We are currently getting quotes to do an extreme makeover to our home but I wonder whether we are doing too much therefore spending more than we are adding to the value of the home.

We are looking at spending $40k and doing:
* New front door
* Complete landscaping of front, side & back - retaining wall, returf, garden beds and plants
* New windows (currently timber windout - looking at aluminium sliding)
* Decking and pergola out the back
* Removing most of back wall and installing large sliding doors onto deck area
* New extra high back fence (current one looks very old and has been splashed with burnt oil so looks dreadful. Also back onto a main road)
* Repaint throughout
* Installation of downlights and ceiling fans
* Possible replacement of air conditioner and heater with single split system inverter to increase space in lounge.

Quotes are all in and we can do it fairly easily but is it worth while?

Jacpark… would you be able to post a couple of photos of your home in its current form?

That way we can asses wether the said makeover selections will be worth its value for your home.

Thanks

Welcome to the forum!!

As per michelles post - suburb - potential value increa, - why are you renovating etc etc.

Go to some open for inspections or auctions in your area. Look at homes similar to yours, and see what they are selling for. Also look at renovated properties, and see what the market is paying. If the differences in price is less than what you plan to spend on renovating, you may be overcaptalizing.
Also be awre that backing onto a main road is seen as a negative by some buyers, no matter how nice the house is. But again, check the state of the market in your area
And welcome to homeone!
Eimaj

Hi Jacpark, we spent over $150K on a full renovation of our last place. Everyone said we overcapitalised when we did it. We gutted the place and didn't actually add on any extra rooms. That was 6 years ago on a house we bought 8 years ago.

When we sold, we made a large profit!!! In fact we set an area record.
If it is a house that you are going to stay in for a while, do what makes you feel happy. You are the one living there - after all.

If the area is one that will increase in value by more than your renovation, then by the time you even thought of selling say in 3-5 years you should be ahead on the deal.... The items you are talking about are standard items that people update their houses with all the time. It is not a massive job. You might find that doing some of the items yourself will save you money.

Do what makes you happy!!! If you want to renovate, - do it - it's your house.

Pheonix - I disagree.

If you did your reno in the wrong suburb - you will never re-coup it. So it has to be looked at as a -

Will this suburb ever be more than it is now.
Why wil that be
Who is most likely going to come and buy it after I've done it.
The last few years in OZ have been heady property times and it has been easy to make money on many a property when it would have happened anyway.
Is that going to continue. Who knows???
I think it all has to be done with an overview of the big picture.

I have friends who bought a house on the bellarine peninsular for $80K in 1999, with a drop on transportable shack - 3 streets from the beach

Yet they sold it around 4 or 5 years later for $320K, had done nothing to it and it was pure land value increases that did it.
Steve

Sounds like you are right on target. I performed a similar scope of work and made a tidy profit when I sold the home.

You can make even more money if you take on some of the easier projects yourself. I did my own pergola and fireplace.

Good luck and enjoy the finished product. We love using our backyard now.

Scott

My view is that if you are going to live in the house for the next 15-20 years then doing the things you have listed won't really add much value. By the time you decide to sell, the front door might need replacing again, downlights might not be eco-friendly enough for consumers, the wall colour will be out of date, the landscaping will look 'so 2010' etc etc. You will be in the same predicament you are in now - should you spend another $40,000 renovating and updating?

That being said, if you do these things you will get to live in a lovely house for the next 15-20 years though.

If you are looking to do up your house and sell it in the next 2-3 years then the things you are talking about make sense. I don't know if replacing the front door would do anything to add to the house value though. Also, some people are wary of freshly painted, but older, houses as some people are a bit d0dgy (not saying you are) and use paint to hide cracks.

Nice decking will always improve the appeal of a home, and it sounds like you are on the right track with opening up the back of the house and putting sliding doors to outside. Double bonus - extra living areas out the back and more light into your loungeroom!

I would think that some of the best things you could do while trying to increase your home value is to look at things like the stumps, the plumbing and the electrical work. If the foundation of your house is strong and has recently been attended to you will have more people wanting to buy your home than if it looks like you have done a quick cosmetic fix but forgotten about the basics.

When you remodel your house make sure you do it so the next person can add to it.

I moved into a house the the previous owners painted their rooms with really dark colors and I had to paint over several times before it was not noticeable.

Just a thought.

Jess

As everyone has said (and I may be too late with even answering you) it all depends on how long you plan to stay and what the value of the area is and if people would pay that $40k (hopefully more) to live in that house in that area.

If you are planning on living there yourself for any amount of time, even just a few years, I would have thought $40k is not a huge amount to drop (Just make sure you take into account that things could go over budget and you may end up spending $45k - $50k).

The only thing I would personally say not to worry about, would be to change the timber wind-out windows to aluminium. I pretty much would not buy a house if it has aluminium window frames and much, much, much prefer timber. Can you just tidy them up with a sanding and coat of paint (surely that would save some $$). But I guess it is all personal choice, maybe most people prefer aluminium.

Ceebs

This thread is almost 3 years old, I wonder if the reno is finished by now

You know, I just realised the dates .
Obviously this particular part of the forum is not used/visited much??

Yeh, I dare say the reno would be close to being finished by now ( ).
But hey, also, I think sometimes these threads are also good for back-reference so no harm keeping them alive every now and then (she says slinking off quietly).

I was just thinking that it would be good if the OP is still around and can let us know how the reno went, show some pics and also advise how much he made on the house, if he made anything

Would be intresting to find out if they did go ahead with the renos. Since the GFC and the property market drop in 2008.

Sounds like a lot of work for $40K.

my first thought was i'd love to get that much work done for $40k. sounds to me like an absolute bargain. Or do I just know nothing about pricing and am going to get a great surprise when I staret getting quotes next year???

This thread was dragged up from 3 years ago so pricing will have changed a bit since then. Most likely would be $50k now.

Cal in a local real estate agent – ask what is your house worth. Tell him (or her) what you are going to do and ask how much value it will add. Even better – ask him what would he recommend do to ad value to the house.

Just remember – there never will be a clear answer. A real estate agent knows the area, the market, and what people are willing to pay extra for. But if value adding would have been so obvious – they all would be doing renos and building all round the clock.

some areas its worthwhile spending but it depends on what

declutter, paint, mirrors and carpet most important

new carpet even if cheap will increase price by approx 1 per cent

paint .7 per cent increase approx

It is hard to tell without the value of the house.

I think there is a percentage of your home value that is suggested to spend on your renovations before you are overcapitalising but if you are living there for awhile before selling all the things listed above will be dated in 10 years anyways so it makes no difference.