Building With BuildHer

How would $74,850 feel for 90 days of work? That is what DevelopHer member Anita Whittle walked away with, all costs in, from a cosmetic flip in Montrose, in Hobart's northern suburbs.
Anita bought the 1950s weatherboard with a tenant already in place, so the rent covered the mortgage while she worked out her plan. She ran the options: a third bedroom, a big extension out the back. Then she chose to leave the floor plan exactly as it was and spend a $30,000 budget on a new kitchen, a bathroom refresh, paint and landscaping.
Rebeka and Anita talk about why the house sold on its first day of advertising. They cover the difference between a house that sits for months and one that looks loved, designing for an imagined buyer, painting only the thing that does not work, and why the backyard was one of the biggest uplifts for around $5,000.
Anita also shares the lesson she wishes she had learned sooner about capital gains timing, how doing the work with her partner and her dad kept labour costs down, and why you do not need a million dollar market to play this game.
If you think renovating for profit only works in Melbourne, or only with a big budget, this one is for you.
Anita on Instagram: @_ladyrevival
Landscaping and construction: Code Black Projects, Tasmania
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Dianne Kovacevic and her husband Dave spent years getting ready before they bought a single site. He refused a limited builder's licence and spent a year on slabs and foundations to earn the unlimited one. She completed a diploma in contract drafting and estimation. Only then did they go looking for land.
What followed was four townhouses in Heidelberg Heights and an education that came with invoices attached. Two and a half years fighting the council, including VCAT. A construction loan pulled after unconditional approval, because they were owner builders, a question they had asked in writing before they started. Development contributions of $58,000, a levy of roughly $20,000, and civil works that have run anywhere from $16,000 to $46,000 across their projects. Then COVID, a finished project they could not lease, and money borrowed from Dianne's parents to get it done.
They still made more than $1.3 million on it.
Dianne also talks about the design decision she has never repeated: double garages in the two middle units, which took space out of the living areas and showed up directly in the sale prices. The front unit set an area record at $1,065,000. The middle two sold for $850,000 and $895,000.
She became a mortgage broker after Dave got sick and the family lost its income, and her business now sits squarely in construction and renovation lending. If you have only ever taken out a home loan, this conversation is worth your time.
Dianne is at DK Capital Lending. You can reach her on di@dkcapitallending.com.au or 0478 842 895.
Read the full write up on the BuildHer blog: buildhercollective.com.au/blog
Want to learn how to renovate and develop for profit? Explore DevelopHer.
Connect with BuildHer Collective at buildhercollective.com.au or on Instagram @buildhercollective.
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Elise Weavers is back for renovation number three: a single fronted Melbourne terrace on 370 square metres, nearly done and already home. In this episode, Elise and Rebeka unpack the three levers Elise pulls to control cost on every project: the size of the build, the materials she chooses, and the labour that puts it all together.
They dig into why every square metre you add costs you, how eight floor plans became one, and how tall raked ceilings and compression and release make a modest footprint feel generous. Elise shares why she clads with James Hardie Stria (fire rating, a slim profile on the boundary, and her builder partner Sam can install it himself), how she squeezed a dining table, bedside tables and a coffee table out of one slab of kitchen stone, and why a polytech kitchen was the smart trade off. Plus the labour decisions that save thousands: prefab trusses and wall frames, choosing methods that suit your team, and knowing whether your builder is a site manager or a builder carpenter.
If you are renovating in a rising cost market, this one is a masterclass in spending where it counts.
Connect with BuildHer Collective at https://buildhercollective.com.au or on Instagram @buildhercollective
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Most of us think a feasibility is a spreadsheet. It isn't. It's a decision-making tool, and the thinking behind the numbers is what tells you what to put in them.

In this solo episode Rebeka takes you behind the scenes as she helps her two boys, Liam and Ben, assess a live site for their first project: where the value is hidden, what to look for, and how to decide if a deal is a go, a no-go, a rework, or a find-out-more.

She gets into why a stuck, uncertain market can be one of the best times to buy, why both Claude and ChatGPT said no to this site and why you can't let a robot make the call, the difference between feeling risk and calculating it, and a real deal at deal level: the $800k buy, the $1.6m to $1.8m end, a $150k to $350k profit range, and the one tree that could decide the whole thing.

The question she comes back to every time: if this was your money, would you still do the deal?

Want the feasibility spreadsheet? Comment FEASO on Instagram or DM us feaso and we'll send it over.
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We'd all like to believe we make property decisions with a calculator. The truth is messier. Doubt, second-guessing, and a market that never sits still all get a vote.

In this episode Rebeka sits down with Louise Woodcroft to talk about what it actually takes to make the hard calls in property and renovation: when to trust the numbers, when to back yourself through the doubt, and how to keep moving when everything feels uncertain.

In this conversation they get into emotion vs logic and spotting which one is really driving your next decision, working through the doubt and second-guessing that show up in every renovation, why a solid feasibility study is your steadiest friend when your nerves aren't, cosmetic flips and where the real value sits in a traditional renovation, moving fast and staying competitive when you're buying in a softer market, and the real power of having the right support around you when the journey gets hard.

Whether you're weighing up your first project or your fifth, this one's a reminder that the numbers and your nerve both matter, and you can learn to back both.
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