Doing it for you

Due to limited land availability and house prices holding steady, and despite all the media hype, more and more homeowners in New Zealand are seeking to make capital gains through renovation as opposed to purchasing a new property. However, this can be an area that is fraught with difficulties as many homeowners have discovered to their cost.

New Rooms For Old, a one-stop service offered by Fix It Building Services that takes the stress out of renovation, has come to their rescue.

Robin La Pere, with extensive experience in the fields of marketing, building and franchising, is the brains behind the concept.

La Pere started his working life as a teacher, progressing to copywriting and direct marketing. Fascinated by the strategic side of marketing, he acquired a Diploma in Marketing from Auckland University.

At the age of 26 he moved into the field of building services when he took up an opportunity to work as marketing manager for a retail property company.

In 1994 he joined Fletcher Building as national franchise manager. Fletcher Building had concerns about the quality of workmanship of people installing their GIB product and La Pere helped them to set up their own installation franchise to ensure a consistently high level of service.

Thereafter he ran his own marketing and franchising consultancy, Perfect Communications, from 1999 to 2003. Amongst others, he looked after the marketing and franchising of Signature Homes, one of New Zealands most established new home building firms and the 28th fastest growing company in Deloittes Fast50 (in 2004).

In 2002, building supply chain Carters decided that rather than just providing their customers with products and materials, they would offer a full solution that included installation and maintenance services. They asked La Pere to help them set up a franchise called Fix It Building Services under the Carters umbrella.

However La Pere and his client, Gavin Hunt, of Signature Homes were quick to recognise the opportunity for Fix It to fill what they saw as an enormous gap in the market for a national trade-based building services franchise.

In 2003 they bought the Fix It concept from Carters and, under La Peres leadership, have developed it into a franchise with a nationwide network.

Renovation goldmine

The opportunities in the building services and renovation market in New Zealand are huge, says La Pere. Figures from Statistics New Zealand show that additions and alterations worth over $5000 per job amounted to almost $1 billion last year. This is only the tip of the iceberg, he believes, as it does not include consented work worth less than $5000 or un-consented work.

A Household Spending Survey reveals that householders actually spend about $3.4 billion on renovations annually. La Pere predicted growth in the residential improvements market and a decline in the residential construction market for 2006. These have been borne out by the latest Statistics New Zealand figures which show that additions and alterations were up eight percent for the 12 month period ending April 2006, whereas the construction market shrank.

Demand for renovation services is driven by the fact that many houses in New Zealand have reached the age where renovation is inevitable. According to a CM Research Home Improvement Survey in 2000, 75 percent of our 1.4 million dwellings are more than 20 years old.

Then there is the dramatic trend away from DIY (do it yourself) to DIFM (do it for me), which has opened the way to even greater opportunities in the market.

The nation of DIYers has been hamstrung by compliance issues brought about by the Building Act of 2004 which restricts their ability to work on their own homes.

As there is not much information on building renovations in New Zealand, La Pere resorted to extrapolating from a Harvard study conducted in the US where trends in the housing market parallel those in New Zealand. He found that the Home Remodeler industry there was highly fragmented, with the Top 500 remodelers doing less than four percent of the jobs. He therefore assumes the same scenario applies to New Zealand, which leaves a gap for a comprehensive renovation service that brings all the trades together in one business.

This is precisely what New Rooms for Old offers, allowing the homeowner to interface with one person only (i.e. the business owner project manager) to whom he/she also has recourse in the event of any problem with any particular aspect of the project .

The comprehensive service offers many options, allowing owners to add a whole new room or simply to renovate a bathroom or kitchen, for instance. A quick makeover to optimise value and saleability is alsoan option.

The benefit of the franchise structure ofthe business is that it enables a property owner in Auckland, for example, to look after his or her property in Wellington via thelocal franchise.

Points of difference

The Fix It points of difference highlighted by La Pere are:

the relationships it enjoys with several banks providing mortgage services;

the credit card and EFTPOS facilitiesit offers;

the architect or draughtsperson is part of the renovations team;

the franchise handles all building consent issues on behalf of clients;

Fix It will do anything to protect the good name of the brand, which means their guarantee really is something to go by.  

There are currently 16 Fix It franchises throughout the country. Franchisees do not necessarily have to be trades people, however they must have good managerial and people skills, says La Pere. The franchise fee, which is required in addition to working capital, is $35,000. The franchisor ensures all franchisees hit the ground running and in some of the main centres, franchisees have gone from earning zero dollars to earning in excess of a million dollars in one year.

This is great news for homeowners because with the spread of Fix It and the unique New Rooms for Old service it provides, more of them will be able to leverage capital gains from their homes.    NZB