Hi renovators! Naomi Findlay your Rapid Renovation Expert here!
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Are you feeling a little lost when it comes to finding the right property to start your renovation dreams?
You’ve got the business part of things down pat, the money side is ready to go, you’ve done ALL your homework – except for the property part. And now you’re stuck trying to figure out what sort of property you should be going after.
Or maybe you’re freaking out because you don’t know how you’re possibly going to fit trying to see every property in the market into your already super busy schedule.
That’s totally normal. It’s easy to get confused when there’s just soooo much information out there you have to sift through.
And that’s why I’m here today:
To help de-fuzz some of those tricky bits like figuring out which market you should be buying in. I’ll help you figure out what property you should be looking for and how to go about doing it without losing your mind.
Don’t have time to watch? Listen to it on the go here!
It’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed by the property market. It’s almost like it was designed to freak people out and stop them from taking the plunge and renovating for profit.
But as they say, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And you and I both know, YOU have the will.
So, let’s get cracking!
Before I go into any detail, remember my golden rule: it’s all about YOU. I might sound like a broken-down record, but it’s sooo important to remember who’s leading the show.
You’re the boss of this. This is your jam. You need to rock it in the only way you know how. Which means doing things your way.
And I don’t mean in the “ok, I’m showing up to work in my underwear” rebel sort of way. I mean in the way that suits you and your goals. This means choosing a property that’s right for you – not one that your mother tells you is a “safe” choice, or the one your kids get excited about because it has a pool, or even the one in that suburb that “experts” keep saying is the next up and coming.
Nope, it’s not about them. It’s about figuring out which property will work best for YOU.
But… how do you find the perfect property?
Just like any business, renovating for profit takes a LOT of planning. At the end of the day, it’s all about minimising your risk to maximise your reward.
Would you rush in and buy a café that costs loads of money without any previous café experience? Probably not. The same applies to properties – you can’t get too excited and carried away at an auction and throw all your cash at the first thing you see.
It’s not like a Monopoly game – you DON’T want everything on the board. The browns won’t make you any profit in real life.
You need to do your research first
Sure, that property might look absolutely perfect (or so you think). It’s got an old bathroom in need of a facelift, and could do with a new paint job and an extension of the terrace. Not too much work, well within your budget and timeframe. Great, right?
But what if the house is actually heritage listed, and there’s some sort of easement that prevents you from building over that crappy patch of grass, and the water sealant has long since disintegrated and your floorboards are actually all rotten and in desperate need of replacing? Oh, and they’re actually building a huge factory across the road in the next six months.
That might be a bit extreme. But without properly sniffing out all of these potential pitfalls, you might find yourself stuck with a property that would absolutely kill your budget (and in turn, any potential profit).
Buying “hot” (actually, not buying “hot”)
Ok, so remember how I said you wouldn’t just follow the advice of some “expert”? I’m talking about the papers and mainstream news, and the links that come up when you search “perfect suburbs to renovate for profit”.
And why not? These property gurus will give you advice on what is booming now. The key word is NOW. Why would you want a property that is booming now? Are you going to be finished your house flip now? Probably not.
The catch with snatching up a property in a suburb that’s all hot cakes at the moment is two-fold.
Number one, you’ll most likely end up paying wayyy more than you would have if it wasn’t all “come and get your donuts while they’re still fresh”. Remember the old chestnut, “buy low, sell high”? Well it definitely applies here. The more you pay at the start means the harder it is to make a profit from what you put in.
And two, you’ll do all the proper stuff like exchange paperwork and money, and finally get around the renovating. But it’ll be like taking a pie out of the oven. It doesn’t stay hot forever. And if it’s already hot when you grabbed it… Well, you catch my drift. Nobody wants cold pie.
Sniffing out the ideal suburb
Food connotations aside, to find your perfect property, you need to first zoom out a bit. Like a needle in a haystack, it can be difficult to try and find “the one” in a sea of thousands.
When you narrow it down to a few suburbs it makes life a heck of a lot easier. The best way to do this when starting off is to look for suburbs that are easy for you to get to. If you’re located in Brisbane, don’t start off with Frankston in Victoria. It’ll just confuse you and make you more prone to giving up.
Choosing a suburb that is close enough for you to be able to physically go and see it is a good place to start. That way, once you’ve dropped the kids off at school you can pop in to check out the neighbourhood before your grocery run. Or if you’re doing your research after work, you’ll still be able to catch a glimpse of what the houses look in the daylight (in summer anyway).
In this way, you’ll be able to see what sort of people are attracted to that particular suburb, what sort of development is happening there, and what the general going rate for properties is.
With the proper research like this, you’ll be able to gauge whether the people who live in a particular suburb would pay for a house with a facelift. And if they are, well then all you need to do is grab yourself a property and start renovating away!
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Naomi Findlay is Australia's renovation royalty and works with people around the country helping them create beautiful spaces with her online courses. 
Hi Naomi, great blog with concise appropriate advice. As you said you need to minimise your risk to maximise your profit. Before you buy a property how do you value what the property is truly worth outside of looking at comparables and what the market is doing at that point in time. What I’m trying to say is that how do you come to an intrinsic value that you are prepared to pay for the property to maximise your profit at the end of the process. Your thoughts on this would be fantastic.