I Wish To Start Renavating Propertys, And Would Like Some Info Please

DominicJ_2

IAN_moone wrote: »

Ok thanks to everyone who has replied

I would be doing 99% of the work myself. plan would be fit kitchen + bathroom (a nice one with nice tiles) lick of paint all round, new carpets, change electrical fittings if they look old, change door handles so they all match etc.

i intend to get a reasonable deposit down for this and if things don't work out then ill have no regrets about loosing it.

I wont be doing any structural work to the property, at least not the first few.

Let me paint you a picture.
Buy a House for £80,000
fit a new kitchen
fit a new bathroom
replaster
repaint
recarpet
replace all of the doors
replace all the electrical outlets
At a cost of £10,000

Sell for £100,000.

Why would I buy it for £100,000, when I could do it myself for £90,000, and I wouldnt get your idea of a nice kitchen, I'd get mine?

What exactly are *you* expecting *me* to pay *you* money for?

I can wield a paintbrush and I can walk into carpet right and get a house carpeted in £5 sqm beige


The only place I can see to add value is if you can cash buy an unmortgagable property fix the structural problems and sell it on.
But proper builders are in that market too, and a lot of them fail.

GDB2222

Apparently, there are some problems with getting a standard mortgage on a property that has no kitchen or bathroom but is otherwise sound. So, there's a gap there.

RenovationMan

China2 wrote: »

I assume you are Gas Safe registered then?

Telling people to have a go at fitting a central heating system themselves is not smart

Just as angrypirate said. The 'donkey work' for installing a central heating system is more about hanging radiators, attaching a lock shield & valve, installing feed and return pipes all around the house. Connecting a boiler to a gas supply and fitting a flue is a relatively swft and therefore cheap and painless job.

Quite smart to do the labour intensive jobs and get someone in to the the specialist jobs like gas fitting and checking electrical circuits. Do you think?

RenovationMan

DominicJ wrote: »

Let me paint you a picture.
Buy a House for £80,000
fit a new kitchen
fit a new bathroom
replaster
repaint
recarpet
replace all of the doors
replace all the electrical outlets
At a cost of £10,000

Sell for £100,000.

Why would I buy it for £100,000, when I could do it myself for £90,000, and I wouldnt get your idea of a nice kitchen, I'd get mine?

What exactly are *you* expecting *me* to pay *you* money for?

I can wield a paintbrush and I can walk into carpet right and get a house carpeted in £5 sqm beige


The only place I can see to add value is if you can cash buy an unmortgagable property fix the structural problems and sell it on.
But proper builders are in that market too, and a lot of them fail.

Not everyone is 'handy' though or want the hassle of renovating a house. The people who bought our first house were newly retired and just wanted to have holidays and such. The people who bought our second house were a professional couple who had very little 'home time' and wanted a house that they didn't have to do anything to. I think the term is 'cash rich and time poor'?

Lots of other people are able to put a lick of paint around a house but are too afraid to do larger jobs like rewiring and plumbing. Some people even think you need to be Gas Safe (aka Corgi) registered just to plumb in a few radiators.

sonastin

RenovationMan wrote: »

Not everyone is 'handy' though or want the hassle of renovating a house. The people who bought our first house were newly retired and just wanted to have holidays and such. The people who bought our second house were a professional couple who had very little 'home time' and wanted a house that they didn't have to do anything to. I think the term is 'cash rich and time poor'?

The point being that there ain't so many of them around any more. People are feeling the squeeze and even those that aren't are being told by the media that they are being squeezed so they are less inclined to shell out hard earned cash where they don't need to. To continue the example, those who don't want to do the work themselves would rather end up paying £95k or even £100k by paying trades to get it done how they want it than paying £100k to get someone else's idea of "done".

RenovationMan wrote: »

Lots of other people are able to put a lick of paint around a house but are too afraid to do larger jobs like rewiring and plumbing. Some people even think you need to be Gas Safe (aka Corgi) registered just to plumb in a few radiators.

It isn't "aka Corgi". Get a Corgi guy in who doesn't have GasSafe at your peril if you're looking for a quick turnaround on selling the property. Solicitors will expect to see all the right paperwork if you're selling a house with a new boiler and if the engineer isn't gassafe, chances are he's also not creating a proper paper trail. Even if its not a new boiler, buyers are asking for service records and safety checks these days and your paperwork may still not be good enough. And that is assuming the work has been done properly. If your engineer went to the trouble of registering with corgi but couldn't be bothered to register as gassafe, what other standards has he let slip over the years?

RenovationMan

sonastin wrote: »

The point being that there ain't so many of them around any more. People are feeling the squeeze and even those that aren't are being told by the media that they are being squeezed so they are less inclined to shell out hard earned cash where they don't need to. To continue the example, those who don't want to do the work themselves would rather end up paying £95k or even £100k by paying trades to get it done how they want it than paying £100k to get someone else's idea of "done".?

Not everyone is being squeezed, TBH I've never had it so good financially as right now. However, I understand you point about "done" but then only undertaking DIY that you feel confident about is key. Plus a lot of the work, especially with electrics and plumbing are not on show anyway. By saving money on the labour intensive stuff, you can afford to get a Pro in for the 'on show' stuff, such as tiling, etc.

sonastin wrote: »

It isn't "aka Corgi". Get a Corgi guy in who doesn't have GasSafe at your peril if you're looking for a quick turnaround on selling the property. Solicitors will expect to see all the right paperwork if you're selling a house with a new boiler and if the engineer isn't gassafe, chances are he's also not creating a proper paper trail. Even if its not a new boiler, buyers are asking for service records and safety checks these days and your paperwork may still not be good enough. And that is assuming the work has been done properly. If your engineer went to the trouble of registering with corgi but couldn't be bothered to register as gassafe, what other standards has he let slip over the years?

The AKA means 'Also Known As'. While a lot of people may know that gas fitters have to be registered with GasSafe, most people still know them as Corgi Registered because Corgi was around for years and years. I could have put PKA (Previously known As) but people wouldn't know what PKA stood for. Most people would know what I meant, but for the Pedants out there:- Corgi Registered is now obsolete, Gas engineers have to be registered with GasSafe. OK?

sonastin

RenovationMan wrote: »

Corgi Registered is now obsolete, Gas engineers have to be registered with GasSafe. OK?

Much better.

The problems in my previous e-mail are from direct experience. A relative used an engineer who was registered with Corgi and was recommended by other relatives. However, he hadn't registered with gassafe and his work was, to put it bluntly, downright sh!te. Had she known about the change to GasSafe, she'd have known there was something wrong before he started work. As it is, she saw the Corgi logo and thought that was OK. Which is why I think it is important to educate people that Corgi means nothing and GasSafe is what counts. Defaulting to the old way doesn't help to maintain standards.

Uk_Lover

but then only undertaking DIY that you feel confident about is key. Plus a lot of the work, especially with electrics and plumbing are not on show anyway. By saving money on the labour intensive stuff, you can afford to get a Pro in for the 'on show' stuff, such as tiling, etcspot on ! Why pay someone to hack off old plaster, anyone can do that, same with removing old kitchens etc. Putting it back is the hard bit which you get a pro in for unless your really handy. Plenty for the less skilled to do before spending anything on specialists.

DominicJ_2

RenovationMan wrote: »

The people who bought our second house were a professional couple who had very little 'home time' and wanted a house that they didn't have to do anything to. I think the term is 'cash rich and time poor'?

Sorry thats not quite what I meant.
I'm not suggesting they would paint, but they can hire a painter just as easily as a "proffessional renovater" can, they wouldnt fit the kitchen, but they can walk into "Made For Idiots" and buy a kitchen as easily as the next guy

They might not want the hassle, but its going to be a value judgement.

There is still money to be made, but its not easy.