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AnotherJoe wrote: »You might get mates rates on a house you are buying to live in, as your home. You wont on a house that's purely a business venture or if you do, you are almost literally stealing the food out of their mouth. Would you go and do someone else's job for them so they can profit from it?
Yes, you are on two counts, mates rates and the money needed.
When I say mates, I mean like best mates. They will help me.
My dad in a qualified plasterer. He built our kitchen and bathroom. So he will be useful0 -
When I say mates, I mean like best mates. They will help me.
My dad in a qualified plaster. He built our kitchen and bathroom. So he will be useful
What you are saying is that you want to use your best friends so that you can profit from their work. If they are doing work for you at mates rates they are losing out on other work where they could have been charging full rates. In other words they would be taking a pay cut in order for you to profit.0 -
When I say mates, I mean like best mates. They will help me.
My dad in a qualified plasterer. He built our kitchen and bathroom. So he will be useful
I've never charged friends, even when it involved rental properties.Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one birdThe only time Chuck Norris was wrong was when he thought he had made a mistakeChuck Norris puts the "laughter" in "manslaughter".I've started running again, after several injuries had forced me to stop0 -
What you are saying is that you want to use your best friends so that you can profit from their work. If they are doing work for you at mates rates they are losing out on other work where they could have been charging full rates. In other words they would be taking a pay cut in order for you to profit.
If my friend was going to fit all my lights, he would normally charge say, £750. but to me he will HAPPILY do it for £500.
That's what I mean by mates mate.0 -
Doing up property is a business. For that you'll need a business plan, especially to cover the downside particular as you say your earnings are low. £20k is not a lot of money in the property business.
What I don't understand is your statement that "£20k is for the mortgage". Do you mean your £20k is the deposit and you are securing a mortgage as well?
If I assume your 20k is a deposit and you are looking at something in the region of £140k to buy (I don't see anything much cheaper than that you stand any chance of a turn in Exeter). Your agent & legal costs over 12 months to buy/sell and pay mortgage interest/council tax/utilities etc, is going to be at least £6-7k.
I don't think you have enough cash to make a profit and the risks for your £20k are very high. A downturn in your local market could easily wipe most of this off the value of a property.Signature on holiday for two weeks0 -
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You'll be 28 in two years time, why not focus on saving up for a deposit for your own place? You'll be able to make full use of the HTB ISA, zero stamp duty etc.
What you're thinking about is a business that requires enough capital to cover everything, inc. unexpected costs, and puts your own money at a high level of risk. If you owned your own home, had enough capital and a trade to make use of it may be more of a starter.0 -
What happens if, in two years time, you have met a girl and she wants to get a place together? The plan goes down the drain.
Also, £20k is not enough to do a proper renovation of a run down house in my opinion. You'll need proper trades in for rewiring and plumbing, roofing, possibly builders for layout modifications, planning applications, then materials, time, labour on top. The kettle will be on the go constantly too
It's not easy to make lots of money with 20k. If it was, everyone would be doing it.0 -
If my friend was going to fit all my lights, he would normally charge say, £750. but to me he will HAPPILY do it for £500.
That's what I mean by mates mate.
He’ll do it once. And he’ll say it happily to start with, but then when he’s already busy and could be earning more, there’ll be a little bit of resentment that creeps in. £750 is the true value of his labour.
I have a few best girlfriends. One is also my accountant. I pay her the full going rate. My oldest friend is a marketing consultant. I don’t use her often but when I do, I pay her her full rate. My yoga teacher - full rate, my nail tech - full rate. It keeps us all friends because I would have to pay someone else that money anyway!
Besides valuing your friends, which is the most important thing, mates rates are not a way to run a successful business in *developing* property (not ‘doing up’). Taking your profit from cutting other’s down isn’t a long term recipe for success. It’s always going to cost more than you think anyway, without deliberately underestimating.
Another point - increasing the value of a property comes from increasing square footage, not from tarting them up. You either buy at such a good price that you could sell it immediately for more, you buy unmortgageable homes that are inaccessible to the vast market (that’s you out for now) or you make them bigger and take the reward from the hard work. There are, I’m sure 10 buyers for every simply outdated property out there. Our electrician was looking and was getting outbid on FTB level houses he knew would cost more to fix than the price of an already decent house. He ended up buying a decent house because he has more experience to know what houses genuinely cost to fix. The average person has little clue.
I am sure that dad will help too, but again, his goodwill will run out quickly.
If this is what you want to do, I suggest you live in the house and take your time. We all learn somewhere. That’s where we learned and in a rapidly rising market to cover every mistake we might have made. We never ‘earned’ money from what I would now call basic renovations. The earning came from great big extensions to add square footage and the work to fix very, very old and broken houses with skill and quality.
It’s been great fun, I am lucky to do what I do but even I spend other people’s money these days. The recession taught us about risk and the benefit of a regular paycheck.
Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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Doozergirl wrote: »He’ll do it once. And he’ll say it happily to start with, but then when he’s already busy and could be earning more, there’ll be a little bit of resentment that creeps in. £750 is the true value of his labour.
I have a few best girlfriends. One is also my accountant. I pay her the full going rate. My oldest friend is a marketing consultant. I don’t use her often but when I do, I pay her her full rate. My yoga teacher - full rate, my nail tech - full rate. It keeps us all friends because I would have to pay someone else that money anyway!
Besides valuing your friends, which is the most important thing, mates rates are not a way to run a successful business in *developing* property (not ‘doing up’). Taking your profit from cutting other’s down isn’t a long term recipe for success. It’s always going to cost more than you think anyway, without deliberately underestimating.
Another point - increasing the value of a property comes from increasing square footage, not from tarting them up. You either buy at such a good price that you could sell it immediately for more, you buy unmortgageable homes that are inaccessible to the vast market (that’s you out for now) or you make them bigger and take the reward from the hard work. There are, I’m sure 10 buyers for every simply outdated property out there. Our electrician was looking and was getting outbid on FTB level houses he knew would cost more to fix than the price of an already decent house. He ended up buying a decent house because he has more experience to know what houses genuinely cost to fix. The average person has little clue.
I am sure that dad will help too, but again, his goodwill will run out quickly.
If this is what you want to do, I suggest you live in the house and take your time. We all learn somewhere. That’s where we learned and in a rapidly rising market to cover every mistake we might have made. We never ‘earned’ money from what I would now call basic renovations. The earning came from great big extensions to add square footage and the work to fix very, very old and broken houses with skill and quality.
It’s been great fun, I am lucky to do what I do but even I spend other people’s money these days. The recession taught us about risk and the benefit of a regular paycheck.
Wise wordsIf you are querying your Council Tax band would you please state whether you are in England, Scotland or Wales0
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