today I'd like to give you some really powerful property renovation tips that
are gonna help you the next time you have a smaller property development to do
Hi my name is Tony Law from Your First Four Houses and my channels all about
helping you achieve financial freedom through property. iif this is your first
time here be sure to subscribe to the channel and click that bell notification
icon so that you don't miss out on any of the free content that I gave you each
and every week. So today I want to share with you a few property renovation or
property development type tips that I honestly think will help you the next
time you're planning a somewhat smaller property refurbishment or
renovation and so the first one I'd like to share with you is gonna be fairly
obvious and it's all to do with "Preparation & Planning". Ideally you
should be spending around about a week before you actually start any work on
the planning and the budgeting and so on and if you do that honestly you'll find
the whole process runs a lot more smoothly you waste a lot less time and
you'll probably be closer to being on budget. Next do you need to consider whether you
need to to apply for any buildings regulations approval planning permission
or dare I say even "listed building consent" I'm sure you're probably fully aware
from the outset when you need listed building consent but sometimes you could
be surprised you might find a property that you consider would be listed but
actually it's not and there were lots of properties like that that probably
should be listed but actually aren't and you need to establish whether you need
these types of consents or permissions a very early stage because it can take
months for example simply going for planning can say 8 weeks from the outset
and if you don't get it and it has to go to appeal then obviously there's a lot
more time and so on and if consent is required you need to factor this into
your project also if you're working fairly near to a boundary is a party
wall and it's gonna be an issue a great example of this is actually my mum's
property where my mum lives right next door they have a baby
defaulted on the on the party wall agreement so that all work on that
project has ground to a halt whilst we get this all sorted sorted out if you
want to start work straight away maybe you want to say you want to start
looking at projects that don't require any type of consents for example maybe
you know if doing a garage conversion or maybe conversion into the loft area
often doesn't require any kind of planning consent often building rigs
will obviously come into play here but planning actually probably isn't
required and building rigs you can get them sorted out really rather quickly by
the way people often are confused when it comes to planning planning generally
speaking isn't required on any internal work on a property unless it is indeed a
listed building for example next let's consider who does the work now I'd
suggest you have just two options here you can either go down the main
contractor routes or down these subcontractor routes what I'm saying is
don't do the work yourself honestly you've got better things that you should
be doing with your time like maybe going to find the next deal for example often
the time that you're gonna waste doing that work yourself will cost you more
than the money you would have saved in bringing in a contractor in the first
place this was really challenging for me because I am technically a kitchen
fitter I used to fit kitchens that's what I used to do
I personally fitted well over a thousand kitchens in my time and for me putting
that toolbox down and leaving it alone was really really challenging especially
when I've got somebody in to do the work and I thought to myself I could probably
do a better job of that but you must not I would suggest
touch the tools if you can at all help it by the way if you need really good
contractors or subcontractors I've mentioned this before but letting agents
or estate agents are great people to connect with because usually they have
the best the best subcontractors lastly befriend a great handyman
honestly they are worth their weight in gold
by the way if you're finding this video helpful I would love it if you could
take a moment just to click on the thumbs up button down there it really
helps me if that's okay let's talk just a little bit about budgeting make it a
rule you'll always get three quotations for any work there's over a thousand
pounds if you do this it's it's a great philosophy to follow but if you do this
I've bet you you'll find that you'll start to get more competitive quotations
coming in and you can maybe start to play one or two off against each other
but make sure that you're always comparing like for like next negotiate
price on the phone when you're actually talking to a store rather than walking
into that store if you negotiate on the phone they're fully aware that you can
just simply put that phone down and phone somebody else and maybe get a
better price actually on this subject I generally tend to suggest that people
use just one builders merchants for all of their products it means that you can
get in there and negotiate really hard with the representative for that company
and also whenever your subcontractors or handyman or whatever need any products
they can go in there and buy it at a rate that you have already negotiated do
you know where your nearest salvage yard is if you've never walked around a
salvage yard go and do it this weekend you will be astonished at what you can
find at a salvage yard an incredibly good price plus to be really honest with
you it's just a fantastic way to spend your Sunday I would suggest you only
change the windows on a property if you absolutely have to the cost of changing
a window in terms of the amount you're gonna save on the energy is gonna it's
gonna take you decades potentially to save that money over all it actually
cost you to put that window in in the first place and honestly I think that
over a period of time especially because wooden windows for example I honestly
think that over a period of time people will start to look for properties that
have got those original windows so putting in for example uPVC might be it
might be a big mistake depending obviously on the condition of the
property allow a seriously large contingency dare
I say 15 to 20 percent for any unforeseen costs and lastly on the
subject of this use I would suggest or check out the Xero or QuickBooks to
manage and track all of your expenses I used to hate I used to hate with a
vengence accounting software packages quick story I to borrow I used to use
sage I took sage out into my garden I
surrounded it by little twigs and sticks and I literally burnt the software yeah
I ain't going back at least Wow 15 years I hasten to add but I have I
have just fallen in love with Xero now in particular but I'm probably gonna be
changing to QuickBooks fairly quick fairly soon but it's a fantastic way to
manage and track all of your expenses along a similar subject let's talk very
briefly about tax and in particular v80 most renovation work that you're going
to be involved in is going to be standard rated for be 80 at 20% however
if you use a builder or subcontractors that are not registered for v80
completely aboveboard you can save yourself the cost of the
v80 on the labor components straightaway also tax savings are very much available
on any listed buildings that you're looking at and and also and this is a
real big one if you're changing the number of the dwellings on the
particular project that you're looking at so for example if you've got a house
and you're turning that into two flats or Paris just split thought you're
spinning it vertically and changing it into two houses or something along those
lines there's some seriously big savings available ultimately you need to check
this out though because I'm not an accountant or tax specialist you need to
check this out with your property savvy accountant if you do that you might be
surprised at what you can sell what you can save let's talk very briefly about
design consider colors and styles from the very outset I slowed down when I
said that because I've made this mistake many times before but you need to
consider colors and designs from the out very outset and
be makeup of color palettes are you familiar with Adobe color wheel it is a
fantastic way so pick and choose colors that coordinate a matching really well
with each other check it out Adobe color wheel but you'd
be really impressed with that keep in mind it's not about what you want it's
all about what does the market want what do your potential tenants of course if
you're selling it your potential buyers of that property what do they want and
from real inspiration you've got to go and check out if you haven't already
done so the IKEA little sort of mini houses and flats for some fantastic
design ideas you'll be really really impressed of what they've actually got
to offer they're a well-designed property will rent far more quickly I
promise you it will and it will honestly make you more money so this is something
that you really want to get right and my last tip is to photograph everything
both before and after it is fantastic from a refinancing standpoint and
ultimately when you're sitting down with a potential investor and they've got a
hundred thousand pounds burning and holding their pocket you can demonstrate
that you're good at what you do for more tips and tricks like this be sure to
subscribe to my channel here and also download this 50-point checklist this is
going to really help you the next time you want to build or develop any kind of
property yourself my name's Tony Law from Your First Four Houses with online
training that helps build your property portfolio :-)