Naomi Findlay, Australia’s Rapid Renovation Expert, shares the 21 common property renovation mistakes and her personal advice on how to avoid them.

This is a common mistake that so many renovators make.

Imagine going to an open inspection and you’re the buyer. As you go the walk-up path towards the front door, you’re actually stepping over freshly-laid, muddy, and dirty sods of grass.

• Does that speak quality?
• Or does that speak ‘finished with finesse?’
• Does that speak a property that you want to buy?

Or does that speak, “I ran to the finish line; I threw down some grass sods, and I’ve just gotten this property to the market?”

Not quite the first impression that you’re really after.

So many renovators forget early on to plan, protect, isolate, and budget well for their landscaping. If we think about it, nowadays in Australia, our plot or land size is just as valuable as the house size, square footage, or square meterage of our home. So why do we so often step over our landscaping and absolutely forget what we need to be doing?

ELEMENTS OF LANDSCAPING

Here are some of my key elements that I like to think about to make sure I don’t step over my landscaping. I’m letting you know so that you don’t create the same mistake that so many other renovators have:

The first thing I do when I go to a property is to isolate areas of the landscaping that are either in good condition, that needed a little bit of rehabilitation, or that the trades don’t need access to.

I then create a designated work area for the trades so they have a covered, safe, and dry place to work without destroying the rest of the yard. The last thing you want is to have the entire yard becoming a construction site. Let’s face it, the slowest return on investment when we’re doing renovation is really from our plants and our grass. They take the longest time to root and look good following being planted or laid. It’s important to cordon, isolate, and protect as much of that landscaping and grass as you can.

Then, to seal the deal, I put some high-quality grass and large plants on that small area purely allocated for the trades to work as soon as they’re off-site. That’s because I’ll have less time to see them through to their fruition once the trades are off-site.

So instead of stepping over your landscaping and going busting and tearing into the property, make sure that early on in that project, you isolate, define, and protect a pile of your landscaping.

COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR TEAM

Now, even if you’ve done that, don’t miss the integral step of communicating such with your team. Doing it without communicating means it’s mute. It’s a bit like if it’s not written, it’s not real. Make sure that on your site plans, team communication, and team communication folder, you’ve clearly identified the areas that you don’t want trades working on, you don’t want products being stored on, and definitely you don’t want to be used as rubbish tip. That’s a sure fire way to making sure you don’t step over your landscaping.

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