Construction

Just recently, I got into drinking dandelion coffee. I know, I’m weird, but you should see me on real coffee !!! Not good. Not nice.

So here I am with a dandy coffee and laptop, and today’s theme is construction.

Renovating 3 houses in a row, including a subdivision each time, has in many ways been a lot simpler than organizing the construction of a very small, very energy efficient house on our block of land.

It seems that even just getting permits to plan and build have been fraught with small and big lessons of how to deal with those desk- people, who continually change faces, and therefore criteria to actually get signed off.

How about the planner, who I paid good money to in order to submit our plans but who failed to make sure that council acknowledged the fact that he submitted them. Six weeks later, when I asked him how the application is proceeding I find out that they have been sitting in reception at the planning department because they wanted one extra bit of paper: proof of title- which is also ridiculous, because they had just issued it!

After that, because of staff issues it took council from May to the very end of October to give permission to plan the building.

(to be fair, one mistake I had made was to ‘forget’ that the land surveyor had said in the beginning that because of an overlay, I would have to have another planning application to the application to subdivide, if I didn’t include the plan of the dwelling initially.)

Next the building permit.

Says one building surveyor: it’s all good, we’ll send you out the permit in the mail after I satisfied lists and lists of documents they needed—next thing you know –he’s left the office that he’s worked in for many years and in his footsteps is some dude who needs more and more information, proof and utter detailed nonsense to actually let me build a structure that’s been built hundreds of times before!

Just today I had to make the building company understand, that I won’t get a building permit if they don’t give me engineering drawings. But they only give them out normally if the initial 25% construction deposit has been paid- which I can only pay once the contract is in place-which they haven’t sent me because I don’t’ have a building permit! AHHHHH…

There are a lot of chicken and egg situations in the building and construction sector.

And you are probably going to ask me: Why isn’t the building company doing the permit? Apparently they are not a registered building company, – and that’s why I had to become an owner-builder. Another 13 different documents and fees to pay.

Even after all this, I’m still confident that once we get the paper work sorted, we will end up with a good product- cost effective and energy efficient- which was my main concern.

Am I going to use the same construction company in our next construction?

Ask me in 6 months. Or could be 6 years. Contingency plan.

Subdivision Heaven

Hi,

Might as well keep on telling the rest of the story 🙂

Thank you for those who actually visited my blog, I feel honoured. Of course I welcome any feed back or questions .

About our new project- 10 000 sqm with a 3 bed house and massive storage shed :

Plans to subdivide into 3 lots as a Stage 1 are being assessed by council as we speak. We are going to sell the existing house with a minor renovation and also sell one of the building blocks (500 sqm) . We are keeping the shed and about 9000 sqm.

Stage 2 may never happen, as sewerage connections could amount to over $100 000 and take more than 12 months, because of the discontinued railway track, which is in between our back block and the sewer point. Of course none of that is a surprise to us -we had all that checked out before we signed up to buy it. That’s called DUE DILIGENCE ! Stage 1 however makes enough profit to warrant the purchase ! (over $60 000 plus mortgage free shed and 9000 sqm)

The house and large land next door is for sale, and if we bought it, we could share/halve subdivision costs for Stage 2 – and that would make it even more attractive. We have not yet decided on that.

That would mean we could have up to 10 blocks for sale, given that we want to keep up the good old country tradition of quarter acre blocks.  (The start of an eco village???) The road, which would be the access to all those blocks, would have to be upgraded at our cost, to cope with the increased traffic.

So far, we have planted over 40  fruit trees and many more other trees, put extensive vegie gardens and also ornamentals in. The big paddock was deep ripped, using a Yeoman’s plough to counteract the compacting of the soil by horses from the previous owner. That was ONE way of renovating the land. A soil test revealed that it was suitable for extensive cropping, especially fruit and nut varieties after applying the right amount of gypsum.

We are only 5 mins walk away from a  primary school, post office, shop and pub, and sports facilities. What a great place to live! Blocks will sell like hot cakes ! Orders taken now 🙂

SOLD !!!

Ok ok,

Yes it’s been more than a year ! But much has happened.

While I was very lazy in the writing department, I have actually accrued more wealth.

The house I started renovations on last year, in my last entry, is sold and settled in July this year. Once my partner came back from his overseas adventures, he got going on the landscaping and fencing and demolishing all sorts of parts of the outside of the property, catching up with me and the tradies- we renewed the kitchen, made a brand new bathroom out of one of the 5 bedrooms, completely rejigged the old bathroom and made it into an on-suite, painted inside and out, insulated the ceiling, fixed up the fireplace, and redecorated ready to sell. Of course we also fixed numerous problems, but left a few things to do for the next owners- people get bored you know !

All in all we took over 600 hours to complete the project- more than 400 was my contribution in physical labour and managing.  (That calculation excludes hours by tradespeople.)

We spent $17 000 on the subdivision, and around $30 000 on the renovation, including landscaping and fencing.

We sold the house for a few thousand dollars more than we spent, including all costs within 3 months and kept the block of land that we cut away from the house. Plans to build a very small, but very eco dwelling  (7.7 star rating) are in the pipeline and we should have that finished by March 2014.

The profit was our best one yet : the building block worth $170 000 plus a few thou.

see the  sale brochure here

In the meantime, we bought our next project, 10 000 sq meters with a 3 bedroom house and massive shed.

More on that later- possibly before the year is out !

Cosmetic Renovations

You might have noticed that I don’t write about my properties everyday. That is because it’s a part time vocation. True, I think about it every day, do a little managing everyday, but the hands-on is fairly limited. I have heard of people renovating a whole house completely in 3 weeks. Cosmetic renovation that is.

Cosmetic renovation is not a word for doing a touch-up job on a rotting medium. The cosmetic renovation I do is about giving a place a new look, painting all walls and ceilings. Renewing all floors and fixtures. Updating bathrooms and kitchens and laundries. Landscaping and cleaning. An attention to detail job outside and in, including and especially the main features of a house. The raw material has to be carefully selected for hidden costs and structural faults.

If a house needs major work that costs thousands, it will not be considered for renovation  unless it’s on a very valuable piece of land. In general I would not spend more than about 5 – 10% of the purchase price on a renovation. And if I did, it would mean that with all the work I put in, the profit would definitely be 10% or more of the purchase price.

Even though I’m still working with our handy men on days they are here, I ‘m aiming to not do so much physically myself in the next project. I enjoy some of it, for example painting (but not too much), wood work, tiling and just holding things up for the tradesmen, fetching tools and equipment etc. At this stage, I still enjoy being involved. So I’ll keep doing that. One day though, I will have a team of people going in for a few weeks and then it’s done.

And by the way, renovation without sub- dividing is almost a useless venture. Subdivision is where the money is, and renovation just adds a bit more. The good thing about renovating is that most people could imagine doing it, whereas sub division is a little daunting at first. A good way to start.

More on sub division next time.

Systems

Definition by thefreedictionary.com

8. An organized and coordinated method; a procedure.

I am yet to create a system in my investing strategies.

Moving around from one town to the other doesn’t help with getting a list of reliable tradies, or shopping for stock. Every town has a slightly different demographic, too, and so to produce a result that suits the market, it has to be specific to the town you’re selling or investing in. You get to know people at the planning department at council, your local hardware shop, the real estate agents etc.Doing different types of deals every time is also a great way to slow things down.( with different types I mean doing a reno and subdivision on a 50 ‘s house, then a bigger subdivision and reno on a 80’s house, then a period home….)

To create a strategy that really works, and is simple to repeat  one needs to have ‘relationships’ with all people involved.

It’s all about creating a pattern that can be followed almost blindly -so you don’t have to re invent the wheel every time!

I’ll elaborate some other time .

 

Rumpelstiltskin

Another day in the life of ME.

Today, I went back the last project to clean up some more stuff in Lot 2, which we have a sales contract for.

Settlement  for Lots 1 , 2 and 3 will happen in about 2 -3 weeks, and I have cleared all the rubbish out, made a pile of burnable materials and put a match to it ! Then I did a little dance around it (after making sure no neighbours were peeking) and I was all happy and looking forward to having won the Queen’s first baby ! (Here, you have to know the story of Rumpel….it’s a Grimm’s Fairytale I believe)

Well , actually , I was happy about having been to the Bank and finding out that my cash situation will be rather positive, once settlement happens!

It really does mean that I will become a full time property Queen and I can’t tell you how I have longed for it !!! Although it still feels about 35%  unbelievable, the rest of me is all ready for it and beaming ! 🙂   (:

I want to say a very big thank you to my Mentors Adrian and Fiona , Steve and the crew from property investing, Dean and Elise and the guys at Rookie. It has taken me  over 10 years (although only 2.5 years since taking action) to grow and develop into who I am today, and I have had some amazing help along the way. I’m writing this with tears welling up, tears of joy and accomplishment.

I just hope I can give some back, too….

Speaking of which, I also went to see my EX partner, and dragged him into a real estate agency to sign up to renting his little cottage out- as the repayments were eating away his nest-egg and it’s not a good time to sell right now. He will be signing up tomorrow. JOY !!!

So here I am at the end of a very big day and I’m excited and full of wonder and fulfillment- the way I have changed my life from a very poor single mum to a developer is proof to a powerful truth:

What you focus on will happen!

(So, what are you focusing on?)

Hail and Sunshine

The news today : My favourite handyman  Doug didn’t get the job he applied for !!! So that means, he’ll be here instead, working with me to transform this tired old house into a pretty one. I said to him that he doesn’t really need to apply for a job because he already has one ! By the time we have finished renovations here, we will be building. Then we will have bought another place to renovate. There could be years of work here! I also told him that he should tell me what jobs he doesn’t want to do- I will get someone else to do them. I think that made him happy !!!

It’s very important to keep your tradies happy ! (I should try that sometime with my family)

Today, Doug and I finished the insulation in the roof. We needed one more bag of insulation wool to complete the job- and guess who dropped in? Maureen, my good friend who has everything imaginable in her storage sheds. So I got a bag of her for $30 and laid it out in the ceiling.

We also tried to solve the problem of the leaking roof. But to no avail. Every time a rain shower, or hail, or driving rain hit the valley in the old roof, it leaked into the hallway again. There’s a big bucket under the area now. As you can see below, the roof is probably the very worst thing about this house. Very rusty. But I think it’s actually sexy. Don’t you?

Tomorrow, we will perform surgery on the steps out the back door- very steep and with a narrow step platform. The plan is to extend the platform.

We will also make the railings prettier and safer. Sanding and painting later in the season, when it’s not so wet.

This is me signing off now…. bye. Feel free to comment !

Promises

I won’t promise to write everyday. I would like to in theory.

Today, I think I’m too physically tired to sit here for too long.

Yes, I worked. I don’t mind physical work. but not hard work, like digging or lifting heavy stuff. I have no muscles for that.

Some  time ago, I promised myself that I will do almost whatever it takes to get to where I want to go. My mother used to tell me I was too headstrong, but I think it’s a good quality to have in one’s repertoire to be able to focus and achieve goals.

I sometimes unconsciously sabotage myself. It’s annoying but it usually offers great learning potential.

I think I really sabotaged myself with my last project. To think that you might get $50 000 after almost 2 years of lots of work and spending $150 000 ??? Insane.

What I learned from it though is priceless:

a) good planning and sticking to plans is most important.

b) leave all emotion out of the deal, eg don’t buy something because you need to live somewhere before the kids go back to school etc.

c) don’t move into your renovation project, especially not if you have children.

d) start subdivision as early as possible, even in the settlement period with permission of the owner.

e) renovate to please the market, not your own living requirements, unless you have the same requirements as the market.

f) let the tradesmen and professionals do what they are good at, and only do the jobs you really like and are good at,  too!

I will let you know what worked well in the last project in one of my next posts.

The Joy of living in the rubble…

17 th August 2012

Now that I’ve started blogging, the internet gets cut off.

Well, since I’ve been in this house ( three weeks), which by the way I really don’t mind too much-it’s actually the best house we’ve bought so far in regards to smell, how dirty it is, and how inconvenient- I have had at some stage no water (because of a large water leak in a pipe), no electricity ( because of works done by power company) and therefore no hot water ( it’s gas but needs electricity to run) and have almost run out of fire wood at one time.

The first few months living in my renovators are usually very uncomfortable, but this here is actually quite suitable for me. I basically live in the kitchen and lounge room part, as it is simply too cold to heat the un-insulated rooms, of which there are 5. There is a very warm fire going 24 hours a day and I can even cook on it.

Having said that, I promised myself that I would never again live in a renovator. It puts a lot of strain on the family- but as my son is practically moved out and my partner’s children are with their mother until December, and my partner is overseas, the only person it puts strain on is ME. And I’m actually  loving it. The floorboards are great for having three dogs living inside in the middle of a very cold and wet winter in central Victoria.

It is an old weatherboard house, about 100 years old, the sub-floor is very sound with beautiful floorboards almost all throughout. Lots of period features including lining board ceilings and walls, original doors and handles (although some are in need of…something) original windows and 3 open fireplaces plus another chimney for the wood heater. The kitchen and bathroom will need updating, but I will leave some original features, including claw foot bath tub, and possibly the lino in the kitchen.

Here’s a word of warning for all you first time investors :

Don’t buy an old house, unless like this one, the foundations have been updated, and there are no other major costs like new wiring, plumbing, or roofing. With old houses, you have to be very lucky to get a partly restored house like this in the main part of a popular town, with enough back yard to subdivide and build on. With access from the parallel street- so you don’t have to have a drive way through the side of the front house.

To make any money from a renovation, you should not spend more than 10% of the purchase price, or you are very unlikely to even get your money back.

You also should have enough money in the deal so that you don’t have to do all the painting, tiling, insulating, cleaning, repairing and everything else. After about 3 houses, even I will get the message.

Of course, keep doing the thing that you love doing. But only if you are as good as the professionals. Otherwise there’s no point really.