An elderly homeowner is fulfilling his dream and transforming his home of more than three decades into a modern property which he will then sell instead of watching it be flipped by someone else for a hefty profit.
The man’s Glenfield Road home failed to sell at auction last month and he later received several offers from property traders who planned to renovate and resell it for a profit. Other conditional offers drifted in from first-home buyers, who his agent said may have struggled to get finance due to the state of the property.
At the same time, the 86-year-old had a completely different offer from Simm Projects director Jared Simm who wanted to fund and carry out a major renovation on the house and split any additional profit made with him.
After weighing up the offers which were all around a similar price and significantly under the RV of $1.5 million, Harvey, the homeowner, decided to hand his keys over to Simm.
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The revitalised home will go back on the market once it is renovated from top to toe and the pair will evenly share any profit achieved above what it would have sold for in its poor condition minus the renovation cost.
Simm said Harvey was buzzing about the project and seemed to be just as excited about seeing his home of 37 years renovated as he was about making some more money.
Simm came up with the idea to help homeowners who didn’t have the cash lying around to achieve higher prices when he was working as a Harcourts real estate agent on the North Shore for three years.
“Then I thought why don’t I just go all out and do full renovations on place and make them a whole lot more money and the same thing I get paid on settlement day.”
The qualified builder chucked in his job as a real estate agent and renovated his first property on Rambler Crescent in Beach Haven at the start of 2023. The owner walked away with an extra $100,000 after the home sold for $982,000 in June, which was well above the $650,000 they estimated the property would get in its dilapidated condition.
The tired lounge in the 1960s home prior to the renovation. Photo / Supplied
The old kitchen and bathroom are being ripped out and replaced, and the entire house remodeled. Photo / Supplied
Harvey’s home is his second full renovation and requires new floors, new kitchen, a repaint, remodeling the inside, new driveway, new gardens, landscaping, decks and some new joinery.
It is being transformed from a three-bedroom to a four-bedroom home by knocking out the separate toilet and laundry, and extending into the patio to create the extra room.
“It’s pretty expansive really.”
The aim is to complete the renovation within six to eight weeks and have it back on the market by mid-November. The project is already in its second week and everything has been stripped out.
Simm is doing as much of the work himself to keep the costs down and doesn’t include his labour in the price.
The budget for the Glenfield Road project is $140,000, but he said it could be well over $200,000 if the homeowner had tried to do it himself.
The properties that work best are those that are vacant, in a poor state and where there’s a lot of scope to improve it without needing timely consent work. He also researches recent sales in the area for renovated homes to gauge what it might sell for.
“Obviously we do a lot of homework before we take these on and make sure it’s going to be in both of our best interests.”
Simm said there was as much, if not more, risk for him taking on a project like this because he could end up being out of pocket if the property did not sell beyond the agreed price as he still had to pay for the materials and specialised tradespeople.
A dilapidated three-bedroom, one-bathroom on Rambler Crescent, in Beach Haven, sold for $982,000 in June after being extensively renovated by Simm Projects. Photos / Supplied
The Rambler Crescent kitchen after an extensive makeover. Photo / Supplied
Harcourts salesperson Deb Talbot-King, who marketed the property in its original condition and will be relisting it once it is renovated, said it had been quite an emotional decision for Harvey as he had to choose between the “quite good” offers tabled after the auction or embarking on the project.
However, she said her lovely vendor decided to fulfil his dream of seeing his old home done up before cutting ties with it.
“Really the best thing was to get that house done up. It needed to go to someone that was a trader and I think this is just the best scenario.”
By choosing this offer Harvey got a share of any profit from the renovation rather than watch from afar while a property trader made it all.
Talbot-King said the late-1960s home was ahead of its time because it had been architecturally designed and had some great features such as the cedar cladding and aluminium joinery.
The renovation would also make the property more attractive to a much wider buyer type, she said.
“It’s going to be perfect for a lovely family home and hopefully we will have them in before Christmas. He works really fast.”
Talbot-King was really excited about the project and shared a glass of bubbles with Harvey and his daughter at the house before the renovation started so he could see it before the work began.
She was now counting down the days until she could return to the house with the owner next month for the big reveal.
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