As a Property Makeover Specialist I regularly speak at property presentation seminars, and often hear the same questions.
Last time I shared with you a very common dilemma people can have – should I renovate or do a property makeover if I’m in a popular development area? You can read that article here.
Another very popular question is: “A friend of mine has recently made-over their place to sell, they put in a kitchen, they painted and landscapers were there for days. Then someone bought it and they are now pulling the house down or they are now installing their own kitchen – isn’t that a waste of money?”
The first thing I say is; if you made those changes in your home without listing for sale and you decided to pull them out or you chose to demolish the property, then I would agree with you!
However, it is important to understand what the actual expected reward from the makeover investment was. It actually really wasn’t because the kitchen would be used for the next 15-20 years, it was the fact that the kitchen was a drawcard to get more people through their home and created competition – that is how it has paid them back.
By investing in some cosmetic changes you are more likely to up the potential target market appeal from what might be 50% to 100% of your available buying audience.
There is a very limited market for ‘renovators’. There are fewer people like me who will buy a place with the intention of renovating, so if your home is in need of a makeover and it is only going to appeal to people who want to take a renovation on, then you are narrowing your market significantly.
By investing in some cosmetic changes you are more likely to up the potential target market appeal from what might be 50% to 100% of your available buying audience. The family who want to move in and just go to work and are scared of renovating, the investor who wants to get a tenant in immediately, the family who want to buy and sit for a while until they renovate, that is the other 50%.
The list goes on.
I have a really interesting scenario at the moment with a house I’m working on. It is on a great level block of land, and the property in its current form has been appraised by the agent as land size minus demolition. So there is that figure to start with – appealing only to those who are prepared to do that or renovate it so it is liveable.
Right now we are working the figures with the agent for a second scenario – what if we spend $50k, did the paint and kitchen and landscaping – what would it get then? We would draw in the other potential half of the market and that’s exciting!
