City of Parramatta duplex development

Looks good.
The bathroom looks a bit grand, what sort of stone is that?

 

HI @Azazel, You mean the tiles? It's just Livingstone Grey 300X600 mate. The true color isn't coming through yet due to all the dirt on the tiles so I'll take again when its all cleaned.

 

Ah Ok.
Shows what I know, I think it looks good like that

 

OK noted, will leave all the dirt on tiles for the tenants..

 

I like the green bench tops and i haven't seen the camo basins, very modern!

Looks great! Are you still DIYing the letterbox and landscaping? ...I'm talking a guess and saying no good choice

 

bob shovel, post: 277211, member: 88"]I like the green bench tops and i haven't seen the camo basins, very modern!

@bob shovel, Thank you, thank you (Leo takes a bow)

Looks great! Are you still DIYing the letterbox and landscaping? ...I'm talking a guess and saying no good choice

hehe you're right, no chance . I got a great contractor doing the landscaping and fencing to go in any time now.

 

Looking good. The OCD in me is really concerned the niche by the kitchen isn't centred and the 2 switches on either side of it are different heights.
Yup #firstworldproblems!

 

OK confession with the niche.. tbh I have no idea how it got in there lol I think it was on some early plans but got deleted, (or so I thought). The builder said he could just block it up but I decided to just leave it and we're gonna put a mirror inside. Everything is in really, minus garage doors. Just waiting for a clean up then i'll take some pics when I get back to Sydney. We had issues with council , I cant really disclose too much about it but that has delayed us otherwise it would have been finished weeks ago..sigh. But all in all we're quite happy with the end result.

 

@Westminster There are 2 steps there with one switch being on the kitchen level and the other being on foyer area. There is a step down so the light switches ihog follow the house levels.

 

Well that does make sense.

 

Hi leo, how much does demolish cost you? what condition of the original house? i.e. single brick/double brick etc. Thanks in advance mate.

 

Old fibro house, single level with pool and decent amount of asbestos, cost 16k if i remember correctly.

 

Thanks Leo, my one is single level with double brick three bedroom house, one garage, as well as some stones at the backyard (leveled), I have got quotes between 19k-21k, and I have been told I might also get lots of asbestos as well... wondering the price is reasonable comparing with your fibro house.

Anything need to be aware of or tips you can possibly advice based on your experience?

Cheers
Tony

 

Sounds reasonable to me especially if the quotes are coming back in that range. Be careful with the exclusions of the demolition and also if there is a limit on how much asbestos is allowed for before you have to pay extra, which goes by weight. So if the asbestos is bonded to other materials then it all gets weighed unfortunately.

 

Noted, thanks heaps, will keep these in mind

 

...........waiting impatiently for more photos

 

Patience is a virtue

 

Hi Leo

Would you recommend your builder and do they have standard designs for duplex's which you can modify / change?

 

I'm about to do a small write up with photos and will give some feedback on that mate. Just doing it in the next few moments.

 

OK! So this is pretty much the end of the project. Driveway to finally go in next week but its nothing to do with the builder. I do not have valuations back yet so I will use projected ones for now based on recent sales and will update the actual valuation when it comes in. .


If you go back to right at the beginning of this thread all the major costs are there, I’m just bringing forward the basic numbers:


Total development cost: $1,709,605 less 21k (reconciled from the OSD as actuals were less) PLUS 22k for driveway and landscaping. (This does not take into account CGT, selling costs.)

Revised TDC $1,710,605. There was also 50k allocated for the contingency. Some of that went for extra holding costs, extra piering…and something else tbh I can’t remember right now but it definitely hasn’t gone over the 50k allocation. I am going to assume all the 50k was used up for the sake of these numbers to er on the side of being conservative.

Total projected valuation based on similar sales: $2,800,000 (I will update when the valuations come in once subdivided).


Return on TDC as a percentage: 63.6%

Equity created in dollar amount: $1,089,395

Rental Appraisal: $925-950/week for each

When you take into account depreciation etc it should be positively geared between $150-200/week each. Worst case $100-$150/week/each.


PLAN: The plan is very simple. Hold both stock as +CF and extract all the equity to put into more development projects lined up.


A few notes:

When we did the feasibility the numbers stacked up at around 25% return on TDC. We bought in a rising market and our plan was to make a decent return but we knew that if the market kept growing then we could have even better returns (perhaps). We had no idea how much the market would grow and give us returns that far exceeded our expectations. It’s a mixture of planning, putting ourselves in a good situation and a lot of luck that the market did what it did. Worst case if the market stopped growing at that time, the deal would still stack up which was the main reason for us to go ahead with the project. I have a firm belief that if you at least put yourself in good situations.. at some point at least a few of them will be stellar. Don't know which ones or when, but know its gonna happen at some point.


The builder Pros:

- Did a decent job on the building.

- Easy to communicate with most of the time.

- Competitive quote for the works

- Plenty of access to myself to enter the site without issue

- Addressed my concerns at a decent speed.

Cons:

- Went over time on the construction by approx. 5 weeks. There were some rainy days plus council hold ups that were out of his control really. I don’t want to say too much about council but let me just say it was challenging because we needed an easement from them and they were very picky as to how the SW was being constructed. It was managed well in the end and I’m grateful to council for allowing the project to go ahead

- A little slow with getting back to me on some issues that I’m sure added to the delay of the project. Other than that, I really have no gripes. I’m sure also what added to the delay was I was inaccessible at times (when they and council needed to contact me) being extremely busy on other projects which most likely added to some delay. (This is an issue I need to work on as I get busier and busier )

I'll post some pictures now, apologies if there are too many. Also I want to thank all the posters in this thread who provided me feedback, help, encouragement, ideas, support and encouragement along the way. Also had many laughs, it was a great journey for me. Especially want to thank @York who helped me look after things when I was overseas/interstate for a lot of the time, and helping me source rental agents. Really appreciate your help mate.

I acknowledge its not 'perfect' in every detail and to be honest I would change/add a few things but hindsight is 20/20. This is the best we could do on this project.




(Photos were taken from both duplex so keep that in mind if your wondering why certain parts don't fit from the last picture). All its missing is staging to make the colours pop, but no need as we're renting.

Just in from the front door. After that dwarf wall there is a small sitting room/tv room (I don't think I have a pic of that soz) That left door is internal door from the garage.



lol well I have partial view of that 'tv room' to the right there.





Full size mirror to be in niche







Stairs side view with storage door.









Laundry. Mirror to go on top of splashback