Transcript:
Hello guys, how are you? this Javier from the Thrive Real Estate Team, my colleague here, Thomas and we are going to have a little conversation today about renovations in New York City. you know it's funny talking about renovations I've been renovating my wardrobe lately and I got this really cute race car shirt, I am in love with this shirt. so do you think that shirt would add value to the property I think it would not so you should not put race cars on your kids bedroom walls because that will. so here's the thing, you can, that's very important, right? you can, you can do, any renovation in your apartment one thing or in your house , one thing that it's always important to keep in mind don't think that any upgrade that you do to your house is necessarily going to bring a return of investment when you sell it next year, 10 years, five years, down the road, not everything that you put in there the market wants to pay for, you know it's funny you say that right because I was thinking as we were having our little pre-chat about this you know what does it mean to get all your money back for a renovation and how does that balance out so for instance if you take a property that needs a complete gut renovation and let's say it was built in the 60s and nothing has been done to it in the 60s so it's been in 60 years looking like art deco meets east village.
if you renovate that you will see a significant increase in your property value however if you let's say you bought a new dev in 2010 and you want to renovate the kitchen and put a hundred thousand dollars into the kitchen you won't see all your money back on that, absolutely, absolutely, so there are things that you do to renovate to live in and there are things that you do to renovate to sell those are two different approaches to renovations if you're going to live in do whatever you want know that eventually you might want to change it to what the market is asking for now let's talk about one of the reasons why we say this sometimes we do meet with sellers that go like well I paid a hundred thousand dollars for the kitchen so I want to get a hundred thousand dollars back plus whatever interest would have been, unrealistic it's not always going to have most of the time it's not going to happen you already used that kitchen right right well there's also another thing that people like to say uh nobody wants to buy your mistakes so when you are renovating you know let's say you're a huge fan of white appliances you know many buyers nowadays would consider that a mistake and wonder why you didn't spend the extra fifty dollars to put in stainless steel was it uh which was a the celebrity that put his apartment on the late night guy Jimmy Fallon wasn't he put his apartment on the market last year? he did an amazing job in his condo for him but it's only for him, the apartment has I think it's still on the market it's been on the market for like two years because he customized it everything, nobody wants a a bear themed room or stuff like that, but what happens if you want to put your property in the market what have we found out that are the best and most important upgrades that we need to do well so two years ago right at the beginning of the pandemic we did a project over at The Strand, the floors were trashed the kitchen was trashed the bathroom was trash the walls hadn't been painted in 20 years you know, it could have used a complete gut but we were able to you know figure out a way to I think we spent forty thousand dollars on it around that we used Concierge, which is a fantastic program that we have a Compass, we'll tell a little bit more about the after the story, so with that we were able to paint the whole apartment, we were able to put new floors in throughout the apartment, a light bathroom renovation what I mean by light is I think we just replaced the vanity, yeah there wasn't a lot of medium faucet I think it was where it was replaced and in the kitchen we replaced the cabinets right and put in new appliances but the appliances were you know they were white appliances and they were you know inexpensive appliances but the the theory with that was we're going to make this look newer without spending a ton of money on it so when somebody comes in to purchase it they won't feel like they are buying a property that has a premium on it because of the renovations and then spending more money on their renovations absolutely yeah that's important right like some people want to see the property and understand that it's moving ready I mean it's upgraded moving ready, so it's not like 25 year old property moving ready, so what are the what the national association of realtors came out with a report let's last a year and it broke down return on investment on upgrades in properties bathroom, kitchen, and floors, are the top ones to do floors, it's really one of the easiest changes that you can do if your apartment is empty yeah to make the look wonderful and hey maybe you have already great floors so maybe just a refinishing is great but if your floors need some work brand new floors buyers super happy, the other thing, kitchen yeah kitchen sales a nice kitchen even for people who don't cook, i'm telling you i'm with buyers all the time even for those who don't cook it's always nice to see a big beautiful kitchen with nice appliances, even if it's just to store the delivery in there right I do cook I love kitchens but many of my buyers don't, and the other one is bathrooms, yes bathrooms, nobody likes an old bathroom, nobody likes a dirty bathroom, make sure your bathroom, if you have an older bathroom make sure it's upgraded, it really helps sell those are the best return of investments when it comes to putting the property up for sale so this is prepping for itself and paint we need to paint every unit has to be painted before hitting the market nobody wants to make that mistake you're a four screen uh bathroom nobody wants a hot pink bedroom, they just don't want it, nobody actually do you know what's the also national association of realtor the highest return of investment paint in any unit is beige not white, not gray, not off white, is beige, don't ask me why apparently people feel comfort around base but white works great, light gray works great, anything close to like an off-white seems to feel warm to buyers, it gives them the opportunity to see themselves making the place theirs and if you're going to sell your property that's absolutely what you want, don't get attached to what you did for your property for you, when you live there think about what the buyer is going to want to see, well it's important to remember that right, because you're selling the place don't be attached to it, you're not going to live there, hopefully after 90 days, hopefully, if you're working with us it's not going to be up to 90 days, for sure yeah, so 89. Tell me tell me about Concierge Compass, Concierge's an amazing program that we have, tell me a little bit about it, we've done a few projects with it, well you know Compass common search is great for a couple different reasons, renovating can be expensive you know it can be 40 000, 50 000 more, depending on what you need done and a lot of our sellers either don't want to put the money up front or they don't have the money up front, and you know with Compass Concierge we put the money up front for you, there's no interest for it there's, no fees for it, it is based upon the value of your property how much it will sell for and how much equity you have in the property, and there are some things that we ask in return for that free money right, the property has to sell or you have to pay the money back yourself, and it is a year commitment, so right, the way Compass recovers that money is at the sale no interest no origination fee but they do recover the money and they sell of course free money meaning we're not charging you for the money right, and you know for the first one that we did I basically managed the project which saved a lot of money for the client yeah, we have a list of contractors that we use, and if you've ever renovated an apartment in New York City you know it's not the easiest thing to do, you deal with the managing agent, you have to deal with the board, you have to deal with permits, before you hammer a nail it can take you six weeks before you get there so plan accordingly, please please please keep that in mind and if you don't know anything about permitting and you don't want to deal with it we have vendors who can coordinate that for you too so let us know, and they can expedite that with the building and the department of buildings in the city, also check with your super right, there are some things that the super can do for you that you know it's a little handshake a little wink wink, but a super can get in there and paint your apartment for you much easier than an outside company can get in the outside company has to go through the front desk they have to like look like painters, and they will get stopped in many cases they need to have insurance and all that so yeah renovations are fantastic we need to do renovations or at least cosmetic adjustments in almost every apartment that we put on the market and every house that we put on the market it's important to make it look as upgrade as possible without breaking your bank, yeah anything else to add about renovations for the purpose of selling not really you know we we also partner with another vendor who helps you with staging your home um which comes in after the fact you know we pay for her to go in, she gives you advice we strongly recommend that you take it, on how to de-clutter and how to organize your home, so it's the most presentable, but that's really it for the sales side, the renovating to live in though is I think it's important to think about how long you're going to be living there for, if you intend to make this your home for the next 10 15 20 years do what you want because if you're gonna sell it that after that 20 year point or a 15 10 year point then the the the new buyer isn't going to feel like they are wasting money on a purchase absolutely of your renovations but if you intend to live there for a year and then sell it bear in mind what your ultimate goals are, is your goal to live there comfortably and in your style or is your goal to make money on the property and if it's to make money on the property, keep it very neutral and basic and appeal to the largest demographic of people that you can appeal to, absolutely so important if you are planning on putting your property on the market anytime in the next three months to a year, let us know let us come in and we can give you a little bit advice of what upgrades can actually raise the value of your property once we're there if you're just renovated for renovating for the sake of renovating for yourself, hey let us know too because we might have excellent vendors we might be able to go in and share some ideas with you that will both,
meet your goals of your living ways and what you want and also raise the value of the property at the same time, you don't have to do one or the other if you're talking to a professional, we can do both at the same time, this goes too with rentals you're going to put a property up for rent there's also cosmetic and important renovations that could raise the price of your property by 500 600 a month which it's a big chunk in yeah at least on a property in New York even more depending on the price point of your property but rentals and properties up for sale should be staged should be renovated should be painted yeah I think the biggest thing you can do for a rental property in the city is to put it in a dishwasher, you know it's a thousand dollars to put a dishwasher in but you'll get that money back easily in the first six months, it rents so quickly too so quickly I, know for me it's a deal breaker if there's no dishwasher I don't i'm not even going to step foot in the apartment and it actually saves you money because dishwashers are much more efficient than washing dishes so you're going to save the money on both sides of it, you save the environment you know, one thing that some landlords forget painting is a requirement for the new tenants so you're gonna be painting anyways might as well just put a dishwasher in
please put the dishwasher in anyway that's it for renovations the Thrive Real Estate Team we're always here for you, if you need any help if you want to consult with us about what it is that you want to upgrade in the apartment, about what the best way to go about it is, if you need some recommendations on our vendors, reach out you have the comment here, here, here, depending what channel you're watching, call us, email us, find our website, subscribe, all of that good stuff, and we'll see you in the next video.
