Earlier I blogged about this house I bought in USJ, Subang Jaya as part of my investment focus in properties along the LRT/MRT Extension - Episode1 and Episode2. So, here it is.... a 20feet x 60feet double storey link house in USJ13.
At the time I went to view it, there were several houses in the same area up for sale. Some of these owners were just cashing in on the LRT extension announcement which sent the property prices here up 30%-50%. I also believe, some owners just wanted to get out of the congestion that the nearby LRT station will pose.
Anyway, the price ranged up to RM480k at that time but I settled for this one, the most run down of them all. I reckon that being almost 20 years old, there are many things need changing in the house - plumbing, roofing and electric cables mainly. So, the best deal would be to negotiate a really run down house, infested with termites and leaking from all angles. That way, I can use the money saved to pay for an almost new house.... that's when the fun starts... when the renovations begin...
I regret that I did not manage to snap original pictures earlier. But when I got to it, we have already smashed the back walls to extend the house by a further 5 feet.
It is to make a helluva lot of difference as can be seen in the pictures below. The room downstairs, hardly big enough to be a bedroom has just got it's walls smashed. As you can see below, the lines where walls used to be and we were going to extend the room sideways as well as back.
Below was the front part. I really disliked the bay windows that came with the house. Despite an advice from a good friend to leave them alone, I decided to smash the front as well and extended it as far as I can go - 5 feet - Council rules dictate that the distance between the front wall of the house and the gate must not be less than 20 feet...
Upstairs' master-bedroom as well...
The picture below is where we have removed the ceiling tiles to reveal the front car park roof where we will build an RC floor to accommodate an elongated front section...
The front extension however, only affected half of the house where the bay window was as the other half was maintained. However, we built a balcony off the roof of the other half... Here again, the ceiling was removed to reveal the roof where we would build an RC floor.
After the RC floor was constructed, it looked like these pictures below:
The upstairs 2 bedrooms at the back were also really tiny. They both share a bathroom.
Later, we were to smash the wall at the back of the rooms and extended it so each bedroom would have their own bathrooms...
The master bedroom's bathroom was spared but the tiles really had to go...
Now, back to the front of the house... in the picture below, the roofs where the balcony would be built and the part to be extended have already been removed. Compare with the original un-touched house on the right....
After the walls were smashed, the extension began...
And the end result gave the house an entirely fresh new facade...
In Episode 2, we'll look at how the house looks like after the transformation... stay-tuned
7 comments:
Hi Sin Leong. It's shaping up quite nicely esp the front facade gives it a modern look. Btw I'm contemplating on renovating my old house, thinking like extending the front portion n rear. Do you mind sharing the cost of renovating your house at least I can get a ballpark figure to see I got enough dough to do it?
for the front and back (extend 5 feet) + build 3 extra bathrooms, the cost is almost RM100k plus materials.
since i posted this up, i've been swarmed with emails asking for my contractor's contacts. i don't think i want to share this because he has not really done a fantastic job and his follow up is really poor.
if anyone has a contractor to recommend, please write to me instead.
HI SL well done on the renovation. kudos for the efforts out in and the patience. As i presumed you may have spent total cash outlay in excess of RM150k, would it be better to buy a new house off plan from developer instead of buying an old house and redoing it ? Ultimate goal is to sell off with handsome profit. would a new bare unit house or redone old house gives better ROI ? thanks in advance for your input. cheers
now new houses are all in excess of RM1million! so, of course buying an old house and have the satisfaction of renovating gives better returns... n u get what you want in the house, i.e. your own tiles, flooring etc. however, you wont get the new lifestyle environment tht comes with a brand new RM1million house but the location will be better. the problem with all new landed developments, their locations are not as good as all the nice locations have been taken up
thanks SL for your reply. I get your point. new houses > RM 1 million . advantage : gated and guarded, nice environment. old refurbished houses < RM1 million. advantage : good location, near to amenities, but no gated and guarded. it depends on what is your target buyer. I am sure you have that in mind well before putting down the first dollar on it. cheers
Thanks Sin Leong. 150k give and take...wah...since my house footprint is bigger so gotta take it as 180 to 200k. Jeez reno really costly nowadays.
Hi Sin Leong, thinking of renting a place near USJ, bandar sunway area. Would you say RM320 to RM 450 per month is reasonable? Cause I found one here, did some scouting, this one comes really cheap. I want to test it out and see what's it like to stay in this neighbourhood. Hope you can give me pointers:
http://www.isniffy.com/ad/room-for-rent-bandar-sunway/
This is just one room.
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