Find out the secrets to choosing and renovating the right one
If you want to buy historic homes and restore them to what they once were, you need to do your homework.
Beautiful old historic homes can hide many flaws and issues that need fixing. And the fixes are often eye-wateringly expensive, especially if the house is heritage listed.
We’ve been lucky enough to buy and renovate two historic houses and learn a few things about them.
The first home was in Mount Gambier, South Australia, and the second home, known as Sleatbank, is in Victoria.
We lovingly restored and sold the first home, and the second, Sleatbank, is a work in progress.
We’ve definitely had “what have we done” moments.
But at the end of the day, we’ve had no regrets about restoring these homes to their former glory.
So, what lessons have we learnt?
Inspections are a must!
No matter how deeply you’ve fallen in love with an older home, you need to take your time.
Rushing in and buying a home without a proper building and pest report can spell financial disaster.
Take it from someone who should have known better. We have been reckless enough to do this, and we’re real estate agents, so we understand how tempting it can be.
Right now, we’re waiting to have 173 footings to be replaced. And even though we knew we’d probably need to do this (the uneven floor was a bit of a giveaway), we had no idea how much it would cost.
A thorough building and pest report will identify any faults, whether they can be repaired and approximately how much it will cost to fix them.
These reports also identify any unsafe or unauthorised renovations and extensions, which may need to be removed or bought up to code.
Because you’re looking at historic homes, you should get an expert to carry out an asbestos inspection, as older homes can be riddled with asbestos. Asbestos is not only hazardous, but it can also be hideously expensive to have removed.
These reports will help you go in with your eyes wide open and give you a clear picture of whether you can afford an older property.
Look at the home’s heritage
If the home is heritage listed, there will be certain things you cannot do and certain things you are required to do.
Complying with heritage-listed requirements can be expensive as they require you to use certain materials that are not always readily available, or they might require skills that are only provided by a select few trades.
Are we saying don’t buy a heritage-listed property?
Not at all. Properly renovated homes can sell for a premium price.
But make sure you know what you’re in for financially before you make an offer on it.
It’s worth talking to your local heritage advisor about the work you want to do and talking to the local historical society to get to know the property.
Budget, budget, budget
Unfortunately, not many of us have unlimited supplies of money.
Make sure you calculate how much you can realistically spend on a property. And stick to your budget. Don’t be tempted to push yourself out of your financial comfort zone.
Make sure you allow for the amount you’ll need for renovations and restoration.
And you’ll need to have a healthy contingency for those unexpected costs that pop up. The rule of thumb is to have a 10% contingency fee, but with rising material and labour costs, 20% is probably more sensible.
It’s a terrible idea to blow your whole budget on purchasing a historic home and not have enough money to make it liveable.
Once you have figured out the restoration costs, you can make an offer on a home.
How do you find out how much renovations will cost?
Talk to tradies with excellent reputations and ask them for a quote.
It can be difficult, and has been particularly hard during Covid, to get trades to come out and provide a quote because they have been so busy. But the building and renovation boom is starting to plateau, so you should be able to find builders, electricians, plumbers and the like to come out and give you an estimate.
We watch The Block every year, and it always astounds us how many contestants experience budget blowouts. We think it is usually a case of spending beyond their capacity. Or getting caught up in the moment.
Know what you’ve got to spend, and don’t be tempted to buy those costly tiles or gorgeous lounge suites that exceed your budget.
And keep an accurate running tally of what you have spent, so you know what you have left to finish the home.
Don’t over-capitalise!
Ask a neutral real estate agent (i.e. not the one you’re buying from) how much your home will be worth if it’s finished to a certain standard.
Do your research and see what comparable properties are selling for.
You don’t want to over-capitalise (which is improving or spending more on a home than it can be sold for).
Why?
Because if you need to sell the home for any reason, you don’t want to lose money.
By getting quotes for the work that needs to be carried out, you can identify if you’ll spend too much.
Get the order right
It can be so tempting to buy a home and get stuck into the renovations the moment you get the keys.
We did this.
We madly started painting, laying new carpets, and replacing windows and shutters. It was exciting, and we got swept away.
We were devastated when we found out that the house needed restumping and that restumping could ruin the work we’d done.
Not only is it sad to have to stop and wait, but it can also cost extra money to redo the things you have already carried out.
Trades or a project manager should be able to tell you what order to do things in.
Pause for a second
Before you start renovating, sit with the home for a bit. If it’s habitable, live in it.
The ideas you initially came up with might change dramatically once you’ve had time to get comfortable and figure out how you’ll live in the house.
Choosing the purpose of a room can come down to where the sun sits at various parts of the day. And that’s hard to know if you haven’t spent much time in the home.
At Sleatbank, for instance, we found that the kitchen was a dark and dingy space that would benefit from being moved elsewhere.
And we’re still trying to figure out what to do with the five living rooms.
Yes, you read that right, five living rooms. A number that far exceeds the number of living rooms we need!
Maybe they’ll become bedrooms. Perhaps we’ll add an old-school formal dining room. We’re undecided, but the point is, if we hadn’t lived in it for a while, we would have got the layout all wrong.
Be inspired
Nobody knows everything about restoring and renovating homes.
New trends evolve. New techniques surface. And innovative new materials appear.
Even interior designers look to the work of others to gain inspiration.
Of course, you can look at what people are doing on Pinterest. And you can make boards for each room of your house. It’s a neat way of developing and saving your ideas and seeing if they have a sense of consistency.
Or you can look at magazines. Country Style, or the New Zealand version of House and Garden, are a great source of ideas for old rural homes.
But there’s nothing quite like seeing the real thing.
Go to open houses (I have to admit that this is a bit of a hobby of mine) and see what other homeowners have done with their historic homes.
The use of colour is rising, and many people are getting a bit sick of greys, blacks and sterile whites.
That doesn’t mean you have to go colour mad. A neutral backdrop, like our soft White Duck walls, is an excellent idea because it allows you to change things up as fashions change.
You can purchase cushions, rugs and décor items to brighten things up and add depth or layers to your home’s interior.
Be nice to your builder
Builders and other trades work hard. Their work is physically exhausting, and their clients aren’t always nice to them.
Show your builder and trades some love, and they’re more likely to do a quality job and go the extra mile for you.
This can be as simple as offering them a cold drink on sweltering hot days or letting them use your bathroom.
Talk to them well and focus on building a relationship, not just a house.
Our last build was smooth sailing because we got on well with our builders, and conversations around money were easy.
The result was that our builder delivered a premium quality home on budget and on time. We know others who haven’t nurtured these relationships, and they end up with average results and unexpected cost blowouts.
Everybody loses when you don’t have a good relationship with your builder and trades.
Conclusion: Buying and renovating an historic home can be a joy, but there is also a lot of room for things to go wrong if you’re not careful.
Follow our tips, talk to people who’ve done it before and listen to your trades, and you should have a much better experience with a much better result.
Happy house hunting!
And don’t forget to check out the history of Sleatbank before you go.