“Father and Daughter Renovate Apartment in The Hague: A Story of Underestimated Budgets and Time”

Maaike, who grew up in The Hague, is looking for an apartment to renovate the house together with father Jan: “For many people it is too big a task to do this, but that is exactly what we are looking for”. says Mike. Soon she finds the perfect apartment for this job; the house has a price tag of 275,000 euros. After making a budget, father and daughter estimate that they will spend about 50,000 euros on renovation costs. According to contractor Bob Sikkes, however, this is much too low: “With 50,000 euros you will not make it. 50,000 euros is not enough.”

Maaike and Jan remain optimistic and get to work right away, but then the house turns out to be in much worse shape than they had expected. As a result, the renovation budget is considerably higher: “We had underestimated the electrician, underestimated the plumber, the various activities… Added together, this means that the budget is slightly exceeded.” In addition, the estimated time turned out to be incorrect and the renovation took about eight months longer than planned.

After almost a year of renovation, Maaike’s apartment is finally finished. The renovation costs eventually amounted to 80,000 euros, so Maaike must earn at least 355,000 euros from the apartment in order not to make a loss. Since the housing market has changed enormously in recent weeks, the question is whether that will work: “I will not lose money on a project anyway. Actually, I wouldn’t do anything under 400,000 euros, so that will be exciting,” says Maaike.

After the house was put on the market, about twenty viewers reported to the real estate agent, which then resulted in three bids: “That is beyond our expectations”, the real estate agent reports. Tijl Beckand pays father and daughter a visit to hand over the bids: “Are you ready for the bids?”

The first bid is 345,900 euros and is shockingly low for Maaike and Jan: “That is not enough.” Ultimately, the highest bid is an amount of 376,194 euros: “I had hoped for more. But this is what we had hoped to get out of it in any case and we succeeded,” says Maaike. Still, she is not sure whether she will accept the offer and father Jan is also a bit cautious: “Just think about it, I would say. I wouldn’t jump right in.”

Maaike certainly did that thinking, because she finally decided not to sell the apartment, but to rent it out: “I didn’t think it was an easy choice.” Maaike hopes to be able to sell the palace for more in the future.

Although her goal was not achieved, both Maaike and Jan think the project is De Moeite Waard: “It was great fun to do.” Together they had a great time and are looking forward to their next project.

Worth the effort?! can be seen every Tuesday at 8.30 p.m. on RTL 4 and you can look back on Videoland.