‘Brainless’ way 23yo added $500k to home value

This 23-year-old Aussie saved $50,000 on her home renovation before its value then ballooned by $500,000.

This 23-year-old Aussie saved $50,000 on her home renovation before its value then ballooned by $500,000. Picture: Jeremy Piper

At 23 years-old Renee Booth and her partner Nick bought an unliveable three-bedroom home and in just three years they turned it into a luxury home adding more than $500,000 onto the sale value.

With trial and error, she taught herself how to do “brainless tasks,” that saved them thousands of dollars and learnt which parts to leave to the professionals.

Ms Booth had no prior experience in renovating and works in asset finance for a bank, while Nick is an electrician and was able to use some of his skills to their advantage.

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Renee’s home sold for more than they had hoped before the auction.

Renee Booth's home in Blacktown sold over price guide which was $1.25m

When they bought the home it was in “horrible condition,” according to Ms Booth and they even discovered unsightly surprises after purchasing it.

“It was really terrible so we gutted the home and nearly doubled the size of it,” she said.

“We thought there were regular trees out the back, turned out it was a vine that had grown over washing machines, old metal hard rubbish, it was so bad I even called the agent asking how were going to get rid of this.”

‘SAVED $50,000’

The couple were determined to renovate the home and after getting a few quotes for different trades were shocked by prices and decided to give it a crack themselves.

Without having done the full calculation, Ms Booth said they would have saved over $50,000 and managed to do a high-end renovation by doing 90 per cent of the work themselves.

“That’s just going off the paint quote and the demolition and skip bins that we did,” she said. “I regret not getting a full quote to see how much in total we actually saved,” she said.

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Renee Booth at her home. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Ms Booth designed the whole home herself, which she said she “had a go and really had fun doing it.”

“I would do it for a job if I could,” she said. “Nick is big on watching videos, but a lot of it we just learnt along the way by giving it a go.

“I got a painter for example, who quoted the whole house for $15,000 I thought that was ridiculous so instead I paid them to paint the ceiling for $2,500, I asked him for tips and we painted the entire house ourselves, the time it took was ridiculous, but it was worth it,” she said.

TIPS FOR AN IMMACULATE RENOVATION

She had other tips on how to keep costs down and still have an immaculate renovation.

For example, once deciding on tiles and tapware, she would wait until a sale came up before she purchased each piece.

She also said getting as many friends to help where they could made a huge difference.

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Sold prior to auction for $1.415m

Ice trough in bench in the high-end kitchen, all designed by Renee.

“Tiling I wouldn’t mess around with so we paid someone to do that, the demolition we did ourselves and Nick got some friends to help put the gyprock, same with the grass out the back we had a friend who helped us,” she said.

Their agent Monique Layoun at McGrath Blacktown said Blacktown was the ideal area for first home buyers or those upgrading from apartments.

“A lot of it comes down to affordability especially compared to some other suburbs for example like Parramatta you could get a three-bedroom apartment for the same price you can get a house here,” she said.

“Its also the easy access, you’re half an hour from the city now with the tunnel, 20 minutes from Penrith and 15 minutes from Parramatta, its really that centre point.”

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The house had huge interest, according to the agent, mainly with young families who also wanted to add a granny flat. They sold the for more than they wanted before auction.

“On top of the great location, the renovation they did was such a unique design for Blacktown with the skylights and the ice trough, the high ceilings, the premium bathrooms – you don’t see that in this area and its cool to see young people do it.”

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Originally published as ‘Brainless’ way 23yo added $500k to home value