I added $950,000 of value to an old Aussie property in less than six months

A rundown 1970s brown brick house has been transformed in to a picturesque Hamptons-style oasis – and it took less than six months to achieve the impressive result.

Carpenter-turned-house flipper Chris Bye, 44, bought the Central Coast property in January 2023 for $725,000 and sold it five and a half months later for $1.675million. 

The original three-bedroom, one bathroom cottage on 556sqm of land was gutted from the inside out to make space for an additional bedroom and bathroom.

Mr Bye, who heads Flipping Homes Australia, said of the $950,000 turned over, $288,000 of the cash was pure profit as it cost $688,000 to renovate. 

He’s now on a mission to educate other Aussies about the hard work and amount of money required house flipping. 

Mr Bye has been renovating houses for the last ten years and flipping them for the last four and a half. He says on average it takes his team of 15 people five months to complete the process.

‘Before I started I had always wanted to get into flipping houses. Home design and architecture is my passion, and so is renovations – I live and breathe it,’ he told FEMAIL. 

‘I love buying a tired, rundown property and turning it into something modern. The properties we buy most people would never step foot in. 

‘This 1970s house we bought for our recent reno was in major despair and hadn’t been touched for decades. It still had the original kitchen, carpets, curtains… everything!’ 

Mr Bye said by renovating older properties he’s ‘saving them from being bought and demolished’ by investors or corporations.

The classic 1970s style radiated throughout the one-story home with yellow walls, small tiles in the bathroom, a green kitchen and big backyard. 

Now the house has an open plan living and dining room, six skylights to welcome in the sun, a gorgeous freestanding bathtub and an outdoor deck area. 

The master bedroom has an ensuite and there’s also a separate lounge room at the front of the home. 

Mr Bye warned the process of flipping houses can be ‘very stressful’ as there’s ‘lots of money and risk involved’ but ‘everything is calculated’. 

‘We follow a very strict process to find the right property, make sure it’s under market value and plan exactly what we’re going to do in advance,’ he said.

He never purchases properties at market value because it’s ‘too risky’ after allocating all the additional costs involved. 

‘We always want to make sure we find a property that is going to suit a renovation to add value to it,’ he said. 

When Mr Bye searches for properties to renovate – a process that can often take months – he looks to see if another bedroom and bathroom can be added as these boost the value the most. 

‘I like to do is buy properties from the 1970s to mid-1990s. Quite often what those houses will have is a formal lounge or dining room,’ he said. 

‘People don’t want multiple small rooms in houses anymore – they want open plan living. So the formal dining room tends to be changed into another bedroom. 

He also looks for ‘huge, unnecessary’ laundry to be transformed into an additional bathroom.

As for other advice, he said to ‘prepare, plan and look after your mental health’. 

With every house flip Mr Bye and his team have dealt with unforeseen challenges – from water damage, plumbing and electrical issues to a rotten substructure. 

But he said running into trouble is ‘inevitable’ when flipping old homes. 

‘Make sure you invest in yourself first by researching the process. Use social media, start following people and just be aware that this is not an overnight process,’ Mr Bye said.

Mr Bye has also launched a ‘guide to flipping homes’ to outline the cost and work involved to flip houses. 

‘I want people to be armed with all the knowledge before they get started. There’s a lot of work that happened behind the scenes and if it’s done incorrectly you might not make a profit,’ he warned. 

The course consists of 18 chapters and 80 videos explaining everything from how to budget with a ‘master spreadsheet’, hidden costs to be aware of and tax fees. 

It’s perfect for beginners wanting to update a small room to those confident enough to tackle an full home renovation.