Modernising a home cheaper than buying?????

Hijabee

Im thinking of purchasing a home under £70,000 and modernising it up, in the region of £30,000. I know this process is hard, but will it effect greatly if I just bought a home for £150,000?

Talking about modernisation im meaning:

• Kitchen
• Floors
• Walls
• Painting
• Garden Front and back
• Rooms
• bathroom
• Furniture.

I have seen a few properties, but im just thinking at the moment.

Thankyou, help would be appreciated.;)

flora48

It all depends, how many rooms, what do you mean by floors and walls, clearing a garden or landscaping, quality and quantity of kitchen and batroom fittings.

In my recent experience of a total refurb you need to have a contingency fund, we needed re-wiring, re-plumbing and some exterior pointing in addition to the obvious things. Also beware of the extras that creep in. We would not have been able to live here during the refurb.

Get detailed estimates, agree on stage payments and have a checklist of inspection before paying each instalment. Me, wise after the event!!

rob7475

It's all about buying the right house in the right area.

We bought a 1920's semi in need of full modernisation (structural work, plumbing, electrics, windows, kitchen, bathrooom, decorating, gardens etc). It cost use £103,000 and at the time, houses in good condition on the same street were selling for upto £180,000. I estimated that the work needed would cost around £30,000 and I am not going to be far out from this figure (I am doing a lot of the work myself though). I should make a tidy profit should I sell the house once completed.

Look out for houses that were owned by old people - they will usually not have been touched for years and you can get a bargain if you're prepared to put some work in to bring it up to date.

Now is the right time to be buying houses in my opinion - supply is outweighing demand and prices are rock bottom. This will change as more mortgage deals come back onto the market and people will start buying again.

nomoneytoday

IMHO a developer will arbitrage the house price plus building costs vs selling value, as in the example above (70k + 30k =150k)
If you can do the work cheaper, or spot an opportunity that's the best way to make a good investment

tyllwyd

Its not as easy as it might seem - houses that are priced cheaply because they need work doing are usually reduced according to how much it will cost to do the work, so it is easy to end up spending as much if not more as if you just bought a house in better condition.

twirlypinky

Depends on how much of the work you can do yourself surely. If i was to do that i wouldn't make much profit, since all i can do is paint, and I'm not good at that.

DannyboyMidlands

You've answered your own question haven't you?

If you can get somewhere for £70k, spend £30k on it and end up with a place worth £150k then in this case modernising is clearly cheaper than buying.

xjessie007

My personal experience is that modernising a home is somewhat equally expensive to getting a new one. However, the difference is that modernising takes more time, and the result is usually a compromise.

geoffky

What about ceiling prices for the road....do your homework...

The_Palmist

Depends whats is standard of your modernisation. I will see this as more of adding a personal touch and character to the house rather than saving money. Like other posters have mentioned, you can always get estimates.

As rob said earlier, I would worry more about right area. You can always do a house up but you can not move it to a different location.

KateLiana27

Depends on exactly what it needs doing to it.

We are buying a house for £80K less than equivalent houses have sold for when done to a reasonable standard. We have had detailed written quotes for all the work needed (not much DIY for us) and it's all in at less than £30K (including extra rent while the house is done up). However we were very lucky - the house turned out to need no structural work, electrics were fine, etc. These "hidden" costs could easily have added tens of thousands to the bill and meant the house was not cost effective. But we didn't know this until we had the survey done, electrics fully checked etc.

So, it's much more of an unknown than a house that's "done", but if you're lucky you can get a good deal. Make sure you budget for a thorough survey and don't skimp in getting everything checked out before you commit.