Courgette's Go Big or Go Home Diary

Courgette

Well something held me back from making such a big OP and I’m glad it did because the tenant in my rental gave notice on Saturday night - after 13 years living there!

We did chat (me and my husband) about whether we should sell or get another tenant and I think for now we’re going for another tenant but it’s not fully decided yet.

i also launched a very expensive (for me) offer in my teaching business. It was a one month intensive course for £499. It was an experiment to see if there was anyone in my audience willing to pay that much - and there was. I had 3 spaces, 2 sold, one person wanted a place but couldn’t manage the full thing so she’s doing half and then 2 more students booked in other offers filling the hours of the other half. I’m pleased with this and it shows me that I need to adjust my pricing upwards.

very busy couple of months ahead. Tenant moves out on 1st July but there’s a lot of work we need to do to the property regardless of whether we keep or sell. In the 13 years she’s been there I’ve replaced the bathroom and boiler but that’s about it. It needs some major tarting up

Courgette

So we’ve decided we’re definitely going to keep the property. It’s currently mortgaged at 3.79% until October 2032 so using that as a time scale we’re definitely better keeping it rather than selling it now. 

I’m rather ashamed of how much work needs doing to it. Somewhere along the way I really checked out of the property. I’ve done everything I need to do to keep things legal  and I’ve dealt with issues that have come up, eg boiler and bathroom but nothing else and it really shows. Tenant has done things like re-carpet and decorate and she’s also paid below market value for years.

slightly disappointed with the estate agent rent estimate though - he reckons £900 pm unfurnished. Maybe when it’s done up it’ll cost more.

The big decision now is regarding the windows. They’re awful and all (most?) need replacing. We had someone come out last weekend and the quote is £9100 inc vat which is 2 x bay windows, patio doors, 3 windows, front and back doors plus their side windows. We’ve asked others who have recently had new windows and apparently this is the right ballpark. It just seems so very very much money to me.

My mum thinks we should be able to fit them ourselves and can buy them from B&Q etc but I’m not so sure.

I did wonder whether we could strip and fill them then repaint and get one more year out of them and then put every penny of rent towards paying for them. £9100 is a lot and it also makes me feel vulnerable having to pay that from future rent when we don’t even have a tenant yet.

We did game out selling as is and EA estimates £180k (vs £210 done up) but I think long term spending what it needs and keeping it is the best option.

Question: any thoughts on reducing the cost of the windows? Of course it goes without saying that we’ll be getting other quotes.

Then there’s the kitchen. It has solid wood worktops and one of them has rotten behind the sink. It’s a small galley kitchen with a door to the garden at the end. This door cuts into the space of the worktop so the worktop has to be cut on a small diagonal to accommodate this. This is why we have solid wood (plus we fitted them when it was our family home) because how do you cut laminate?

finally, there’s cosmetic damage to the front of one of the kitchen cupboards. They’re ikea so we went on Friday just to replace the fronts. Really really annoyingly ikea have changed their kitchen base unit sizes and it’s impossible to get replacement fronts. Well either have to laminate them or remove the fronts and make some new ones from mdf. The units and the mechanism are absolutely fine, it’s just chipping on the laminate coating of the doors. Very frustrating because I really hoped we could just buy new fronts and have done. 

Ive seen people add photos - I’ll see if that’s possible.

Feel very happy to have looked at the numbers and made a definite decision to keep though. It’s a positive step forward

Courgette

 Here’s the damage. It’s not that much but also looks awful. Thoughts on repairing this?

I also applied for 2 new credit cards last night. In 10 minutes I secured £9700 0% for 15 months of credit 😵‍💫. Obviously I’d like not to use this but it’s really about the windows. I do also have almost that much in easy to access savings but if I use all that I’ve got no emergency fund. The point of these credit cards is to keep finances more liquid, not to go on a massive spending spree!

pennywisepoundstupid

Company like this might be worth a look for kitchen door fronts.
https://www.hotdoors.co.uk/kitchen-doors/traditional-and-woodgrain/cambridge-available-in-35-colours/colours/cambridge-ivory-2567/

Courgette

pennywisepoundstupid said:

Company like this might be worth a look for kitchen door fronts.
https://www.hotdoors.co.uk/kitchen-doors/traditional-and-woodgrain/cambridge-available-in-35-colours/colours/cambridge-ivory-2567/

Thank you! I’ll check them out 

themadvix

Definitely get other quotes for the windows - we found quotes varied widely. That said, we went with someone who isn’t FENSA certified (and was therefore much cheaper). Fine, but will need an indemnity cert if/when you come to sell (I think from memory we were looking at about £200 for this, when we were planning on moving in 2021, so still much cheaper than FENSA quotes). Obviously if you do them yourself, you won’t be F certified either. We need to do some and Mr MV is keen that we give it a go ourselves, so will be interested to hear if you go this way - in theory it shouldn’t be difficult!

LadyWithAPlan

South_coast said:

Spend £5k to save £3.8k seems like a good deal to me

Yes I agree but this is before I read about your tenant and the windows 
great anyway you have your eye on the ball and can get focused on getting this all sorted 

D123456789

My tenant recently moved out after 7 years and I wondered if I needed a new kitchen. My 1st stop was wren and they offer 0% for about 5 years on kitchen and fitting which I thought was quite good proportionately to the rent I get. I also asked a local independent for a quote. It’s on my radar for future, but after redecorating I let the property as it was so it wasnt empty whilst I was making decisions, and I will keep it under review.

The laminate was peeling from my bathroom sink cupboard so the decorator peeled it all off and painted the cupboards to save time sourcing new cupboards in the same size and fitting them. 

I actually let the property myself through open rent so I saved on estate agent fees. I was fortunate that it went in 1st viewing so it didn’t take up too much of my time. 

If you do need windows, kitchen, flooring etc and the property will only go up 30k in value then it’s worth doing your sums re selling, for the time and effort involved in renovating. Although, Depending on how long you’ve had the place, capital gains tax  is another consideration.