Our latest makeover

Clients were too afraid to take this one on so we did it ourselves and have now put it on the market. We are running Open Homes this weekend if you're keen to have a nosy and see what we did. [It has sold at the first Open Home for $450,000.] With this property we completely stripped it back to its Rimu framing and weatherboards. We then rewired, replumbed, and insulated it.  Then gibbed, stopped and finished all of the walls, and polished the floors. The inside of the house is essentially all new. We removed a few doorways and non-load bearing walls to create more space and put in a new kitchen. Here's the new kitchen and living areas.

To appreciate where it came from here is the before photo complete with 40 years of filth! If you're in the market for a First Home Makeover then you really need to be looking for these seriously run-down properties if you want some upfront capital gain.

Back to finished photos, here's the outside of the front of the house now.

Sorry, you have to see the before photo (what it was like when we bought it.) The fibre-cement cladding was over the top of the old rimu weatherboards. How they could do this in the 60s is astounding!

Here are a few more photos of the finished project. First up is the main bedroom. For a 2 beddie the bedrooms are quite large.

And the second bedroom. We carpeted the bedrooms, which from experience is the way to go.

Lastly, here is the small bathroom (toilet is separate.) Again, from experience we keep the toilet separate rather than make a bigger bathroom. There is nothing worse then trying to have a shower after your partner or flatmate has been to the toilet!

So that's the latest Makeover property. We listed it today for sale on Trade-Me and we're doing Open Homes this weekend if you want to take a look.

What I like about this Property

I seriously like this property. Here is my opinion on the property and the area. As a First Home its got everything you'd want and it's well finished. It is only a 2 bedroom home and I wouldn't waste money extending it. It's a great "stepper" and a great long-term hold. The site is 650sqm zone 6b. After living in the property for a few year's, the owner could put a minor dwelling on the back and lift the rent yield to around 8%. With the current house at the front of the property, putting a second unit in is easy. There is a storm water pipe at the back of the property that would need to be worked around. The owner could then upgrade to a bigger home and keep this one as a long-term rental. In the future my view is that the zoning in this area will drop to 300sqm-325sqm which will then make it sub dividable. Ongoing population growth in Auckland is going to push zoning changes into inner-city suburbs that do not have historic value. I'd then move the minor dwelling to another property and build a second house on the back site, take the capital gain and rent both out. As an area the Oranga side of Onehunga will gradually gentrify over the next 10 years. In 10 years time you'll have a sub dividable property in a popular central city suburb. In the meantime the property is a well finished future-proofed first home. To me this property reflects everything that First Home Makeovers is about. Hopefully, the next property I throw up on the squirrel site will be for a client who we've helped transform a manky do up. For those of you out there hunting, hope this Makeover inspires you.

The opinions expressed in this article should not be taken as financial advice, or a recommendation of any financial product. Squirrel shall not be liable or responsible for any information, omissions, or errors present. Any commentary provided are the personal views of the author and are not necessarily representative of the views and opinions of Squirrel. We recommend seeking professional investment and/or mortgage advice before taking any action.

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