Shame on you!!!!!!

PasturesNew

What used to happen is: builder/developers who knew the building trade did up houses properly and legally. FTBs and people wanting to trade up bought houses that needed work doing to them and did that work over 10-20 years. And everybody was happy.

Then along come Larry and his mate and they borrow against the house they've already got to go and play in one they bought at auction. It TERRIFIES me what things these people are doing in houses and I wonder if a lot of them are safe at all, if they've got proper permission/regs, or if there's a big black hole of bodge-work to be uncovered.

If I buy a house at auction today and rip it apart, gaily doing what I want, then put it up for sale, who will know I didn't put in a proper support, or that the electricals were illegal? It really might not be picked up on at all.

avinabacca

DownintheDumps wrote: »

Not greedy, just supplementing my income by working hard and creating something

Ah, I bet you're gutted you didn't take on two houses at the same time - you'd have made double the "supplement", wouldn't you?

PasturesNew

So you get to live in a half finished house until you can save money to do up the rest of it ... just like thousands of people have done for decades. This is how people used to live their lives.

I bought a house in 2000 and had to wait and do bits/bobs over the next 5-6 years as I had the money available for the most urgent things. In fact when I sold it just over a year ago I still hadn't got as far as having curtains in more than 2 rooms (out of 7 habitable rooms) and was missing carpets all over the place as I'd never got that far either.

People/families have lived in building site houses for aeons.

At least you have a roof over your head that you chose. It's just not a pretty one.

moneysaver

DownintheDumps wrote: »

This business model has previousy worked for 10 years, 5 properties, living in each so no capital gains, now we're fooked.

So where is all the profit for the last ten years?

You have been doing up houses for 10yrs & not put anything away for a rainy day, silly boy then.

You obviously put all your eggs in the one basket. I have been saving for this day when houses get back to real affordable prices, not overpriced, knocked up, quick turnaround property developer rubbish.


Moneysaver

Guy_Montag

DownintheDumps wrote: »

I can't stay put because when my fixed rate comes to an end I will probably be on the SVR due to high multiple and small deposit (5%) which will be nearly double what I'm paying now. Can't finish it as I had only enough capital to do half the rennovation and have previously counted on HPI to remortgage for the rest. Can't sell because who'd want a half-finished project? This business model has previousy worked for 10 years, 5 properties, living in each so no capital gains, now we're fooked.

Not greedy, just supplementing my income by working hard and creating something, we don't deserve this.

So you've done this five times in the last 10 years & you only have a 5% deposit saved? All that profit, capital gains free - you should be loaded.

ad9898_3

dopester wrote: »

Sounds like you went in to it to try and turn a profit to another mug punter, willing to go beyond your x6 and taking out a x8 mortgage instead.

Did it ever occur to you that property prices can fall in value?

I hope you reserve some of the shame for yourself.

I'm pretty certain this turkey is a troll, the dumbness at what the OP came up with must be made up, if not dopesters post (above) is short, sweet and absolutely spot on.

hethmar

It doesnt make any sense - how much doing up did this place need that its taking so long and using up all the money you made on the last project?

As PN says, the last few years too many people believed they could be property developers and I bet there are some awful bodged jobs which will come up in the future. Our neighbour from hell is similar - has apparently done 4 in 10 years, spent nearly 3 years on the empty house next door to us - weve seen him doing foundations in 3 different stages, different weeks, different materials and then bunging in lumps of wood and brick to raise the level a few more inches - just for starters. Gawd help us.

Zelie

Oh get over yourself. You made the choice to gamble the future of your wife and kids. If there hadn't been a correction in house prices you'd have made plenty of money by ripping off others for an overpriced house. The tables have turned and now you are whining. Well that's the price for gambling, if your kids go without it's because of the choices that you made.

domcastro

I'm not laughing but I can't wait for house prices to fall. Yes, I worry about some friends and family of mine but I'm looking forward to getting a nice house for the first time in 9 years of house ownership. If prices don't fall, I can only ever afford houses like my first one 9 years ago. Instead of 86k though they're now 190k. I would like to feel I've actually moved up the ladder and not sideways all the time.

PasturesNew

My parents had one of those crumbling houses next to them. Odd history to it, but the house was in trust to the kids with the mother having the right to live in it while she was still alive. Thing is, she went ga-ga and put in a home, the daughter moved out and the son lived there alone, bedridden until he died of cancer - ahead of the mother. So along comes the father (genuinely a multi-millionaire in his 80s) and instead of using his team of builders etc (a lot of his more recent money had been from genuine/proper development) he decided to do it up himself "to save a bob or two".

It took AGES! He fitted the gas himself, you could smell the gas leak. He built an extension/lean to (badly). And evenutally it was sold. Bloke who bought it had to spend a LOT of money to put it right. He said to me one day "I thought I was buying a refurbished/perfect house" but all he did was uncover bodge after bodge after bodge. You wouldn't believe how many bodges one man could put into a house. Especially as he actually had a whole team of professionals at his disposal. All rules and regs were either not known, or deliberately ignored as he knew best/better.

Must be loads about.

(P.S. in case you're wondering about the gas, the bloke who bought it is a bone-fide gas fitter/CORGI registered, so the chance of instant death was averted!)