Naomi Findlay, Australia’s Rapid Renovation Expert, shares the 21 common mistakes renovators make and her personal advice on how to avoid them.
Ignoring the target market: it’s one of the fundamental errors that so many novice renovators make.
When I say the target market, I mean the person that’s going to eventually buy the project or lease the project once the renovation is complete. Every property has a target market. In fact, some properties have multiple target markets. So one of your jobs, when you’re putting together your renovation plan, is to ensure that what you’ll be doing to the property is going to meet the market’s needs.
Let’s explore that a bit more.
For example, if you have a 4-bedroom home with a study, 1 or 2 living spaces, and a big yard, chances are it’s going to be a family that’s going to move into that. —That’s especially if it’s a split level or a 2-storey home.
But there are also property types that have multiple target markets. For example, inner-city flats with 2 bedrooms, garages. It could include first home buyers, inner city workers, downsizers, or retirees.
It may even be a great investment opportunity for someone from around the suburb or someone interstate.
In these cases, when there are multiple markets, all of the alterations, renovations, touches, and cosmetic changes you make to that property all have to be with your end user or end market in mind. You need to make sure that you pulverise none of that market and that you appeal to 80% of that market. So what that means is that in every 10 people that inspect the property, 8 of them are going to love it.
So how do you get to know your market?
You need to identify who they are, and then you need to become them. You need to know what they’re looking at, what properties they’re inspecting, where they live, the cars they drive, the children they have or don’t have, pets they may have or don’t have, and even as far as the hobbies they like to do.
So you can see that when you’re renovating for wealth, due diligence doesn’t just take place around your suburb or your property itself. It’s also around the target market that is going to be the end user.
The Property Renovation Library | The Property Renovation Video Hub