Renovating for home or profit

There's a big difference between renovating your own home versus renovating your investment property. Here's some tips.

‘What I learned from 110 renovations’: what not to do if you’re a novice renovator

Nicola McDougallApr 25, 2017

Renovating can be a stressful business and it often goes pear-shaped for the under-prepared.

But what about someone who has completed a whopping 110 renovations?

How does a renovator even survive that many and what are the main lessons from more than a tonne of property projects?

Naomi Findlay has completed – and survived – 110 renovations. Photo: Supplied

Naomi Findlay has seen it all during her lengthy renovation career and says the number one trap for would-be renovators is using the same strategy on every single project.

“The biggest thing is: nothing about renovation is a one-size-fits-all strategy,” she says.

“There are templates, systems, formulas, and there are tools and there are processes, but what you do in one house you can’t automatically take across and cookie-cut on to another because when you do that you’ll miss value.”

The before: An uninspiring living room before Naomi started renovating Photo: Supplied

Findlay does have a formula which she follows rigidly with each potential renovation but it’s one that takes into account the uniqueness of each property as well as market conditions and the buyer target.

“Regardless of how many I’ve done, I still follow my formula because there is no emotion in a formula,” she says.

“You input the data and you get the same results every time. It’s about not being complacent. “

The after: Naomi’s expertise transforms the uninspiring into the stylish and contemporary. Photo: Supplied

A reno myth that has long existed, Findlay says, is that there is a some kind of magic renovation profit percentage template.

She says too may novice renovators try to stick rigidly to a percentage template, such as spend $50,000 to make $150,000.

Instead, she says, they should be considering how much money they are willing to walk away with as profit from the renovation.

The before: Naomi says the “perfect renovator” doesn’t exist. Photo: Supplied

“It’s about being really clear about your goals from the renovation and then you can literally do the math,” she says.

“Some people, for example, might be completely outsourcing their renovation and doing four a year and walking away with $20,000 from each one.

“That’s an extra $80,000 and if they have an amazing team they won’t be doing much.”

The beautiful after: Naomi warns against adopting a “one-size-fits-all strategy”. Photo: Supplied

Full-time renovators might aim for a $50,000 profit per reno, Findlay says, and complete two or three a year.

Price variations across the country – including the cost of trades – also made a percentage template unlikely to work, she says.

Findlay says many would-be renovators also waste time searching for the “perfect renovator”, when it doesn’t actually exist.

She says the best project for her is literally one that fits within her strategy and is in the location that she’s clearly identified as a renovation prospect patch.

“If you have a really clear idea about the property that you’re going to be renovating, all of a sudden they’re everywhere,” she says.

“But if you just go, ‘I’m going to renovate in Annerley’, if you’re not going to be clear on the type of property you’re looking at – is it a unit, a brick cavity, a weatherboard, a Queenslander – all of sudden you’ll be swimming around in this pot of soup and you won’t find any properties.”