What would you spend $10k on in a reno. Suggestions please.

I have a budget of $5-10k to slightly update my new live in now but in a years time investment property. The property is in quite reasonable condition.
If you were me what would be the priorities for the money to be spent on?
So far one of the definates is paint, around $500 worth.
Can I please have your suggestions.
Everything is probably 1980's but still in working order.

Its hard without seeing it. Personally, I think changing over taps, handles etc make a massive difference for minimal cost - I picked up handles for 99c each from ebay and they replaced the old plastic coated ones and looked like a new kitchen! Also, replacing old wall tiles with something modern, including a glass splashback in the kitchen makes a big impact.

Things like shower screens, if they are really dated, may make a difference to update. Overall though, if I was going to rent it out and keep as an investment property, I probably wouldn't do anything to it that I didn't have to - definitely not spend in the thousands anyway.

Depends really.

Studies say the outside make a huge difference so painting, garden, landscaping etc - a lot of which you can do yourself.

Other things that make a big difference cheaply are tiles and grouting, benchtops, door handles / cupboard handles, lino, light fittings (cheaper than you would think). I'd also agree with the tapware suggestion.

Another way to think about it could be that rather than focus on fixing lots of little things fix something major. A decent kitchen can sell/lease a house regardless of how dingy the rest of it is. It depends on the house but if something is godawful fix that before general stuff.

One final thing is get an estate agent or someone in the industry to tell you what needs to be fixed. As someone that lives in it you will never have a non bia's view.

Do you have some pics of the house?

Paint is a must - but I would tend to go with something neutral rather than bold as bold colours can deter some people

Big items for me personally are bathroom and kitchen. You want them to be appealing. Obviously what to do with them depends on the current state but handles and shower screen were very good suggestions.

And maybe carpet if its old, smelly and yucky

If the appliances are dated, I'd look at picking up some cheapies on ebay.
Like others have said, grout, handles, gardens, stuff like that.

If it's dated, maybe a new front door??

Ok here are some pics of the offending areas and I do understand that it is some peoples taste but it is not ours ..... I should have done this to start with but it is not officially our home yet(6 weeks settlement etc) and imagine if one our members owns this house you never know in this 6 degrees life.
I am concerned about laminate floors for rentals and the other thing is some of the things we are thinking are purely aesthetic.
I suppose some of the issues are kitchen and bathroom but that will for sure eat up my $10k and not leave room for anything else. Should I do a bunnings kitchen and new appliances new floor and bathroom then.

Paint, window dressings, new top on kitchen.

IF you have any money left over, re-paint the bath white.

Inside looks pretty good to me. Not a big fan of the archways; prefer a more square entry. From what I've read in this forum, from a return on investment perspective, I'd spend it outside. Good luck.

Thanks Michelle, I was thinking
Paint $500
Window coverings $2500(whole house)
Kitchen$2500 and appliances $1200
Bathroom $2000
Retiling the wet areas straight over the top $1000 and paint the wall tiles and bath like you suggested.
2 robes for bed 2 and 3 leaves me with roughly nothing and no room for error.
Thats as much as I felt necessary but I am still concerned about the existing laminate floor. Should it stay or should it go and give something else up?

and.......I should from everyones suggestions put some $$$ away for outside maybe we need to allocate $1000 for retainings and plants maybe?

I want your painter!!! $500????
How did you come to that price?

Let me get this right…..you are living in the house now?
Then you are going to sell it?

Watch what you do outside, a lot of people don’t like or know what to do with a lot of garden. Keep it minimal.

no $500 for purchasing the paint and Dh is available to hire at no cost to me to do the work.....we have left over paint from other homes so that will be used aswell.

No we are in someone elses rental right now and have just last week purchased this property that is in the pics above.
They are the real estate pics so not my furniture or house yet.
So we will move into it while we are building and then we the build is finished we will consider renting it out unless for some reason the market picks back up and we want to sell instead.
Thats why the need to renovate a bit but not to much but enough to appeal for both situations.
...and thinking about it I am probably being conservative on the paint costs as its probably going to be a 3 coat job painting out all that burgandy.

Is that laminate flooring? or a cheap vinyl? It looks a lot like the flooring in our current rental. It is laid directly on to the slab? Ours is and is not stuck down and it stretches and buckles! A LOT . We are dreading moving out and being told it's our fault and that it's not wear and tear. But we have been very careful. The owners will need to repair or replace it and it's only been down 16 months at the most. it hasn't scratched btw just stretched. maybe a better quality vinyl might do the trick. ?
If it is the one we have you'll know soon enough. we noticed ours stretching after the first 9-10 months or so.
As for replacing the curtains etc. I'd leave them even if they aren't your style. I'd also repaint back to neutrals when you plan to sell or rent out. paint in your chosen colours before then by all means but go back to neutrals before trying to rent or sell. Depending on the area you are in , and going by the lounge curtains, the current curtaining is just not your style rather than in poor condition. It may well appeal to future tenants. Not necess young tenants but perhaps some more mature ones. I'd consider flooring, bathroom( that pink bath) and kitchen as the places to upgrade and improve on. Work out your potential market so you know what is worth doing. Hence Michelle's suggestion of a local agent is a good one.

I was thinking for the outside something simple like just retaining the edge around the back with limestone and planting it out and the front will simply be paint and getting the grass back to being a nice luch green colour.
There are also some random palms sitting in the middle of the back yard that I thought I could retain around and make a garden bed with them.

KK....thanks for the info on the laminate. It is laminate and its not stuck down thats my concern if we rent it out as I can see it will scratch easy.
We have considered pulling it up and tiling but then there is the dirty grout look.

As I understand this, your aim is to live in the house for a year and then rent it out - this is quite different to selling it in a year.
In other words, your question is: how to make it a good investment property, not how to do it up for sale.

Investment properties work best with minimal low maitenance gardens- you cant rely on a tenant to pamper the garden for you , and low maitenance floor coverings such as laminate, vinyl, tiles.
BIR's for bedroom 2 and 3 would be a big plus, just do in a basic style.
Depending where you live, an air con unit in main bedroom - I see there is one in liveing area.
House looks in basically good condition as is, so just touch up the painting unless any rooms are really awful colours and I would paint that pink 'box' of archways to match rest of room, it stands out a bit - tenants want a house in good condition with reasonably modern appliances in good working order - things like curtains they can always take down and put their own up if they really want to.

YEP!!!!

Good suggestions Helyn, I think as we have always done the do up to sell option its hard for us to keep a little on the conservative side when it comes to choosing materials and ideas. So it will be interesting to see how well we stick to our budget and refrain from doing things just because we are living there initially.
The archways in pink are lovely aren't they........we will definately be repainting as we can't get our brains into working gear with that much colour around us. The bedrooms are all different colours...red yellow and blue and some more burgandy. I am thinking of selling all the curtains and putting up timber blinds instead thats more for our purpose as The little guy needs a bit of darkness to sleep during the day and like the look and upkeep if them.

So far it look like our budget is going to include Paint (thanks Michelle for making me be more realistic ) blinds and garden and whatever is left over we might try to spend in the kitchen.

I disagree with this.
The light fittings in the house look fairly modern and I don't think fancy powerpoints will make any difference to the value of the house as a rental property.
With rental properties, the key is keeping it simple and neutral and not spending money that will not increase your return - for example adding an airconditioner will do so, but I cant see power points being a big deal for tennants.

Hi guys, Steve, sorry but Helyn is spot on. For me it is not that important to pelace lights switches power points or lights unless they were absolutely hideous but even then I generally find just cleaning switches etc is a big plus. All the grime that people leave on light switches is amazing and a quick clean makes them look brand new again and low and behold gets rid of the grime.
So far we are going to paint and possibly replace all flooring with tiles, nice big 450's in all the living, kitchen and family and get bunn1ngs kitchen and laundry cabinets. DH is farely handy but I told him if we are taking this option there are not aloud to be any flat pack tantrums yeah right
Thats it for now.