It’s vital we find a healthy and happy home for us and our loved ones. Opting for a fixer-upper is very popular these days. It helps people to save money, but the reality is that a fixer-upper can come with a lot of stress. It’s important for any first-time buyer to be aware that stress is part and parcel of the house buying process, and therefore, ensuring you can cope with the stress of a fixer-upper is about having a wide variety of tools at your disposal. What do you need to consider?
Due Diligence
Due diligence is a tool that can help you in the long run. For example, if you’ve been considering renovating an old church that’s been on the market for so long that no one wants to touch it, you may very well think this can be an amazing home and, no doubt, it would be, but you’ve got to be incredibly nosey on that first visit. A building like a church is undoubtedly a large project, not just because of the aesthetics, but because you’ve got to preserve the structure. There are a number of things that can make this process quite overwhelming. Churches are notoriously drafty and, therefore, having the right church heating systems and insulation will make sure it doesn’t just become a great place to live but is structurally sound and comfy.
This is why due diligence is so important. A building that looks like it’s been cobbled together from a number of random bits and shows signs of being added to multiple times can compromise the overall structure and, therefore, the integrity of the home. It’s best to avoid these circumstances because you are saving yourself a lot of stress.
Having a Plan
Whatever you plan on doing with the property, you will need to have the right plan in place. Prior to purchasing the home, you need to have an inspection to determine the overall condition. This should be your reference point before you start off. When it comes to planning, it’s far better for you to go for the larger jobs first. These will include the kitchen or adding an ensuite bathroom to your bedroom.
Opting for the bigger part of the plan first doesn’t just make the process easier in the long run because you get the hard stuff out of the way, it also means that you are getting the permits and professionals in at the very outset. Having a plan ensures that you can put a structure in place before you start altering the structure.
A Realistic Budget
Part of putting a plan in place is about ensuring you have a budget that is realistic and within your means. It can be one of the hardest parts of fixing any fixer-upper. Making all of these updates will guarantee a greater return on your investment, but the problem many people have is that they think they’ve got to overinvest at the outset to ensure they are getting the best bang for their buck.
Property values can fluctuate, especially during tough times. If you are planning on selling in a number of years or if you are flipping the property, you’ve got to straddle that balance. Ensuring that you have a budget that is realistic and manageable, but is also not going to bankrupt you in a few years’ time is going to reduce your stress levels considerably.
The best approach is to add an extra 33% to your budget. This may seem unachievable, but it will make a big difference in the long run, especially if you run out of funds in the middle of the project. Rather than trying to complete everything as soon as possible on a limited budget, you’ve got to break up your projects and make sure that you have the funds to overcompensate at each point.
What Do You Realistically Need To Do Yourself?
Having a big project will mean that you’ve got to have a realistic idea of what it takes to get the project done within a reasonable timeframe. We all want to save money, but we’ve got to think about our capabilities. We are not superhuman. When it comes to renovating a home, we’ve got to decide what we can realistically do, not just in our budget, but within our expertise. It’s always a good idea to consult professionals, but you need to determine what you can do yourself.
For example, there is a wide variety of flooring that you can piece together. This is something you can do yourself, rather than having a builder do it for you. It’s also a good idea to make sure that you are confident in your abilities, especially if you are considering adding light switches. Basic electrics is something that we can all have a go at, but if we are not confident in our abilities, we could easily make a big mistake that may result in a professional having to redo it, which adds to our costs but may also cause problems in the long run.
You’ve got to ask yourself what you can realistically do yourself, not what you think you could do if the opportunity presented itself.
Learning How to Stay Calm
For so many of us, being in the eye of the storm means that we are incredibly overwhelmed by the prospect of renovating. This means that we are stressed before we’ve even started any major work. Learning to feel calmer is so important. And this is why you may want to benefit from a number of tools that can give you the confidence and fortitude to deal with any renovation projects.
There are tools like meditation and learning to relax, but there are also tools like visualising. If you can picture your dream home and what it takes to put these things together, this is a tool that many athletes and executives use to ensure that they are stepping closer to their dreams. Something like visualisation is a very good tool that is not utilised enough, but when it comes to ensuring you have those tools to stay calm, whether it’s anti-anxiety methods or visualising the end product, you can be sure that you are able to focus on the task at hand rather than becoming overwhelmed.
