The nurse and nanny best friends flipping houses on the side

In the Brisbane suburb of Wavell Heights, Holly Docherty and Angie Lonergan are living in renovation chaos. The best friends of 10 years have bought a three-bedroom home together and are extending it for sale.

It’s the third time they’ve done this, so living in shambolic conditions is something of a norm for the duo. They’ve flipped two other properties in the same suburb, doing much of the reno work themselves while living on site.

The first two sales netted them more than $200,000 in profit – not bad for a nurse and nanny who’d never considered property flipping until both were rejected for individual home loans.

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“We put our heads together and decided if we wanted to get on the real estate carousel we’d have to combine our deposit and incomes,” Docherty says. “We were then instantly approved and bought [our first] place within a few months.”

After

Before

That first buy was in 2015, when they settled on a run-down, two-bedroom “renovator’s delight”, complete with tiny block and kidney-shaped pool. Firm on buying within 10 kilometres of Brisbane’s CBD meant slim pickings on their tight budget.

“It was all we could afford, and we could instantly see that we could add value,” Docherty says.

Adding value was something of a learning curve: at that stage the besties had no reno experience and everything to learn.

“We basically taught ourselves how to use a drop saw and a drill and a multi-tool. That’s all been self-taught watching YouTube clips,” Docherty says.

“Then off we went to Bunnings,” Lonergan adds.

They were ready to sell after 18 months of renovating around their day jobs. Agents estimated they’d get around $460,000, maybe $480,000 if they found an “emotional buyer”. Instead, Docherty and Lonergan sold it themselves for $510,000, making $97,000 after costs.

“It set off a dream and an addiction,” says Docherty. “We wanted to do a bigger and better [renovation] to prove that girls can do anything, and also to prove that it wasn’t a fluke that we made that much profit.”

Their second Wavell Heights flip was a bit more complicated: asbestos, lead paint, the addition of a double garage and, most dangerous of all, falling in love with the place they were supposed to be getting ready to sell.

They sought advice from other flippers through their Instagram on what to do, eventually selling for $108,000 profit.

Their current place is the first time they’ll be making big structural changes to a property, adding a fourth bedroom, second bathroom and large garage.

After

Before

Luckily they’re pros at enduring the camping-style quarters that come with renovating – the electric frying pan as temporary kitchen, showering at work while the bathroom’s done, and basically doing whatever it takes.

A previous flip saw them live without a working toilet for four days. “You don’t want to know what we did,” Docherty says.

As if living together and renovating together wasn’t enough, the friends also travel together regularly. It begs the question: how do they spend so much time together and stay sane?

They say it’s a combination of just getting along well and approaching everything with their own strengths in mind.

“If anything we’re more like siblings now,” Docherty says.

“Yeah, I’ve got a bossy younger sister right here,” Lonergan agrees. “She’s the youngest but she’s the boss.”

They invest time in carefully planning how the reno will go down.

“I’m quite hands-on and I do the nitty gritty,” Lonergan says. “We have our little jobs, our little things that we do. We sit down prior to buying the house and nut it out together on paper.”

“And then we try and stick with it,” Docherty adds.

They also share an ability to visualise a finished space well before they do it – so much so that their friends ask them to help with their homes too.

“I think that’s why Holly and I work well together too – we both have really similar taste,” Lonergan says. “And we’re both quite creative. I think having that creative flair helps.”

That said, the potential buyer in always front of mind.

“Plain, white, Hamptons style. Clean but not sterile,” Docherty says of their interiors. “You need to make it feel like [buyers] can walk in and have their own coloured cushions if they want to.”