Bemused by valuations

Albermarle

Mr.Generous said:

FlorayG said:

I sold a house for £200k. The buyer almost gutted it (it was livable but old fashioned) put in gas central heating, new kitchen, bathroom, replastered, new flooring, fitted wardrobes; he was single so lived with a friend whilst he and his 'mates' did the work. He sold it 6 months later for £260k. This is how he makes a living, doing up one house at a time. £30k+ income for 6 months work sounds OK to me

I wish it was that easy. I renovated a few without ever moving in and the workload is tremendous. He might have found a way to make it work but with all the work listed plus legal costs, agent fee's, council tax and utilities he won't have made 30k. I've not renovated to sell for a few years but costs will have risen, and I cant imagine any of that work being cheap.

If we say he made £20K, then that is pretty poor for 6 months work for a qualified tradesperson.
On the other hand on Homes under the Hammer, people often claim to do all sorts of work and only spend £10K .

david29dpo

Mr.Generous said:

FlorayG said:

I sold a house for £200k. The buyer almost gutted it (it was livable but old fashioned) put in gas central heating, new kitchen, bathroom, replastered, new flooring, fitted wardrobes; he was single so lived with a friend whilst he and his 'mates' did the work. He sold it 6 months later for £260k. This is how he makes a living, doing up one house at a time. £30k+ income for 6 months work sounds OK to me

I wish it was that easy. I renovated a few without ever moving in and the workload is tremendous. He might have found a way to make it work but with all the work listed plus legal costs, agent fee's, council tax and utilities he won't have made 30k. I've not renovated to sell for a few years but costs will have risen, and I cant imagine any of that work being cheap.

You paid to much then.

Herzlos

p00pieb0tt0m said:

user1977 said:

"Needs" as in "uninhabitable until the work is done" or just "nice to have" improvements which an owner-occupier could deal with as and when they have the time/money?

It has a working boiler and is watertight but the kitchen is literally falling apart, the toilet is usable but the bath and basin are 'free' from the wall. I wouldn't want to move any possessions in so if you moved in it would be glorified camping.

That's enough to be mortgageable so fine. Some people may see it as a plus because they can install one to their choosing.

You could get a really cheap set fitted to make it easier to sell, and then have them replace it anyway.

It might be worth getting them reaffixed to the wall so it's more useable, but I wouldn't spend money replacing much.

dannim12345

Either somebody will move in and do it overtime. We never replaced the kitchen in our old house before selling despite it really needing doing. But did the rest of the house (which was a lot of work).  

Or if it’s being bought to sell on, they might be able to do it all themselves or work in / with the trade so it costs much less than do then the amount quoted. 

I think if you received 3 quotes, it should be a fair idea of the market.  

ReadySteadyPop

Mr.Generous said:

FlorayG said:

I sold a house for £200k. The buyer almost gutted it (it was livable but old fashioned) put in gas central heating, new kitchen, bathroom, replastered, new flooring, fitted wardrobes; he was single so lived with a friend whilst he and his 'mates' did the work. He sold it 6 months later for £260k. This is how he makes a living, doing up one house at a time. £30k+ income for 6 months work sounds OK to me

I wish it was that easy. I renovated a few without ever moving in and the workload is tremendous. He might have found a way to make it work but with all the work listed plus legal costs, agent fee's, council tax and utilities he won't have made 30k. I've not renovated to sell for a few years but costs will have risen, and I cant imagine any of that work being cheap.

Of course he hasn`t, there are people sitting at a screen all day and drinking coffee making that, sounds like a hobby and not much else, won`t be really doable in the new world of higher borrowing costs anyway.

ReadySteadyPop

[Deleted User] said:

Plenty of trades are looking to buy homes that they can do up in their spare time.
Either to craft a home exactly to their liking, or to add value and flip, hoping to move up the housing ladder.
From what I can see, both are excellent strategies if you've got the skills.

You might even find a builder who wants a btl as their retirement fund, or even helping their kids onto the housing ladder.

I don't think it's an unusual proposition, folk still want 'doer-uppers'.

That would be probably the worst "retirement fund" you could think of!

Sapindus

I was thinking about this one earlier.  On the one hand the estate agents are saying you can buy a house, do some work and then sell it for more than the purchase price + the cost of work.

On the other hand people wanting to sell their house are regularly told they won't get back the cost of "improvements" they may be thinking of making to make the house more marketable...

ReadySteadyPop

Sapindus said:

I was thinking about this one earlier.  On the one hand the estate agents are saying you can buy a house, do some work and then sell it for more than the purchase price + the cost of work.

On the other hand people wanting to sell their house are regularly told they won't get back the cost of "improvements" they may be thinking of making to make the house more marketable...

Yes, many agents (and some of their customers) are stuck in the world of TV make over shows from a decade ago, when you could probably pull it off, they just tell people what they want to hear at any given moment.

ReadySteadyPop

dannim12345 said:

Either somebody will move in and do it overtime. We never replaced the kitchen in our old house before selling despite it really needing doing. But did the rest of the house (which was a lot of work).  

Or if it’s being bought to sell on, they might be able to do it all themselves or work in / with the trade so it costs much less than do then the amount quoted. 

I think if you received 3 quotes, it should be a fair idea of the market.  

Unlikely I think, the only real test of "the market" is when you actually sell it.

strawb_shortcake

ReadySteadyPop said:

dannim12345 said:

Either somebody will move in and do it overtime. We never replaced the kitchen in our old house before selling despite it really needing doing. But did the rest of the house (which was a lot of work).  

Or if it’s being bought to sell on, they might be able to do it all themselves or work in / with the trade so it costs much less than do then the amount quoted. 

I think if you received 3 quotes, it should be a fair idea of the market.  

Unlikely I think, the only real test of "the market" is when you actually sell it.

We've got one local agent that seems to know the market really well, many of her houses are having offers accepted in the first week. She markets well on social media and follows up with the completions too so you know they go the distance. 

There are a lot of houses languishing on the market as they are simply over priced. 

We are planning on marketing our property in the summer and I'm curious as to what the valuations will come in as.