You’ve taken the BIG step in deciding to renovate and improve your home. Whether this is to increase your home value for selling purposes; to change, modify and personalised the look and feel of your home; to follow the latest trends and be up to speed with all your neighbours; or its to have street appeal and impress passers-by. Whatever the reason I’m sure the dreaded  feeling of dealing with all different tradesmen hangs over your head.

It doesn’t have to be that way. If you take the following steps you will hopefully have a successful experience and a house renovation bliss that will impress you and be the envy of others of the final product.

Plan, Prepare, Probe: Make sure you clearly know what you want and envisage as the final product of your home;  you have researched what would be aesthetically suitable and make an impactful look and feel; and finally you are aware of the benefit and features.

Design & Style: Whether you have a family, partner and/or living by yourself your personal style must be taken into consideration, so be aware what you want, how you want to be perceived and your home and Plan, Prepare, Probe. Check out the latest home design magazine to draw inspiration and look out for what your neighbours are doing to add that little something to their home to spruce it up.

Boring Budget  - Bang for your Buck: We cannot stress how important it is to establish your budget from the beginning. Just when you think you have considered everything something unexpected arises. Have room for movement, but be diligent and stick with your budget. Most importantly make it be known to your builder or tradesmen what your budget is, so there isn’t any hidden surprises, as many can take advantage of this.

Tradesmen Alert: There are many shonks out there, so make sure that they either have been referred to or you’ve done your research about them.

There are 4 important rules that must be met before you sign on the dotted line:

1. Call them - If they answer the phone or return your call within the hour, then they should receive tick.
2. Arrange a meeting – if they show up on time, they should receive another tick.
3. Experience - A competent tradesman or builder should know their technical stuff in detail and be able to explain it to you, another tick.
4. You as a person –must  like this person or their company, as you will be dealing with them greatly and you want the best result  - another tick.
5. Qualifications – This is a tough one, but you need to make sure that they are qualified, have all their insurances and are registered. The last you want to happen is have issues and neither party are covered – this could be disastrous and cost you more money and leave you with an unfinished job.
   
   

With the tough economical market you can’t afford to make any mistakes on any form of remedial or renovation projects as they can be expensive, so make sure you take adequate advice to steer you in the right direction. Speak to your local real estate agent or reputable suppliers / tradespeople - most common reason why property doesn’t  sell is because people don’t present their home visually and take too many short cuts.

Presentation of your home is important not only when selling but also what everyone thinks of you and street appeal.  And making sure you have professionals and experts that work with you to achieve your goal, and you will achieve your new renovated dream home.

Wow! How about this property market of ours? Sydney is going gangbusters with real estate activity at an all-time high! Low interest rates, a new government, summer on its way… Bring it on!

It was interesting to catch up with our good friends last weekend after they spent a whole day house hunting in our local area. They had set out in the morning with a list of 11 properties to look at that had initially appealed to them on an internet search.

However, upon arriving to the properties one by one, they decided to walk into only six of them to make their inspection, but not even bother with the other five. Why? 

Well, according to them (and in their own words), ‘they looked crap!’. Unappealing, run down, too much work needed, generally not attractive enough to even warrant any further inspection… Gee, that’s very disappointing.

So it got my mind thinking about how many other prospective buyers felt exactly the same way and did exactly the same thing that same weekend, and drove right past the property because of its lack of street appeal.

And what if the seller had actually put some thought into better presenting their home to better attract potential home buyers, rather than have them drive right by as a result of feeling let down?

And more importantly I guess, what effect would this have on the final result with respect to the eventual sale price? Could a higher price have been achieved with just a little more thought and consideration put into the home’s exterior appearance.

I mean, after all, if the exterior appearance of the home is not appealing enough, then there is no reason for a prospective buyer to park their car, get out and proceed to the front door.

The inside of the home could be a hidden treasure with a newly renovated and well-designed kitchen, designer bathrooms, an amazing rear decking with outdoor entertainment areas, but without any curb side appeal from the street front, the seller misses out completely on the opportunity with this particular buyer.

Remember, it is only the simple things that can often increase the street appeal of your home. Minor adjustments can provide truckloads of character to your home, and will have car loads of prospective buyers expressing interest in your home and in turn, nudging the sale price way up beyond your expectations.

Check out www.rendermyhome.com.au for more ideas and inspirations on how to get your home looking its very best!

A few years ago my dad thought it would be a good idea to see what kind of sale price his home could fetch on the property market. So we contacted a real estate agent and arranged for a meeting at the property.
 
The home was only ten years old, but even so it had significant areas of ‘wear and tear’ that the agent pointed out as being a ‘sore point’ from a sales perspective. Essentially, any prospective buyers would feel less attracted to a home that required significant upgrade and expenditure soon after they purchased and exchanged.
 
The agent continued pointing out these items to us…Blistering paint, cracked render, drummy tiles, out-dated balustrade, shabby garden, evidence of rust in areas, and the list goes on.
 
And it didn’t stop there! Salt efflorescence stains on walls, faded paint scheme, wrong paint scheme, cracked roof tile, etc, etc, etc!

And we hadn’t even noticed half of these things!!!
 
Now, the real estate agent had a point to all of this of which we were very grateful for. The cost to repair and restore these items to get the house again looking its best was valued at $60K. 
 
But, the overall increase in street appeal in turn increased the sale price by a whopping $130K, yielding him an additional profit of $70K.
 
I guess anyone looking to sell their home ideally does not want to be spending money on the property prior to selling it or placing it on auction. However, having the right advice could yield you a little reward that you otherwise may have missed out on. 
 
Not a bad little earner I say…