‘The Holiday Home.’
(A renovator’s dream!)
We’d built and sold our first home, and built our second. And by now Paul and I also had two children in our portfolio.
The next step on our journey was to create wealth through property investment. Our financial goal was to own at least 3 properties. One for us; and one for each of our children.
Life was going well for us, so we decided a holiday home was our next move.
Living so close to the 90mile beach and Sth Gippsland ––one of the most beautiful beach destinations in Australia (I’m biased) meant we had lots of beachside suburbs to select from.
We settled on Walkerville. 1 hour from home, quiet, untouched, with beautiful beaches. We spent 3 weekends looking at a handful of properties. We also had family members along for the journey––my brother in law (a carpenter) and my husband’s parents.
None of the houses on offer were really grabbing our attention, but as we were about to leave, disheartened, the agent said, “I’ll just show you one more. The sale has fallen through and it will be going back on the market.” They always hold their best cards close to their chest, don’t they?!
We all jumped in the car and followed the agent, to another property in Walkerville. When we pulled up; in front of an overgrown block, covered in bracken, my husband said, ‘There’s no way I’m going in– I’ll get bitten by a snake’.
But behind the bracken stood our new holiday home; a 1940’s weatherboard shack that had been relocated. With new wiring, septic, plumbing, roof and huge sliding door. It was listed for $160,000 and in all honesty too expensive.
The block needed work-but it was nothing compared to the inside, which required new carpets, bathroom, kitchen, painting and curtains. The shack had a simple floor plan, easy to work with, but no heating or cooling.
As we were leaving – the agent whispered to me,
“This was heavily negotiated down to $110,000, I think I could secure the same deal if you want it…”
Gob smacked we went back in and this time had a serious look.
Needless to say we bought that holiday home.
Enter, Renovation Project #1.
When you buy a holiday home most lenders class it as an “Investment Property,” which to us it was. Sure, it was a home away from home––one, which we would holiday in for years to come, but the end game was always to make a capital gain or a return on our investment once we sold.
So now we had an investment property loan. We selected interest only repayments so we could keep surplus funds aside to pay for renovations.
The moment the property settled we started the best part of renovations, “deconstructing” or, more literally, the “demolition.” The fun bit––ripping up old carpets, knocking out walls, removing the old kitchen, ripping out the old curtains. From here we replastered, repainted, tiled, installed a new kitchen, bathroom, laundry, carpet and curtains.
We then created an outdoor space. A big deck, a BBQ, a playground and most importantly, the adult’s playground–– a fire pit––a must for Saturday evenings!! Our last job was outdoor painting and re-cladding the weatherboards.
There was so much involved in the renovations, but it wasn’t all about work. There were many rewarding weekends of laziness, relaxing, and beach bliss. And the financial gain was also very rewarding.
Purchased: Jan 2008 $110,000
Sold: Oct’2011 $237,000
We learned a hell of a lot from Home Number 3 that helped us in our future Home Stories, particularly in renovations.
If you have a renovation project in mind here are my top tips:
1. Work out what you want
2. Pick a neutral or simple colour scheme.
3. When renovating yourself; shop around – look for clearance sales, liquidations, or end of run items for huge savings.
4. Always keep in mind this was a holiday house.
Where we saved the most…
Carpets: Our carpets were all the exact same colour, but we saved a lot of money as we purchased from a carpet wholesalers.
Tiles: Our laundry splash-back tiles; white, and the floor tiles; grey, were common colours, but cheaper and purchased from a liquidator.
Kitchen: Our kitchen was Laminex and splash-back was Laminex.
Window dressing: Our blinds from Spotlight and we installed them ourselves.
Bathroom: Our bathroom fittings were factory seconds found in Springvale–– shower, base, bath & cabinet.