Help me decide if we should buy this

LinaO

Hello everyone

Please help us decide whether we are looking at a bargain in front of us. It is a 3 bedroom semi detached house that's in terrible condition.

This property had a tenant who has been evicted last month...The EA told us he's been there for 40 years....sold the house in 2005, rented the house from the new landlord and squandered the money in gambling apparently. I also suspect he has some form of disability judging by the bathroom. The place is absolutely unlivable of course.... not a single improvement in 40 years i think while the rest of the street looks lovely....carpets ripped all around, needs painting new walls double glazing, basically everything. The property is discounted, and looks like a bargain when compared to others on the same road...we're trying to work out whether to buy it........ we think this what needs done to it.


Rip out front, back and side doors and replace...
New carpets throughout (I think about 60 sqrt m or there abouts???)
New windows throughout
New kitchen (mid size, think roughly 4m x 4m)
New bathroom and toilet... most likely new plumbling as well throughout
Knock down brick wall between toilet and bathroom...
Known down chimney stack top to bottom... we don't want a fireplace..
Painting throughout
Replace all the doors
Replace all the electrical plugs and switches etc...
Rip out front paving (about 5m v 5m i think?) and redo.. may be with gravel
Smooth out front manhole... (looks ugly)
Ooh the garden... needs a whole redoing.. overgrown and a jungle in places! i think it's about 25m x 10m may be?
New boiler...

I'm sure we may have missed some other stuff...

We want to do this properly not high end and not low end, something presentable and doesn't scream that we're cheap... we want to do as much DIY as possible... we'll add 20% to the final estimate in case we screw up something


You don't have to be exact just something rough within 30%..


Also how long will all of this work take? during this time we'll continue renting.

OOh the property is in Cambridgeshire... perhaps discounted by about £40K vs comparable properties? not sure

nmbe

Hi, had to reply as this sounds quite similar to our situation :-)

I'm not an expert in cost calculation, but just to say that from our (limited!) experience, if the house hasn't been looked after there may be hidden delights that need money spending on them (damp under floorboards; repairs to ceilings done on the cheap; drains not looked after...). So maybe factor in a contingency to the costs, and make sure you get a full survey. Also, in the mortgage application we had to confirm that it was of liveable condition (which i guess it is technically if someone is living in there), and that we intended to occupy the property from day 1.

dimbo61

What you are looking at is complete rewire of whole house, £3000-£3500.
New kitchen, bathroom, replaster of whole house downstairs and damp proof course, new central heating, double glazing, replaster of walls upstairs where you put new sockets in bedrooms ( at least 3/4 double sockets).
New flooring and complete repainting of house. That is just the inside
£15,000-£20,000 should do it