5 Things That Can Put A Property Renovation Over Budget

Renovating a property can be an exciting time. But it can also be an expensive one, especially if you don’t keep a firm eye on the ongoing costs of completing the job.

Here are five common pitfalls that trip people up when it comes to budgeting for a home renovation.

#1: Inadequate planning from the start

This is one of the biggest hazards in property renovation – particularly if you haven’t done it before. Make sure you have accounted for every nut, bolt and screw and every process that needs to be gone through to get the finished result.

#2: Undiscovered problems that arise when part of the building is taken away or uncovered

There isn’t much you can do about this; for example you may have factored in the cost of a new roof but you may not realize the rafters are ruined until the tiles come off. But you can limit the damage by building in a reasonably sized emergency fund to cover these occurrences.

#3: Spiraling costs of disposing old building materials and waste

If you are ripping out part of a building you need to be able to get rid of the waste. It can be difficult to estimate how much waste there will be, so overestimate rather than going under.

It is all too common for first time property developers to underestimate this or forget about it all together, but if not planned well, waste disposal can be a big cost.

#4: Buying more expensive fixtures and fittings

You must decide on the budget for items like this before you get started. Then you must stick to it! If you don’t, you will end up going over your original budget. Make sure you know what you want and how much it will cost before you begin.

#5: Hiring unreliable or untrained traders

It might seem like a cost effective move to hire a cheap trader. But if they are unreliable or they do a bad job because they are not properly qualified, you will end up having to pay someone else to get the job done instead. This could mean paying out twice instead of saving any money.

Summary

As you can see a lot of the pitfalls can be avoided when it comes to working out the cost of a property renovation. Always make sure you have a contingency or emergency fund on top of the estimated cost, because you will undoubtedly come across some problem that means the costs go up higher than you thought.