Buying a "fixer upper" and I just wanted to run some figures by you?

donnaessex

Please?

We have seen a house that we really like - it is a "fixer upper" to say the least and we have a list of jobs we would need to do. The price of the house is very negotiable we are told - its been on the market for a year - the mother passed away and her children are selling the property so its empty. It is a 3 bed semi in Essex.

We would be doing the jobs all in one hit - hopefully taking no longer than 3 weeks. This is the list of jobs to be done and how much we are budgeting on:

Windows (1x5 panel bay window, 12 windows, front and back door) - £5,000
Carpets throughout - £2,000
Decorating (real basic stripping of wallpaper, painting existing woodwork, lining walls and painting ceilings and walls) - £1,000
Decorating supplies (as above - paint, lining paper) - £500
Bathroom (bath suite, shower, flooring, tiles) - £1250
Bathroom fitting and tiling - £750
Heating (new boiler and radiators throughout) - £4,000
Curtains and blinds - £500

Total cost £15,000

Tell me - are any of these figures glaringly stupid? I will obviously be getting quotes from the professionals, but I dont want to put an offer in if we cant afford to do the work. Or should we get the professionals in before putting the offer in? I cant imagine going round there with 3 x plumbers, 3 x window fitters, 3 x decorators etc with the EA having to meet us there.

Thanks for reading!

keystone

donnaessex wrote: »

Please?

We have seen a house that we really like - it is a "fixer upper" to say the least and we have a list of jobs we would need to do. The price of the house is very negotiable we are told - its been on the market for a year - the mother passed away and her children are selling the property so its empty. It is a 3 bed semi in Essex.

We would be doing the jobs all in one hit - hopefully taking no longer than 3 weeks. This is the list of jobs to be done and how much we are budgeting on:

Windows (1x5 panel bay window, 12 windows, front and back door) - £5,000
Carpets throughout - £2,000
Decorating (real basic stripping of wallpaper, painting existing woodwork, lining walls and painting ceilings and walls) - £1,000
Decorating supplies (as above - paint, lining paper) - £500
Bathroom (bath suite, shower, flooring, tiles) - £1250
Bathroom fitting and tiling - £750
Heating (new boiler and radiators throughout) - £4,000
Curtains and blinds - £500

Total cost £15,000

Tell me - are any of these figures glaringly stupid? I will obviously be getting quotes from the professionals, but I dont want to put an offer in if we cant afford to do the work. Or should we get the professionals in before putting the offer in? I cant imagine going round there with 3 x plumbers, 3 x window fitters, 3 x decorators etc with the EA having to meet us there.

Thanks for reading!

By the time you are done it will be more like double the number you first thought of - unless you are doing it all yourself or getting mates in the various trades to help you and providing free labour.

What about the electrics? - bet it needs a rewire as well and you might as well do that whilst you are knocking the rest of the place about.

Three weeks is also overly optimistic. You are forgetting to add time in for the various tradesmen a) holding one another up and b) tripping over one another every five minutes.

Cheers

confuseddad_2

HI well i would say that those figures are very conservative. You would be best to get some form of survey which would highlight things like roofs, wall tie, damp, electrics, woodworm, pointing, structural etc etc.

You will also need a little put by for unexpected problems.

The time frame is also a little optimistic.

We bought a four bedroom that hadnt been touched in 20 years and did everything to it. We are just about at the end. Took us a solid 6 months before we could live in it and we are upto 50k spent and it still needs a little more really.

But in saying that it was best thing we did as know everything is new and we have put value on to the property.

Good luck.

themanbearpig

donnaessex wrote: »

Please?

We have seen a house that we really like - it is a "fixer upper" to say the least and we have a list of jobs we would need to do. The price of the house is very negotiable we are told - its been on the market for a year - the mother passed away and her children are selling the property so its empty. It is a 3 bed semi in Essex.

We would be doing the jobs all in one hit - hopefully taking no longer than 3 weeks. This is the list of jobs to be done and how much we are budgeting on:

Windows (1x5 panel bay window, 12 windows, front and back door) - £5,000
Carpets throughout - £2,000
Decorating (real basic stripping of wallpaper, painting existing woodwork, lining walls and painting ceilings and walls) - £1,000
Decorating supplies (as above - paint, lining paper) - £500
Bathroom (bath suite, shower, flooring, tiles) - £1250
Bathroom fitting and tiling - £750
Heating (new boiler and radiators throughout) - £4,000
Curtains and blinds - £500

Total cost £15,000

Tell me - are any of these figures glaringly stupid? I will obviously be getting quotes from the professionals, but I dont want to put an offer in if we cant afford to do the work. Or should we get the professionals in before putting the offer in? I cant imagine going round there with 3 x plumbers, 3 x window fitters, 3 x decorators etc with the EA having to meet us there.

Thanks for reading!

Depending on your region (SE is much more expensive than the midlands/north), that seems pretty reasonable.

Your decorating budget seems a little on the low side.

The obvious omission would be for electrics and gardening, and costs that aren't to do with redecorating. Like treating woodworm, fixing guttering, roofing etc. You won't really know much about these until the survey is done, and even after that, you will discover a few suprises once you've moved in.
A full re-wire can cost as much as £4k!

Its always sensible to add 10-15% on top of your predicted expenditure for these other costs assuming nothing big turns up on the survey.

I personally think you will struggle to do an entire house for £15k, probably more like £18-20k if you're very careful.
And there is absolutely no chance you can do it all in 3 weeks. More like 3-4 months if you're lucky!

Little_Vics

we've just done a 3 bed and spent more like £30K which included a rewire and new roof. If you work on a basic labour cost of £100 a day (which is cheap) and then add materials I think you'll come up with figure more like £20-£25k. I also think you're looking at a time scale of at least 3 months - sorry.

donnaessex

Thanks so much for your quick replies. I feared someone would say it is too little.

We have an absolute maximum of £18k to spend on it so it looks like we may have to let this property pass us by.

We did plan on getting a friend of ours to do the decorating, but other than that all the work would have been done by professionals.

Now dont laugh - but this is how we had planned it to go - very naive we are sometimes!!!

Day 1 - decorators in - rip out bathroom. Window fitters start work.
Day 3 - Plumber in - starts with boiler
Day 4 - Windows finished
Day 6 - Plumbers finish
Day 7 - Carpets started to be fitted

Then that gives us a week to finish everything else - completely wrong eh?
:rotfl:

Little_Vics

oh, forgot to say that we got a local rennovations company in to quote for the lot before we put an offer in, added 10% and then knocked that off the asking price for our first offer.

confuseddad_2

If its the right one then basics first heating, lighting, roof, bathroom kitchen, window, bedroom, sitting room and on and on.

Took us 2 1/2 years to decorate the hall, stairs and landing. Just done it.

What you need to do and what you want to do are more important.

Dont pay a premium for other peoples taste or their badly botched diy jobs.

ormus

budget is doable but a bit tight. depends where you live.
18k probably more like.

the time frame is wonderfully optomistic!
if only real life was like that!

Curlywurli

I wouldn't have the decorators in before your windows are finished. There will be some damage, even if only small. It would be annoying for the decorating to look lovely then have to redo certain areas because of the windows. We're getting our windows redone, then doing the kitchen and decorating.
When we tiled our bathroom- floor to ceiling it cost us £880- was two years ago. Think that was tiles and labour- so obviously depends on your choice of tiles. The heating cost looks fine to me.

Oldernotwiser

donnaessex wrote: »

Thanks so much for your quick replies. I feared someone would say it is too little.

We have an absolute maximum of £18k to spend on it so it looks like we may have to let this property pass us by.

If you really like the house and it's a good buy, leave buying the carpets and doing the decoration until later - it doesn't all have to be done straight off.

This is real life, not Changing Rooms!