A walkthrough of cosmetic renovations that add perceived value without overspending. Spend roughly 10% of purchase price, prioritize kitchen and bathroom updates, and use paint and floorboard refinishing for impact. Repainting a kitchen and resurfacing the bench costs under $1,000; spray-painting can halve painting costs.
Questions this video answers
About 10% of the purchase price.
For less than $1,000.
$2,200.
Difference between about $7,000 and $3,500 (spraying one colour saves roughly half).
May 10, 2024.
Chapters
So here we are. We've got our own renovation project. Now, which One of the four Rs is this? It's rejuvenate. Now, the cost associated with this type of renovation is really based on the outcome you want. But on average, we use about 10% of the purchase price. That way we keep aligned with the property value and we don't run the risk of over capitalizing. So let's go make some money. Renovating is all about perceived value. Now, the two areas that you can make the biggest impact on value in your property is the kitchen and the bathroom. So let's check out the kitchen here. Now, I want you to think about perceived value. Perceived value is creating value higher than what you've spent, and this is how we're going to do that here. Now, these old doors here, you know, we don't really have to replace them. It's not necessary to do that every time. So what I'd be doing here is actually repainting them. I'd be replacing the door handles and giving them a bit of a modern look. There's nothing wrong with these cupboards at all, so why go to the cost to rip it out and start with a new one? Now, one little tip. When you're looking at kitchens over a period of time, the doors usually sag a little bit and get misaligned. You can see here there's some gaps. This is just about adjusting the hinges. Now, one of the things about this kitchen that had a bit of interest about when I looked at it and inspected is this huge gap between the top cupboards and the bench top. And you know what, we're talking about perceived value and adding a bit of wow factor here. There's some things that we could do here. Potentially put a shelf in, put the microwave up off the countertop, giving the people who are going to work here and make those beautiful meals extra room. We could potentially put in some down lights. We might even put in an area that we can hang some wine glasses. You know, when we stage this property later on, we want this place to really look great, and we can do that for a lot less cost. What I want you to think about here is creating the perception that this kitchen is new. For less than $1,000, we can repaint, put on the new door handles and resurface the bench top. In actual fact, this is not going to cost a lot at all. And we are really going to be creating a lot of value for this kitchen and for the proper. Now, the second place that we can add the most value is the bathroom. Now, we. When we looked at this property to start with, we noticed that it was large. We could probably keep the vanity, which is great, but remember, out the front, we actually found some damage to floorboards. On further inspection, what we found was that we actually have to replace the base of the shower and rip off off all these tiles. Good thing is that we can actually keep the frame. So we're going to reuse that. But we do need new tiles. So we're going to retile this entire area and match the tiles up this time. Normally, you could just paint the tiles, you know, and that's going to cut down on cost, but, you know, we have to fix up some problems. The other thing that we probably do here with the bath is we're going to resurface it. Yellow is not really in the color scheme that I'm working with. What we're going to do is put in some new fixtures and fittings, fix up the tapware, and you know what, we can still use this vanity. So we're going to save some money there. In actual fact, we're really going to give this bathroom a great lift, and that's what we want to do. So we're going to retile, resurface, and reuse. Great use of our money for the bathroom, and we're going to add a lot of value. Now, my third tip for adding value is paint, paint, paint, paint outside and inside. I can't try to keep it nice and clean. So inside, I'm looking for a neutral color scheme. Remember, don't confuse your own personal likes with what you're doing for your target market. Now, one of the color schemes I use is. Is Chalk White usa. It's kind of got a bit of warmth to it and got a colder property. It's often what I use or Antique White usa. Now, be careful here. Antique White USA is about the eighth of the strength of antique white. So don't get them mixed up. The great thing about using one color is actually you can spray the paint on. Now, the trick is finding a painter that will do this for you. It is going to save you thousands. I'm talking the difference between a $7,000 job and a $3,500 job. You're going to get a great finish. It's going to be quicker, and it's a lot cheaper. So the benefit of having one color scheme is actually you can spray the property. Painting is going to create so much perceived value for you. Painting inside and outside. Don't forget outside. Now, don't be worried about using just one color, because the furnishings, the paintings, the flooring, the window covers, all the. All of those are actually going to add the color to the room. So the neutral color is just the canvas. The rest creates the picture and creates the color that is actually going to make this property look fantastic. I love floorboards. Great in houses, a little bit more difficult in units, but I love these floorboards. And you know what? I think that these ones here are actually going to come up better with a bit of color in them. Not too fast on the blonde look. I don't like the knotted look often. So, you know, I think if we could actually add a Jarrah or a chocolate brown color, this would make this area look fantastic. Now, your person who comes in and sands your floorboards, you can actually save a bit of money if you get them to put the tint in the polyurethane rather than doing it separately. So there's a bit of a tip on saving some money there. But, you know, floorboards, I think, are wonderful. I really think they're a great value add to a property, and I think that we can really make these look fantastic. Another way you could add value is outside. Now, there's a number of ways you can do this. One might be in landscaping, adding a new fence. You know, these are costly, but sometimes they're overlooked. And in actual fact, we're talking about first impressions here, aren't we, and perceived value. So make sure that you don't leave the outside alone. One way that we're going to do that here is we're actually going to render this property as well. Now, because this is actually painted brickwork, we're going to have to use an acrylic render, which is more expensive. But it's just what we have to do. Normally we'd use a sanded cement, and unfortunately, we can't do that here. Now we're going to get rid of these 70 sills. We're going to ask the renderer to cut them off, create a nice profile here. And, you know, this rendering is really going to add so much value, it's going to make this property look really great. One thing you should not forget is the roof. In this case, we need some minor repairs. And, you know, these dated tiles, we can fix those up with a coat of paint, good as gold, and it's going to make it look like a whole new roof. One of the first things that I look at when considering a property is can I improve the street appeal? Studies have shown that a high percentage of buyers make up their minds on a property before they even reach the front door. Really improve the street appeal by getting some landscaping done. Now, I'm not talking about grabbing someone who's going to spend 20% of the value of the property on landscaping your property, especially if it's for tenants. We want low maintenance, but we want to look really good. So we'd be doing some landscaping here. And we were actually looking at probably pulling out some of these trees, cleaning it up and getting rid of a bit of the clutter and so we can see the house now. We will return back to site very shortly, but before we do, I'd just like to point out a few of the other things that actually need our attention. Firstly, you remember how in the dining room, the floor wasn't level and there was actually a gap between the skirting boards and the floor? Well, luckily it turned out that only miner's subsidence had taken place and nearly all of the existing stumps were okay. So it was more along the lines of re leveling rather than re stumping. The total cost, $2,200. Now, before work begins on the interior strip out of the house, we also need to get a visit from an electrician or sparky to isolate and terminate the power inside the house where needed. This way, we won't be working near live wires. So let's return to site where the first thing to go will be that ugly archway and timber lining in the lounge room. It.
