by Jemma Pearson Buying a home to renovate sounds like a great way to make money from the property market, but read on before you buy.

If you are thinking about buying to renovate, you’ll need to spend plenty of time planning and researching how best to do it. If you are already living in your home and you want to renovate to sell, you will already know what you want to do. What bothers you about your home will probably be the same things that will turn off potential buyers. But when you haven’t yet bought your renovator, it’s a bit harder.

Once you’ve bought the home, the usual renovation rules apply, of course. Repainting and replacing outdated fixtures, popping in a new bathroom and kitchen – or at least refreshing these rooms – and landscaping the backyard are usually sensible options. Adding decking to increase indoor-outdoor living is a great idea for homes in our region. But beware of overcapitalising. While you can never know for sure what the market will pay for your home after it is renovated, common sense will help you avoid big mistakes like putting a $60,000 kitchen into a humble, entry-level abode. Look around the neighbourhood and renovate in the style of houses around you. Potential buyers will expect a certain style from your suburb, so sticking to this will increase your chances of a sale.

When you’re buying to renovate to then sell, spend lots of time talking to real estate agents. When they are showing you through properties to buy, ask what it is about the home that has made other potential buyers walk away. Are these small things that can be easily and inexpensively be fixed, or will they require major changes, which will cost plenty of cash that you may not necessarily get back at sale time? Finding out from the agent how to improve a home’s appeal to the market is a must. Spend plenty of time researching how much other original and renovated houses in the area are fetching at sale time – is there a big difference or is it minimal? What kind of changes have been made to the remodelled homes? Knowing the answers to these questions will better prepare you to make the right decision.

Repainting and replacing outdated fixtures, popping in a new bathroom and kitchen – or at least refreshing these rooms – and landscaping the backyard are usually sensible options

Monica Kohler is a project consultant and interior designer from renovation company Smith & Sons. If you are buying to renovate, she has this advice. “Make sure the property has the space you need. To improve or update the interiors is cheaper than adding an extension, so make sure it has the floor area. And I guess you look at the space you need around the home – the immediate plot. We can renovate anything as long as we have the space.”

If Monica was looking for a house to renovate, the most important thing she would consider is the location. You can renovate anything about the home, she says, but you can’t change the location. So choose a suburb where contemporary, newer properties are sought-after.

If you are unsure how much a renovation will cost, it’s worth enlisting the help of an expert. You can do this, even if you don’t yet own the home. “I had a client who phoned me from Melbourne thinking about buying a property in Sunshine Beach,” Monica says. “He sent me the floorplans and I gave him a concept and estimate – then he was confident to purchase the house.”

Look around the neighbourhood and renovate in the style of houses around you. Potential buyers will expect a certain style from your suburb, so sticking to this will increase your chances of a sale

If you’re thinking of saving some cash by doing the job yourself, it’s also worth reconsidering. How much you save depends on your skills and the time you can give to the project. Painting a wall, changing a couple of fixtures and pulling weeds is easy, if you have the energy, but if your renovation involves rerouting plumbing or rewiring the electricity, removing walls or replacing complicated kitchen cabinetry, get the experts in. Choose tradesman you can trust and make sure you get estimates on all the costs before the job begins. And take into account the cost of the smaller details like light switches and door handles, which add to your final bill.