Anyone Can Renovate, But Not Everyone Can Renovate For Profit!

Cherie Barber teaches a disciplined and systematic process, unrivalled in Australia, that covers every facet of renovating… from when and where to buy, how much to pay, and how to renovate your property to sell or rent for the highest possible price.

What was your inspiration behind Renovating For Profit?

It all began in 1991. Aged 22, I bought my first rough diamond and cosmetically flipped it for a profit. During my twenties, I bought project number 2, a structural renovation which I completed while living in the property and working full-time in marketing.

In 2002, I took a leap of faith and quit my full-time job after completing my first professional renovation; I earned more on the weekends renovating than slaving away in my full-time job.

Over the next seven years, I bought, renovated and sold another six properties – and more and more people, particularly women, would pick my brains for advice. It dawned on me that there was a real gap in the market.

I had so much accumulated knowledge and passion for what I was doing, it just seemed natural to want to pass that onto others. And to break down the buying and renovating process into easy steps that anyone can follow. So, Renovating for Profit was born in 2009. More than 10,000 students have now completed my workshops.

  Q) What are some of your key learnings over the last year or so?

I’ve been in the game of buying and renovating property for 25+ years, so I can’t say the last year has particularly taught me anything new; the hardest lessons came early on when I didn’t have a proper grasp of property cycles and hadn’t nailed my strategy. I’ve learned to keep my head in any market, be patient, do all my due diligence checks and just wait for the right property to come along. The 8-step strategy I teach in my workshops is the strategy I follow myself – and it applies in any market, whether it’s hot, cold or just humming along.

Q) What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Educate yourself – or seek out avenues for learning – before you dive in. Do your market research, understand who your target market is and the figures that make a renovation project stack up. Because one of the biggest mistakes you can make is buying in the wrong area or paying too much for that property to start with, and in Sydney’s red hot market, for example, you have to be extra careful about those two potential pitfalls.

You must be super disciplined with your budget. Once you start going over, you’re eating into your profit potential. If you pay over the odds for a rough diamond, it’s really hard to claw back that money in the renovation process, as your margins are already tight.

And think carefully about what you choose to DIY vs getting a pro in to do. Often they’ll take a fraction of the time you’ll take to do the job, and you may have to buy/hire specialist tools to do the job, so at the end of the day, how much money have you really saved?

How can people connect with your brand?

• On our website at http://www.renovatingforprofit.com.au/
• We’re also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/renoforprofit
• And Twitter at https://twitter.com/renoforprofit

Cherie Barber, creator of the Renovating For Profit course, is Australia’s leading renovation expert.

With over two decades of profitable renovations under her belt, Cherie practices what she preaches. The secret of her success is a proven, step-by-step approach, personally developed on over 50 of her own renovation projects.

Dubbed by the media as ‘Australia’s Renovation Queen’, she has appeared on countless Aussie television programs and publications, including Network Ten’s popular, prime time lifestyle program, ‘The Living Room’. And coming soon to America’s HGTV is Cherie’s premier US series, ‘Five Day Flip’.