Home renovations: how to make the ultimate return on your investment
Aussies need to make changes to their thinking on home renovations if they want to enjoy them and make as much money as possible, experts say.
Home
Don't miss out on the headlines from Home. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Home renovations present a myriad of challenges, frustrations and excitement for anyone undertaking them or thinking about taking them on.
Whether you’re upgrading for yourself and your family, prospective buyers or both, you want to ensure you get the ultimate return on your investment.
Interiors and design expert and co-host of the hit TV show Selling Houses Australia, Wendy Moore tells you how.
HOME RENOVATION TIPS FOR THE ULTIMATE RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT
The best home renovations are done with two types of ROI in mind.
A financial return on our renovation investment is the traditional way of thinking – but what if we placed the same importance on measuring an improved lifestyle as a Return on our Investment (ROI)?
Keeping your eye on the market value of your home to make sure you don’t overcapitalise is definitely important.
But the downfall of this thinking alone has led to many stories of homeowners doing a major refresh to get their home ready for the market, only to realise how much nicer it would have been to live in the house for longer than the three-to-six-week sales campaign period! It also places a huge pressure on your investment to yield an immediate return, something that is harder to achieve in the current building market.
The smart renovator looks at another return on our investment – not just the financial return, but the Lifestyle return.
It’s this thinking that can lead to not just smarter spending, but an improved quality of life in the years before you sell. The trick is to get started early, enjoy your improvements for longer, and not only will you be happier, but you’ll probably see an improved financial return in the long run too.
TAKING THE LONG TERM APPROACH TO HOME RENOVATING
The key to smart spending is a long-term plan.
Invest in bringing a trusted designer or architect on board to draw up a master plan for your block to allow you to spend in ways that will last. Knowing how the home and land can be best used in the future will also allow you to break the long-term plan into smaller projects and prioritise which ones will give you the best return for your everyday comfort. As well as giving you a clear understanding of which investments will lead to a greater future for the home’s value.
Selling a home with a master plan and overall vision is also a major drawcard for a buyer, allowing them to see the true potential of your home.
Outdoor Living
The one investment that can yield great results if it’s done early is creating great outdoor living spaces
Established plants are expensive, and there is nothing less appealing than a newly landscaped area with bare beds and tiny plants. An established garden is not just a major selling point for your home, it’s also a source of relaxation and enjoyment for you and your family in the years you live there
It’s best to have a landscape design done at the same time as the master plan for your home – the two should work together in harmony.
Bathroom
A shoddy or seriously outdated bathroom is a real turn-off for potential buyers – it just screams hidden problems and big dollars.
A great bathroom design can last for years, and this is definitely a room you can do early and enjoy long before you decide to sell. There are a few materials that transcend fleeting trends, but timeless bathroom style comes down to three things
* A great floorplan
* Lots of storage, and
* Quality finishes.
If you do this early in your home life, you can enjoy the space for longer and justify spending a little more on your fittings and finishes. See below for my tips on looks that will last.
Repaint & Refresh
A really good quality paint job early is a wise investment, great preparation can add years to the life of your walls and trims.
It also makes it much quicker and easier to add a quick coat of paint on good walls prior to listing your home for that ‘freshly painted’ look. I have seen too many examples of homeowners rushing a DIY paint job without the proper repair and preparation job. A quick coat on bad walls just makes buyers think you’re hiding issues (and let’s face it, you are!).
Declutter and Design
It’s an old trick to do a huge declutter before listing, but the reality is that doing a regular declutter (say every year), is a much better way to allow your home to evolve naturally – and a great way to discover your own unique style.
A regular declutter means you only keep the things you love, and then you are more likely to add new things that work in with those – it can stop your home feeling like it has multiple personalities, and also help you make better choices with the pieces you do add. Save your major declutter for pre-sale though – there is nothing prospective buyers like more than a sense of space!
Looks that Last
One of the most intimidating parts of a renovation is choosing the fittings, finishes and styles of your home. We all fear that we will choose something that will date quickly, but the reality is that most trends in the home don’t move so fast that our renovation choices don’t have a fashion death the year after we finish a room. Thank goodness. The trick is understanding the underlying drivers of trends, which helps you understand how long they will feel relevant.
One Simple Colour Rule
Colour trends in home design don’t flash in and out the way they do in clothes fashion, which I’m sure comes as a relief to every renovator.
In truth, there are very few colours that go completely out of fashion, it’s more about the use, the amount, and the undertone of the colour that changes. Every successful colour scheme is driven by the basic undertones of the individual colours. In general terms, it’s either driven by undertones of grey or beige, and history tells us that each of these enjoy a period of 10 to 15 years of dominance, running on a gentle curve that overlap each other, creating a transition period I call the ‘greige’ ranges.
Basically, the grey tones are cooler schemes while the beige is a warmer scheme.
We are currently well and truly in the ‘beige era’, so you are seeing warmer tones like mustards, ochres, rust reds and creamy whites. Even the blues and greens, traditionally thought of as cool colours, can work if they have an earthy tinge, so sage green works perfectly with creamy whites. Blues and greys are ‘muddier’ in tone right now, rather than crisp and cool.
Once you understand that, choosing everything from paints to fabrics and even flooring gets much easier, and you can relax and know that the beige era has at least five years left in it, with a few overlapping years before colours are set to have a major change.
As long as the scheme is cohesive in that sense, it will always feel right, but as we move through the next 10 years, it will get harder and harder to buy new products that naturally work well as we start to transition in the cooler undertones.
Warm neutrals I’m loving now
Dulux Whisper White
Wattyl Slightly
Dulux Sandy Day half
Wattyl Earth Child
Wattyl Tempest
Timeless Bathrooms and Kitchens
Marble is a finish that never dates, and there are some fabulous, engineered stone options that mimic natural marble, but are much easier to maintain.
Subway tiles are a timeless look, but avoid going for contrasting grout finish, as that will definitely date.
Good quality chrome fittings are always a good choice, but you can feel comfortable going with brass too, as that’s a look that will also last. I would avoid the black taps if you don’t plan to sell in the next year or two though, as that will definitely date your bathroom in the years to come.
HOME RENOVATION MISTAKES TO AVOID
DON’T skimp on insulation – it’s one of those hidden things you don’t think about, but quite honestly is one of the things that makes your home comfortable all year around. Do your research and make sure your builder is using a quality product – and enough of it!
PLAN your storage – More often than not, the one regret I hear over and over again is a lack of storage in a new reno. Do an inventory of everything you have – how you use it, how you currently store it and all the things that don’t yet have a place. Linen closets, cleaning cabinets, laundries, vacuum cleaners – all of these need well-planned storage. Take measurements of your larger items so you can be sure they will fit inside your cabinetry.
RESEARCH your tradies – Do a licence check on your trades to make sure they are equipped to carry out the work. Ask a lawyer to check your contract and stay on top of all the details – it’s time consuming, but believe me it will save time and money in the long run.
MAKE a moodboard – a simple mood board with your inspirational pictures, colours and finishes will help you stay on track and create a cohesive style that comes together beautifully. With so many options to choose from, it’s easy to get confused or go off on a new style tangent half way through a reno. A moodboard helps you identify what will work and what won’t quickly and easily – as well as help you communicate to trades exactly what you want.
***
Wendy Moore joins the Selling Houses Australia team as interior design expert for a brand new season in 2022 on FOXTEL – with Award-winning host and real estate expert Andrew Winter and landscape designer (News Corp columnist) Dennis Scott.
Aussie kitchen item banned from January 1
Australians will no longer be able to import this everyday kitchen item into the country from January 1, 2025 after the government announced it was banned.
Home truths Aussies may regret
An alarming number of Australians don’t prepare their homes for extreme weather, something they may regret given this forecast.