After remodeling 5 properties and spending in the six-figures doing so, these are the top 7 mistakes I’ve made along the way that you can avoid - and hopefully this will end up saving you a lot of money in the future! Enjoy! — Feel free to add me on Snapchat / Instagram: GPStephan
1. Going with Cheap Materials. You save a lot of money upfront going with cheap materials. Especially as a rental, it’s a fine balance between the cost of an item and what gets the most return from rent. Although cheap materials might save you in the short term, they end up costing you more money long term when they break or need to be replaced. Cheap flooring is one of the big ones - spend a little extra money on durable, long lasting floors. Same with paint.
2. Not fixing everything you can. Don’t put something off because it doesn’t need to be repaired right now. When remodeling a property, it’s a lot easier to get it done the right way, immediately, than put it off until it gets worse. For me, this has frequently been electrical and plumbing. Do not let it get to the point of breaking at 1am before you take action to fix it - get it done now, spend the extra money because you’ll need to do it anyway at some point, so get it done sooner than later.
3. Going with carpet for rentals. Carpet is another one of those things that’s cheap to get done, looks good, but needs to be replaced so often. In a rental, carpet gets dirty and disgusting very, very quickly and needs to be changed out between renters. Replacing carpet once will be more expensive than just having done laminate floors from the beginning.
4. Underestimating repairs. It’ll always be more expensive than what you think. When you start remodeling, you begin noticing all the other small items that you should fix. Unexpected items always come up. When you start to open walls, you find more problems. I recommend adding on 10-20% of the project in your mind and expect to go over budget. It’ll cost you more than you think.
5. Underestimating time. It always takes longer than you think for that exact reason. You end up doing more work, it takes longer, people run late, it happens. Give yourself an extra few weeks for every process to give yourself a more realistic time frame.
6. Not knowing what I was doing. Don’t be completely blind to the process and do your own research. Landscape example. Watch youtube videos.
7. Trust the workers entirely. People are people and they make mistakes. Even if they don’t, sometimes what you have in your head doesn’t translate and communicate well to someone else. You’ll need to supervise and watch over the work to make sure it’s being done as you want it.
Overall, follow these 7 mistakes that I have made and learn from my experiences. Hopefully this will end up saving you a lot of money if you end up renovating your own place!
Thanks again for watching!
For business/music inquiries, you can reach me at GrahamStephanBusiness @gmail.com
Suggested reading:
The Millionaire Real Estate Agent: http://goo.gl/TPTSVC
Your money or your life: https://goo.gl/fmlaJR
The Millionaire Real Estate Investor: https://goo.gl/sV9xtl
How to Win Friends and Influence People: https://goo.gl/1f3Meq
Think and grow rich: https://goo.gl/SSKlyu
Awaken the giant within: https://goo.gl/niIAEI
The Book on Rental Property Investing: https://goo.gl/qtJqFq
1. Going with Cheap Materials. You save a lot of money upfront going with cheap materials. Especially as a rental, it’s a fine balance between the cost of an item and what gets the most return from rent. Although cheap materials might save you in the short term, they end up costing you more money long term when they break or need to be replaced. Cheap flooring is one of the big ones - spend a little extra money on durable, long lasting floors. Same with paint.
2. Not fixing everything you can. Don’t put something off because it doesn’t need to be repaired right now. When remodeling a property, it’s a lot easier to get it done the right way, immediately, than put it off until it gets worse. For me, this has frequently been electrical and plumbing. Do not let it get to the point of breaking at 1am before you take action to fix it - get it done now, spend the extra money because you’ll need to do it anyway at some point, so get it done sooner than later.
3. Going with carpet for rentals. Carpet is another one of those things that’s cheap to get done, looks good, but needs to be replaced so often. In a rental, carpet gets dirty and disgusting very, very quickly and needs to be changed out between renters. Replacing carpet once will be more expensive than just having done laminate floors from the beginning.
4. Underestimating repairs. It’ll always be more expensive than what you think. When you start remodeling, you begin noticing all the other small items that you should fix. Unexpected items always come up. When you start to open walls, you find more problems. I recommend adding on 10-20% of the project in your mind and expect to go over budget. It’ll cost you more than you think.
5. Underestimating time. It always takes longer than you think for that exact reason. You end up doing more work, it takes longer, people run late, it happens. Give yourself an extra few weeks for every process to give yourself a more realistic time frame.
6. Not knowing what I was doing. Don’t be completely blind to the process and do your own research. Landscape example. Watch youtube videos.
7. Trust the workers entirely. People are people and they make mistakes. Even if they don’t, sometimes what you have in your head doesn’t translate and communicate well to someone else. You’ll need to supervise and watch over the work to make sure it’s being done as you want it.
Overall, follow these 7 mistakes that I have made and learn from my experiences. Hopefully this will end up saving you a lot of money if you end up renovating your own place!
Thanks again for watching!
For business/music inquiries, you can reach me at GrahamStephanBusiness @gmail.com
Suggested reading:
The Millionaire Real Estate Agent: http://goo.gl/TPTSVC
Your money or your life: https://goo.gl/fmlaJR
The Millionaire Real Estate Investor: https://goo.gl/sV9xtl
How to Win Friends and Influence People: https://goo.gl/1f3Meq
Think and grow rich: https://goo.gl/SSKlyu
Awaken the giant within: https://goo.gl/niIAEI
The Book on Rental Property Investing: https://goo.gl/qtJqFq
wow
so this how Elon Musk would have looked like if he'd entered rental business
Thank you 🙏
Laminate hardwood floors are the absolute WORSE.
My biggest mistake is not supervising regret it with ever drop of blood on me $$$
Ditch the music
cool
respiration by blakstarr ft common grooving in the background was soooo sauuccyy!!!
that because people don't take care of it, the way it should be taken care of!
Water proof engineered hardwood flooring. When I gutted the carpet on one of rental properties and installed that, I’ve yet to have a tenant complain about it and they like it.
I love it, informative!
How do you budget for renovations?
Where do you get the funds to renovate rental properties??
Thank you this is great 👍🏻. It might be even better in the future without the music and a lav mic to make it easier to hear your words of wisdom. Great material though!!
😊🙏🏻😊
“SunCor Financial MPI review"
1. cheap/poor quality materials
2. not fixing everything you can
3. carpet in rental properties
4. underestimating costs
5. underestimating renovation time
6. not knowing what youre doing
7. not supervising work
Blackstar!
He has a hip hop beat playing? Hmmmm.
So cool to find an old video by Gram on something still helpful
Graham works so hard , i want to be like Graham he should run for office.
Thanks a ton Graham. I'm getting ready to renovate one of the units in a multi-unit property and this was really helpful. Took notes and plan to apply them.
Really good advice…. 9.5/10
watching this 16 years old planning to buy, renovate and rent the house in the future.
Do it right, do it once
Hey what advice do you have for someone who has no experience at all with remodeling houses but want to learn and make it a business?
Great video thank you!
Great background music.
There's lots of ways to arrange contracts depends on there experience and skill.
That Blackstar loop tho.
remodddling is stupid
AKA- do your fkn homework before renovating a home. DUHHHHH
Hey Graham, could really use your advice on this. I live in ny and my market is to expensive for me to make anything unless the numbers are perfect so I’m investing out of state and was wondering what your opinion was because I will be states away and not able to be on the sight while the renovations are happening, it’s making me stressed because it’s the one thing I really want to do is be there and I physically won’t be able to while I’m at work here in New York. Do you have any suggestions for me? I would greatly appreciate any response, thank you so much! Love your videos btw I learn a lot from you
What a good video. Thank you for sharing. If I can give a suggestion. Lower the music volume to the point, where it is felt, but that it doesn't distract from your message.