Buying house: What would you do?

ChewyyBacca

So, here is the house in South East London, that has bags of potential once done up (don't know if this is the optimistic great house giveaway talk)
I will layout the problems I see and feel free to share your thoughts, advice etc

1. This is a probate sale, grant of probate is pending. Should we even consider this house? I have read on this forum that probate sales are extremely time-consuming and messy. Also will re-iterate - sale is subject to the grant of probate being issued.
2. The house is stuck in a time warp. Needs full updating every room, ripping out kitchen, new bathroom, so not exactly love at first sight with this one. Would you suggest this for FTBs who have almost non-existent DIY skills and no renovation experience?
3. There is no bathroom upstairs, which is a Must have for us. What if the smaller bedroom at the rear of the house is converted to a shower room? This would mean turning a 4 bed house to a 3 bed. So while we gain a much needed upstairs bathroom, we lose a bedroom. What reduction in the house price does that translate to? Im sure adding a shower room upstairs adds value, is it equivalent to losing a small bedroom?
4. This question is for council tax. When the house is converted from 4 bed to 3 bed, would there is be a council tax re-banding? How easy or difficult or impossible is it to achieve this? A preliminary google search indicates this property is on Council tax D - £1745

Here is the floor map

Black_Cat2

Garage has an unusual shape 😁

hazyjo

Begs the question, why this house?

Is it that it's all you can afford? Or you think you can add value? Do you have cash in the bank to do the updates?

You've not even told us where it is or how much, so we can't tell how how much it might be worth after losing a bedroom. You need to compare against other properties.

Tbh, it doesn't sound like the right house for you.

MFWannabe

Have you fallen. In love with the house? 
If not, surely there’s easier houses to purchase?

ChewyyBacca

Black_Cat2 said:

Garage has an unusual shape 😁

Sure it is an unusual shape 

ChewyyBacca

hazyjo said:

Begs the question, why this house?

Is it that it's all you can afford? Or you think you can add value? Do you have cash in the bank to do the updates?

You've not even told us where it is or how much, so we can't tell how how much it might be worth after losing a bedroom. You need to compare against other properties.

Tbh, it doesn't sound like the right house for you.

Well, this house is under consideration because our budget is not as much as the London market is dictating for the square footage/living space we want. 
We do have small cash in the bank to get the updates done by a professional.
And here is the house link: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87096524#/
Any done up/ modernised houses have asking price in the 500-600k range, that's beyond what we can afford now or after a year.

AdrianC

ChewyyBacca said:

1. This is a probate sale, grant of probate is pending. Should we even consider this house? I have read on this forum that probate sales are extremely time-consuming and messy. Also will re-iterate - sale is subject to the grant of probate being issued.

Probate sales are common. Most are absolutely straightforward.
The only issue for you is the timescale not being in your hands - everything else is the vendor's problem.

2. The house is stuck in a time warp. Needs full updating every room, ripping out kitchen, new bathroom, so not exactly love at first sight with this one. Would you suggest this for FTBs who have almost non-existent DIY skills and no renovation experience?

You have three choices.
1. Learn...
2. Spend a fortune on labour every time you want anything done.
3. Buy a different property.

Obviously, there are jobs that are beyond all but the most dedicated and experienced DIYers - kitchen, bathroom, plastering, anything structural.
But you would be astonished how easy things like painting and decorating are, with just a little bit of application - and how expensive. Especially in London. And that's before we consider the ongoing maintenance jobs...

3. There is no bathroom upstairs, which is a Must have for us. What if the smaller bedroom at the rear of the house is converted to a shower room? This would mean turning a 4 bed house to a 3 bed. So while we gain a much needed upstairs bathroom, we lose a bedroom. What reduction in the house price does that translate to? Im sure adding a shower room upstairs adds value, is it equivalent to losing a small bedroom?

Hold on while I just find a tape measure for this piece of string.

The floorplan you've provided is not dimensioned. What size is that room? It looks tiny to the point of just about unusability as a bedroom.

4. This question is for council tax. When the house is converted from 4 bed to 3 bed, would there is be a council tax re-banding? How easy or difficult or impossible is it to achieve this? A preliminary google search indicates this property is on Council tax D - £1745

Rebanding because of work done to the property triggering an Improvement Index flag (usually anything involving planning permission) would not happen until the next change of council tax payers - so when you sell.

Band D means a 1991 nominal value of between £68k and £88k. No more than that. "Number of bedrooms" does not factor directly into the banding.
Where in that band did it sit in 1991?
Would changing that bedroom for an upstairs bathroom have reduced or increased the 1991 value?
BTW, you don't need to do "a preliminary google search" to "indicate" anything - just put the address into https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-bands and find out the absolutely accurate authoritative answer.

hazyjo

Okay, so what would your actual budget be for something done?

I had a feeling it was going to be Eltham, so wasn't a million miles off!

strawb_shortcake

Could you add an ensuite to the master bedroom rather than a full bathroom?

hazyjo

Would you consider these?

Much better long term value.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/96845882#/

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/98187770#/

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/100155434#/ (lost out on a house in that street myself once).

cattie

That location is not a million miles away from me & once looked at a house on the Devon estate, so agree that the price it's up at is good. However, you will need a very healthy budget to get it brought into the 21st century. You mention you have a small budget to to pay for professionals & I wouldn't have thought you could have got the work done for much less than £50k if you're lucky, especially as you state you've no experience of diy. Believe me, when trying to work out renovation budgets, it's always wise to double it to get a clear idea of the final cost! When renovating, you never know what hidden problems will show their face & they can prove costly.

In the Welling area there are a lot of spacious chalet houses that have & were built, with downstairs bathrooms & the layout is fairly similar to this one. If the bathroom was brought upstairs, then the existing bathroom could become bedroom 4 or a study, so the options are there & with doing something like this, you'd maintain the value of the house. Losing a bedroom in the greater London area can knock £20-£25k off of the price easily, whereas for some people they have no objection to a downstairs bathroom & it doesn't seem to affect prices greatly. Period houses local to me with downstairs bathroom only are still going for around the £600-£650k mark, whereas for me I'd never consider a downstairs bathroom only.

Regarding council tax, I don't believe it will change at all as you'll still be occupying the same space, just rejigging things a bit.

Whatever you decide, do come back to update us.