Brisbane renovator shares her top tips for turning a profit on a rundown property

Rachel Meyers and husband Heinrich have just listed the sixth property they’ve flipped, and have plans to start a mum and dad building company.

If they aren’t buying run-down properties to breathe new life into, they’re helping out friends and family in need. Quietly, Mrs Meyers says, it’s becoming more than she can handle part-time.

“I used to have so many people say how does this fit in with this?” she says. “So many people knew what they wanted but didn’t know how to put it together.”

Their secret? Don’t be scared to knock down a house to build the perfect home.

“The footprint of older homes isn’t conducive to our way of life now,” Mrs Meyers says. The postwar home that used to occupy 70 Stephen Street in Camp Hill had rooms that were too small, and lacked the open-plan style currently in vogue.

Mrs Meyers said renovating would cost too much; they had no option but to knock the house down and start from scratch.

“We like to do things properly,” she says. “Things were adding up and you never know when those expenses are going to end.”

Mrs Meyers looks for good blocks of land, with the potential for city views – then figures the rest out later.

If she’s working on a house for her friends or family, Mrs Meyers can’t usually knock the whole thing down. In a recent reno job, she gave a friend’s Camp Hill home a much needed facelift.

“We repainted the whole house, inside and out,” she said.  “And we re-styled the lawn.” The major structural work was done on the exterior, while the inside was updated in places.

Ray White Bulimba’s Steven Gow was the selling agent for the Meyers’ latest project, 70 Stephen Street. He said Mrs Meyers’ design style is in high demand.

“We’ve been swamped with it,” he said. “Over 100 people turned up, just for the first open.”

Mr Gow said they were a part of a growing trend of families trying to break into the property flipping market.

“One thing I have noticed is there is more couples trying to get in and get themselves established as a business,” he said. “Builders and developers are charging a lot, so mums and dads are trying to build their own homes.”

“What I’ve found most families are so busy with work and home life, they don’t have time for that.”

“Being able to walk in and make that transition into a house, is a lot better than the headache of doing it yourself.”