[Bronz]

This is my latest reno which is also my favourite as it looks so much nicer with a coat of paint and new carpets and tidy up of garden.

It is a 4 bedroom house in Ballarat (Victoria), 5 minutes walk to centre of town and local uni.
I bought it for $200,000 and it was renting for $200 per week.
After doing the reno, it is renting for $280 per week and I estimate it is around $280,000.

The total reno cost $11,000.

I live in Melbourne, so instead of travelling the 1.5 hrs each day, I moved into the house for 4 weeks and painted the whole inside and outside myself. My partner came down on the weekends and he brought our 2 year old daughter to also "help" out. He did the gardening and some restumping at the back of the house. We also had to rewire the whole place, which an electrician did.

Attached File(s)

•  Ballarat reno 033 (Medium).jpg (89.32K)
  Number of downloads: 51
•  Ballarat reno 058 (Medium).jpg (87.53K)
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[Bronz]

More outside pics.

Attached File(s)

•  Ballarat reno 105 (Medium).jpg (81.38K)
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•  Ballarat reno 029 (Medium).jpg (78.42K)
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•  Ballarat reno 104 (Medium).jpg (82.85K)
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•  Ballarat reno 030 (Medium).jpg (79.67K)
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[Bronz]

I was just about to add the inside reno photos but it looks like I have used up all my downloading space, so I may have to start another thread, unless anyone has any other suggestions?

[Mr Aras]

Bronz, on 24 July 2010 - 03:18 PM, said:

This is my latest reno which is also my favourite as it looks so much nicer with a coat of paint and new carpets and tidy up of garden.

It is a 4 bedroom house in Ballarat (Victoria), 5 minutes walk to centre of town and local uni.
I bought it for $200,000 and it was renting for $200 per week.
After doing the reno, it is renting for $280 per week and I estimate it is around $280,000.

The total reno cost $11,000.

I live in Melbourne, so instead of travelling the 1.5 hrs each day, I moved into the house for 4 weeks and painted the whole inside and outside myself. My partner came down on the weekends and he brought our 2 year old daughter to also "help" out. He did the gardening and some restumping at the back of the house. We also had to rewire the whole place, which an electrician did.

Nice work.

How and why did you choose this particular place?

Did you get much of a discount from the original asking price, or was $200K a normal sort of price this sort of house in Ballarat?

[KISSfan]

You did a great job Bronz. well done.

Regards
Marty

[holmesie]

Nice work - if the outside improvements are an indication of what you did inside, then it must look a treat. Hope you enjoyed a break after all that toiling

[Bronz]

The asking price was $210,000 so I managed to get it down by $10,000.

I chose this type of property because it was a nice period style house in the centre of town and was a 4 bedder. It also did not need a new bathroom or kitchen. I thought the house was quite cheap for what it was and I would have probably been prepared to pay up to the full asking price.

Also being so close to the local uni, I thought I would always get students in, although it turns out I now have a single professional lady in there on her own.

When it was for sale, it was turning a lot of people off as the back of the house needed restumping and the back kitchen was on a very bad slant. It also looked very tired, but I knew a good coat of paint would do wonders.

Nicely renovated period style houses in Ballarat can go for up to $650,000. There seems to be a big gap in prices between the average and the Victorian/Federation. The inside has some very nice 1930s features and one day we may extend.

[TassieHawk]

Come up a treat - almost inspires me to "step up to the plate" and try to do a bit more reno work when we look at buying again.

[Nathan Birch]

Very good!

Comes up well, and always gives good self fulfillment once you look back at it when you do yourself. Like the colorbond ads.thhe rents in ballarat have sucked till now but are starting to rise now which is good.

[recruit2]

That looks fantastic - well done!

[Bronz]

Thanks for the replies.

I had so much fun doing this reno, although it really was hard work. I was doing 13-14hrs work on it per day. Trajedy also struck me on the second week, when my little dog got run over by a car at 2am in the morning out the front of my house. Luckily I heard and ran out and picked him up after the car sped off. He had a very badly broken leg and almost died, it was an awful night.

Tassiehawk, get into a reno, even if it is just a tidy up. Lets hope this thread motivates a few people.

I will have the inside photos up in a few days when I get some more downloading space.

[Matt Bell]

I'll be looking at Ballarat when in a position to invest. The numbers stack up and there seems to be a bit around that could be renovated quite nicely. The work you have done is fantastic, Bronz. Looking forward to seeing the interior. Also glad to hear that your dog is alright.

[Bronz]

Hi Matt,
Thanks for the comments, I am glad you like it. Sorry I would love to show you the inside but my downloading is still at its limit.

When you are looking around Ballarat, don't buy the first thing you see, I have seen some really good bargains pop up over time.

It's funny but most of the bargains I have ever bought have been sitting there for quite a few months, and generally they have something wrong with them that people are not prepared to fix.

I was looking around the centre of town, or a ten minute walk as I think the rents can be a bit higher around there. 5% yield was typical of most places but you only had to look at a few to see some where 6% or more with a reno.