Buy Houses

Maximum Returns, Minimum Outlay

When renting out properties as vacation houses, potential clients often look at its layout and construction, the number of bedrooms and its distance from commercial and recreational areas. Though comfort and presentation is vital, property owners need not spend much on renovating their property. A new application of paint or thorough cleaning the house can do the trick.

You can also replace key elements in certain areas of a property. You need not replace all the furniture in the living room for replacing a carpet or two can give it a new look. As for the kitchen, you can change the door handles or the cupboards. For the bathroom, tile re-grouting can give it a better ambiance. If the property is within coastal surroundings, neutral colours would blend better.

Installing bigger beds can also increase your rental income. A three-bedroom house can accommodate as much as ten people by placing two queen-size beds and two bunks with trundle beds. You may also add additional features that can attract more people such as open fireplaces.

Having an outdoor activity area for barbecues adds to the appeal of the property and can increase your income as well. If the property is near the beach, you can add an outdoor shower or a storage area for surfboards. It would also help if you have a big yard where boats can be parked.

When marketing a coastal property, take note of its advantages as compared to nearby properties. If you feel like it lacks an “it” factor, it is time to improve your property. You can renovate the property but this means that you will not have rental income for a certain period of time. However, the renovations that you will make must recuperate the renovation expenses that you had.

If you are planning to sell the property, you can renovate the kitchen area or the bathroom to make it more appealing. Bigger windows, decks and hot water systems can entice more potential buyers. It is best to sell a coastal property before Christmas up until the early days of February for there is high interest in these properties. However, it would be wise to check if the property market in the area is in steady ground.

Building Your Own Home

Building a home is always a tough process. However, it comes with some advantages. Figures show that the expenses for building from scratch is 20 to 30 percent cheaper than renovating on a per square meter basis. Also, there is a sense of achievement once you have seen that the house has been finished. You can build your own home in a number of ways and one of them is with a  house and land packages.

The house and land package is the all-in-one aspect of buying a property. In this package, you will buy the land and the house from the developer. The developer will offer various house designs and allotments within his developed community. Once you are sure in purchasing the house, a ten percent deposit must be paid and the balance will be paid via monthly repayments.

You may also purchase your homes from project home companies that build a lot of properties that sport the same design. The land will be purchased separately and the home will then be built. You can also purchase custom-built homes that focus on quality and not on quantity. Since each house has its own design, it is more expensive than the properties in project homes.

There are also kit homes that you can purchase. The construction materials and floor plans will be delivered to the land that you have purchased and all you need are some builders to have it erected. Though its building cost is cheaper, you must choose a reliable builder to make sure that the property that will be erected is certified.

During construction, make sure that your builder is licensed and that they have a builder’s registration. This certification will certify the quality work of the builder. If time comes when a part of the construction falters, the certificate will also provide information on who to seek after. You can contact the Master Builders Association for the list of accredited builders in your community.

You may also seek advice from neighbours, friends, architects or other professionals about selecting a builder. It would also help if you will have time to check the other properties that the builder has developed in the past to make sure on their quality of work.

Then, you would have to sign a building contract. This contract contains the architectural blue prints for the property, quotations and the actual building contract document itself. Any labour job that is above $200 must always have a written contract. Before signing, make sure that a lawyer has checked the contract first in your behalf.

The warranties for the project must also be contained in the contract. These warranties include the materials used for construction, the project’s legal compliance, the builder’s quality of work, the completion time for the property and the physical qualifications of the builders for the job. This warranty will protect you from fly-by-night construction work.

However, be mindful of the fact that uncontrollable delays can come as the property is being constructed. Some of these uncontrollable circumstances are price blowouts, construction delays due to lack of manpower, bad weather, price blowouts and even disputes with building authorities or neighbours. To avoid disputes, you should get a fixed price contract from the builder.