Real Estate Renovation Rumbles

Written by Michaela Ryan for the API Magazine in Australia, Jan 2007

How can you renovate a real estate property and keep your relationship intact?

First a confession. I find renovating real estate properties stressful. Sometimes it makes me lash out at my husband when really, we’re but just doing our best to work through what seems like the world’s longest “to do” list. But apparently we’re not alone. A survey by AAMI in 2005 showed 58 per cent of people find their real estate renovation projects stressful. Thirty per cent find the renovation real estate projects to be a source of tension with the people they live with.

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So how can you minimise that tension? As a real estate property investor, this is important to address, because if one bad experience puts you off renovating for life, you could miss out on some great opportunities.

Katrina Spyrides, executive officer of the Conflict Resolution Services to the ACT, suggests that before real estate renos, couples should consider the problems they’re likely to face and discuss how they’ll deal with situations if they arise.

“If the couple is anticipating (various issues) then they can be on the same wavelength, rather than all of these dramas being a shock to them,” Spyrides says.

Possible Real Estate Reno Problems

1. Feeling exhausted
It can be exhausting working full-time and then coming home to do physical work on a renovation of a real estate investment property. It can also be mentally taxing to coordinate tradespeople.

2. Inequality of effort
Resentment can grow if one partner puts more time and effort into the real estate reno than the other.

3. Kids
“(Your kids) are at a school during the week and they want mom and dad’s attention if they’re being shipped off at the weekends then they might start acting up as well,” Spyrides says.

4. Lower quality of life in the short term
During a real estate property renovation, time and money can be scarce. your lifestyle accordingly suffers.

5. Disagreements about the details
How much to spend on a bench top? Which colour? Whether to bring in a tradesperson or do it yourself? There are plenty of little decisions that can potentially lead to disagreements between partners.

6. Living in mess
If you live in the house you’re renovating, there could be tools everywhere. And there will be rooms out of action for periods of time. comfort levels can suffer.

Coping Strategies of Renovation or Real Estate Property

1. The pre-reno discussion
Before your renovation project, it helps to talk about the issues we’ve just mentioned and how you might be able to (a) avoid them, and (b) deal with them if they arise. It’s also worth creating a ‘to do’ list (which will be a work in progress). Delegate all the tasks and establish a realistic timeline. Budget carefully for your investment property renovation project. Factor in a buffer for unexpected expenses – every reno has them!

2. Choose a good time to talk
Conversations can be counter-productive if you’re angry or tired. If you have a problem you need to discuss, Spyride says, “Set aside time when neither of you are tired and talk about it.”

3. Switch off
“Sometimes within a renovation of real estate property couples start to see each other as sub-contractors and every bit of their conversation is about the renovation. It’s about putting that line in and saying, “okay after eight o’clock we won’t talk about the renovation,” Spyride suggests.

4. Outsource
If the DIY jobs are causing too much stress, investigate the cost of outsourcing. If a tradesperson can complete the job within a day that would take you a couple of weekends to do, they might pay for themselves because you can tenant the property a week earlier.

5. Keep an eye on your tradies
Try to check on your tradies’ work every day if possible. It’s amazing what you discover when you drop in for a chat! If you pick mistakes up straight away, you can avoid big headaches down the track.

6. One step at a time
If you keep thinking about how much there is to be done, it can feel overwhelming. Sometimes you need to keep your focus on the next task or two in your real estate property renovation project in order to keep stress levels under control.

7. Just deal with it
“not all problems can be resolved. But they can be managed,” says Spyride. “It doesn’t mean that you have to have a bed of roses at the end of the day. Sometimes things will just be the way they are and there is not resolution. It’s probably just about working through them until they subside.”

Take heart – the real estate renovation won’t last forever!

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Top 10 Home Cover-Ups and Renovations

Originally published in the Australian Property Investor magazine (API) and story written by Matthew Liddy, there are some very useful tips on how to spot cover-ups and what to do about it if you are either purchasing or selling a home that requires renovations.

Homebuyers must be on the lookout for sellers who’ve found problems with their home, moved to cover it up and then put it on the real estate market. Here are the top 10 cover-ups that can cost the unwary. Story by Matthew Liddy. Please visit www.apimagazine.com.au for more useful information.

Building advisory service Archicentre warns that buyers must beware the touch-up job, the quick cover-up that conceals a problem with a house but does nothing to fix it. “People who are buying properties may trip up over the situation where the seller has really just done a quick cover-up in order to move the property and get out of the problem,” says Archicentre Queensland manager Ron Tanton. “The new buyer is then saddled with the hidden defects and the hideous further costs involved.”

Cover-ups can prove effective because buyers don’t know what to look for and don’t always get a building inspection, Tanton says. “Typical weapons of mass deception include the use of gap filling products, wall panelling, strategically placed furniture, pot plants or rugs, or newly painted surfaces,” he reveals. Tanton says the top 10 cover-ups can be expensive to fix.

#1. Illegal Building
Typical example are low ceiling heights in habitable areas, dodgy extensions and alterations, and small boundary clearances. Tanton says these issues often don’t’ take too much covering up because many people aren’t aware of the regulations.
The Cost to Repair: Up to $100,000

#2. Cracking
Archicentre says it has seen internal cracking filled and painted and external cracking being hidden behind plants and trellises. Tanton says if a crack has been filled, plastered over and painted, it can even be difficult for a professional to detect.
The Cost to Repair: Up to $50,000

#3. Termites, borers and timber rot
Termites themselves try to conceal their activities but sometimes homeowners help uot by patching up floor damage or concealing it under carpets, Tanton says. “Cover-up merchants are the ones that generally deny access to the underfloor or the roof space,” he says.
The Cost to Repair: Up to $20,000

#4. Roof problems“Quite often the cover-up merchants will simply paint over the top with some sort of gooey stickey stuff and then paint it all in and make it look nice, only to find within two or three months or six months or twelve months, we’re back to where we were, wheras it should have been replaced in the first place,” Tanton says. With tile roofs, silicone is increasingly being used to stick tiles back together in an effort to get a house sold.
The Cost to Repair: Up to $20,000

#5. Rotten weatherboards and windows
Home real estate inspectors have seen rot patched with filler or covered with tin and painted. “It’s a small, inexpensive leap to spend a bit of spare time bogging up a few holes so that people don’t see it but what unfortunately can happen is the timber rot continues even through the paintwork over the top is quite good.”
The Cost to Repair: Up to $10,000

#6. Rotten stumps
One of the telltale signs of rotting timber stumps is a white, salty look to the bottom of the timber. “To cover up those sorts of things, people quite often paint the stumps and make them look nice,” Tanton says, adding that access is also often denied to underfloor areas with problem stumps.
The Cost to Repair: Up to $8,000

#7. Faulty or illegal wiring
Tanton says this is an area where cover-ups get downright dangerous. Cover-ups involve putting furniture in front of problematic power points or painting over them. “Bodgy do-it-yourself wiring”, especially in roof spaces, is also a problem.
The Cost to Repair: Up to $6,000

#8. Faulty or illegal plumbing
Cover-ups include painting or panelling over rusty plumbing that’s visible and homeowners carrying out their own illegal plubming connections and extensions.
The Cost to Repair: Up to $6,000

#9. Damp
Walls and ceilings are at times simply painted or panelled over, concealing the effects of dampness. “They’re very hard to see, particularly if the weather’s not raining a lot. If it is raining a lot then uite often the dampness will manifest itself as a smell.”
The Cost to Repair: Up to $5,000

#10. Guttering and downpipes
Archicentre inspectors see guttering and downpipes bogged up to hide rust. “We see that particularly with people selling homes – a bit of bog and spit and paint, and she’ll be right mate, nobody will get up there and have a look.” And they often get away with it. Some new homes also have secondhand guttering, he adds, an issues impossible to detect from the ground.
The Cost to Repair: Up to $3,000