Just a bit panicy about buying!

kwmlondon

Hi,

I've sold my flat (in as much as I've accepted an offer of £170k against an asking price of £175) and have just put in the asking price on a house of £235k. It's cheap for a house in south east London but the reason is that it's a state.

It needs:

New kitchen (inc. floor)
New bathroom
Redecoration throughout
New carpets (upstairs, laminate flooring downstairs - ideally)

It has tenants in it at the moment which made viewing really difficult, they've got the place in a state but the place itself is really what I want.

I've got the advantage that my dad is a builder and I can pay one of his mates to help him and me do the kitchen, bathroom and flooring in a single swoop. The aim is to have it all done within a few weeks of buying it.

This is my second buy, the first place I was in a mess when I got it but that was just a matter of a few days painting, a tiny bit of plastering and getting the carpets done. This is a much bigger job.

Rather than take any capital out of the sale of the flat, I'm going to rely on £4k savings and an interest free credit card to do kitchen, bathroom, floors and carpets.

I'm just a bit nervous as this is a bigger job than the last one and while the sums are all well within safety margins, it's kinda scary.

Any tips for ways to do this work on a budget will be gratefully received!

Denzel09uk

We had a similar situation apart from we had to move into the property as it was still in a right state.

The best thing I would suggest is to set up a spreadsheet, with what your total budget is. Then seperate them into your rooms. do abit of research as to how much things cost and aportion accordingly.

Also to work on getting each room to a liveable standard and then complete each room one at a time.

kwmlondon

Denzel09uk wrote: »

We had a similar situation apart from we had to move into the property as it was still in a right state.

The best thing I would suggest is to set up a spreadsheet, with what your total budget is. Then seperate them into your rooms. do abit of research as to how much things cost and aportion accordingly.

Also to work on getting each room to a liveable standard and then complete each room one at a time.

Yep. Makes a lot of sense.

I'm going to make a date to go back in and spend a good hour taking measurements so I can get quotes for kitchens from a couple of places, ditto bathroom.

However, I don't think that doing it a bit at at time is viable. From experience it gets done at the start or it gets left!

I'd rather take a couple of weeks off work and blast through it with my dad and one of his crew and just get it done. Bosh.

DaftyDuck

Firstly, and most importantly, do not exchange (let alone complete) on a house with a tenant in it. Empty, or you'll find you have months of evicting tenants on your hands... not an easy thing to do. Tenants also have a habit of wrecking stuff on leaving... check the property very carefully when tenants have gone, before you exchange. Expect a nasty surprise... then, if there isn't one, you'll be happy.

As to your budget, well it is difficult to tell, but it does look extremely tight, even with a builder in the family. He'd be well placed to advise though.

However, none of the listed items are essentials...

Never carpet or laminate until you've been there a while - especially laminate. You want an extra plug over there? half an hour for your dad, or best part of a day once the laminate is laid. Small leak in the heating system? No problem, board up in a minute, fixed... or the best part of an afternoon once laminate is in. Similar with carpet, but less severe. You'd be better to save a little and go for slightly nicer carpet a couple of months in.

Messy jobs first. Bathroom (assume upstairs) first, get all that muck out and in again before touching a wall or floor. Done. Repaint upstairs yourself. Start furthest into house, work way to stairs. Get kitchen done. Then redecorate downstairs.

If funds run short, just enjoy! Take the time to make better plans, and always expect to spend a bit more... then you can buy a bottle of champers if it works out at cost!

kwmlondon

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Firstly, and most importantly, do not exchange (let alone complete) on a house with a tenant in it. Empty, or you'll find you have months of evicting tenants on your hands... not an easy thing to do. Tenants also have a habit of wrecking stuff on leaving... check the property very carefully when tenants have gone, before you exchange. Expect a nasty surprise... then, if there isn't one, you'll be happy.

As to your budget, well it is difficult to tell, but it does look extremely tight, even with a builder in the family. He'd be well placed to advise though.

However, none of the listed items are essentials...

Oh, I totally agree - I made it explicitly clear to the estate agent that I expect to inspect the property at least a couple of days before the contracts are exchanged to be sure the tenants are gone and also to ensure that some work that the landlord says will be done has been carried out. There's no way I'm taking on a property without seeing it empty first.

Regarding essential, well, the kitchen is - I'd say - unusable. I can't honestly imagine how the current tenants live in that place. But I could easily imagine gutting all the units apart from the sink and the cooker and getting by with a table.

However, I think that it'll take more than a carpet cleaner and a steam wand to get rid of the smell.

kwmlondon

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Never carpet or laminate until you've been there a while - especially laminate. You want an extra plug over there? half an hour for your dad, or best part of a day once the laminate is laid. Small leak in the heating system? No problem, board up in a minute, fixed... or the best part of an afternoon once laminate is in. Similar with carpet, but less severe. You'd be better to save a little and go for slightly nicer carpet a couple of months in.

Messy jobs first. Bathroom (assume upstairs) first, get all that muck out and in again before touching a wall or floor. Done. Repaint upstairs yourself. Start furthest into house, work way to stairs. Get kitchen done. Then redecorate downstairs.

If funds run short, just enjoy! Take the time to make better plans, and always expect to spend a bit more... then you can buy a bottle of champers if it works out at cost!

Yes. I get that. I did have that order in mind. It's the logical thing, but I guess I'd not really thought of living there without carpets, but why not? Bare concrete and floor boards will be fine for a while.

I grew up on building sites so it's not a biggie for me, but my partner's got a lot of acclimatising to go!

DaftyDuck

kwmlondon wrote: »

Oh, I totally agree - I made it explicitly clear to the estate agent that I expect to inspect the property at least a couple of days before the contracts are exchanged to be sure the tenants are gone and also to ensure that some work that the landlord says will be done has been carried out. There's no way I'm taking on a property without seeing it empty first.

Phew to lodgers! Suggest photos in case they keep a key. Change locks on arrival, in case etc.

I've done up a lot of houses and, while younger, survived in some strange kitchen/bathroom arrangements while ripping them out.... but not smelly ones! One house I was fitting a corner bath into an odd shape bathroom, which needed much work. As the only bathroom, I spent a good week carting the bath in in the evening, plumbing it in, scrubbing us up, then taking it out next morning to rebuild the floor/lay pipes/fix wall beside, etc. Even 20 years later, in this house, we had a bath plumbed in in the middle of a bedroom floor for a month while I redid all the plumbing....

I have a very, very tolerant wife. :A

DaftyDuck

kwmlondon wrote: »

Yes. I get that. I did have that order in mind. It's the logical thing, but I guess I'd not really thought of living there without carpets, but why not? Bare concrete and floor boards will be fine for a while.

I grew up on building sites so it's not a biggie for me, but my partner's got a lot of acclimatising to go!

Rugs. A lovely rug goes a long way, can be moved from sofa/tv to bedroom... A cheap carpet can't be upgraded. Buy better first time if you can, even if you have to wait a month or four. I speak from experience, having carpetted some of this house too early and too cheaply, a mistake I will have to (expensively) rectify soon.! :mad:

kwmlondon

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Phew to lodgers! Suggest photos in case they keep a key. Change locks on arrival, in case etc.

I've done up a lot of houses and, while younger, survived in some strange kitchen/bathroom arrangements while ripping them out.... but not smelly ones! One house I was fitting a corner bath into an odd shape bathroom, which needed much work. As the only bathroom, I spent a good week carting the bath in in the evening, plumbing it in, scrubbing us up, then taking it out next morning to rebuild the floor/lay pipes/fix wall beside, etc. Even 20 years later, in this house, we had a bath plumbed in in the middle of a bedroom floor for a month while I redid all the plumbing....

I have a very, very tolerant wife. :A

Your wife's a lot more tolerant than my partner...

moneyistooshorttomention

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Rugs. A lovely rug goes a long way, can be moved from sofa/tv to bedroom... A cheap carpet can't be upgraded. Buy better first time if you can, even if you have to wait a month or four. I speak from experience, having carpetted some of this house too early and too cheaply, a mistake I will have to (expensively) rectify soon.! :mad:

Echoed.

Never ever get "bedroom quality" carpet even for a bedroom. Voice of experience time here...

kwmlondon

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Echoed.

Never ever get "bedroom quality" carpet even for a bedroom. Voice of experience time here...

Yup, that makes sense too - I have a really good independent carpet place that did my flat out and it was well worth getting proper stuff with decent underlay. Made the flat feel great from the first moment.