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There’s a moment in every project, right before you fall in love with the Pinterest board, or the clever floorplan, or that marble you know is “the one”, when you should hit pause and take one step back.
We talk a lot about feasibility. (A lot.) But there’s a step that comes even before the feasibility, the step that stops you from running down the wrong path with wild optimism and a crystal ball powered entirely by hope.
It’s called an options analysis, and it might just be the most underrated, misunderstood, wildly empowering process. Before you decide what to do with a property, you need to ask the question that underpins every profitable move in this game:
“What are my options… really?”
This is where the magic happens and where clarity lives. And this is where so many people skip straight to the fun bit and hope for the best.
This deceptively simple process can turn confusion into confidence – here’s why and how.
What Is an Options Analysis?
Think of it as a financial choose-your-own-adventure.
Instead of locking yourself into one idea – “We’ll extend!” “We’ll flip!” “We’ll make it open plan and hope for the best!” – you assess multiple scenarios side-by-side to see which path delivers the best outcome for you… not theoretically, but mathematically.
Renovate?
Polish-up and sell?
Extend?
Knockdown and rebuild?
Sit tight for now?
An options analysis lays out each pathway clearly so you can compare the numbers, the funding required, the timeframe, and most importantly, your capacity to actually pull it off.
No guesswork. No waking up three months in thinking, “I should have done the extension…”
Start With the Most Important Number: What Is the Property Worth Right Now?
This is where many people get tripped up. They remember what they paid for the property, even if it was 10 years ago, and subconsciously anchor their decisions there. But that number is ancient history.
An options analysis starts with:
What would the property sell for TODAY, as-is?
To work this out, you’ll look at comparable sales, current listings, land size, condition, location, style, orientation – all those little nuances that make property an art as much as a science.
Once you’ve got that current value, you subtract selling costs (agent fees, marketing, legals, holding costs), and that becomes your baseline scenario.
From there, you can model the alternatives. We’ll provide an example of how we did this for our recent Cliff st project.
Scenario 1: The Quick “As-Is” Sale
This option is often confronting because it reveals the truth people avoid:
Sometimes selling “as is” equals a loss once you’ve factored in selling costs, moving tenants, holding costs and a basic tidy-up. But sometimes… it’s the smartest move.
For Cliff St, the numbers showed that this option would result in a –$58,000 loss – clearly, not ideal.
Scenario 2: The Simple Renovation
This is the “spruce it up and see what happens” option.
You model a modest renovation cost, often cosmetic or low-impact structural tweaks, and calculate:
- The cost of works
- Holding costs
- Selling costs
- The projected sale price of the refreshed property
Sometimes this option yields a small profit. Sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s what the numbers are for.
With Cliff St, this looked like a tidy internal renovation but nothing structural.Proposed Cost of works: $125k
Holding & selling costs: $73k
➡️ $21,000 profit
Better. Safe. But barely worth the blood, sweat and plaster dust.
Scenario 3: Renovation + Extension
More investment, more potential upside. You model:
- Build costs
- Design + consultant fees
- Holding costs
- Landscape (always separate!)
- Services and contributions
- Sale price based on comparable renovated properties
This scenario often unlocks the best return if you have the cashflow to support it.
And that’s a key point: An options analysis doesn’t just show which scenario produces the best profit, it shows which one matches your actual capacity. Because making $300k on paper doesn’t help if you don’t have the funds to get the build to completion.
This was the route we took with Cliff St because the numbers stacked up:
Proposed build cost: $380k
Holding & selling: $97k
➡️ $223,000 proposed profit
A completely different financial outcome. And that, friends, is the power of an options analysis.
The Real Gift of an Options Analysis? Confidence.
Once you’ve modelled each path, you stop asking:
“What should I do?” and start saying: “I know exactly why I’m choosing this path.” You’ll know:
- What outcome each option delivers
- How much money each scenario requires
- How long each path takes
- Whether it’s worth doing the big version or keeping it simple
- Whether it’s a hold, flip, or walk-away
Suddenly you’re steering the ship. And that’s where your power sits.
Why This Matters (Especially If You Want to Build for Profit)
Too many women choose their project direction emotionally:
“I love this house — we HAVE to renovate!”
“We can probably do this cheaply.”
“It’ll be fine…”
But profit doesn’t come from “it’ll be fine.” Profit comes from clarity. From running the numbers, comparing pathways, and choosing the avenue that aligns with:
- your finances
- your capacity
- your timeframe
- your appetite for risk
- and the biggest long-term gain
As Rebeka says: potential is everywhere once you know how to read it.
So if you’re ready to take your next project from “I think…” to “I KNOW,” start with an options analysis. It’s the simplest strategy that the most successful DevelopHers swear by, because it works!
If you’d like to listen to Rebeka speak about this further, head to our podcast to listen to the episode in full here.
