After winning everything in the first few weeks Josh and Jenna totally lost the plot with the living room and hallway challenge.

‘Share accommodation for students” –  that was the opinion of the The Block judges John McGrath and Neale Whitaker.

Tacky, old school wall paneling – I cannot believe Josh and Jenna installed this.  Without a doubt wall paneling is the most out dated thing I find on a regular basis when assessing  clients properties for  pre-sale home makeovers.  I always recommend either removing them or painting the paneling exactly the same colour as the walls so they appear unobtrusive and just blend in.  Of course painting is the quickest and most cost effective solution to this seventies feature of the decade – just don’t forget to prime them first.

And what were they thinking when they used a Chinese checkerboard as artwork!

“The chairs are foul” said Amie.  “Yeehaa” commented Rod on spotting the rawhide covered chairs. The Block’s other contestants weren’t impressed either when they had their walk through.

Where did Josh and Jenna go wrong? Once again they were decorating to their own personal taste. And potential buyers are going to have the same sort of repulsive reactions that the judges and other contestants had.

All of the couples have been guilty of putting too much of their own personality into some of their rooms and frankly it is going be the undoing of them come auction day.

Josh and Jenna were gutted by their low score and the judges criticism but to their credit they took it on the chin and immediately started changing the things the judges hated.  Thank goodness the wood paneling is going along with some of the other kitsch accessories.

Hopefully Josh and Jenna will be back on track for the kitchen and dining room challenge.

Second Hand week brought out the best and worst in The Block couples.

Jenna and Josh were in their element and delivered a bedroom that impressed the judges and gave them a back to back win. This will give them a huge head start going into week 3, renovation of 2 rooms – bathroom and laundry. Bathrooms are always big budget rooms to renovate and Jenna and Josh not only have the plumbing advantage over the other couples, they now also have $10k up their sleeve! There is no reason why they can’t manage their budget wisely with Josh being able to do ALL the plumbing himself so they can hold some cash over for the rest of the reno.

Katrina and Amie struggled with the second hand theme, which resulted in a room that lacked wow factor. Their biggest mistake though was designing a room that could only be utilised as a study. The bulkhead they built will ensure that a potential buyer will not have enough space to change the room to a functional bedroom and the judges penalised them for this oversight. This cottage will now have to be marketed as a 2-bedroom property, which John McGrath pointed out will greatly devalue it when it goes to market.

One of the easiest ways to add value to a property is to increase the number of bedrooms and this is one option I always discuss with clients who are preparing their homes for sale.  Quite regularly I consult with homeowners who have repurposed a 3^rd or 4^th bedroom as an office, gym room and most frequently a junk room with no purpose.  I recently saw a home where the client had the third bedroom as a “toy room”. The first thing I recommended to her was to pack up the majority of toys and bring in a bed so it could be marketed as a three-bedroom family home.  I always recommend that these “extra rooms” are returned to and styled as a fully functioning bedroom.  Depending on the location of the property this can add many thousands of dollars to the market value. Home buyers are very visual and if a property is displayed as a 2 bedroom + study they will literally view it as such and not imagine the potential third bedroom.  Even if some do they will put a ‘renovation cost” on having to change or improve the room. This results in lowers offers and a reduced sale price.

The Block houses are located in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond on the doorstep of Bridge Road’s very best cafes and shops.  On realestate.com.au I found two recent sales of renovated Victorian cottages in Richmond.

2 bedroom 1 bathroom renovated Victorian cottage

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-richmond-107389729

Sold for $886,000 June 4, 2011

3 bedroom 1 bathroom renovated Victorian cottage

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-richmond-107432367

Sold for $1,100,000 June 18, 2011

Even though there are a few differences between these 2 properties, that is a $200,000 price difference between a 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom cottage of the same era!

Week 2 – Lesson 2 – ALWAYS display your home with the maximum possible bedrooms and add thousands to your sale price.

Charyn Youngson
Property Renovator | Professional Home Stager | Author

This challenge was so much fun to watch. In all my years of renovating I don’t think I have ever paid full retail price for anything and part of the enjoyment was bargain hunting in salvage yards, at auction houses, and discount outlets.

Being prepared when you undertake a renovation is a great asset.  As soon as I had signed a contract for a property I was going to renovate, I would spend the four to five weeks before settlement day sourcing all my products.  I made sure plans had been drawn, photos were taken and measurements were noted so I was ready to start bargain shopping. Junk mail was always welcome in my house because I love discount sales.

Some of my best finds have been items found on the roadside waiting for collection. My favourite item was an old sculptural piece that I used to style an outdoor entertainment area when the renovation was complete.  See the before and after picture of this area below, with the sculptural piece leaning against the shed.

Recycling the things you pull out of houses at the early demolition and preparation stage is another way to make your dollar go further.  Paying for mini skips and rubbish disposal can be a costly side of renovating so be mindful of ways to reuse your rubbish.   Old carpet and underlays are great to use as weed mats in garden beds before you lay mulch or pebbles and much more effective than expensive plastic weed mat.

It is obvious that Jenna and Josh love recycling furniture pieces and it will be interesting to see if the other couples on The Block are now inspired by the trash and treasure challenge to manage their budgets better with smart recycling and budget buying as the competition progresses.

Jenna and Josh “Wowed” and “Styled” their way to victory on The Block this week.

Their room was a stand out winner for both of the judges and for me too. Although Katrina and Amie came close the two judges for this series of The Block, John McGrath and Neale Whitaker emphatically agreed that Jenna and Josh not only demonstrated the best aesthetics with their “clean, light and contemporary style” but the most telling comment came from John when he declared that from the standpoint of sales (as in selling the property) “This team clearly won – hands down”

Why is that comment so important to me in this early stage of the competition? Well although the couples are competing room by room for mini challenges each week, the big picture event is going to be who designs a “whole” house that sells for the highest price.

One of the first lessons in renovating and styling a home purely for sale is that you need to appeal to the largest amount of potential buyers and then romance one of these buyers into falling “in love” with your home.

I think all the couples need to have this foremost in their minds when they are designing and styling each room. A favourite quote of mine from the creator of Home Staging, Barb Scharwz in the USA is

“You’re selling a house NOT your personal tastes and belongings”.

While each of the couples has their own personal style and they are all 100% committed to winning each room, I am concerned the emphasis on being so “individual” to win over the judges will mean the homes at the end that will be too personalised.

One of the 10 steps to Home Staging for Profit that I describe in my book “Sold for Top Dollar – Low Cost Home Improvements to Maximise your Sale” is to Depersonalise! The real essence of home staging and preparing your house for sale is removing yourself from the picture so that prospective buyers can place themselves living in your home. Although buyers will not notice that your home has been depersonalised, they will definitely notice if it has not!

The couples on The Block need to remember that it is not their personal taste they are selling, it’s all about the space. Renovating your home to live in and renovating to sell are two different concepts. The more personal the couples rooms become each week, the more likely that the buyers will be distracted from making an emotional connection.

So lesson 1, week 1 – when you are preparing your home for sale ask yourself – “Will the buyers be able to imagine themselves “falling in love” with my space?

Charyn Youngson
Author | Professional Home Stager | Property Renovator

Watching The Block tonight brought memories flooding back of my first reno.  I recall walking into the front room of that first house, which was a mortgagee sale that I purchased at auction. I was thinking, Oh my God, what have I done, where I am going to start, have I got the skills to do this? It was so much worse than I remembered from the open inspection and for a while I felt completely overwhelmed.  Just like Polly and Waz, I had no renovating experience at all whatsoever– just big dreams!

Polly and Waz, on paper, are considerably disadvantaged from the other three couples who all have varying renovation and building experience and it will be interesting to see if they can keep a positive mindset and not let their lack of experience sabotage their efforts.  All the couples have the ability to access experienced builders and Polly and Waz seem to show early promise of being able to follow instruction and advice from the “experts”. As long as they are willing to ask lots of questions and be guided, their lack of experience will be overcome by the oodles of passion they have already displayed.

After the overwhelm wears off, I can’t wait to see each couples actual renovation plans. With any home renovation – you need a well structured step-by-step plan, a timeline to complete the whole job and don’t forget the budget.   There is no telling what extra renovation disasters are going to be uncovered over the coming weeks to threaten the viability and execution of their well laid plans.

It’s interesting to watch how the contestants manage their time, budget, plan and execution of their projects. It becomes very evident when couples are not great at forward thinking and the difference it makes being super organised to the finished job.

This is something we have to be very aware of when we project manage a renovation for a client. Sure we do not complete renovations in a 24 hour period but we always complete our renovations in a short time frame, generally 1-3 weeks depending on the size and scope of the project and property.

We are looking forward to seeing what The Block brings us this week!