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Buying rundown property to renovate
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seabass
Posts: 72 Forumite
Does anybody know the best place to look for run down property to buy that you can renovate?
Been keeping an eye out but never seem to find anything, on sites such as right move. Is there somewhere else that they are being advertised that you can look for them?
Also has anybody got anyexperience with renovating and is it worth it?
Been keeping an eye out but never seem to find anything, on sites such as right move. Is there somewhere else that they are being advertised that you can look for them?
Also has anybody got anyexperience with renovating and is it worth it?
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Hi
No experience with this (my house needs renovating!) but I know people who have bought houses at auction very cheaply and renovated them.Debt 30k in 2008.:eek::o Cleared all my debt in 2013 and loving being debt free
Mortgage free since 20140 -
Rightmove. Lowest price first.
Depends if you like living in a mess and endlessly doing DIY0 -
Auctions probably best and Rightmove for repossessions before they go to auction, though with auctions you have to have the deposit on the day. There will be more repossessions coming through as things get worse.0
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A lot of agents and auction ads dont tell you the house needs work and they are easily missed. The clue is in the price.0
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look out for cheap properties on rightmove with minimal descriptions and NO PHOTOS. NO PHOTOS is a warning for buyers that dont want to do any work on the house to stay away from that property.bubblesmoney :hello:0
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We've done it twice.
First house - cheap as chips cos it's all I could afford - spent 5 years doing bits and pieces as I lived in it ... quite hellish as never seemed to get to the end of jobs - I could never actually finish a whole room as rewiring and re-plumbing affected every room in the house .. ended up feeling quite fed up with the whole thing.
Was posted abroad for 9 months with my job so OH bought another, similar house, cheaply again but had the advantage of having mine to live in while doing up his - so he did the whole thing ..went on a plastering course and got friendly with a local builder and gas fitter. Took out almost all the upstairs walls and remodelled downstairs too - moved the kitchen to a different area of the house - and we moved in when I returned from overseas job.
Then we finished my house off without having to live in it - then sold that one for me to buy a new place near my new job (120 miles away).
Because I'd had mine 7 years by the time it was sold, in comparison to the purchase price etc I was very happy with the sale price - bought for £62,000 in 2000 and sold for £183,250 in early 2008. But I haven't added up the costs of renovation over the prolonged period.
We have kept the second renovation as it's my OH's main residence as he still works in Bristol. We get together at one or other of our houses at weekends and days off. The second renovation didn't cost an awful lot in materials costs and by OH doing most of the work (just calling in the experts when necessary) it didn't cost us much in actual money - BUT - when you add up the hours he spent working on the house it would have been much more cost effective for him to project manage tradesmen doing the work while he used the hours to work overtime at his 'day job' instead.
However, the work he did was for our benefit, rather than financial gain, and we are reaping the benefit of having a lovely house and we are all proud of his efforts.
But next time we will project manage rather than doing all the donkey work ourselves.
In my opinion, in today's market it is unlikely you can turn an instant profit (property ladder style) - and the effort and expenditure is only worth it if you are doing it for your own benefit (ie, to live in the house and enjoy the fruits of your labours).
The sale value of our house had dropped considerably lately due to the downturn in Bristol - if we added up our outlay we wouldn't even break even if we sold. However, this isn't an issue as we are reaping the benefits of having this house on a daily basis - so the actual value to us (intangible assets) remains high.0 -
I'm with Smileypigface on this. In the current climate, it will be tough to buy, refurb and sell on your average property. Just as on Property Ladder punters were saved by the rising market, so you can be caught out by a falling market. By the time you've finished it may not be worth much more than you've spent. Recent Homes Under the Hammer shows have seen people who were doing small projects making hardly any profit. They end up having to rent the houses out until the market picks up.
The best reason for buying run down houses in my view is that you are not paying for someone elses taste - you get it a bit cheaper and can remodel it to your own needs.0 -
dont take any notice of ANY of the TV progs on refurbs' profits - they never include the full actual expenses which you incur when doing this - and sometimes the amount they claim are your expenses can be doubled in reality !!!0
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Certainly on HUTH, they will say "He bought it for £120k, spent 20k doing it up and it's valued at £170k. This will give him £30k profit." They rarely mention fees, mortgage payments, capital gains tax etc. Beeny is a bit better, she does usually take fees into account. Also on HUTH, there is the assumption that the finished house will sell at the asking price. I suspect those days are long gone.
If you want to do up an old house to save money on the initial purchase and put your own stamp on it, definitely give it a go. But refurb's for a quick profit, aka 'flipping houses' is a bit harder at the moment. Also, you make your profit when you buy, not when you sell - there are still some bargains out there, but make sure you don't pay too much. Are you wanting to develop property or looking for a cheap home?0
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