A FTB about to purcahse a house would like some advice please!

Doozergirl

The idea of spending £20,000 on an extensive renovation for the property to only be worth what you've spent on it is totally lost on me Of course it's lovely to have a house exactly the way you want it, but renovation is so stressful you need to have some recompense for it otherwise you may as well buy a decent house that isn't quite decorated the way you like and simply redecorate, replace the kitchen and stick some new tiles on the bathroom walls. The end result is the same but you haven't had to replace entire plumbing and electric systems and lived in dirt eating microwave meals for months.

Just doing work doesn't increase the value. If you've worked out what the top value is and reduced the price by the cost of the work, then of course it's not going to be worth more than that. Doing work does not increase value. The only way you can increase the value is by buying cheap in the first place.

lisal0u

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all your comments and advice.

It is a bit daunting to have so much work to do on the house. One thing that puts my mind at rest a bit is that I have 2 builders in the family and my Dad is and electrician and I have a friend who runs his own double glazing company so hopefully I can get the work done a bit cheaper than £20k. We also have very cheap rent so we can afford to stay put until the works are done. i know its wasting money but I cant bare to work all day long and then come home to a building site.

The works that needs doing are:

Remove 2 load bearing walls and build 2 stud walls.
Re-plaster everywhere.
Re-wire as the electrics arent earthed.
Double glaze two bay windows a side window and the front and back doors. Add french doors in the dining room (the window is double glazed in the dining room but they neglected to put a lintel in and so the brick above are settling).
Re-plumb
Maybe replace a few roof tiles and re-point the chimney.

I have lots of strong men in my family that have offered to labour and my boyfriend and I are going to take DIY leave this year to help get it done as quickly as possible!

I have looked at slightly more expensive houses that dont need much work doing but the trouble is they have not been to my taste. So changing the kitchen and bathroom etc would just be throwing money down the drain cos theres nothing really wrong with them.

Buying a house is definately the most stressful thing I have ever done! But I am very glad I have you guys to turn to for advice!

Thanks again
Lisa

neas

love comment by estate agent... think its a windup purely from the simple irony in blasting a prediction of a change of -10-20%... while at the same thing sexing up the market by talking of rises of +5-20%.

hypocritical...

Doozergirl

I should hope you could get that done for a lot less than £20,000 with that kind of help!

Captain_Mainwaring_2

stockmarket-diva wrote: »

Take not notice of the entrant about house prices plummeting. I am an Estate Agent and it is scaremongering like this and through the media that is putting some people off. In fact there are still plenty of people looking to buy.

Before you make a decision, read The Times online which has issued today an list of the top recession proof areas of England and see if the property you are referring to lies within these areas; for example Kent where I operate still saw prices increase by 6.7% and Westminster by 24%!

The works you need doing outlined by the survey should be negotiated between you, the agent and vendor. In the market at the moment there needs to be alot of negotiating and most people are being very reasonable about what needs to be done to secure the sale.

Well I'm sure that everyone has differing ideas on this - of course an EA would never admit that the market is doing one, it's like asking a car dealer if a car is in good condition.

I supposedly live in a prosperous area - full of £3 M houses and humpty dumpty is starting to fall off the wall - 3 months ago would have been the beginning of the slide, and now instead of prices crashing we have a situation where vendors won't drop the price (mostly they don't have to sell) so purchasers just won't bother proceeding - the market is stopped dead. Give it another month or so and things should start to slip.

Re the original question - just how much of the original plumbing is uncle fred? if it is just the incoming water main then it almost certainly will wait a bit before you replace it.

I'd certainly suggest a great deal of caution in your pricing though.

margaretclare

Go for it, Lisalou! The fact that you have strong men in the family and qualified builders is a huge 'plus'.

Next door the young couple absolutely gutted the place before they moved in, but the young guy is a real grafter who is used to hard physical work. They've made the 1930s bungalow look really modern. He ripped out all the old carpets (previous owners were both smokers with 2 small boys and he was a lazy s*d), re-plastered to get rid of the smoke stains, ripped out the 1930s fireplace which we use as a feature - they now use it as a place to put candles and flowers. Sanded and polished all the floorboards, new kitchen and boiler, all before they moved in and they've recently had a new bathroom in.

I have some experience of trying to do up a crumbling Pennine cottage without the advantage of skilled and physically-able workers, and then moving here followed by widowhood and redundancy - this place has taken us years to do, but with your advantages yours will soon be as you want it.

Good luck!

jimc_2

lisal0u wrote: »

3 extra things cropped up that I wasn't aware of. One was that the plumbing is lead,

margaretclare wrote: »

the lead pipes run under the drive ...... The man from the water company .......took 2 samples of water and had them tested. ........ they were well within limits and no action was needed.

We still haven't had the drive re-done

OP. With the amount of work being carried out you should a least consider replacing the lead pipes at the same time. Margaretclare's post underlines one possible reason for this. In her case, once the drive is replaced it will involve a lot more work and probably cost a lot more to do it later (not to mention possibly ruining the nice new drive!)

bryanb wrote:

Any disturbance to the pipes may dislodge internal scale and allow lead into the water supply.

bryanb is quite right about this as well. Building/renovating disturbance could well dislodge the scale and cause an unseen problem.

The third reason is that I was told recently when I had mine replaced that there were possible regulations coming up to make it mandatory for the houseowner to replace the lead. Could be total nonsense from the builder of course but it is still a sensible thing to do.

All-in-all, you might consider this one of the top priorities to get done upfront to avoid disruption/cost later.

margaretclare

jimc, please point me in the direction of possible regulations coming up forcing us to replace those lead pipes. We had the water tested and it is fine at present, and we still haven't had the drive done because our contractor can't find the time. Obviously we'd rather get this done before the drive than after!

jimc_2

Margaretclare - It was just word-of-mouth. "Everybody is going to have to have theirs done soon. It'll be the law soon." I can't remember whether it was the builder or the water company man who connected up the pipes. I'll try to check around for you and PM you if I find out.

bryanb

Margaretclare, It may be pertinent to point out that Lead/tin solder is being banned for plumbing use soon, so banning lead pipes could easily follow.
Edit. Just checked dwi.gov.uk Lead /tin solder has been banned in drinking water systems for about 15 yr, I'm gradually catching up!
My mistake arose due to it being banned from sale soon.