Patrick recently appeared on The Today Show to discuss some of his profit making renovation tips.  For those who missed it click here to take a look!

Patrick talks to Tim Webster on 2UE about his latest book The Insider's Guide to Renovating for Profit as well as the risk renovators face of overcapitalising on their property.

Click here to listen.

Beware the profit killers – In this edited book extract, experienced investor Patrick Bright shares his tips for finding, buying and renovating residential properties for a quick windfall.

Renovating residential investment property is a great way of building wealth quickly. It’s a relatively low risk strategy if executed correctly and will allow you to manufacture capital value and increase rental returns without relying solely on market conditions.

Back in 1999 a friend of mine wanted to sell a house his parents left him when they passed away. Since he knew that I knew a bit about real estate he asked for my help. The house had been neglected for 18 months and was in very poor condition. A few local real estate agents gave him valuations between $320,000 and $340,000...

Patrick's interview on Real Estate Talk with Kevin Turner

Buyers agents tell us that they are getting enquiries from buyers motivated by the recent spate of TV Renovation Shows. Unfortunately they have an unrealistic view about renovating and making a profit. We get a good grounded view from two buyers agents who tell it as it is. Click here to listen to interview or read the transcript below.

Full transcript:

Kevin Turner: You’ve heard us in the show talk about Buyers Agents from time to time. There’s a buyer’s agent in Sydney by the name of Patrick Bright who is a good friend of mine, we’ve had him on the show a number of times he’s written many, many books and is very knowledgeable about the market.  His company is EPS Property Search and I was taken by a comment he made the other day about shows on television may be misleading people about the cost of renovations.  He joins me...

For “The Block” enthusiasts, Sunday night’s finale was a flop with only one of the four properties selling under the hammer. Instead of popping bottles of champagne contestants were crying on each other’s shoulders. The program highlighted some important points and plenty of warnings that would be renovators should pay attention to as it goes to show that renovating and making a profit is not easy to do, even with significant resources and support…

This week on the Channel Ten show called The Renovators (episode 3) we saw two teams battle it out to renovate a terrace each – but they only had a 12 hour day to do it! The challenge was designed to see which team could add more value to their property based on ‘before’ and ‘after’ valuations. We saw skilled renovators hard at it all day investing in new kitchens, renovating the bathrooms, painting in and out, installing plants, putting up back yard fences, landscaping…. you get the idea it was a complete makeover.

But the big thing that stood out to me was that after all their hard work the post renovation valuations barely increased relative to the work that was done and once you factor in the cost of labour and materials they lost money. This is a great example of how easy it is to overcapitalise even when you’re supposed to know what you’re doing. Renovating is not just about making the property look good it’s about adding significant value to the bottom line or, I have to say, why bother?...