The winner of home renovation TV show Our First Home has gone back to where it all started for him – renovating and flipping homes for profit.
Jono Frankle – who won the first season of TVNZ’s renovation programme Our First Home with wife Karen and her parents Tom and Robyn Schreuder in 2015 – has just flipped his first home in two years following a hiatus.
Under the show’s format, the parents help their adult children buy a house which they then renovated over 10 weeks. The Schreuder’s Titirangi house sold for $721,000 with them taking home $290,400 made up of profit from the sale and $100,000 prize money.
Immediately after the show, Frankle switched from tennis coaching to renovating and flipping properties, racking up about 10 completed houses.
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He took a few years off when he bought a property investment coaching and seminar business, Wealth Mentor, but now he’s back doing it on the side in partnership with several silent investors.
At the end of last year, he bought a four-bedroom do-up on Antrim Crescent in Otara, Auckland, for $575,000 and after a massive renovation, resold it earlier this month for $735,000.
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Enjoying being back involved in the transformation process and leading by example, Frankle is now on the hunt for more properties to do up and flick.
“At the moment I don’t have the next one lined up. I’ve actually got one under contract, but I need to go and view it, I’m bidding on a few at auction next week – it's just trying to get the next one in.”
The majority of properties he buys are in South Auckland because the lower price point makes it more accessible for people.
The key to making it work as a business, he said, is making sure the figures work and that starts with buying the property for the right price.
“It’s the ability to either buy it below its market value or the ability to add value because both of those end up counting towards your profit.”
The home on Antrim Crescent, in Otara, Auckland, which Frankle sold earlier this year for $735,000. Photo / Supplied
The Antrim Cres property had what Frankle described as a “low-spec” makeover with the two key areas – the kitchen and bathroom – being replaced and brought into the 21st century.
The bathroom cost just $5000 and the kitchen was $8000 including appliances, but some renovations can cost up to $100,000 depending on whether more major work is needed such as re-piling or re-roofing and the level of specification required.
“You are still putting new kitchens in, but you are not going soft closing doors, you are not going handle-less door, you are not going stone benchtops because the area and the target market that’s not what they desire – price point is more important for them.”
Choosing neutral colours is also important to appeal to a wider buyer pool who could then make their mark on it, he said.
Frankle said being on Our First Home had taught him how important property management was because they had to complete such a huge renovation in a tight frame.
“I think that’s probably still really key with what I do now making sure that everything is planned properly so we can try and get the job done as quick as possible because when you are in a market – especially a slightly more volatile market – you want to not be sitting on the property for too long, you want to make sure you get that renovation done and get out of the market as soon as possible.”
The before photo of the dated kitchen in Antrim Crescent. Photo / Supplied
The new kitchen cost $8000 and transformed the home. Photo / Supplied
Despite working on a three-month turnaround from settlement to settlement, he never relies on the market improving when calculating whether a property will work as a flip.
“I run the numbers based on current position – there's always a little bit of contingency in there for any sort of movements and also just having the ability again to be in the deal for less time gives you a little bit more confidence in being able to achieve those numbers.”
He relies on a few trusty tradespeople to carry out the work and still gets help from father-in-law Tom Schreuder, a builder who ended up being their secret weapon on the show, to help with the finishing touches.
Working with wife Karen’s family on their first do-up is what prompted his move from tennis coach to property trader and helped him have a better work-life balance.
“When we did Our First Home, straight away I went, ‘well I’m a tennis coach and I’m doing a lot of hours on the tennis court and not earning that much money and not having the ability to spend time with my family’.”
Frankle and Karen have two daughters, aged seven and four, who also often tag along to help choose carpet for a do-up or to view houses.
“It brings it back to that whole family thing which was obviously massive for us during Our First Home.
“Just seeing the transformation from the houses is pretty cool. It’s so rewarding to take something that’s not nice at all and not many people would want to live there to a product that many people love – that's hugely rewarding as well.”
While some people are against making money on property, he argues he's providing a service just like any other industry.
“In my view what I’m doing is taking properties that are undesirable for many people – and people don’t want to buy them or live in them – and producing a property that people love and fall in love with,” he said.
“We’ve heard in the past of people turning up at our houses that we’ve renovated, and they fall in love with it, they are crying on settlement day because they know that they are home and you produced that.”
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