Successful completed the first reno with in budget

[Aditya Soma]

Hello Friends,

I'm proud to announce that successfully finished my first renovation with in budget.

All credit goes to BP community. you guys Inspired me, you guys gave me all the right tools to play the game confidently, So I feel it's my responsibility to share my experience, which might help someone out there.

I will try to keep it short.

My project details:

Side by side duplex Here in Windsor, ON Canada 

Buying price: 102k

Got mortgage: 124.5k (including renovation costs)

Down payment: 8200(5% down + closing cost)

So I got 22.5k for reno from lender 

Being a first time buyer I was very scared inside, but the education from BP articles/success stories/books/podcass I took a leap faith and I moved forward.

What helped me to finish the project with in budget:

1. Having a clear goal like what work todo and how much to spend on (I had a clear thought  that I don't want to spend more than 22.5k and want to fix all basic things which can attract decent tenants)

2. Hustling(I asked many co-investors, my agent, my mortgage broker and friends for suggestions about contractors)

3. Got quote from multiple contractors and in the meanwhile interviewed  them about their previous experience(after talking to 3 - 4 contractors, I got a feeling who can do want I want)

4. Ask/listen and then make a decision(I never stayed in a house in North America till now, so I have no Idea about what Materials needed, for everything I asked many people who knows about them and finally I made decisions based on suggestions)

5. Respect everyone in a way how you want them to treat you(skills I learned from "how to win friends and influence people" helped me alot, couple of tips, On the first meeting I remembered names of all people who're working on the site, I complimented them, I talked enthusiastically every time, at least once or twice in a week I took coffee and donuts for them)

6. Think before you talk(some times I felt they're delaying the work, which pissed me off, but I kept quiet because back of my mind I always recollected my main goal and made sure they(contractor & his team) liked me.

7. Documented each and every details/expenditure(opened a new account on gmail just for this project and downloaded google drive on phone, created excel/word sheets to input....

8. Inspected the work almost every day.

For sure, I Learned many things which needed to move on to next level, here're couple of major one:

1. Have a timeline

I didn't communicated clearly about timeline with contractor before they started the work (because I didn't know how much time it takes for the work needed, I should have learned little more on this subject) 

2. I could have learned more about renovation work(this duplex actually needed more work like redoing plumbing, removing knob&tube...  I should admit it luckily my contractor is a very nice guy didn't charge for many small things, because he liked me)

Couldn't think of many mistakes just because of this wonderful BP Community.

Thank you all for making first step of my project success 

Cheers

Happy investing