To renovate or not

[Dolby]

I've rented out a house for many years and even when starting, it was a little tired. Now - after many years and many tenants - it's pretty horrible and I plan on selling in the next year.

The garden is like a jungle, the pool is soup green and stained, the built in braai is runted, the facia boards have fallen off, the gutters are broken, the driveway is just urgh, rotten wood flower bed dividers and more. The net result is a R2m property is worth R1.2m because of the condition.

Many have said to simply sell and cut my losses - and someone will buy to renovate. Mainly as to get it to R2m worth again, you'll need invest R700k and the extra 'gain' is only R100k.

I think though that there must be a an investment to get a certain gain - like maybe another R100k targeted at the right items could get a selling price of R1.5m, which is worth it.

I'm thinking presentation - so new driveway, roof painting, clearing the garden bear, gutters and facias should be do it? Is there anything else I should think of?

Or do you agree to walk away and leave it for a person to renovate?

 

[Picard]

I don't believe a building can drop from 2 mil to 1.2 mil. Unless there are major structural problems.

Landscaper cannot be more than 20 or 30 grand.

Facia boards cannot be that much.

Paint ... please ... that is standard all over the country.

Throw in some new carpets and you'll still get your R2 million.


But:

Pics please.

 

[Dolby]

Paint and carpets are actually not the issue - those were done a few years back and still fine.

The painting would be roof, gutters and everything else mentioned

 

[maumau]

Do you have a few pictures? If it's structurally sound the cosmetics shouldn't be too expensive. Are there any leaks, any rising damp?

I believe that when selling a property the seller has to divulge latent defaults.

 

[123Eish]

R700 000 to renovate a house, How were you renting the property out? If its going to cost you that much to renovate or fix up there is no way that house currently is worth 1.2mil unless its in a very upmarket area, from what you describe fixing up those things such as pool,etc should not cost even 1/4 of R700000

 

[Picard]

R700 000 to renovate a house, How were you renting the property out? If its going to cost you that much to renovate or fix up there is no way that house currently is worth 1.2mil unless its in a very upmarket area, from what you describe fixing up those things such as pool,etc should not cost even 1/4 of R700000

That's what I wanted to say ...

... but I weren't exactly sure of my prices.

 

[ToxicBunny]

I'm guessing the kitchen and bathrooms are a bit dated... You should be able to spend r100k and get it much closer to the r2m mark... Fix the driveway, etc etc and you will be surprised at the change in peoples opinion.

 

[Picard]

I'm guessing the kitchen and bathrooms are a bit dated... You should be able to spend r100k and get it much closer to the r2m mark... Fix the driveway, etc etc and you will be surprised at the change in peoples opinion.

The bottomline is with R2 million as a max and R1.2 million is a minimum a little renovation could make you a bigger profit.

 

[Saajid]

For R700k you can build a pretty decent brand new house. Your issues don't sound too big at all. You could get the place looking great for R100k or even less. As long as the structure is in tact, and nothing is falling to pieces, you should hold on to it.

You should almost never sell property, unless it's your only proprety and you're moving, you're in financial problems, or you're an estate agent. 5-10 years down the line, you will kick yourself for selling it.

 

[Picard]

You should almost never sell property, unless it's your only proprety and you're moving, you're in financial problems, or you're an estate agent. 5-10 years down the line, you will kick yourself for selling it.

Unless you are going to reinvest the money in something you know will give you better earnings ... keep the ****ing house.

Spend the bare minimum to make it habitable (you have to) even if you don't get it all back through the rent of the next couple of months. But selling of a property because it seemingly has become to expensive to maintain is folly.

Find a better way to maintain the place.

 

[Dolby]

Maybe I have my renovation costs out - which is good if I do.

When I did a few minor about 3 back, the painting, carpets, odd varnishing, garden clearing, pool net cost around R80,000.00 back then. I know a driveway is R25,000.00 and the garden clearing will be around R15,000.00 now.

But I always roof paint, new gutters fascia boards and fibre glassing a pool were expensive - as in nearly R50,000+ for those alone?

So R150,000 for what i want?

 

[Dolby]

For R700k you can build a pretty decent brand new house.

Though building costs around R8k per sqm?

By that figure, I get a townhouse/cluster size (less than 90sqm) place.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Garden clearing r15k??? Wtf. Dude you should be able to clear the garden for less than 2k including removing the refuse

 

[Dolby]

I paid R9,000.00 a few years back - place looked like a jungle.

They had a team of guys for a few days and a huge truck did a few loads. There was cutting trees etc That was one part :



It goes back quite a few metres behind as that all encroached on the grass. I couldn't even get to the boundry wall ... and it was like that thick in 2 of the areas

When they were done it was bare, which was great for the next tenant to ignore ....

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Though building costs around R8k per sqm?

By that figure, I get a townhouse/cluster size (less than 90sqm) place.

90sqm, try 30-40sqm if its new in some of "better" places. Prices are insane!!!!!

 

[ToxicBunny]

You got ripped off dude... Also the other stuff doesn't sound like it should have cost 80k either... I've just built a whole new double garage with workshop and redone my entrance way for R110k and that includes nearly r15k on high end doors

My suggestion is try and find a few guys who you like and employ them directly for r150 a day to clean out the garden and then get another company to come remove the stuff...

 

[ponder]

You don't have to paint the roof, you can have it blasted (water/grit combo) and it will look like new tiles.

 

[Dolby]

You got ripped off dude...

That's what I thought too.

This guy was the best price - and smaller guys just said they couldn't do it. I got a few quotes because I also thought, but it was a huge job in the end. R2,000 wouldn't have done it.

Stand is 1600sqm and there was cutting down of trees too

 

[ToxicBunny]

You don't have to paint the roof, you can have it blasted (water/grit combo) and it will look like new tiles.

I plan on doing this in the next year or so... Will also allow me to find the areas with leaks and fix them as well

 

[Dolby]

You don't have to paint the roof, you can have it blasted (water/grit combo) and it will look like new tiles.

That removes the current paint and exposes whatever is under?