Renovating for profit in 2024

We all love a good renovation, especially if it makes our house more liveable, comfortable, and pleasant for entertaining guests and loved ones. However, a home is also an investment; and though living better is a reward unto itself, the monetary value of your home is also substantially improved through renovations. But how do you ensure that you get a good profit margin from your renovation? Do you have to throw out everything and start again? Let me show you how to make renovations that are cost-effective and will make you the greatest amount of profit.

Set A Budget And Expectations

Establish a renovation budget based on your “wish list”. Budget overruns can result from changing your mind midway through the renovation or skipping a building inspection. 25% of remodelling projects overspend by 25%, so if you're spending $10,000 on a build, you'll need an extra $2,500. If you don't have enough money, you'll have to use a credit card or borrow, which means higher interest and costs, which will eat into your profits.

Focus On The Cheap Stuff

You can make the most of a renovation by focusing on the cheaper, easy-to-replace or update aspects of your home. This may be repainting walls, replacing old furnishings, installing new curtains or blinds, or re-sanding and re-colouring kitchen or bathroom cabinets. These renovations can take hours rather than weeks – you could knock off an entire renovation in a couple of weekends without any outside help, further keeping costs down. Other upgrades you can consider are installing heating/cooling if there wasn’t any before and replacing worn carpets with new ones or ripping them up to expose floorboards.

New Life For Less – The Kitchen And Bathroom

Instead of knocking everything down, re-tiling and re-fitting the bathroom or kitchen with new cabinets/vanities, sinks, and benchtops can give these rooms a new lease of life without intensive structural changes (which require architects, permits, tradespeople, and occasionally, headaches!) You may need some professional help to achieve your desired result but the immense increase in home value will more than make up for it.

Easy Smart Home Upgrades

You don’t have to pull out wires and hard-code everything into the internet to make your home appear “smart.” Smart globes such as those from LIFX or Nanoleaf can unleash colourful light at the touch of a button – or even turn on at sunset gradually for constant illumination. Using smart switches can also turn appliances on and off remotely – and these can be installed and set up for sometimes as little as $10-$15 per switch.

Financing Your Renovation

It’s not about turnover, it’s about what’s left over. Though redrawing from your mortgage is easy, it also adds tens of thousands to your interest; and any notion of budgeting is thrown out the window. If you want to borrow for your renovation, it’s best to either refinance or take out a relatively lower-cost personal loan so you avoid high interest bills and focus on why you renovated in the first place: to make big profits.

*Collaborative post