If you’re looking to make an investment in real estate, or you want to buy an existing home and still make it your own, we’ve got to talk “Fixer Uppers”.
Caribbean Island Properties is lucky to be in discussion today with Josee Atkinson, the CEO of Blueprint Management. We spoke about how to buy a fixer upper property, and what are the key characteristics to look for or be wary of. Read on to learn more about this exciting part of real estate from a pro in renovations.
Caribbean Island Properties
Josee, for our readers, can you tell us a little bit about your professional background?
Josee Atkinson
Yes, absolutely. So, my career started in a very strange way. I did my first degree in mathematics specialising in finance. And then it right angled into architecture. And then I followed that up with engineering because I wanted to understand "What are all of these columns everywhere." And I think it led me to today to be able to lead my business into a very good way. So, I know what is needed, what is not needed. I know what to sacrifice, and what not to sacrifice.
Caribbean Island Properties
One thing is for sure, you're a smart cookie if you did mathematics, architecture and engineering. So, when did you start Blueprint Management?
Josee Atkinson
Blueprint Management was started about 15 years ago. And then, before that I was doing my other company that was in Canada. So that started probably, like, nearly 30 years ago.
Caribbean Island Properties
Do you love what you do every single day?
Josee Atkinson
Oh, absolutely. It's my hobby.
Caribbean Island Properties
I can see that. So I guess we can get right into the meat of the matter. Why would someone want to buy a fixer upper property?
Josee Atkinson
Well, there's two reasons to buy a fixer upper: budget, and timeframe. If you already have a timeframe to work with, and you refurbish, then you can choose how far you go with it. So budget, you can elapse your time, if you want to start with something like your kitchen and bathroom. And then after that, you can go and move slowly into bedrooms and other rooms that are maybe a little less important. So you can choose your budget, you can choose your timeframe, but you need to choose the right "bones" for it.
Caribbean Island Properties
So what are some of the things that people should look for when they're looking at properties that they want to buy and then renovate? What are some of the key things that they need to take note of when walking into a property?
Josee Atkinson
So the key things I will say, look at your roof, you look at your main structure, is there any discoloration of the walls? Where are they going? Is it just a little gentle crack? That will be just a little block separating? Is it a movement crack? Or is it something that you could see the grounds that move severely, and it's separated? And it could cause further damage and have to redo foundations?
Caribbean Island Properties
So even if there are major structural issues, is this something that people with maybe an appropriate budget, appropriate timeframe, something they could still work with?
Josee Atkinson
Absolutely.
Caribbean Island Properties
Do you get a lot of people who are interested in buying fixer uppers and they come to you and say, here's what I have? What can we do with it?
Josee Atkinson
The kitchen is a big ticket item. But again, if your budget is minimised, you can go by stages with the below cabinet first and you can spread it out. But the dictator is the budget. And again timeframe if you need to move out of your house in four weeks to move in there. A kitchen will take you more than four weeks to do.
Caribbean Island Properties
Will you do house visits?
Josee Atkinson
Absolutely, clients will come to us and they say, "I saw this property - I'm not sure. Do you think you might come in?" And then we go and we look at it with them. And most people will have investigated already. What is your budget? What is your timeframe, so that we can look at the work that needs to be done if it's feasible within that budget, and within that timeframe. So, fixer uppers are never scary, as long as you know what you're doing.
So, if your budget is $500,000, and you buying the house for 450 and when you arrive the roof is leaking left, right and centre, your budget is bust. So you need to know what your budget will afford you. But on the other hand, if you say you know what I'm buying the house at a good deal. The price is not so bad. And what I need to do is more cosmetic, it's not so much of a big deal.
Caribbean Island Properties
Is there any particular aspect of the renovation process that you really like the most, that makes you say "Oh, this is my favourite part".
Josee Atkinson
I think the design part is the fun piece. You walk into it and as you walk into the building, I can see the building unfolding in my head. I can see how I can improve the building or if I put a window here, change that door and turn from here to there, move this across, open up this. And then I can see the building unfolding in front of me and I can see the beauty in every building. So, you get sometimes that it's been abandoned for a very long time. I think El Sueno is an example where it has been abandoned for 20 odd years. And yet whenever I was looking at it, I have the visions of how it could be beautiful. And I think I ticked the box and it looks beautiful now.
Caribbean Island Properties
Absolutely. So, I want to talk about El Sueno. Because that property, as you said, it became sort of very well known, I think, on the south coast as just sort of like, wow, there's something really special about that property, but it's just been almost forgotten, right? What was it like when you were first called in to go and take a look at the site? Were you like, "oh, no", or "this is going to be amazing."
Josee Atkinson
The funny thing about this particular one is that I've looked at it for myself, and I had put an offer to buy it for me for my office. And then my client called me and said, Oh, I just made an offer for something, I want you to come and look at it. Sure. And then he picked me up, we went there. And as we arrived, I laughed. I said, "Really? I will redraw mine. It's okay." And so, obviously, because I had analysed it for myself first, then I had a full on vision for my need, which was slightly different than my client's need. But yet what was important was to keep the prestige of the building, to keep that very original look of what it was, and the grandeur that it had way back when and I wanted to show the south coast that we can still remain classic, we don't have to turn everything into this modern architecture. I love modern architecture but in its own place.
Caribbean Island Properties
Yes, and I feel you really retained an essence of what the building was. And that was purposeful, I imagined.
Josee Atkinson
Absolutely, absolutely, I kept the tower. We tried to keep as much as we could, on some aspect of it, every time we dig a little bit, we found too much termites, too much damage, too many cracks. So we had to demolish a little more. And then we built, but we tried to keep the tower at the exact location and what it was. And then obviously, we needed a little bit more space, because the building was quite narrow, was long, but narrow. So my building got fatter. So she put on some weight to the forward band. And we were able to create a better space for all the tenants that will be utilising the building now.
But I wanted to keep the tower, I wanted to keep the green roofs, I wanted to keep the very classical aspect of it.
Caribbean Island Properties
So you analysed it for yourself first and then you went back with your client. What were some of the things that concerned you about the project? Before beginning maybe some of those "red flags" that you would want to look for in fixer uppers. Is there anything that jumped out at you that you thought - this is going to be a challenge for me?
Josee Atkinson
Definitely the good standing of the coral stone wall, because until you touch them, they are perfect. And then you touch a little bit and then they just crumble. And we were with the majority of the building being coral stone. So, I knew the roof had to be redone, because it was eaten up by termites. But again, I wanted to keep the shape, the look in everything. So I knew the roof was a big ticket item for the client. Back in the days, the doorways were very, very short. And so I wanted to be able to get to code and have the height of the doors at the right height and so on. So we had to dig into the coral a little bit. Some of them, we felt that we had to demolish and rebuild. So we did. So it was definitely sometimes a little surprise.
Caribbean Island Properties
What are some of the exciting things that you've added in to the building that you were able to think "oh, this is great. I can't wait to put this in."
Josee Atkinson
The pool. Nobody knew there's a pool. So we have to apartment on the upper floor and the apartment doesn't enable you to have a straight view to the ocean because it's in between the buildings of the other side of the road and it's where they have their pool. So when you sit in the pool, you have the perfect eye to just see the blue ocean in front of you. So it gives you a little ticket that none of the other properties nearby could have because the limited space of the terrace and so on, but you're sitting in a lovely pool with a lovely seaview, no interruption and it makes you forget the road, it makes you forget everything but the ocean.
Caribbean Island Properties
That's fantastic and that is such a detail that really makes properties special. So I want to hear a little bit about doing things to code when you're renovating. We talked about if you're a person who wants to buy a fixer upper residential property, it's a good idea to give you a call or Blueprint Management to come and have a look and point out anything that engineering wise is important is there anyone else or any other types of inspections that people should have done before they make a purchase?
Josee Atkinson
If it's a new property, just a piece of land, having your geotechnical done is very important because you can find all kinds of things in the ground. You can see voids, you can see the nature of the ground as well because once you start excavating, you might find that the grounds are so bad that you need to excavate 50 feet of bad surface to be able to find the rock so you can adjust your foundation to suit. So if you have your geotechnical done first, then you can start with that in your budget and know that should I do piles, should I do a foundation, so you can adjust to suit.
An engineering inspection is always a must for even a piece of land or for your own property that you will buy. There's nothing that cannot be fixed. If you have a void, you can fill the void. So it doesn't mean that the land is no good. If there's a property that you own that has a void in it, and you don't want it I will gladly take it off from you. Because it's all fixable.
Caribbean Island Properties
Especially when you have the knowhow.
Josee Atkinson
But it is about what I'm paying for, for what I'm getting. So, if you get the piece of land for peanuts, repairing it would bring it back to a normal value of land, then it's fine. But if you pay too much money to start with, then that's where it becomes a no. The same thing with the fixer upper. If you're buying a house and your idea is to fix it, the person wanted to sell it to you like it's brand new, then it might not be worth it. But if you have a good deal to start with a good price for what you're buying. And then you say okay, well with my budget I can do so much. And then again if your budget is on the smaller side, then avoid foundation work, avoid roof work, kitchen work if possible and then go for the smaller bits which will be just retiling the floors, a coat of paint, a few new light fixtures sometimes makes a huge difference. Windows are always a big chunk as well. So look around your windows. If there is any leak around the windows it's very easy to determine because you will see the separation of the paint from the wall so you can easily identify and it's not good to have mildew in the house. So usually if the window leaks, then there's mildew and it's not good for the internals.
Caribbean Island Properties
I think that's really good advice. Are there any differences in residential fixer uppers and commercial fixer uppers? So for example, El Sueno is partially a commercial building. Are there any things that people who are looking at renovating a building to use as office space or if they have some type of business they want to put in? Is there anything that differs from the residential that they need to bear in mind?
Josee Atkinson
Pretty much the house is for you. It's for your own use or as a rental market or whatever. So you will attract either tourists looking for comfort, easy clean, easy maintenance, or yourself which you will want something that is easy and simple as well. For commercial, you will look for something that could be extremely flexible. You will look for something that you will rent out for tenants or your own business that you can move across, expand and do multiple options with it. So you need to have a surface that enables you to have the cleanest slate as possible. The most open surface so that whoever comes in there can subdivide it to their own needs. Because if it's an office, they might need only two offices, but 20 desks in the middle, whilst another business will require 20 offices and just two bathrooms. So you know everybody has their own needs. If you have a clean slate and the least amount of separation, then it enables you to have more possibility for more types of business.
Caribbean Island Properties
Which is very key. Okay, well, let's come back around to architecture which you studied before engineering, does that mean you like it more than engineering?
Josee Atkinson
I think it's different. The engineering enables me to understand, while the architecture enables me to dream. So, you see the difference, dreaming is always a lot nicer. So, with the architecture, you will do the concept you will create your own baby. And then same thing when you go on the interior, you will take a space, whether that is a house or commercial space, and then you have the vision of what it will be. So either for the residential or the commercial, you find out what is the purpose intent, what will happen in there, and then you kind of start dreaming about it. And, you develop and you can see things appearing in your eyes and say, well, I need this thing, it's this there, this is going to be a lady's place. And therefore it needs to be feminine need to reflect the person I'm talking to. So almost as you scrutinise the soul of who will be using the space for the house. And then you transform that into the space. If you have a commercial space, you will either find out what is the purpose of the business, what does it represent? And then take that and transform it to match what it is. We did the Rock Hard office in Haggat Hall. Rock Hard - its mascot is masculine in cement, it's strong. So, it's meant to be a very strong, industrial masculine look to it. And so the whole place was very strong with that influence knowing that Rock Hard was representing a very strong brand, very strong product. So the look and feel of it was again, representing what the brand was.
Caribbean Island Properties
Are there any architectural trends that you've noticed from living in Barbados, living in the Caribbean that you either like or don't like?
Josee Atkinson
I like coral stone. I like the classic. I like the influence of the Oliver Messel into a lot of the architecture in Barbados. And I think it's such an identity that we should keep on carrying. The modern has its place as well. It brings a different clientele. It brings a little youth into it. And it's okay. And it's okay to clash sometime the two of them together, almost like you will see in like a James Bond movie, you will see this very classic building and then there's very modern architecture next to it. I think that the two are fine. As long as you know how to marry them nicely. I think they look fine. There's nothing in particular that I don't like so much.
Caribbean Island Properties
Okay, last question. In terms of people buying fixer uppers either for their own home or a home they want to rent or for commercial reasons. Is it a good investment?
Josee Atkinson
Always yes - if you start off with the right price.
Caribbean Island Properties
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Josee. Thank you for all the advice you gave us and this conversation.
