In Focus – Tanya Blackley
Can you make money in the current market? Just ask Tanya Blackley, who together with her partner Casey Bennett just finished the last coat of paint yesterday on a renovation project which increased the value of the property to $1Million in just 8 weeks.
How is it possible?
Tanya and Casey purchased a dilapidated 1800's Victorian house, divided into 4 flats, in Leura (Blue Mountains) on 19th May this year. The 1950's newspapers under the floor coverings proved that it was a renovator's delight and that they were undertaking a mammoth task. The couple knew the importance of being organised. Three weeks before settlement they managed to gain just one day access to the property and in that one day arranged for 25 tradesmen to call in to give them a quote…a busy day indeed!
On the shopping list were 4 new kitchens and bathrooms, carpet, paint plus landscaping. They only had 3 weeks to come up with a plan of attack. Luckily they had attended a previous workshop, where they learnt that the best way to keep track of a project is by using a Gantt chart. Click on gantt_chart.pdf (11.5 KB) to view the Gantt chart.
Casey used his annual leave and spent the first 4 weeks living on site as project manager, while Tanya travelled from Sydney on weekends to get her hands dirty. Having no usable toilet Tanya endured using the backyard bushes in the Blue Mountains in the middle of winter.
There was no time for girlie habits for Tanya during the reno process. She let her hair go wild and had no fingernails. She did have one break when relatives arrived two weeks ago. They went to a resort and Tanya enjoyed a massage and a good scrub. She was feeling fantastic until Casey reminded her that they needed to go back to finsh off the renos the next day.
You’ll be happy to know that Tanya finally went to the hairdresser yesterday. The hairdresser found paint embedded in her hair from 5 weeks ago.
However, she now looks like her old self ready for a flight to Dubai tonight.
The results
Despite a slight blow out of time and budget, Tanya and Casey are ecstatically happy with the results. It's been a long 8 weeks, Casey and I have used up all of our annual leave and juggled work with the renovation, but its been well worth it!!”
We have managed to make an equity gain of $470k on the original $530k purchase price (We got the $1 million valuation) and we have more than tripled the rent to over $1000 a week…!!
| Purchase Price | $530,000 |
| Renovation Cost | $85,000 |
| Current Valuation | $1,000,000 |
| Rent at time of purchase/week | $300 |
| Current rent/week | $1,080 |
| Turnaround Time | 8 weeks |
One of the Kitchen’s before Renovation….
Same Kitchen’s after Renovation…
The incentive
When Tanya met Casey he already had an investment property which he'd purchased 6 years ago. They spent some time extensively travelling and came back to Australia wondering how they could fund a travelling lifestyle. Tanya reflects, Property opened our eyes to being freer! They decided to use property to fund their dreams, got themselves educated and got themselves into action.
They began investing in December 2007. Within 6 months they had undertaken 2 renovation projects and went on to use the equity gains to fund the big one. Our goal was to fund travelling for the rest of our lives.
With the Reno Project being completed yesterday, Tanya and Casey are living their dream right now…they fly out to Dubai tonight. We did it…one more renovation and then we retired!
Tanya aged 28 and Casey aged 29 now have the rest of their lives to live their dreams.
The future
With a desirable portfolio under their wings, Tanya and Casey will explore investment options in Dubai while keeping an eye on the Australian market at the same time. They plan to travel for the rest of their lives.
Tanya's Tips
- Getting the first one is hard, but it gets easier from then on
- Its scary out there but get in now, its only going to get better
- Enjoy yourself, its so much fun its a blast
- The hardwork you put in now will be all worthwhile
- Get yourself educated
- Come up with the concept to suit you
- Gain inspiration from the right people
- Take that first step
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