Renovation costs/offer

downshifted

We are cash buyers and have now made a full and final offer of £250k on a 1920s/30s 3 bed detached property on the market for £280k. It needs quite a bit of work to bring it up to modern standards. It's clearly someone's inheritance - and while it is clean and has had some work done on the working chimney there is a lot more to do

- the other chimney needs repairing or removing, it has a large visible crack and is beginning to lean

- there is also evidence of movement (significant cracks, not hairline) around the bay window

- a new drive is required (at the moment you have to drive over a grass verge to get onto the property).

- new central heating (there are only 3 radiators in the entire house!)

- rewiring

- an entire new kitchen (the current one is similar to one I was pleased to install in our first house in 1978!)

- a new bathroom

- also new flooring and total redecoration, no doubt including some skimming (both where leaks from the repaired chimney have damaged/stained the plaster and when we remove all the blown vinyl.)

- Also perhaps 2 fireplaces (unless we make a feature of the original but fairly boring 1930's ones) and definitely 2 gas fires.

We have renovated a little terrace from scratch in the past 3 years (our daughter lives in it). We can do the decorating and tiling ourselves, but are not tradesmen. This would be a long term retirement home - on the other hand we don't want to pay too much in a falling market so are looking to price it right.

I have budgeted £30k for everything including materials - £10k was for the kitchen, which is 14 feet square. I planned middle of the range units and all appliances, nothing fancy.

However, they have rejected our offer and now put the property on with another estate agent as well.

Unless my estimate is wrong it does not make sense to offer any more

- even when it is renovated I don't think it would make much more than we would have spent on it, and prices are not set to rise. A similar house a couple of streets away (no garage, but more up to date, with a conservatory, new kitchen and 3 large double bedrooms, rather than the two and a half that this one has) was on the market for £270k and has been taken off unsold

- the average asking price in the area is about 8% above actual sale prices

- anyone buying with a mortgage would probably have a lower valuation than the 5% off price they are seeking

- we are cash buyers and there would be no chain etc

What do you think of my estimate?

I guess we have to sit it out until after Christmas to see if it still on the market - and then remind them the offer still stands. Of course, in January there may be others put on the market that interest us.

We do like the house so it is hard just waiting - but we don't like it enough to pay too much!

Fire_Fox

What are the land registry sold prices for similar properties in the same street?

angelsmomma

downshifted wrote: »

We are cash buyers and have now made a full and final offer of £250k on a 1920s/30s 3 bed detached property on the market for £280k. It needs quite a bit of work to bring it up to modern standards. It's clearly someone's inheritance - and while it is clean and has had some work done on the working chimney there is a lot more to do

- the other chimney needs repairing or removing, it has a large visible crack and is beginning to lean

- there is also evidence of movement (significant cracks, not hairline) around the bay window

- a new drive is required (at the moment you have to drive over a grass verge to get onto the property).

- new central heating (there are only 3 radiators in the entire house!)

- rewiring

- an entire new kitchen (the current one is similar to one I was pleased to install in our first house in 1978!)

- a new bathroom

- also new flooring and total redecoration, no doubt including some skimming (both where leaks from the repaired chimney have damaged/stained the plaster and when we remove all the blown vinyl.)

- Also perhaps 2 fireplaces (unless we make a feature of the original but fairly boring 1930's ones) and definitely 2 gas fires.

We have renovated a little terrace from scratch in the past 3 years (our daughter lives in it). We can do the decorating and tiling ourselves, but are not tradesmen. This would be a long term retirement home - on the other hand we don't want to pay too much in a falling market so are looking to price it right.

I have budgeted £30k for everything including materials - £10k was for the kitchen, which is 14 feet square. I planned middle of the range units and all appliances, nothing fancy.

However, they have rejected our offer and now put the property on with another estate agent as well.

Unless my estimate is wrong it does not make sense to offer any more

- even when it is renovated I don't think it would make much more than we would have spent on it, and prices are not set to rise. A similar house a couple of streets away (no garage, but more up to date, with a conservatory, new kitchen and 3 large double bedrooms, rather than the two and a half that this one has) was on the market for £270k and has been taken off unsold

- the average asking price in the area is about 8% above actual sale prices

- anyone buying with a mortgage would probably have a lower valuation than the 5% off price they are seeking

- we are cash buyers and there would be no chain etc

What do you think of my estimate?

I guess we have to sit it out until after Christmas to see if it still on the market - and then remind them the offer still stands. Of course, in January there may be others put on the market that interest us.

We do like the house so it is hard just waiting - but we don't like it enough to pay too much!

As a cash buyer in a shaky market, which in my opinion it still is. I think they will reconsider but of course it is only my opinion.

I bought a house 2 years ago just before the falling market and it was on at £90,000 as it needed a lot of work doing. I offered £80,000 and emphasised that I was a cash buyer and that was a final offer.

The seller said she would consider it and did try to see if she could get me to pay a bit more by asking the agent to talk to me. I stuck to my guns and asked the agent if she had any more properties I might like and she came back within a day accepting my offer.

The house next door to me sold 2 weeks before I bought at £97,500 and the one on the other side was bought 6 months before at £97,000 so it was a good buy. The way the banks are at the moment, cash buyers are in a good position. A property is after all only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it

HTH

downshifted

Fire_Fox wrote: »

What are the land registry sold prices for similar properties in the same street?

I have looked - but nothing similar has sold recently (they are all individual properties, a mix of semis, terraced and detached) and this one appears to have been in the same family forever

poppysarah

downshifted wrote: »

- the other chimney needs repairing or removing, it has a large visible crack and is beginning to lean

- there is also evidence of movement (significant cracks, not hairline) around the bay window

- a new drive is required (at the moment you have to drive over a grass verge to get onto the property).

- new central heating (there are only 3 radiators in the entire house!)

- rewiring

- an entire new kitchen (the current one is similar to one I was pleased to install in our first house in 1978!)

- a new bathroom

- also new flooring and total redecoration, no doubt including some skimming (both where leaks from the repaired chimney have damaged/stained the plaster and when we remove all the blown vinyl.)

- Also perhaps 2 fireplaces (unless we make a feature of the original but fairly boring 1930's ones) and definitely 2 gas fires.


I have budgeted £30k for everything including materials - £10k was for the kitchen, which is 14 feet square. I planned middle of the range units and all appliances, nothing fancy.

What do you think of my estimate?

Get a seriously indepth structural report. Find out why it's falling to bits.

You'd be mad to expect a refurb for that much.

Get some builder quotes for putting the chimney right.
Some guestimates for the rest
A new drive might cost 4-5k.
Heating 2-3k
Rewire 2-3k
Redecoration after building work - 8 rooms labour only 1200
Wallpaper £10 a roll for basic nice stuff. Probably 60-90 rolls for a house.
New carpets after building work 1k for the cheapest stuff ever
Tiles. £8 a m2 minimum
Bathroom £250 for a basic suite.

Your budget is not enough imo to include serious amounts of building work.

downshifted

Help - if I thought it was falling to bits I would run away really fast! We would have a full survey if they accepted our offer and if it was too much we would have to back off.

Is 2-3k realistic for central heating - standard boiler, new tank and 11 radiators - I thought more like 5k?

Many thanks for the rest of your input - spreadsheet coming out again!

downshifted

An update - this house is still on the market! Apparently someone has said that "if they can sell their house" they will offer nearer the asking price than we did!

MarieAAP

Sounds like they were trying to be greedy :P

new_home_owner_3

If they dont want to accept your offer move on, we have bought a house that needs a lot of work, all houses you buy will need a cirtain amount of work

To be honest if i had the choice of a house that needed a complete refurb and that one was done up to someody elses taste, i would go everytime with the house which needed a complete refurb especially if it was 30,000 pound cheaper.

What you will find is someone will offer closer to the asking price then get a full survey done and knock it down with the amount of work thats needed on the survey.

It happened by me a house was on for 215000, and i know the person who bought it made a offer of 205,000, after the survey the person managed to knock them down and the eventual sale price was 180,000 pounds now that was a really good bargain.

Good luck

new_home_owner_3

downshifted wrote: »

An update - this house is still on the market! Apparently someone has said that "if they can sell their house" they will offer nearer the asking price than we did!

wait until may if they have had no offers by then im sure they will be back

downshifted

Ha ha ha I just checked on Rightmove and this house sold in July for £245k!

We much prefer the one we eventually bought - in April - as it is in a nicer location - so they did us a favour really!