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Homes with soul: Miescha Phillips' renovation journey · Renovate & Real Estate

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Welcome to More than Renovating, a Renovate and Real Estate podcast.
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Our founder, Belinda Smith, talks to industry experts to provide you
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with the knowledge and information
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you need to make renovating for love and profit your reality.
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Belinda will also chat to some of her Renovation Mastery members,
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who are just everyday people doing extraordinary things,
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following their passions in the renovation and property space.
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So let's jump straight into the episode.
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Enjoy! Hi everyone!
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My name is Belinda Smith and I'm from Renovate and Real Estate
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and I have a special guest for you today on my podcast.
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My podcast is Renovate and Real Estate and we talk about more than renovating.
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That's always the topic because I truly believe that renovating
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is the thing that we do, but it's not the result that we create.
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The result that we create is far broader than just the renovation itself.
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So welcome Miescha Phillips.
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Hi Belinda.
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It's good to see you again.
1:00
Yeah, and you.
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So, Miescha has worked with me now for, you can help me out here, I don’t know,
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12 months, longer?
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Longer than 12 months perhaps.
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Oh, almost 12 months, I think. Yeah.
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And Meischa has a business set up called Rising Phoenix property Solutions.
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Based in South Australia,
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and we're going to discuss all things renovating, where she started...
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So, let's actually start there.
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First of all, Miescha, introduce yourself and where it all began for you,
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where you grew up.
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So, I’m Miescha.
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And I grew up
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predominantly in the Barossa Valley in South Australia, which is a bit of a,
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a wine area, renowned for its wines and beautiful,
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picturesque countryside.
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So, yeah, I grew up on a
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farm,
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and, you know, I had a life of ponies and running.
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around and frolicking in sunshine and all that sort of thing.
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And so you do
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as a kid, and throwing
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sticks and...
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Proper,
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a proper country upbringing.
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I know that horses are still a big part of your life.
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We can spend a minute on that if you like.
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What do you do now in relation to horses?
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Oh, I,
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have to make lots of money to feed them.
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Yeah, no, I do a little bit of lower level eventing.
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So I've got a
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a mare that's taken me through some of the levels, and I've pretty much
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semi-retired her, and I've got a youngster that I bred,
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and. Yeah.
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So he's just grown and grown and grown
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and, and now it's time for him to make the start. I sort of
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didn't expect him to be as big as he was from
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an old age horse, but he was he turned out.
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But yeah, we will
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soldier on with him and
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see how we go.
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So, yeah, he's a bit of a doofus.
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As they are, all the boys.
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Which is, which is good, I love horses too,
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you know that? I've. I've had horses in my life.
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And so I think once you've
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once you're attached to horses, they are an expensive habit.
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But they ones, it's a habit that you can't break if you
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if it's truly part of your life.
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And so for you, renovating and property was a way of supporting your lifestyle.
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And like when you grew up in the country, how did you know it was actually a thing?
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Like, at what point did you work out that renovating was actually a thing?
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Yeah.
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I think I always sort of grew up changing my bedroom around
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and all those sorts of things 50,000 times that some of us sort of do.
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Yeah.
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And then in my early 20s, my husband
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and I, we moved on to a station up north of South Australia and
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we were
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on stations for about 20 years.
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And a lot of those properties, they sort of, look they’re sound,
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but they're not very homely.
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So I sort of would
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every property that we were on,
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I would always sort of sit out there and do the gardens and repaint and,
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and just sort of make the house feel like a home for us as a family.
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So, I think it's sort of
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really for me, started there.
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When I was
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growing up, my dad would always be renovating something in the house.
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And, and once it was all looking good, decided to sell that
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and then find another one and renovate something else in the house.
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And that was just his way of being.
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So, he wasn't like a
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builder, so to speak,
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constantly doing major renovations, but it was always sort of happening around
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me, and I always found that it was a bit, creative.
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And it was something that I really enjoyed sort of seeing that process and,
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and sort of sometimes, you know, handing dad the, the hammer or the spray gun
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or this that and the other, and sometimes just getting right out of the way
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when it all goes to shit.
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So,
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and as we know, as renovators, that that tends to happen.
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That happens.
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It's part of the criteria, really.
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So, yeah, it was a really good
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experience, I think, for me
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as a creative type of person, to be able to,
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have that environment around me as a younger person.
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And I think that's what maybe
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encouraged me to not feel
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overwhelmed or
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intimidated by the idea of actually sort of going in
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and adding a bit of a touch to make it quite homely for us as a family.
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Yeah.
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What did you do for a career? Like when you left school.
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Where did that path take you?
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Oh, when I left school
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I was actually working in a modeling agency doing marketing.
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Not surprised. Guys, if you're listening on the podcast, Miescha’s beautiful.
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Head over to YouTube.
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So. Yeah.
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So it was I mean, that was back in the days where, you know,
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the computers were really only used for admin purposes.
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So marketing was very different then to what it is now.
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It's a whole different kettle of fish.
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So yeah.
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So it was always sort of
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I think for me, I’ve always been in that creative field, so to speak.
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Yeah. And married, had kids.
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Yeah. Yep.
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Married.
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I had got married in my early 20s and two children, 27 and 24 now.
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So crossed that bridge. Survived. Living proof
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that you can do it.
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You can't do it.
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So, now you're single and keen to support yourself
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fully and thoroughly through property.
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And in fact, that's what you've essentially been doing.
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So talk to me a little bit about that.
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How that all came to be.
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So when I separated.
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from my husband, we had a PPOR
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that was in Adelaide Hills, a ten acre property
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and it when we purchased it, it was, pretty rough.
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And it was a shed conversion.
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And, look, I think not really sure if a blind man would
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have been happy to see that.
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I think in the end, probably very much so.
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But to start with was, the fella
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that had owned it was
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a Russian guy, and he used to
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do opal mining up in Queensland and, you know, different breed and his
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living standards were
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interesting and the basics.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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And I think.
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that a bit of Russian culture came through in some very bright colors
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that he had put in the actual shed conversion.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, it was a little gaudy.
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And a little rough.
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So, spent some time on that property prior to us moving to that,
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and then when we separated, it was we
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we wanted to get
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this property on the market, but I didn't really want it to feel like a fire sale.
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So I sort of spent maybe up to another 12 months just finalising
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the things on that property that I really wanted to get finished.
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And my ex-husband was on board with that, which was wonderful.
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And he was reasonably supportive.
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Reasonably, well, actually,
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very supportive.
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And I would get
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hm to come over and, and do some of the hard yards.
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Just when we separated, we had a contract fencing business,
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so we had a, Toro, A bit like,
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not really sure what else you’d call,
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a bit like a Dingo, stand on the back, sort of a thing.
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And so. Yeah, I would
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get him to bring that over for me and, look around and grade the driveways
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and dig holes and fix up garden beds and stuff like that
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with that.
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And then on the inside of the property, I, continued to just finalise
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the things that were going on in there
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and finish painting the outside and suchlike, and,
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and yeah, I was really happy with the way it was finished.
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It was ready for its next chapter
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that property.
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I was pleased that we'd got it to the stage that we had.
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Yeah.
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So in your opinion, does that make a difference to the resale price?
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Is that the reason why you did it? Or was it personal pride?
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Just wanting to finish things and complete that chapter of your life?
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I think there was a bit
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of a combination.
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Obviously, when you're in that situation, you sort of want to walk away
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with as much as you can.
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And, that was the same for my ex-husband.
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Just like we wanted to be able to walk away.
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And, I was probably more passionate about the idea of having it
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finished to a certain stage than what he was,
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but he was still on board with that, which was great.
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And the price difference really made,
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yeah, it made an impact. Certainly, for us
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to be able to walk away with the profit that we made out of that property.
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I think we bought that for $380K
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It probably cost us about $80,000 in materials
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on that place, and it probably cost us about $3 million in labour
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and time and patience. Patience.
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Yeah, yeah. And goodwill.
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Yes, yes, yes.
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So, yeah, it was really good at
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the end of it to finish what you we'd sort of started to that point.
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It didn't even hit the market, that property.
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So that was a little bit nerve wracking
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because we weren't really sure what that property was going to be worth,
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but, I had a really good offer put on the table.
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And I just thought, you know what?
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I'll just take it.
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We could get more.
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We could get less if we put this to market. We're going to have extra
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expenses. These people were keen as mustard.
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They.
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They actually sacrificed a $10,000 deposit that they put on another property
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to buy this one.
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So that was yeah, a bit disappointing for them.
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But yeah.
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It indicated to me that that they really loved that property as much as what I did.
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I mean, I would have been happy to have been buried there and,
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you know, when the time came.
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But that's just not how that worked out.
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So. Yeah.
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I'll, I'll find somewhere else to get buried.
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Yeah.
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Life takes different paths, but that says to me that they just
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fell in love, that you created a property that was so lovely
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that they really just had to have it.
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And they were prepared to, you know, forego
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that $10,000 deposit to have your property instead.
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So that is the power, I'll say it, the power
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of a really nice put together, renovation.
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So is
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that like the moment that you worked out that renovating
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could be part of a wealth creation strategy, or was it before then or after?
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Tell me about that.
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I think I've always known
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that
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property is a wealth creation, and that adding value to a property
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is really the way to be able to go.
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And I don't think that was part of my upbringing, was buying properties
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that needed the work done to them
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so that you can get that at a much more cost effective price,
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and then sort of putting that time and energy into the property and having,
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minimal amount of finances that have to go into that.
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Like I said, my dad was quite capable of doing a lot of things.
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So not having to pay the labour on a lot of those things really made a difference.
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And I think that that's sort of where I
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probably just grew up with that
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realisation that that's how that was. Yeah.
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The property with my ex-husband that was,
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yeah, to me, that was
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a bit of confirmation, I guess, in the real world for now.
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But at the same time, yeah, that was very rewarding
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to be able
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to, make those changes and get that, results at the end of the day.
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Yeah.
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So when it comes to, financial results, do you compare or have you compared
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what you can earn in a day job compared to what that property just brought you,
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both, both of you, you and your ex in that moment,
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like in one swoop?
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Yeah, I do, but for me, like, moving forward from
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that, it was more about having that freedom
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of being able to choose
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when I, to an extent when I'm working, when I'm not.
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I mean, obviously,
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if you've got a project on the go, you're, I'm committed to that.
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Yeah.
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But it gives me the opportunity to take that time out.
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You know, I'm, I'm an older now.
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I don't like too hot in summer and too cold in winter.
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So it gives me a chance to escape to somewhere where it's warmer in winter
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for at least one week.
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And it gives me a bit of an opportunity to
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sort of pick and choose
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when I'm going to be involved in a project
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so that I can, sort of work my life around that.
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And having the horses as well, it gives me the opportunity to
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sort of
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take the advantage of
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going and doing the things that I want to do.
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And, and I really didn't want to feel owned.
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So, you know. Yeah. Yeah.
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I was like, no, I'm not I'm at this age now.
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I don't I don't want to be owned.
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I own my own time.
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I'm responsible for myself.
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And you know, if I fail, that's on me.
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And if I don't, well, if I make a win well,
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that's on me, too. So.
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Yeah, just wanted to be the owner of myself
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and my time and how I do my things.
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Yeah.
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So when you started to renovate,
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what were and you were taking your leap into your first investment
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style properties, what were your biggest worries
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when you actually started doing that flipping for profit?
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And how did you push through them?
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Like what? What came up for you?
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I think the biggest concern was just
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getting the, the trades to be lined up,
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so that there was that smooth transition from one trade to the next, one job
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in that renovation to the next, and making sure
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that there was no sort of gaps in time or overlapping.
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Now you've got one trade, this, this sort of needing to come in,
14:56
and yet the other trades not quite finished yet or those sorts of things.
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So I think for me that was my biggest concern.
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I think I was lucky enough to be in a position
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financially where I wasn't needing an investor.
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And I did have a,
15:12
I did a joint venture with a lady that I knew
15:15
that was also financially in a position.
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So put together, we were able
15:19
to pull it off without having outside investments.
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That, that property in particular.
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The initial purpose of that was that we were going to hold that property
15:29
for a couple of years as a rental,
15:31
and then we were going to sell that on after that.
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But then the market was just improving so well when the house was coming up quite
15:36
well, and we sort of thought, well, if we do keep and
15:40
the market probably
15:41
wouldn't drop so much, it might not continue to increase.
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But if we kept it.
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In a couple of years after being a rental, we're going to have to come back in
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and we're going to have to repaint things, and we're going to have to redo
15:53
some of the things that we had done to get that back on the market.
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So I think that's when we sort of decided, look,
15:59
let's just pop it straight on the market, you know, and see how we go.
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And if we don't get the money that we're really after,
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then we'll just hold on to that for a little bit,
16:09
which would help with the Capital Gains Tax.
16:10
But yeah, yeah, we.
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We we made that choice and I think it was the right one for us.
16:15
Yeah. Yeah.
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And that experience, was it positive for the both of you
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going into a partnership together for that project.
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Yeah I think very much so.
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I think, we both learned an awful lot.
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We held different roles.
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We brought different things to the table.
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Which was good.
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I was able to have the basically
16:35
the full control of the design element. And,
16:41
sort of putting, putting all that together.
16:44
For me, from that aspect, it was really good to have somebody where
16:47
I can say, well, I'm looking for black taps and I want them to look like this,
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or I'm looking for a light fitting that's going to look like that.
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And then she would go off and do the research
16:57
and come back with a half a dozen, and that'll be, oh, that's the one.
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And she'd go off and order that and, and things like that.
17:02
So, so that's sort of.
17:03
Yeah, that was really helpful.
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But at the same time, I think it was a very good team effort
17:07
because we did bring different things to the table on that.
17:10
So yeah, I think it worked out quite well, really.
17:15
Yeah. Fantastic.
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And I agree that I think when joint venture projects go well,
17:20
they're quite good fun and you can bounce ideas off each other and,
17:23
and in many cases it's a way for people to get started.
17:27
All right.
17:27
So any learnings from that.
17:29
The good things and the bad.
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Yeah.
17:34
There was a
17:34
few things on that, that particular house that I've never sort of come across
17:37
and tackled before.
17:38
So they were great learning curves. Yeah.
17:41
I think
17:42
it was really
17:44
rewarding
17:45
to see the results at the end of the day, because obviously the house was quite,
17:49
it was sound, but it was quite rundown.
17:51
And the yard, yeah, it was a bit,
17:55
a bit overgrown or no probably not overgrown, but a bit unkept.
17:59
And the continuity wasn't there and,
18:03
Yeah.
18:03
And the, the cement floors were absolutely awful.
18:09
Yeah.
18:09
Can you remember some of the figures
18:11
on that property, the rough, rough buy-in price and
18:16
what the renovation cost you and
18:16
even the sales price?
18:19
Yeah. Well, we purchased
18:20
that one, for approximately $237,000.
18:24
Yeah.
18:25
And it was about a $56,000 renovation over a six month period.
18:30
Yeah.
18:31
The sale
18:33
price, we ended up selling that for about $440,000.
18:37
Oh, fantastic. Yeah.
18:39
So we walked away after all
18:41
of our holding costs and, you know, stamp duties and purchase cost,
18:45
resale costs and all that sort of thing,
18:47
We walked away with that, with a total of $125,000 profit between us.
18:51
So yeah.
18:52
Yeah. Pretty happy with that one. Yeah.
18:54
Yeah, that's pretty good.
18:55
Especially when you think about, saving that amount.
18:58
Say if you were to save that amount of money in your after tax dollars
19:01
that, you know, that's something that for many people is beyond them.
19:04
Some people can do it more easily depending on what you earn.
19:07
But for many people, they'd be grateful
19:09
for that amount of profit in that short amount of time.
19:13
And so at what point did you start
19:16
to feel really confident about your renovation abilities?
19:22
I think yeah, I think maybe.
19:25
When I finish the PPOR.
19:27
Yeah, I
19:27
realised that this was something that I was
19:30
really interested in.
19:32
It aligned with me as an individual,
19:36
having the ability to be able to create
19:39
that warmth
19:40
in a space and that home feeling, and that just
19:43
that peace, you know, it's your own little sanctuary in the world.
19:47
And to me, that's just so important.
19:49
And so any properties that I do for me, that's
19:52
that's what I'm looking for. Like a property has to, to an extent
19:55
has to hit that criteria where I feel I can turn this into a home
19:59
and I can give this property its next chapter, and I can make a space
20:04
for others
20:06
whether that’s just single person, a couple, a family. Whoever that, that, that space
20:11
where they can create those memories and that that lifestyle and
20:17
just be able to have their
20:18
sanctuary in the world.
20:20
You know, they come home from work and they just put their feet up in their home,
20:23
you know, and it just yeah, it just is a nice
20:26
calming space for them to be in.
20:30
I think it's a real gift.
20:31
If you're creative and you like to explore your creative.
20:35
And I've seen your work Miescha and I've seen the types of things you do
20:38
and the potential you identify in existing parts of a house
20:42
and how you just cleverly upgrade them, uplift them,
20:46
uplift them and make them really work with the rest of the property
20:49
and only renew what you need to. Like,
20:51
you really have a gift for renovating.
20:54
And so when you started to explore it, doing your PPR
20:57
and then this next investment property with this partner,
21:00
then your confidence grew to what extent, what have you done since then?
21:07
So, since then
21:08
I did Joint venture on a property
21:11
that was needing to go to market and that was very, very tired.
21:15
That was an 8 acre property with two houses on it
21:19
in a nice area in the Adelaide Hills and,
21:22
the fella that owned it, he had had a stroke a few years prior
21:26
and was just not able
21:27
to keep up with the maintenance and really needed to downsize.
21:30
So we had an agent come out and value
21:33
that one, and they gave us a value of $800,000.
21:36
And so I spent ten weeks smashing that out seven days a week.
21:41
And, put about
21:44
$80,000 into that,
21:47
because there was a lot of gardens and, and sheds that needed sorting out
21:51
and then one of the houses was wasn't a gutt job, so to speak.
21:55
But it did need all new flooring
21:57
and it needed all painting, and it need lights changing and,
22:00
and you know, new oven going in and all those types of things.
22:03
So, yeah, that one there, after the ten weeks it went back
22:06
home, went on to the market then and, and yeah, we ended up,
22:11
we ended up getting 100 and I sorry, $1.1 million for that.
22:15
So that was pretty, I was pretty pleased with that. Yeah.
22:17
That's 100 to 1.1 in a ten week
22:21
renovation
22:22
sort of tidy up and clean up on that one so that, that one.
22:26
Yeah.
22:26
It was really I was very pleased with that.
22:29
I've done some, a few other projects, but
22:31
one that comes to mind is, another one that I did,
22:34
which was very close to the Hacienda,
22:37
which was technically, I guess, the first,
22:41
renovation
22:43
career type of a job that I did.
22:44
Yes, I did the. Spanish style.
22:47
of home.
22:48
Which just came up so beautifully.
22:51
Yeah, I was really pleased with the way that came up.
22:53
It just it just a lot to be able to enhance the character
22:56
that's already there. Yeah.
22:58
So the, the next that, that.
23:00
That one, the other one that I did there in Mount Torrens
23:03
in that town was
23:06
that was actually a hoarder's house.
23:09
So that was.
23:11
1550m2
23:12
of Vietnam on a good year out the back.
23:16
Yeah.
23:16
And, about 18 skip bins worth of
23:20
removal from inside the house, and all the walls ended up
23:24
having to take out at about waist height because they were and had been infested
23:28
with rats and such.
23:29
Oh, so a real hoarder's house.
23:31
Not just somebody whose
23:32
holding onto a few trinkets.
23:35
Yeah.
23:35
Yeah.
23:36
So, Yeah.
23:37
So that one that I.
23:39
Did and that one, that one I settled in April
23:42
last year and yeah, that, that one I felt really.
23:46
Felt.
23:47
Really rewarded from by being able to sort of take it from the state
23:50
that it was in to turning that into really lovely,
23:55
like just that, like I said, that
23:56
the sanctuary for somebody and turn it back into a home.
24:01
Beautiful.
24:01
How long did it take you to do that project?
24:04
That one took about 6 to 7 months.
24:06
And, yeah, we put it on the market on a Friday evening,
24:10
and the agent had a call from a couple of interstate
24:14
buyers looking on the Saturday morning, and and then on the Monday morning,
24:17
he gave them a video walkthrough
24:19
and by Monday lunchtime, I'd actually signed a contract.
24:22
So that was pretty fantastic.
24:23
We didn't even have an open on that.
24:24
So you start with that.
24:27
Is it the move-in ready thing that really gets people buying,
24:31
whether the market is quiet or whether it's busy and moving,
24:35
do you think it makes a difference?
24:38
I definitely
24:39
think so.
24:40
With the buyers,
24:41
certainly with the buyers that I've had, they are looking for something
24:45
that's turnkey.
24:46
Yeah.
24:46
And you know, they're just wanting to have those things
24:51
that we need, I guess, more in a house than a home as well.
24:55
So they're wanting to they're looking for the storage.
24:57
They're looking for
24:58
how easy things are to clean.
25:01
Have we got the function correct in the house. Is,
25:05
you know, the spaces right to fill,
25:07
you know, can can I get my lounge in here and,
25:11
you know, the.
25:13
Yeah, I think that they are.
25:14
Yeah, definitely.
25:16
I think that what you should be really proud of is a way that
25:20
bringing to a project, you don't just go in there and just spray paint
25:23
everything as, white or just colour things over, like you really do
25:27
take the character in a home and enhance it.
25:30
You really do make a place move-in ready.
25:32
You do really think about the demographic and who's buying and
25:36
and who you're attracting to that property, and it's a real gift.
25:40
Miescha. I think it's really important.
25:41
Thank you.
25:42
I think it's very important.
25:43
To be able to do that.
25:44
And and I think you sort of.
25:47
In South Australia here, there's not a lot of areas
25:49
where you put a lot of cookie cutter homes.
25:51
And I tend to focus more on the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley.
25:55
Yeah.
25:55
So a lot of those homes, you know, that does speak to you with their own
25:59
little story and.
26:01
Yeah, I sort.
26:02
Of like to try and tap into that and, and then just sort of
26:07
enhance that for those homes and, and fix,
26:10
just fix what needs to be fixed in regards to layouts not quite right. Or.
26:15
Yeah, mostly I think the layout is not quite right.
26:18
Then I'll fix that.
26:20
And of course anything structural or anything,
26:22
you know, if you're going to do it, you're going to do it right.
26:25
That's what. I think. So yeah. Yeah.
26:28
Well, I think
26:29
we need to honour the new people to that home.
26:33
It's their home, you know, whether they're renters or they're buyers,
26:36
the people who move into that property next, it's their home.
26:39
And so I think we need to honour them by doing,
26:41
you know, a good quality work, decent quality. Not perfect.
26:44
Perfect will hold us up and cost us too much money.
26:46
But good quality work that we can be proud of.
26:50
Yeah.
26:50
And I think for me too, like that,
26:51
that satisfaction at the end of the day is what I'm needing too.
26:54
I need that job satisfaction.
26:56
I need to walk away and know that I've done a job, the job's been done
26:59
properly and it's well done, and the people are really happy.
27:02
And you
27:03
know, I live in this area.
27:05
So I don't
27:08
There's a saying: Don't sh*t in your nest, you know.
27:10
So it's a great saying. You want to be able to walk down
27:14
the street at your local shopping center and say hi and smile
27:17
and not be thinking, oh my goodness, what I did to that house was awful.
27:21
Can't be like that.
27:22
Can't be doing that, I know.
27:24
Yeah. And I think it's definitely.
27:26
Helpful when you're sort of honing in on particular
27:28
areas. Yeah.
27:29
Then and country as well.
27:32
Like the word gets out.
27:34
If you’re doing a crappy job, no one
27:35
to sell their house to you.
27:37
Or work with you.
27:39
So for me. I feel that, you know.
27:42
Well there’s that personal side of it
27:43
but then there's
27:44
also that professional side of it as well, when you really need to,
27:48
you set the standard.
27:49
And, and the people that are either wanting to purchase
27:53
those houses, sell the houses to you or work with me,
27:56
then,
27:58
you know, that's the level that they're looking for and expecting.
28:02
So yeah, I really quite enjoy it.
28:04
And getting feedback from buyers.
28:06
Like years later, I've had feedback.
28:08
The lady that bought the Hacienda,
28:09
she stopped me in the street one day and she said, do you remember who I am.
28:12
I felt.
28:13
Really honored because she said, we just love our home.
28:16
She said, we've,
28:19
not come
28:20
across any problems in the years that we've had the home.
28:23
We don't we've not changed anything.
28:26
We love it just how it is.
28:27
Love the work that you did to it.
28:29
So, that made me feel really honoured that that, you know, that I had
28:33
achieved that part of the goal as well to get that feedback a few years later
28:38
when I guess when it's in that initial stage, everyone's sort of,
28:41
you know,
28:41
they've still got the excitement that they've just purchased this property
28:45
and they're moving in, they're
28:46
starting their new chapter of life and those sorts of things.
28:48
But to get that feedback years later,
28:51
I thought, yeah, that to me made it made my day.
28:54
Really.
28:55
It's something to be really proud of.
28:57
And I think, as a renovator,
29:00
it's a tick of satisfaction beyond the money.
29:04
Beyond the money to fulfill our creative flair,
29:08
our excitement about creating something really beautiful from something ugly.
29:13
But also, you know, the monetary reward is there.
29:15
That's a no brainer, really.
29:16
When you do your numbers, it's always going to be there.
29:19
But beyond then, that feeling, yeah, it's something you'd be really proud of.
29:23
Fantastic. All right.
29:23
So you've done many projects.
29:25
I know that one of your favorite projects was the Mount Pleasant Project.
29:29
Can you tell me why you enjoyed that project
29:31
so much or what was it, the outcome?
29:34
Tell me about that one.
29:36
I think it was numerous things.
29:39
I think it was.
29:41
You know, turning a house.
29:42
Everyone was saying, oh, that should be bulldozed.
29:44
That should be bulldozed.
29:45
Oh, you're trying to put lipstick on a pig.
29:47
And at the end of the day, yeah.
29:50
The way that came out.
29:52
Yeah, it was just a really nice, homely feel.
29:56
It was, nothing super extravagant.
30:01
Like, you know, it was three bed, one bath and things like that.
30:04
But it
30:06
yeah.
30:06
It just, I think the character and the fact that we were able to take it
30:11
from the rough state that it was in,
30:14
that, you know, blind Freddy wouldn't really enjoy too much.
30:17
But to turn that into something that, you know,
30:20
I think it was at that stage that was the worst house
30:22
on that part of the street and then ended up
30:24
becoming one of the best house on that part of the street.
30:26
So that was a bit of a bit of a,
30:31
exciting moment too.
30:32
It's a nice for you.
30:33
It's also nice for the neighbors, so you get lots of
30:35
feedback from the locals when you do something like that.
30:38
Yes. Well, the neighbor next door, they were quite happy
30:40
because that helped up their price.
30:42
Yeah.
30:42
And their property as well.
30:43
So yeah. Yeah. And you know
30:46
the fence line out the front wasn't that great between their properties.
30:50
And so we put a nice fence in there and that made their yard
30:52
that even bit better and gave them a little bit more privacy.
30:55
So they were pretty stoked with that.
30:57
And then of course, you know you've got that fence line thing happening.
31:00
So there's, you know, gutters that go over or this happening or that happening.
31:04
And, and so by us doing this house, that house, it
31:08
actually fixed a few things for them, which made them super happy on that too.
31:13
So yeah of course.
31:14
That's at least fantastic.
31:16
All right. So,
31:19
for listeners
31:20
like wanting to partner with you.
31:23
What kind of joint venture or money partner opportunities are you open to?
31:27
Are you opening to continue to partner up?
31:29
Or are you quite independent.
31:31
What are your thoughts on that?
31:34
I like to
31:35
be more independent.
31:36
I'm certainly open to seller joint ventures.
31:39
So, I'm sort of working on one of them at the moment.
31:43
And I do look for
31:46
investors, like finance investors that are wanting to
31:50
come on board and be part of the process in that aspect.
31:54
Yeah.
31:56
And I mean, I think you bring to the table a really good
31:59
understanding of how projects evolve and working with the trades.
32:03
Do you have any tips on working
32:05
with trades, managing your trades and getting the best from them?
32:11
I think respect them.
32:12
Yeah, respect what they bring to the table.
32:14
Don't make them around. Yeah.
32:16
Make sure that you have open communication and be transparent with them.
32:20
I think make sure that the space is ready when they come in.
32:24
Make sure it's ready to go. Like don't waste their day.
32:26
Don't call them in to change one power point when you know you've got
32:30
ten power points and, you know, 20 lights to change.
32:34
Accumulate that together for the sparky so that they're doing, they're out there
32:38
they're doing a solid day or two
32:39
and they're not sort of coming out in dribs and drabs.
32:42
Take on, you know, respect their advice and,
32:45
and what they bring to the table and pay them on time, like, thank you.
32:50
You’ve got to pay them.
32:52
Yeah.
32:52
You know, I always try and look after my trades because I think without them
32:56
we buggered
32:57
Yeah.
32:58
You know. Yeah, there's only so much I can do.
33:00
And as I get older, there's less that I want to do.
33:02
So personally, myself.
33:04
So, yeah, we really need to just look after them and
33:08
and do the right thing by them.
33:10
Yeah.
33:10
I think the way that you communicate with people too Miescha really helps that.
33:13
I think if you're open
33:14
and you discussing things along the way and there's no angst in relation to,
33:19
working with trades or something that's going on so you can deal with it
33:22
then and then that really helps people feel good about a project.
33:25
And if they feel good about a project and they feel good about you
33:29
as the person who's running that project, then they'll always fit you in
33:34
for you.
33:34
So definitely, yeah.
33:36
Yeah, you.
33:36
Do the right thing by people and they generally would do the right thing by you.
33:40
And I’ve had
33:40
some haven’t and you move them to the side and initially I
33:45
Said that so nicely.
33:47
You move them to the side, it's like I'm not working with you ever again.
33:50
Lost you in the crowd.
33:52
Pop them to one side.
33:54
Yeah.
33:54
Yeah, I was initially I
33:56
was always quite concerned.
33:58
Oh, will I find another tidy to do this one.
34:00
Oh, and it's going to take time. It's going to hold me up,
34:02
It's going to cost me problems. Will I trust them?
34:04
And then I think, well. Actually this one's taking time.
34:07
I don't trust this one.
34:08
And, and I did actually come to the realisation that if I have to
34:13
move one on, a better one's going to come in and take its place.
34:16
And I've found that since that initial step of
34:20
of putting my big girl panties on and actually
34:23
stepping out there and saying right-o, I think it's time for you to leave the room.
34:27
I've found consistently that any time
34:30
I have had to do that, that someone better has come into their place.
34:34
Do you
34:35
think that your experience when you're replacing trades,
34:39
your experience has led you to communicate with your new tradie better, or ask
34:44
different questions like, how do you go about taking on your new person?
34:50
Yeah, I think so.
34:51
I think each
34:52
time that you have a situation,
34:54
you learn something from that as an individual and then
34:57
you if you're able
34:58
to take that on board sometimes when you know,
35:01
obviously you're going to have a few come in to take that spot to work out
35:05
which one you want, you can sort of start to see through a few things,
35:10
and look like we say nothing ever really goes to plan.
35:13
So I think if.
35:15
If
35:16
they are resilient and they can just sort of have
35:19
good communication and step up and say, look, this isn't going to work. Or
35:23
this is causing a problem somewhere else for me.
35:26
If I'm able to roll with those punches,
35:28
that just makes that whole process much better.
35:30
And I feel that if the tradie can roll with the punches too, because I am a woman
35:36
and I do have a prerogative to change my mind on something.
35:39
Oh, we try not to, but it happens.
35:42
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So,
35:44
Yeah, I mean, sometimes you might go, oh, on these lights, you get the lights,
35:48
you get.
35:48
Oh no no, no, that's not working for me.
35:52
Sorry. I'm going to have to swap them out.
35:54
So yeah, I sort of look for
35:55
that bit of resilience in them as well.
35:58
And a sense of humor.
36:00
You know, no one wants to go to work and just,
36:03
you know, you've got multiple trades and multiple.
36:07
You know,
36:07
just people coming and going
36:08
and no one wants to go somewhere where it's just awful
36:12
all day
36:13
You know, someone is carrying a chip on their shoulder or,
36:16
you know, blaming the next tradie or the one before them.
36:18
It's like, yeah, no, we don't have that in this camp.
36:21
And off you go.
36:22
Yeah.
36:23
And I also think it helps just to be pleasant,
36:26
even if you have something to complain about
36:28
or something that you have to bring up that's not up to speed or scratch.
36:32
You can be pleasant about the way you do it,
36:34
and you can also think about what it's like to receive criticism.
36:38
I don't personally like to receive feedback that's, negative.
36:42
So I think, how can I frame this?
36:45
So it's going to be received in a, in a better way,
36:48
which is not going to cause any angst and continue our building or building.
36:52
Funny, building the relationship that we've built for our builders.
36:56
So it's yeah it's important.
36:57
Yeah. And not just going yeah I think first.
37:01
Yeah that's how it goes.
37:02
So yeah, if you say no, no, no that's not good.
37:05
Oof yeah yeah yeah yeah.
37:07
You do very much have to be tactful.
37:09
So I like to sort of put myself in the shoes of the person
37:12
that would be receiving that feedback and how I would go about it.
37:16
And I like to think a
37:20
along the lines of
37:21
constructive criticism rather than just sitting there having a go.
37:25
You haven't done it right.
37:25
Yeah. And and I do have to, I do
37:28
feel that in that position you have to take on board,
37:32
and I do as well, that they sit and know their job.
37:35
They have gone and studied and and done all their hard yards
37:39
to get to where they are.
37:40
So you do to an extent have to, respect that.
37:44
Although you do get some dicks.
37:46
Don't get me wrong. There are plenty out there.
37:49
Yeah. No you do.
37:50
I was watching A Current Affair last night.
37:51
They were talking about cowboy plumbers and I just thought, wow,
37:54
I just can't believe that it still continues.
37:56
So there are some tradies
37:57
that don't do the right thing, but the majority of tradies
38:01
I mean, I've got guys drilling in the background.
38:03
You might even be able to pick it up on the audio, but they're just great.
38:07
They're just great humans.
38:08
They're really good.
38:09
And their knowledge is tops and they just good to communicate with.
38:12
And you know, I do treat them with the respect that they deserve.
38:16
And they have knowledge way beyond Brett and I.
38:18
We’re renovators. They’re builders and they really know how to put things together.
38:23
Yeah.
38:24
Yeah.
38:25
I think my builder, he, I'm really quite
38:27
surprised he’s stuck with me through all these years.
38:30
And he knows you. Yeah.
38:32
Yeah, he was,
38:35
I think he was just starting out, and he's in a family business.
38:39
I think it was eight children. Seven brothers.
38:42
And six of those brothers are in this one particular business.
38:46
In Adelaide Hills and
38:49
Matty, when he first started, he was just sort of
38:52
starting. Although he,
38:53
he was very skilled and experienced anyway because their dad was a builder.
38:58
So yeah, it was in the blood. Really. Yeah.
39:01
But he initially I'd say, oh what do you think of this.
39:04
Oh, that's up to you.
39:06
And I'm like, well I don’t ask you if it was up to me. What do you
39:08
think?
39:11
So now he's just like, what the hell?
39:15
I’m just like
39:15
work with me Matt, just work with me.
39:17
And he's like, oh, yeah, alright.
39:19
So I he throws some
39:21
good ideas at me because he's exposed to a lot
39:24
of other
39:25
renovations and builds and, and newer properties, older properties.
39:29
So I just like to take that on board.
39:31
And we have a good joke and a bit of banter and, and he's not a bad stick.
39:36
He's about 10 foot and built like a Neanderthal.
39:38
So I thought you you, Mr.
39:41
Matt, who are.
39:42
Perfect for lift and carry. Lift and carry.
39:44
He’s perfect.
39:46
Yeah.
39:47
Yeah. When he resheets the ceilings
39:49
he doesn't even need anything to stand on
39:51
or
39:52
He's brilliant.
39:55
Yeah.
39:56
It's just it's with those, you know, given arms.
39:59
Yeah.
40:00
But someone just starting out who's brand new to renovating to hear
40:04
that message is really nice, Miescha because I have good relationships
40:08
with people that I've worked with, too.
40:10
And most of us find good people in amongst a few.
40:13
You've got to kiss a few frogs to find princes,
40:15
but when you find your princes in renovating and doing more than one job
40:19
and taking it to a career level, being able to scale it as a business,
40:24
as an actual business occurs when you build your A-Team,
40:27
and they'll always just go that extra mile for you,
40:30
and you go that extra mile for them, and you get good results
40:33
and you get the work done fast and have a real understanding of,
40:36
you know, the level of finish that
40:38
you expect and what you expect from them, what they expect from you.
40:42
It's, brilliant to make things quite well.
40:45
I say easy, but there's all this work involved.
40:47
But yeah, it might make things quite seamless.
40:50
Yeah, well, I think it is in the
40:52
big scheme of it, it’s the easier path. Yeah.
40:55
Because if they're not on page with you and they're not being reliable,
41:00
those sorts of things, it just makes it
41:02
yeah, really challenging.
41:04
Yeah I agree.
41:05
All right.
41:06
So what skill sets do you, you got to talk yourself up here,
41:09
even though it's not in your DNA.
41:13
Okay.
41:14
What skill sets do you bring to a renovation
41:16
that makes you a good renovator?
41:17
Do you think?
41:23
I guess, you know, you've got your technical side of making,
41:26
you know,
41:27
knowing your products and knowing what has to go where and what trades doing
41:30
what and those sorts of things.
41:31
But I think for me, it's a,
41:35
bit of intuition,
41:35
maybe. I can sort of see through what's
41:39
there in front of me initially and go, yeah, I can, I can work with
41:42
this
41:44
I mean, one house I've just sort of looked
41:45
at just recently to work on and it's being used for storage.
41:49
And the room, even though it's not a hoarders house,
41:52
it's still it looks that way because it's storage.
41:56
Yeah. You sort of,
41:57
there's stuff
41:58
everywhere.
41:58
There's old blinds pulled down and that sort of thing.
42:01
And I look over and I see this beautiful stone,
42:04
fireplace to the ceiling, like a feature fireplace.
42:07
And I'm like, yes, that's awesome.
42:09
And I just straight away sort of feel right,
42:11
that needs this, kind of a pull the gas one out, pop
42:14
this nice, beautiful electric, you know,
42:18
want something a little bit more modern
42:20
but still keeping the character of that home and just popping
42:24
some shelves up on either side and it's got beautiful, bay windows
42:28
in there and nice French doors going to an entertaining area.
42:33
But I. Think, a lot of people struggle
42:36
to see past
42:38
what's
42:38
directly in front of them and look to the bones.
42:43
Yeah, I agree.
42:44
So if somebody were to come across a property
42:46
in South Australia, you would be happy to work with them even at that level
42:50
to help them with the design brief and where to start?
42:53
Oh definitely. Yeah.
42:55
I've had a
42:56
couple of inquiries just recently where people have sort of,
43:00
got a home on and one was a single man recently.
43:03
Sort of.
43:03
Divorced and such like, and he moved and he was like, I'll just.
43:07
I want it to make it
43:08
feel like a home, like it just feels all mismatched and whatever.
43:12
So being able to sort of
43:15
go in and help with that, it just makes me.
43:19
Feel.
43:20
Really pleased that I'm able to help
43:22
somebody make their sanctuary.
43:26
And put the essence of them into their home
43:28
and it's a part of their personality at the end of the day.
43:31
So I really enjoying that
43:34
Fantastic.
43:36
How important do you think is growing
43:39
your knowledge continually and continually honing your craft,
43:43
the community and networking that comes with, property groups?
43:47
How important is that, role played in your current success?
43:53
I think that's priceless to me.
43:55
Like anybody. That you.
43:57
I think, you know, the.
44:00
When you think
44:01
you know, everything that goes to show that you don't know much.
44:04
Because
44:05
the more you know, the more yourealisee you do not know.
44:09
There's always something.
44:11
Yeah. Yeah.
44:12
So I'm one of those in that basket and I'm always picking the brains of the tradie.
44:16
So it's very important
44:17
that I have the right tradies that can handle that kind of thing.
44:20
And I'm not picking their brain for
44:24
Are you doing it right?
44:26
Are you doing it wrong? But how does this process work?
44:28
If I wanted to do that, how do we go about that?
44:31
Is that going to work?
44:33
Yeah.
44:34
What are the other alternatives?
44:36
It's taken a few of them a little while.
44:38
To be able to say, oh, well, personally, I like this.
44:42
Or why would you do that?
44:44
Why you put a door over there like, oh yeah, awesome idea.
44:48
So I love to be
44:49
able to get that feedback and be able to turn that into, I guess, inner
44:54
knowledge for myself and, and use that moving forward to other things.
44:59
And knowledge on running numbers as well
45:01
as, you know, like examining properties properly, like thoroughly doing
45:07
really good feasibility as well as looking at, you know, the area of the property
45:11
in and the types of changes you're going to make
45:13
and what those changes are going to cost and, and all that kind of stuff.
45:16
Where have you picked up all of that kind of knowledge over time?
45:20
Well, for me, I always
45:21
look at the bones on a property.
45:23
That's the start, like, is it sound?
45:25
If it's not sound, why isn't it sound?
45:27
And where what's involved in making it sound?
45:31
Is the numbers on that worth my time?
45:34
And then I,
45:36
I guess over time you sort of learn that, you know, a
45:39
tilers going to be 75 bucks a square meter, lay tiles and this is going to cost that
45:43
and this is going to cost that.
45:44
So I sort of
45:46
am able to nut out
45:48
numbers a bit easier as time goes on.
45:51
And I mean everything's always going up.
45:53
It's just the way that, that is.
45:55
I think what's helped for me is that I've been in business prior,
45:59
so I've been able to,
46:02
I guess,
46:03
evolve in that sense of working with the numbers.
46:07
And I always try and not have the emotion in there.
46:12
To me, the numbers aren't the emotion.
46:14
The emotion is the feel of the house and the continuity
46:16
and the way that it flows at the end of the day.
46:19
So yeah, the numbers have to stack up
46:22
before any emotion can come into anything.
46:25
Yeah. Brilliant.
46:26
And what's it like hanging out with other renovators?
46:30
It's awesome.
46:32
Okay, why?
46:34
Well, you know,
46:34
you bounce off each other, you see things that they've done and it's.
46:39
And it's so fantastic.
46:40
I guess as a renovator, you're aware of what
46:43
goes into something, somebody that doesn't do any renovating type of
46:47
thing,
46:48
they don't know
46:49
the extent and the work that has had to actually go into something that doesn't
46:55
look, it just looks like
46:56
you've put some paint on the wall and it's like, you know, not really.
46:59
It's a hell of a lot more that's come into it than that.
47:01
So I.
47:03
Yeah, I really enjoy the energy and the feedback
47:07
from each other and yeah, just the wins from everybody and
47:12
just seeing their creativity.
47:13
And I think people that are in that space, they, they it's passion for them.
47:20
They really enjoy what they're doing.
47:21
And to see anybody in their environment where they're passionate
47:26
and it's just awesome.
47:28
I agree, it's why I like, coaching the groups that I do and in particular,
47:34
people just like you Miescha, who are trying to, take things to another level
47:38
who are always eager to learn more, who are a great community member.
47:43
And I think the way even then, you just talked
47:45
about other people's projects and not just about your own, your own.
47:49
I think the way that people champion each other on so important, so important.
47:55
Definitely. Yeah, yeah.
47:56
In a world where people can be critical and, you're right, underappreciate
47:59
the amount of effort and, the accomplishment that others make
48:04
when they turn something really awful and all of a sudden, you know,
48:07
you see the pictures on Instagram and they're all finished
48:09
just understanding what went into doing that bit by bit.
48:13
Yeah. Brilliant.
48:15
Thanks so much, Miescha for joining us today.
48:18
And you can be found at Rising Phoenix Property Solutions.
48:23
Can I am I allowed to give away your direct
48:27
email address if somebody wants to email you directly right now.
48:31
Yeah.
48:33
It is
48:35
risingphoenixproperty@gmail.com
48:40
Perfect.
48:41
Thank you so much for joining me.
48:42
So anything you'd like to say in closing?
48:45
No. Thank you very much for the invitation to have a chat today.
48:48
I've really enjoyed it.
48:49
Thank you very much, Miescha
48:51
And keep renovating, you are fabulous at what you do.
48:55
And, you keep active.
48:57
Two, you're a busy lady. You just never doing nothing.
48:59
You're always
49:00
networking and meeting other people and setting up your joint venture project.
49:04
Your renovation business is only.
49:07
I think it's only just begun compared to where.
49:09
I'd like to see you in another couple of years.
49:12
Let's go I agree, I agree, I agree. Yep.
49:16
All right.
49:17
Thank you guys. So far.
49:18
Yeah. Yeah. And doing really well already.
49:20
Thank you. Appreciate you coming. On.
49:22
Thank you
49:23
Belinda.