one would think the vendor would at least clean the rubbish out,
dump the car and mow the lawn,to start with..easy come easy go..
willair.....

41000.00

 

[skater]

Lizzie, my reno cost less than $20k all up and that included the deck. This looks like it is a lot less work than mine. I'd gladly take it if I was local. Purchase price $89k, reno $15k (being generous here) add stamp duty, acquisition costs etc, you would have a nicely renovated house worth, say, $200k (not really sure of Cessnock prices, so will use your estimate), for less than $120k. Now that's got to be worth the work.

 

[TheBacon]

If one of you buy it please do something about the bl00dy ugly front of the house!!

 

[wish-ga]

full sun = fruit trees down the side to shield from the neighbours & you get fruit too!!! Citrus are great because they are green all year and get little white fragrant flowers and pretty fruit. Do need haircuts every now and then but are not as high maintenance as some trees.

Hope someone buys that house and gives it a great lease on life. It isn't that bad once you get past the shock of the graffitti and holes.... bet the previous owners were devestated to see what happened to it. "get well soon" housey.

 

[MIZBUF]

You would have a ready pool of tenants too-- all the girlfriends/defactos or rellies of the inmates of the local jail! They like to rent locally to save the travel time for visiting. I had a very garrulous building inspector doing an inspection on a house I was selling and he volunteered that he would never buy in the Cessnock area as he said "the girlfriends often are shacked up with another bloke and when Dad gets out he is pretty mad and comes round and finding Mum shacked up with another there is lotsa violence" Still this is hearsay evidence- no doubt lots of lovely folk live in the area.

 

[grubar30]

Look at the heading of the listing ---> "Renovate Or Detonate"......that's funny......

at least they're not trying to convince us its something its not...

George

 

[perky29]

Under contract.
Ok then guys own up - who bought it ??

 

[tigerGT]

I hope the selling owner had mortgage insurance.

I dont know cessnock well but attracting these sorts of tennants i dont think its in the best part of town. Dont get me wrong, had i seen this house before i would have jumped onto it..]

BONG ON??

 

[Jamie]

I hope the selling owner had mortgage insurance.

Mortgage insurance protects the lender, not the borrower, so Im not sure how its relevant here. Based on my knowledge of the area, the seller would have paid well under half what the property sold for.

I dont know cessnock well but attracting these sorts of tennants i dont think its in the best part of town. Dont get me wrong, had i seen this house before i would have jumped onto it..

The vandalism wasnt done by tenants, it was done by local vandals while the property was vacant.

My personal opinion is the the buyer actually got a great framework to start with, and with a decent reno could make around 50k for perhaps 2 months work.

Dont judge a property based on what it can't be - use your imagination, and doors you've never imagined will open.

Jamie.

 

[skater]

The vandalism wasnt done by tenants, it was done by local vandals while the property was vacant.

My personal opinion is the the buyer actually got a great framework to start with, and with a decent reno could make around 50k for perhaps 2 months work.

Dont judge a property based on what it can't be - use your imagination, and doors you've never imagined will open.

Jamie.

My thoughts exactly. I live in an area where it is not unusual to see properties boarded up because the Housing Commission has left them vacant. After sitting vacant for some time the local vandals realise it is a vacant house & trash it.

These houses come up nicely with a reno. Ok, they will never be a McMansion, but they do make nice family homes. The vandals disappear once they see that someone owns it and is looking after the place.

I had a strange conversation with my neighbour early on when doing the renovations on mine. Now I forget his exact words, but in his opinion, the house we had just bought didn't belong to anybody as it was a HC home. That's why it got trashed so badly. Interesting perception.

 

[lizzie]

in hindsight - i agree it would be a fabulous buy for someone to work with. i was just feeling tired and lazy when i wrote my post and the thought of spending several months driving up to cessnock and back each day to renovate was too much.

must get some sleep.

 

[chook]

I am a local and have been watching these sorts of cheap properties that come onto the market. They are VERY tempting and although I MAY participate in the future, now does not appear to be the right time to be buying. I have seen a property sell very cheaply at auction to an investor who put it back on the market almost immediately but who was not able to sell it. One agent told me that although cheap properties are selling very well, the middle market does not seem to be moving. So if you buy one of these cheap properties and do it up and are not able to sell, it is impossible to "guard" all your renovations from the local vandals. The property I was watching was put back on the market at a very modest $11,000 more than what it was bought for (and I don't know what it actually ended up selling for) and if you take into account agent's fees and stamp duty and renovation costs, it seems to me that the person that bought it would have ended up in a loss situation. And yes, there will be people out there that say if you rent it out it doesn't matter but I would not be certain that any decent tenants would want to rent there. Just my thoughts.

 

[skater]

And yes, there will be people out there that say if you rent it out it doesn't matter but I would not be certain that any decent tenants would want to rent there. Just my thoughts.

It's true that it is harder to sell at the moment, which is why we have rented out our last major reno.

Now, don't get me wrong, because I know zip about the Cessnock area, but it would be hard for it to be in a worse area than our particular house. The rent we are getting for it is $230pw, for a house that was in much worse condition that the house in this thread. The market rent for an ex-commission home in this area is around $190pw.

 

[chook]

Hi Skater

Yes I would say it would be exactly the same type of area as your last reno project however I think Mt Druitt has already been selling off some of its houses for a few years now which is improving the area. It is very interesting watching the ex-Department of Housing areas. I bought and sold in the private suburbs of Campbelltown for 20 years before retiring up here but I had relatives who I visited regularly in Airds. Back in the early days Airds was a scary place however now it is totally different. My relatives have nice people in the street now and part of the suburb has been sold off so the mix of private/public is improving the area. I think roughly the price of ex-Housing houses was 60% of the private prices but I think it is creeping up although I think it will never be on par with the private suburbs because of the stigma that forms part of the suburb's history. I think ex-Housos are a good investment but only if you know the area extremely well otherwise you can get caught out. The biggest problem with them is protecting them until you can either rent it out or sell it. When the boom was on, all types of properties were moving quickly so it wouldn't have been such a problem but at the moment when it is likely that it would sit there for months, it is just too risky to be holding one of these properties at the moment. Rents are cheap up here and there are so many nice areas to rent in, that one of these ex-Houso properties would be at the bottom of the renters' list. From the renter's perspective, you would know that it was a problem suburb because when you go to do an inspection you see the feral teenagers blocking the streets, tar marks down the street from the nightly car burn-outs, fence palings missing from houses where kids want a short cut to get to the bush and rubbish in people's front yards. I went to inspect one once and I wouldn't get out of the car and I thought if I can't get out of the car, how am I going to spend nights here renovating. Still, I will be watching the area with interest over the next few years and if it improves, then I might jump in - but not now. But I just want to clear something up - I don't want everyone to think all of Cessnock is bad - only a tiny section - I would say as small as 3% of the area so don't let me put anyone off investing in the other areas here if the numbers stack up and you have a long term outlook.

 

[TomL]

But I just want to clear something up - I don't want everyone to think all of Cessnock is bad - only a tiny section - I would say as small as 3% of the area so don't let me put anyone off investing in the other areas here if the numbers stack up and you have a long term outlook.

Heya Chook ... what is the 'bad' area please? Rough Boundary?

Cheers,
T.

 

[chook]

It is (roughly) the public housing area west of East Cessnock Public School (to the east) Maitland Road (to the south) and Government Road (to the west). The northern boundary is bushland. But if you are ringing any agents about a property you see on the internet, just ask them and I am sure they will tell you whether it is in the less desirable area or not. I would think that they would be upfront rather than waste their time getting you out to an inspection hoping you won't notice.