Homes Under The Hammer 2009

dopester

It really is beginning to get interesting. This thread doesn't really go anywhere yet but can add to it with results and traumas of future episodes.

iplayer: "Homes Under The Hammer"

Yesterday's show... they looked like they would get that Working Man's Club in Wales for £120K at auction, with the gavel heading down, before another bidder got involved and I think they ended up with it at £180K

Plan to knock it down and build 12-14 apartments.

Not sure how that one ended, as the phone rang (stupid cold-caller), but they zipped forward 6+ months, and I just got back in time to hear Martin Roberts say with a concerned voice... they'll have to hope the market picks back up. I'll check it on iplayer when it comes available in a few short hours, as it didn't sound too good for them.

That guy who bought the garage in episode 23.. who explained it was his first time sourcing a property at auction, so he was limiting himself to something cheap to begin his empire with (£4250 iirc) was a real trip.

So having not viewed it,... he learns it has an asbestos roof, a big hole in that roof, floor which has big subsidence, and the structure is leaning. Poor guy. He was so convinced cheap was good. I expected him to say he had little experience with property - but then admits he is a top-level Civil Engineer, with plans to start his PHD.

Loads of others now coming in with EA valuations which don't give big smiles to the people on the show, after they've developed the properties.

PasturesNew

This week's made me larf.

PasturesNew

dopester wrote: »

It really is beginning to get interesting. This thread doesn't really go anywhere yet but can add to it with results and traumas of future episodes.

iplayer: "Homes Under The Hammer"

Yesterday's show... they looked like they would get that Working Man's Club in Wales for £120K at auction, with the gavel heading down, before another bidder got involved and I think they ended up with it at £180K

Plan to knock it down and build 12-14 apartments.

Not sure how that one ended, as the phone rang (stupid cold-caller), but they zipped forward 6+ months, and I just got back in time to hear Martin Roberts say with a concerned voice... they'll have to hope the market picks back up. I'll check it on iplayer when it comes available in a few short hours, as it didn't sound too good for them.

They're still building. It'll be another year.

Two valuations, one of them was very low - HUGE loss if he's right.

dopester wrote: »

That guy who bought the garage in episode 23.. who explained it was his first time sourcing a property at auction, so he was limiting himself to something cheap to begin his empire with (£4250 iirc) was a real trip.

So having not viewed it,... he learns it has an asbestos roof, a big hole in that roof, floor which has big subsidence, and the structure is leaning. Poor guy. He was so convinced cheap was good. I expected him to say he had little experience with property - but then admits he is a top-level Civil Engineer, with plans to start his PHD.

And the best bit was why he was doing it:

He is furthering his studies as he is a qualified civil engineer and wants a PhD in Construction Management. He'll be doing property development part-time to fund his studies.

poppy10_2

Funny show on Thursday - couple wanted to buy a house for their little dahling son, so they could redevelop it, sell it for a profit and then give the money to the son for use as a deposit on his own house

Ended up getting valued at £20k less than they expected, although still £10k more than their overall spend. They decided not to sell at that price and instead to "just rent it out for 6-12 months until the market picks up again"

That lady that had gone through the divorce on Friday's show was really annoying. "I phoned my parents and said if you really love me you will give me the money to buy this house." She was in her 40s for goodness sake. She insisted on having a huge house with enough space for her ponies. Yuck.

poppy10_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

They're still building. It'll be another year.

Two valuations, one of them was very low - HUGE loss if he's right.

They hadn't even demolished the old property yet, despite having it for over a year. They had to pay £6,000 commercial council tax for the that year.

Estimated outlay was £835,000, to build 14 flats.
The two valuations came back at £50,000 per flat and £80,000 per flat, giving overall returns of £700,000 and £1,120,000.

Won't be completed for at least another year. Houses were selling for as little as £6,000 in that village back in 2000.

Lotus-eater

I couldn't believe that guy with the garage. He said that he wants to keep his tools in it when he does up another house to sell on. I just looked at it and thought that no way in hell would I let my tools get anywhere near a place like that.

Then the estate agents valued it at less than he paid for it.

As Poppy10 said, he wants to make money from a development to pay for him going to university. People just seem to assume that anyone can make money from property development and its an easy way to make lot of quick money.
The amount of people that say, we've watched HUTH and it seems easy, so I thought I would give it a go.

Just like the couple that bought the house to do up, the valuation wasn't good enough for them, so they said they would rent it out for a year until the market picked up.

dopester

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I couldn't believe that guy with the garage.

Hah. The security there for storing tools... WTH? Also the poor guy manually chiselled out the garage floor because no power-access... must have been a very physically difficult and time-consuming job.

Roberts said that he'd seen less work to do on developing a 5 bedroom house bought at auction.

Then had to do repeat trips with to bring gallons of water and mix the cement manually. Then later found kids had drawn their signs and stuff in the cement as it was still wet and drying.

I felt a bit sorry for him, but like you say, he totally was minded that you couldn't really lose on property as an earner.. no real apprehension at all to change that despite it being filmed mid-2008.

LillyJ

dopester wrote: »

It really is beginning to get interesting. This thread doesn't really go anywhere yet but can add to it with results and traumas of future episodes.

iplayer: "Homes Under The Hammer"

Yesterday's show... they looked like they would get that Working Man's Club in Wales for £120K at auction, with the gavel heading down, before another bidder got involved and I think they ended up with it at £180K

Plan to knock it down and build 12-14 apartments.

Not sure how that one ended, as the phone rang (stupid cold-caller), but they zipped forward 6+ months, and I just got back in time to hear Martin Roberts say with a concerned voice... they'll have to hope the market picks back up. I'll check it on iplayer when it comes available in a few short hours, as it didn't sound too good for them.

That guy who bought the garage in episode 23.. who explained it was his first time sourcing a property at auction, so he was limiting himself to something cheap to begin his empire with (£4250 iirc) was a real trip.

So having not viewed it,... he learns it has an asbestos roof, a big hole in that roof, floor which has big subsidence, and the structure is leaning. Poor guy. He was so convinced cheap was good. I expected him to say he had little experience with property - but then admits he is a top-level Civil Engineer, with plans to start his PHD.

Loads of others now coming in with EA valuations which don't give big smiles to the people on the show, after they've developed the properties.

I am sure I've seen something before about the owners of a working men's club trying to buy the bit of land and an old St John's Ambulance hut at the back in Wales? Was this the same thing? If it was it was an old one, I must have seen it when I was off work with my leg in plaster earlier this year.
I felt a bit sorry for the working club men, the treasurer was a bit thick and the members all disagreed what the money should be spent on.

LillyJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

They're still building. It'll be another year.

Two valuations, one of them was very low - HUGE loss if he's right.



And the best bit was why he was doing it:

He is furthering his studies as he is a qualified civil engineer and wants a PhD in Construction Management. He'll be doing property development part-time to fund his studies.

I don't know about engineering but most science PhDs are funded. (or at least they were pre credit crunch).

spuds_2

HUTH is getting interesting now as the current shows are from around June 2008. It is really evident now that the days of doing a quick refurb and adding £40k to the price are gone.

The posh woman was really annoying. Called Tink, for a start. "If you love me you'll give me loads of money". Hmm... . At least she was buying it as a home, I suppose.

I've also noticed that some of the houses featured are actually in pretty good condition. I wonder if this is a reflection of more repossessions coming on to the market, or BTL's trying to shift their properties quickly.

The guy with the garage - what was he thinking? He seemed to be buying it just to get a feel for the auction process and as a start to a property empire. Very bad start.

I've been watching the repeats on UK Style too, so forgive me if I'm getting new and old shows mixed up. There was one this week with a fashion designer who bought a flat in Chelsea. He then seemed to have an offer from an agent who wanted to buy it. Before they had signed anything, the agent had let the flat and sent him a bill for redecoration.... which he just seemed to accept.

There was also recently a developer in Torbay who bought an old house, knocked it down and after a long wait for pp built an ugly block of flats. Last shots were of him on his yacht saying, despite EA advice, he wouldn't drop the price from £250k each but would wait for an upturn in the market. 'Seaways' flats by Oracle developments - can't find them on Rightmove.

It's getting a bit like the Antiques Roadshow, where the punters imagine they have made a fortune and then have to say, "Well, I'm not disappointed by the valuation because we just love this vase anyway...". On HUTH they say, "I was going to rent it anyway...".

dopester

LillyJ wrote: »

I am sure I've seen something before about the owners of a working men's club trying to buy the bit of land and an old St John's Ambulance hut at the back in Wales? Was this the same thing?

Sounds similar.. but no.. I think this episode was new.. not a repeat, judging by the dates.



Treorchy Workingmens Social Club

1500 sq meters