Have you seen all the house make-over programmes on TV? Of course you have! In fact there have been so many of these types of shows on television over the past few years that I’d be worried if you hadn’t watched at least one. They’re ok to watch. But who do they cater to? They cater to families renovating their own home. They presume you have an unlimited budget (almost) for the renovation, your own personal designer and they presume also that you have a background crew of 20 people to help you get it finished in one weekend! Well, wouldn’t that be just dandy?
These shows do not consider property investors as these programs do not take into consideration the value aspect vs. expenses factor. For property investors, the most important thing to consider would be to do renovations at a cost that would not hurt decisions on selling/renting/revaluing a certain property to avoid over-capitalising.
Something I’ve noticed is that when investors renovate property themselves, they self-design so that they don’t cut into their profit by spending money on a designer. Fair enough if the designer is going to chomp into your profit too much. However getting professional advice (or at the least following the pointers that follow!) will accelerate your chances of making a profit – just as using a real estate agent to sell your property will increase the probable sell price.
Thus, if you are trying to renovate a property for whatever reasons may serve you, may it be to pull equity out, sell for a higher price or rent for higher amount, here are some of the steps that you might want to consider.
Stay focus. It is not your place that you are renovating and you are not the one who is going to live there. Instead, picture out your prospect clients who would consider buying the house. Do not let those design magazines fool you, just use the image of your customers in mind. Most interior magazines go for the soft changes, those that simply include changing the artwork, some of the furniture, among others, instead of the hard changes, those that only needs to be fixed or improved, which are more practical and reasonable.
Tell a little white lie to the contractors or project manager about the expected completion date. Keep this to yourself and keep the pressure on as if this date were correct.
Visit the site briefly and frequently to resolve any issues and keep an eye on progress. Be as nice as pie to your contractors as they will be the ones to save you money if they LIKE you!
Pay your contractors on time after they have finished every last detail on your project.
