21/08/2026
$175,112 in equity created for Tarryn and Craig on their Geelong deal.
Tarryn and Craig Harding just completed their first project in Breakwater, Geelong.
Agents are confident this one would clear $650K to $665K on the market, putting their equity uplift at around $175,112.
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THE NUMBERS
Purchase price: $350,000
Purchase costs: $18,000
Renovation: $97,000 (including $18,000 for re-stumping)
Holding costs: $9,000
Appraisal: $650K to $665K
Equity: $175K,112
It's held in Tarryn's name personally, on their accountant's advice. Because it was purchased before the budget changes they’ll still get the CGT discount, which lines up perfectly with their plan,
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Meet Tarryn and Craig Built with TLC
Tarryn and Craig are a husband and wife team from Geelong, raising two young daughters. Together they run a plumbing business, and there wouldn't be one without either of them. Craig's spent years around real estate doing maintenance and repairs. Tarryn came from local government as a recreation planner, project managing the build of parks, playgrounds and trails. Between Craig's trade skills and Tarryn's project management background, renovating was always going to be a natural fit.
They'd already done their own house from top to bottom, then a second one where everyone else walked past and said "too dated" while Tarryn and Craig saw exactly what it could become. That's when the itch to keep going really set in.
They joined the Red Mane program in December, and Tarryn left her job before they'd even found a deal, going all in to get through the course content and start letterbox dropping. It took a few months of learning the ropes in a market that was heating up around them before they had the confidence to actually negotiate and go after a deal.
They found this one completely by chance one day when driving her daughter somewhere, she pulled into a suburb she knew nothing about, dropped one single street of letters in the rain, about 20 to 30 houses, and got a call that same night.
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THE DEAL
The seller was a 24 year old carpenter who'd bought the place at a mortgage auction two years earlier, straight out of COVID, just wanting to get a foot in the property market. He'd planned to renovate it himself, but after working 50 to 60 hour weeks building other people's homes, the last thing he wanted to do was come home and work on his own. He'd started about 10 different projects and finished none of them. Holes in the floor, open walls, one room painted green from top to bottom by a previous owner who used the house as her personal art canvas. He was living in that one finished room while the rest of the house was basically a construction zone.
When he decided to move back home to Ballarat, he handed Tarryn and Craig the keys and left almost everything behind. Flooring worth around $5,000. Subfloor sheets worth about $2,000. An old kitchen they repurposed into laundry cabinets and a walk in robe. Power tools, TVs, even a sound bar. All up, probably $10,000 worth of materials and gear that went straight into the renovation.
Negotiating wasn't straightforward. They opened at $350K, got rejected, went up to $385K, and the seller wanted agents through to value it first. Tarryn and Craig walked away, assuming they'd lost it. Two weeks later he came back, agents had valued it at $420K to $450K in its current state, and he asked if they'd match that. They couldn't, but they held their offer at $385K, and to their surprise, he accepted, subject to a building and pest inspection.
That inspection found foundation issues they'd already suspected, the whole house sloped downhill toward the middle. They used that to negotiate another $35,000 off, landing the final purchase price right back at their original $350K offer.
Tarryn and Craig did a bunch of the work themselves. They pulled up the original hardwood floors to get access for re-stumping, only needing to re-stump about three quarters of the house after finding part of it already had concrete stumps from a 1980s extension. They opened up an old archway to bring more light in, ripped out the green paint and heavy plaster, converted a section into a new ensuite using Craig's plumbing skills, and rebuilt the kitchen with flat pack cabinetry from Blue Star Kitchens for just over $4,000.
They also had to fight their bank, who wanted to classify the property as unlivable before approving finance. Tarryn and Craig pushed back, pointed out it still had a working kitchen and bathroom, and got quotes showing the funds were there to bring it up to standard. The bank came through.
One of the biggest wins was staying $40,000 under their renovation budget. Re-stumping was quoted at $30,000 and came in at $18,000. Kitchen cabinets were budgeted at $10,000 and cost $4,400.
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One standout moment says everything about this deal, right at the start, before they'd even bought it. Tarryn was on the phone with the bank's valuer during finance approval, who kept asking her to confirm the purchase price. When she said $350K, he was stunned, because the property had already been valued at $450K in its current, unrenovated state. They knew right then they were $100,000 under market before they'd even settled.
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$175,112 in equity. What a Buy/Renovate/hold deal which now has equity that can be used for the next one.
The deals are there.
The profit is real.
And once you back yourself, everything changes.
Incredible work Tarryn and Craig. 🙌
