Bathroom renovation

Hi,

Just wanted to get some ideas/ strategies from people in regards to a bathroom renovation. In the past I used to conduct renovations when there are no tenants in the property, but this time around, I need to do this while there is a tenant in place. Yes, could wait until the tenant leaves, but doing this because I want to revalue the property to another lender and get a better interest rate.

The property has a single bathroom and if there are work being completed, this needs to be considered. What I would like to do is update a rather old bathroom and modernise it with 4 in 1 light, new vanity and cupboards, tiling everywhere, frameless shower screens, modern taps and fixtures and toilet seat.

Maybe a staggered approach to getting it done? I also want to do some other things to the property such as modernise the lighting, blinds, painting and etc to hopefully have a favourable valuation.

 

Also maybe check with the tenant to see if they have any holidays/travel planned - even if they are only out of the house for a few days, it might be long enough to have the bulk of the inconvenient work done then.

 

I would see if you can get a better rate via a desktop val first, before putting your tenants through that.

Some lenders don't care what LVR you're at so you could look to refi regardless - depending on the rate differential, a small amount of LMI my pay for itself pretty quickly.

Check with your broker as you may have more options than you think.

 

Thank you all. Preferably, wouldn't want to do this to a tenant but it will save $650 per month for the better interest rate.

 

Well the valuer who was conservative for the last one, so thought that prior to the current valuation report expiring, do some cosmetic renovation to increase the chances of receiving a favourable valuation. Feel that a couple of things did let me down.

But to answer your question it's to move to another lender and yes LVR too.

 

As far as getting all the work done, there's lots of variables- depends on the tenants attitude and what relationship you have with them, thinking outside the box (i.e. holidays), how you can work around them, etc.

Tenants are often not a fan of big work being done with them in place because it's quite inconvenient for them AND most importantly, is usually a precursor to a rent increase.

Bathrooms are particularly difficult when there's only one bathroom. You usually have to find some way of providing them access to a bathroom during the renovation, which is never cheap.

 

Tenants can and will make it difficult unless you have a good relationship with them. They will not want to be inconvenienced for yourself. They are paying rent to rent the whole house not parts of the house when renovations are happening.

Maybe offer a rent reduciton during this time. Also with the bathroom, you can hire a full bathroom toilet and shower all in one and not badly priced either. I had to do this for an owner before.

But I would suggest trying to speak to the tenant before going ahead with renovations

 

Going to do some patches of the work.

The first couple of things which I'll like to do:
- Stage 1: tiling for the external areas, roofing/ guttering, roof spraying and fencing. May consider external paint of the house to give it a 'rendered' look like I have done previously with another property.
- Stage 2: customised roller blinds to get rid of the tacky old stuff and change all existing lights to modern lights
- Stage 3: partial internal painting and cosmetic bathroom. Would have liked to do a complete bathroom renovation but think this may have to wait until there's no tenant in place.

Not going to increase rent as the tenant is fairly good and going to make the enormous savings from the valuation. I think the other good thing about the tenant is he has very few items in the house and is ok with the renovations.

 

Sounds like a great plan! Always nice to see LL's and Tenants work together for results like this.

P.S. Please go with LED downlights for the lighting!