Episode 15 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello. Over the years, Lucy and I have witnessed

the ebbing and flowing of the property market.

Whether you want it as a home or an investment,

you want to see its value rise, not fall.

It's really important to buy at the right price and one way to do that

is to visit the auctions and buy your home under the hammer.

We're all aware of the ever-changing fortunes of the property market.

But doing a deal at the auction is one of the simplest processes.

Your hand goes up, the hammer comes down, you've bought the property.

That's just what happened when today's properties were sold.

I thought I'd seen it all till I visited this two bedroom terrace in Greater Manchester.

What is this all about?

Have I seen the best of this Essex semi-detached

before I'm even through the door?

First impressions - it looks better from the outside.

And in Stoke, I've seen appealing wallpapers in my time, but this...

What is that? Have you seen anything like that before? Very strange.

All these properties have been sold at auction.

We'll find out who bought them and what they paid for them

when they went under the hammer.

Sold 244.

Today I'm in Ashton-under-Lyne, about six miles from the city centre of Manchester.

The town is home to one of the largest outdoor markets in the UK.

The house I'm off to see is less than five minutes from here

and it's just round the corner from Tameside General Hospital,

great news if you're looking to rent out a property in the area.

Well, this is the main road into the town centre

and also onwards into Manchester city centre itself.

Great for transport links then, but boy, oh boy,

even out of rush hour it's very busy.

That's significant because this is the property that I'm here to see.

It's a two bed end of terrace at a guide price of 55,000 quid.

MUSIC: "Our House" by Madness

So, good for getting around but bad for traffic rumbling past.

So far this place doesn't exactly set my pulse racing

but it doesn't look too bad from the outside.

The first thing I'd do definitely is put a double-glazed door on there

to get rid of the noise from the road.

Through there into the corridor, a decent size and straight away,

nice high ceilings and nice wide corridors so that bodes well.

Front sitting room there. It feels damp.

It looks a little bit damp but it's a nice size.

Stairs up to your bedrooms and then through to your rear sitting room.

Again, proportionately, really large. Look at this, fantastic.

What you'd use this for, I'm not sure.

I think what I would contemplate is actually knocking through

to the kitchen or indeed making this the kitchen, perhaps, and this the utility.

As you can see, the kitchen as it stands

at the moment ain't too brilliant.

All in all, great start.

MUSIC: "You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties" by Jona Lewie

Whether you keep the kitchen here or put it in the larger adjoining room,

one thing's for sure.

The current kitchen just doesn't look in the party mood at all.

It'll definitely need to be updated

and that goes for the whole ground floor.

In fact, no massive surprises so far then,

but sit tight as I venture up a floor

to the two bedrooms and bathroom.

You know, you think you know a property or what to expect

and then you come upstairs and what is this all about?

It's kind of a stood partition wall

that somebody's halfway through building in one of the bedrooms

and then it continues to get really weird - watch out for the electric cables -

you've got this entrance leading through to heaven only knows.

I get it. This was actually a wardrobe,

a built-in wardrobe, in this bedroom.

It's been knocked through at the back there.

Probably to create some kind of a corridor.

The reason for that is we have one of those classic layout problems.

This is the loo.

The only loo and bathroom in the property and to access it,

you have to come through this bedroom.

Not ideal at all.

Maybe that's what that little bit of stood partitioning is for or perhaps

somebody had started thinking a bit more laterally about this property.

It's pretty big

so could you potentially convert this into two flats?

One downstairs, one upstairs.

Well, there's definitely a rental market round here.

You'd need to talk to a lettings agent

and find out what the demand for that kind of flat would be

and then you'd talk to a builder to find out how much it would cost.

Weigh up the economies. My gut feeling is, nah, leave it as it is.

Two flats is an option though

and one the auction catalogue also suggests.

Whatever route you decide to take, there are some fundamentals to address here,

from the electrics to the central heating

and, of course, sorting out the layout upstairs.

There's a rear yard which as the catalogue suggests

could be used for parking with the relevant consent

and access from the side road.

Otherwise, it's a case of getting a permit for this busy street.

Lots to think about here.

What does a local property expert make of this end terrace

that was guided at £45,000?

I think what I do like about it is the rooms are a great size.

Nice high ceilings, two good-sized reception rooms

and also you've got a fairly decent kitchen at the back.

What should be done here?

I think it's top to bottom.

You'll probably find when you take the wallpaper off,

the plaster will fall off the walls.

New central heating system, windows. Pretty much everything really.

Once renovated,

what could the potential sale value of this property be?

I think if you wanted to sell the property as a two-bedroomed house,

you would achieve £90,000 on the current market.

There's potential to make money here.

Is it just as good a prospect as a buy to let?

I think if the property's renovated to a good standard,

you would achieve £495 per calendar month.

Well, it's a lot of house with a lot of potential

and a lot of options in a good rental area.

So, I think a decent one to go for.

Let's see who fancied it when it went under the hammer.

Start me off - 45,000.

That's where we want to start, £45,000 we're looking for.

45,000 then at the back. Do we see 46? £46,000.

At £47,000. 47,000 I have.

48,000 it's against, 48 I have, at £48,000. 49.

49,000. Do we see 50? 50 I'm looking for now.

49, put you in for a half, 49,500. At £50,000, new bid. At £50,000.

At 50,500. 51, sir.

At 51,000. 51 and a half. 52.

52 and a half. 53? At 53,000. 53 and a half.

At 53,500. 54.

At 54, 54 and a half. 55, sir.

55,000. 55 and a half?

55,000 at the back for the first time.

At 55,000 for the second time.

55,000, third and final time.

You've won at the back.

At £55,000.

The successful bid of £55,000 came from property developer

Narendra, on behalf of his son, Feresh.

Feresh runs his own marketing company in Leeds

but the family used to live in this area so know it well.

This is his first investment property

and Dad's delighted to give him a helping hand.

MUSIC: "Poppa Don't Mind At All" by Supertramp

-Feresh, Narendra, lovely to meet you both. Congratulations.

-Nice to meet you.

-Tell me why you wanted to buy this place.

-Well, what it was,

I'd looked at three or four properties at the moment

and I was actually looking to buy a house for myself,

but with the way the market is at the moment, I didn't think it was

worthwhile doing at the moment.

You spend a lot of money and you potentially lose a lot of value

so my dad has bought a couple of investment properties

and I thought what I'd do is get an investment property at the moment

and obviously it's round the corner from where I was born.

There's a hospital round the corner, there's a pub and a chippy.

Right, all you need. You've been doing this for a while, have you?

Yeah, for a while, a good few properties myself.

Mostly in this area?

-Here, Manchester, Wibdenshaw, different places.

-Great.

You've inherited your dad's passion for property, have you?

No, I'm trying. Very inexperienced.

Narendra's been going to auction

since he bought his first property in 1983

so Feresh is in a great position to learn from his dad's experience.

There's just one small problem.

At the auction, one of the worries is he always gets a little bit over-excited.

That's always a bit of a problem.

-Especially when he's spending your money.

-Exactly.

I don't think he's allowed to any auctions any more,

especially not on my behalf anyway.

Although this is Feresh's first investment adventure,

his dad has a portfolio of around 20 properties

and will oversee this renovation.

That will include checking the wiring,

updating the central heating, fitting new windows

plus a back and front door and that's just for starters.

Any plans for any major structural work at all?

I don't think there's any major structure work.

It's mainly modernising the property to a standard.

As you can see, nothing's been done for a long time.

It's a new kitchen, new bathroom.

-And the partitioning upstairs.

-Tell me about that.

So you've got a walkway through the bathroom.

I think at the moment you have to go through one of the bedrooms which is not ideal for anyone.

Right, so that's a simple stood partition wall.

A simple partition wall but again, I think that definitely needs doing.

What about the idea potentially of turning it into flats?

Have you thought about that?

I don't think we want to do that really.

I know you get more rent and all that but more headache as well.

It's more headache and I don't think in an ideal world,

in my own opinion, I don't think it's suitable for two flats.

I think it would be quite on top of one another.

Well, that's what flats are, aren't they?

Yes, there's enough to do here without dividing it into flats.

Feresh plans to rent this out, but as he lives in Leeds,

it'll be his dad, Narendra, who will oversee the work.

But it's very much Feresh's budget.

How much do you think it's going to cost to sort it out?

I think anything between 10, 11 or 12 on initial estimates.

I'd say we estimate 10 but these things always spill over

-so probably say 11-12.

-I think we should do it for 10.

You're more optimistic.

-You want to be here making sure everything's done on budget.

-It'll be done.

What's the timescale?

I'd probably say three to four months, being realistic.

Each individual area's got to be done, the central heating and so on,

so I'd say about three to four months.

-Is the plan then to buy more property?

-Ideally.

I think it's a good market at the moment for picking up low value rental accommodation.

Obviously, if you can get that and you're doing them up

and putting them on the market, I think it's a supplementary to a pension.

Great.

Congratulations. Good luck, we look forward to seeing how you get on.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Well, an interesting property for Feresh's first foray

into property developing.

At least he's got Dad to help him out. How will they get on?

You can find out later in the show.

Today I'm in Essex, a county fit for a king. Or at least it used to be.

In days gone by, many noblemen

and royal subjects enjoyed this part of the country.

Hence all the place names that pay homage to them.

And the regal theme doesn't end there,

because this area is called Harold Wood.

After King Harold,

or Harold Harefoot as he's more commonly known.

Apparently he enjoyed hunting deer

in the forest that covered this area.

Unfortunately, the forest is long gone,

but it's been replaced with lots of desirable properties,

a mainline train station and it's also home to today's auction lot.

The place I'm here to see is in this attractive road.

It's always good to see

that neighbours take care of their properties.

And here it is, a four bedroomed semi-detached house with a garage.

Now, it had a guide price of just £180,000.

Let's see what it's like inside.

Looks can be deceiving,

but from the outside this could almost be a new house.

First impressions, it looks better from the outside!

The kitchen does need a fair bit of work.

Some new units, a new sink,

in fact the whole of the kitchen needs doing.

You've got a downstairs loo, that will need replacing,

but the good thing is, there is a downstairs loo.

All the plumbing's there, which is great,

and what I do like about this house is the size.

Really nice big dining room, complete with its own serving hatch.

Fantastic.

The proportions are good, chunky old stairs leading to the bedrooms,

and at the back of the property, a fair sized lounge.

It needs a lot of work doing in here,

you need to get back all the wallpaper and it needs carpets.

It needs a new radiator,

but it has got brand-new double glazing which is a real bonus.

I think this house is an ideal family starter home.

It may all be a bit tired,

but the bones of this house are still strong.

# Rock Solid, steady as we go. #

There's even a brand-new boiler, so that's £1,000 saved straightaway.

Upstairs there are four good-sized bedrooms,

with an ensuite off the main bedroom.

Again, it needs replacing but the plumbing's in place.

There's even a lovely garden out back which is perfect for a family.

But is there room to create even more space inside?

Let's head out front.

As you can see here,

you already have off-road parking in the form of this driveway.

So is a garage really necessary?

You could think about turning this into another room downstairs,

then you would increase the value of the property.

Well, that's not possible, I'm afraid.

The original title deeds state the garage must be retained as a garage.

Now, you could appeal this, of course,

but I think permission would be extremely hard to come by.

Reading the legal pack is a must for any auction purchase.

If you bought this blind

and were thinking about converting that garage,

well it could come as a very nasty surprise.

Still, the guide price of £180,000

isn't a lot for this neck of the woods.

I think this place could be a really good buy.

Time to hear from a local estate agent.

It is a really good location, you've got the station up the road,

just at the end of the road, basically,

which takes you straight to

Liverpool Street station, within about half an hour, 40 minutes.

Also bus links into Romford and surrounding areas as well.

Good schools, primary, junior and secondary.

So it's definitely a family-orientated area.

So ten out of ten for location,

bearing in mind that guide price of £180,000,

how much could it be worth once brought up to modern standards?

Once this property is renovated,

I do think we can sell this property for £270,000-£275,000.

So money definitely to be made here,

if you don't get carried away with the renovations.

How much could be worth on the rental market?

We could rent this property out per calendar month around £1,300-£1,400.

Both the resale and rental values are strong,

plus the transport links here are a major selling point.

You can be in central London in just half an hour, which is amazing.

The house doesn't require too much work,

so I think this one is a good one to go for.

Let's see who else thought so as we headed to auction.

200 anywhere? At 200?

200. 201 anywhere?

201.

202. 203. 204.

205. 206. Who?

-210.

-210. 211?

Well, so much for the guide price of £180,000.

There's obviously a lot of interest in this four-bed semi.

We rejoin bidding at a whopping £235,000.

236, 237.

238?

We've got 237 at the back.

Looking for 238?

If not, 237. First time, second time...

238, another spot.

239.

240.

241.

242.

242, 243.

244.

245?

Have a think. 244, sitting down.

245?

Anywhere else, 245?

If not, 244, in the blue.

First time, second time, third and last time. All done?

Sold, 244.

The successful bid,

which was a massive £64,000 over the guide price

came from auditor and family man, Matt.

He's bought the place with his partner, Donna,

and their growing family.

# A family man. #

They paid £244,000 for their new home,

and I met them to find out their plans.

Guys, congratulations. This is brilliant news for the both of you.

What was it like at the auction for you, Matt?

It was OK, I felt I handled it pretty well.

I won the bid, and they said, "Come out and fill out this paperwork."

It was only at that point, really, that my hand was shaking

and I felt, "Perhaps I didn't handle it as well as I thought."

Did you go to the auction on the day really wanting to buy this house?

Yeah. I mean, I was at home with our ten-day-old daughter.

So I was on the other end of the phone, waiting for it to ring.

It took a while for him to get through,

but the longer it went I thought, "He must have got it."

We went a bit over budget, but I think it was worth it.

When he said to you, "I've got the property, it's ours!"

What did you do?

I first thought, "How much?" That was the first question.

Once he answered that I panicked a bit, then I thought,

"Yeah, at least we've got our first home and it's all good."

The couple have been living in rented accommodation

with their two-year-old son, Jack.

But with their daughter Holly's arrival

they needed a place of their own.

On top of that, the tenancy of their rented house was coming to an end,

and they could only extend by one month, max.

So, no pressure then.

# Pressure, pushing down on me

# Pressing down on you No man ask for. #

You are taking quite a bit on here. A new baby, a new home.

You've only got a few weeks left on your tenancy. Slightly panicking?

-I am.

-We should be!

He's a bit laid-back about everything, but I'm worried.

-Everything will work out in the end.

-Yeah, of course it will.

So, Matt, tell me a little bit about yourself. What's your background?

Originally, when I was younger, a teenager going into early adulthood,

I managed to eek a living as a shot-putter.

I competed for Great Britain, went to the Commonwealth Games in 1994,

but that all came to an end when I was about 28,

and then I had to start working for a living.

So I am now working as an auditor.

-Are you competing any more or is that it?

-No, I had to give it up.

I hurt my elbow and had three different surgeries.

The third one sort of finished me off.

It's all working now with a pencil,

and not lifting any weights or running around and jumping around.

So I'm guessing Matt won't be doing the work himself, then.

That's a shame, because Donna's got some pretty big plans.

We're thinking of knocking down between the dining room and the kitchen.

And possibly bricking up both doors, so we've got more room.

That's the plan.

So you're going to get rid of that nice little serving hatch?

You know, I think that will be a great idea, to really open space up.

You can have, especially as you've got a family and young children,

to have the kitchen and dining space will be ideal for you.

What about access to the garden, though?

We going to have French doors, so,

we'll block off that door going out from the kitchen and have a window.

Then we'll have the French doors

and then hopefully, in time, have a conservatory

so it will be quite a nice lead out to the garden.

-So you've not got long to do this place up?

-No. No, we haven't.

The other thing is, we wanted to convert the garage to a living space

and possibly have that as a playroom for the children.

Our solicitor let us know that there is a covenant on the original plans

that actually forbids us from converting it into a living space.

Now we have to apply for planning permission to get that reversed.

-That's eight weeks, we are told.

-We're running out of time.

So you didn't know about the fact that you couldn't convert

the garage until after the auction?

-Because you didn't read the legal pack?

-Didn't read it well enough.

Why did you not get somebody to read it for you just to check that out?

-Did our solicitor look? No, probably not.

-No, no.

I think I was just too cheap, I didn't want to pay somebody to do it.

-I trusted Matt.

-You've let her down, Matt!

I came back from the auction, Donna had gone on to your website

and she said there was a list of the top ten things to do,

and she said, "You've done one of them!"

So only another nine on the list to consider, then.

But the pressure is still on to get as much done as soon as possible

because dust and renovation don't mix well with small children.

-So what's your budget for the work here?

-About £24,000.

-£24,000.

OK. And do you think you can cover all the work with £24,000?

Originally I thought, yes.

But as I started to look into it more and more,

then I can see the money eaten away.

So we might have to pull down some more loans from somewhere else.

But we're hoping we can stay in budget.

So what are you most looking forward to, Donna, as a mum, here?

What are you most looking forward to doing when you move in?

Just having space, that's the main thing for me.

It has been quite difficult where we're living.

Especially with the baby coming along.

That is the main thing for me, just to be able to get organised

and be a better mum than I'm being at the moment,

because it's just chaotic at the moment.

-I can't wait to see what it's like when it's finished.

-Neither can we!

Congratulations. Really nice to meet you today, well done. Thanks.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Matt and Donna have a deadline,

they have to move in in less than four weeks.

OK, so they could extend their contract with their landlord,

but that only gives them an extra month.

The pressure is most definitely on.

We'll see how they got on, later in the show.

Coming up in Stoke, I'll recap some Homes Under The Hammer golden rules.

It really pays to check it out.

In Essex, have Matt and Donna

left anything untouched in their four-bed house?

Other than the doorframes, everything has been replaced.

But first, in Greater Manchester, Feresh couldn't have done it alone.

My father has been a really great help.

He has project managed the whole job.

Back now to Ashton-under-Lyne

where Feresh was embarking on his first renovation

with the help of his father, Narendra.

It was Narendra who'd successfully bid £55,000 at auction

on Feresh's behalf for this two-bedroom end-terrace.

Narendra's an old hand at property auctions,

he bought his first one in 1982

but he hasn't lost any of his enthusiasm.

At the auction one of the worries is that he gets a bit overexcited.

That is always a bit of a problem.

-Especially when he's spending your money.

-Exactly, yes.

I don't think he's allowed to any auctions any more. Not on my behalf, anyway!

For a first project, Feresh got a property with lots to do.

The ground floor was in a dire state,

while upstairs was rather peculiar.

There was the start of some partitioning and the bathroom was less than convenient,

as it was accessed through the second bedroom.

Dad Narendra was overseeing the renovation,

which they reckoned would take three to four months to do.

Less than ten weeks later, we're back to see what they've achieved.

Outside, new windows have been fitted

and the guttering has been replaced.

But it's inside where bigger changes can be seen.

The kitchen was a real mess before.

All the units were kind of hanging off and needed a bit of re-tiling.

The plastering was required to be done again.

It needed a new oven and system, a new boiler, new floor, as well.

It's had a full make-over.

It certainly has, and what a difference.

How's it looking upstairs?

Well, there's a new, swanky bathroom in place and, guess what?

It has a separate access now!

A corridor has been created

by stealing space from the rear bedroom.

It makes much more sense

and the size of the bedroom hasn't been compromised too much.

Remember that odd partitioning in the front bedroom?

That's gone and just look at it now.

Was that the biggest job they had to deal with?

I think the biggest job was probably the plastering.

I said at the start, because I think it needed to be taken down from scratch.

I was so surprised when I came back after a week and a half to see progress had been made.

I think it was time-consuming, but it was all worthwhile.

Feresh runs his own marketing company across the Pennines in Leeds,

so could not spend much time on site.

So it was his dad Narendra

who took care of overseeing the project on his behalf.

It's been very exciting. It was frightening, initially,

when we started taking the plasterwork out.

I was thinking it's going to be a big job.

But, with the two people I had working,

they were very good workers and they helped me out a lot.

And, er, now that it's finished,

-I feel like doing it again!

-HE CHUCKLES

My father's been a great help.

He's project-managed the whole job.

When we first came, I was worried about the scale of the work required.

I'm really pleased with the work that's been done

and I've got a lot to thank my dad for! HE LAUGHS

Narendra has certainly gone the extra mile for his son,

but he's obviously happy to help Feresh with his first project.

I feel great.

I've put him up on the property ladder,

because, these days...

He's doing a good job in his own business,

but you never know what can happen in future.

So he's got one or two properties he can fall back on.

Yes. In these uncertain times it's always good to have a back-up plan.

Let's talk figures. How much dosh has been dished out?

The original budget was about 10-12,000.

Looking at the 12,000, but I think we spent about 13,400.

So around that region.

A little over budget, but was it money well spent?

Adding their spend to the purchase price of 55,000

makes a total outlay just short of 68,500.

Time to find out if they'll reap rewards.

So we asked two local estate agents for their views.

I'm really impressed with the property. They finished it very well

and it will appeal to a wide market.

The space on offer is good for the average terraced.

You've got two good-sized bedrooms.

You can get a double bedroom in both, that will widen your market.

Kitchen and bathroom are new, clean and tidy.

It's a very attractive property.

It's in a very good area, local to the Tameside Hospital

and you've got a number of primary schools around here, so, again,

young families or young professionals it will appeal to.

Feresh wants to rent this house out. What income could that earn?

I would say you could rent this easily, given the hospital nearby,

for a minimum of £485 per calendar month.

If we were going to rent this out,

I would expect to achieve around £495 per calendar month.

That's a healthy yield of around 8.5%.

And to kill our curiosity, what could it make on the resale market?

Remember, the total spend is nearly 68,500.

If I were to put this property on the market today,

I'd put it on the market at £80,000.

I would suggest the maximum you would realise at this current time

is £75,000.

That's a potential gross profit of between £6,500

and £11,500, minus the usual selling expenses.

So rental is definitely the better option here.

It's all gone well. So is Feresh planning to do another?

Will I do it again? If my dad helps me, yes! Without, no chance.

# Stoke my fire, baby

# Stoke it good and strong

# Pile it way up high

-# So I burn all night long.

-#

Stoke-on-Trent, or the Potteries.

There were once over 200 factories

producing ceramics which were exported around the world.

In recent times, that's dropped to just 30

and the urban decay is all around to be seen.

However, there are green shoots, regeneration projects,

all over the city, including here, the City Waterside development,

regenerating areas beside the canal with shops, restaurants and housing.

Maybe Stoke is getting all fired up once again.

Old factory sites like this one, apparently,

have been empty wasteland for years,

just waiting for this type of investment.

Now, with £177 million of investment,

the sun really is fighting through the clouds

and shining on this corner of Stoke at least.

Just down the road from the regeneration

is the property I'm here to see.

It's on this fairly pleasant street. It's almost a street of two halves.

On one side, you've got these Victorian houses,

on the other, there's more modern houses built in the '60s or '70s.

So depending on what kind of houses you like, new or old,

you'll either be excited or disappointed

that this is the property I'm here to see.

Three bedrooms and a guide price of 50,000 quid. Let's take a look.

So no period features, pointed gables or fancy brickwork.

This is a solid, square house, but it does look like a good family home.

And for a £50,000 guide price, who's to quibble?

Well, it's a bit of a dark entrance,

partly due to this, whatever it is on the wall.

What is that? Is that wallpaper?

Have you seen anything like that before? Very strange.

Anyway, whatever it is, it needs to come off.

A reasonably sized entrance.

Massive lounge. That is really nice. It's been knocked through at some point.

And then through to a half-decent-sized kitchen.

Looking at these tiles and some of these units,

I don't think this has been changed since the place was built.

Strangely enough, back in fashion.

But a very usable space and, yeah, a good, solid little house.

You could think about changing the layout,

maybe putting a dividing wall in the middle of the living room

to create a more formal sitting-room area at the front.

You could open up the kitchen into a dining room at the back,

but, of course, the layout of any house

depends on your personal requirements.

Upstairs, in this house that went to auction guided at 50,000,

there are two decent double bedrooms.

And a small single room at the front.

There's a separate loo and bathroom,

but you could knock that through into one.

But, as with downstairs,

it depends on what you really want out of the house.

The tour continues downstairs and fingers on your buzzers,

just what delight have I found for you at the back?

Well, back in the lounge, what's behind the blind?

Sounds like a catchphrase from some cheesy game show,

but in fact there is just a patio

and a fairly dishevelled-looking storage area-shed-garage thing.

What I'm more interested in

is the fact there is double glazing and central heating.

Well, or so you might think.

In fact, the whole house has not got central heating and double glazing.

You come to the other end of the lounge and a single-glazed unit

and no radiator.

If you were looking around this house quickly before the auction,

you might glance and say, "It's got double glazing, it's got central heating."

But you would be wrong, so it really pays to check it out.

# Just one look

# That's all it took Just one look. #

The house is only heated downstairs with radiators

that are run off the fire in the living room.

There are no radiators upstairs,

so you might be able to extend the pipe work upstairs

and add radiators there. But be prepared

that a new energy-efficient boiler

and hot water tank could be required.

We invited the local estate agent to have a look around the property.

And tell us what he thinks of the financial potential here.

First impressions of the house is that it's a very good size.

Three bedrooms would be a good selling point

and it's also rare to have space for a double garage

to the rear of the property.

It really needs basic refurbishment and modernisation.

Possible rewire, new central heating, new kitchen, new bathroom,

so it's pretty much nothing out of the ordinary.

The property went to auction guided at £50,000.

How much could it be worth after those improvements have been made,

and would it appeal to the rental market?

After modernisation, depending to what standard,

I certainly would feel it would be in excess of £100,000.

I would anticipate a rental value

in the region of £500 per calendar month.

So a good rental property in an area that's set to improve.

I think hold on to this one for the long-term,

put your faith in Stoke and you could do very well.

Let's see who agreed when it went under the hammer.

What shall we say for lot number one? 35. It's got to be that, surely.

35. Thank you. At £35,000, opening bid.

Looking for 40. 40,000 at the back of the room. At £40,000.

45 is it now? 45 it is.

At £45,000.

You want to go one, that's £46,000.

One to you, sir? 47.

48.

The first lot of the day proved very popular.

Bidding increased in single thousands

until well over the £50,000 guide price.

60? 60.

61. 62. 63.

64. 65.

66.

67.

68.

68. Bid's on the back row. £68,000.

69 anywhere else?

At £68,000. I'm sell...

Everybody's waving now. 69.

70, sir? 70. 71, sir?

No? 70,000.

Right on the back at £70,000. Are we all done now?

£70,000 for the first time.

£70,000 for the second time.

Third and final time, are we all done? £70,000.

Your lot, sir. Well done.

The final successful bid of £70,000 was made by Gary, a gas fitter.

He and his wife Christine live locally in Stoke

and this is the second property he's bought at auction.

He renovated the first one and sold it on.

I met up with him

back at his new purchase to hear about his plans for it.

-Gary, good to meet you.

-And you.

-Congratulations.

Tell me why you wanted to buy this house.

-It's an investment towards my pension.

-Right.

Why this one over any other?

Well, it's a regeneration area. I saw the property

and thought we'd have a go at doing it up.

Have you got any experience at this?

Yes, I've done one before, but that was sold on.

And the plan for this is what?

To let. We're going to let this one.

In terms of property renovation, any experience in that?

Yes, the previous house I had was fire damaged,

so that was re-plastered, rewired, new kitchen, everything, the works.

-You did that up and sold it on?

-Yes.

-That was eight years ago.

-Oh, gosh! Why the big gap in between?

We just had a rest. THEY LAUGH

-What do you do when you're not doing this?

-Er, gas fitter.

-Central heating.

-Oh.

-That's convenient, then.

-Plumbing.

It is for this house. HE LAUGHS

Yeah. What's going on there? It's like it's got a bit of central heating, but not much.

Yes, it's worked off the back boiler on the fire.

They've never had it put in upstairs.

-So it will all be replaced.

-You're the man for that, for sure.

-Yes.

What about the rest of the work? Who's going to do that?

Electrics, there will be somebody coming in to do that and the windows.

Everything else will be done by myself.

-Plastering and the main building works?

-Yes.

-In your spare time, evenings and weekends and stuff?

-Yes.

Evenings, weekends, so the wife won't be seeing much of me for a while.

THEY LAUGH

# I wanna go home right now

-# I wanna go home.

-#

Isn't that often the way with these projects?

Your home and social life tend to be put on hold.

Gary's budget is pretty low, just 6-6,500,

because he's taking on so much of the work himself.

So talk me through exactly what you're going to do

to the place to sort it out.

Er, new windows to the front, new central heating, new kitchen,

rewire and plastering where required.

What about downstairs, any other changes down here?

We may put French windows at the back to open it up onto the garden.

-Possibly a new garage at the back.

-And the timescale?

Approximately about three months and it will be on the rental market.

-Were you happy with what you paid?

-I did offer 63 before the auction.

Oh!

But it was declined, so we had to go to auction.

-You're still happy with what you paid?

-That was my limit.

If it had gone higher. I wouldn't have bought it.

I think Gary probably paid about the right price for this house.

£70,000 wasn't a massive bargain, but at least buying at auction

meant that, after 28 days, the property was his.

So none of the stress you can sometimes get

when the buying process drags on and on.

And what's next on the agenda for you?

-After this, probably a holiday.

-Holiday!

-Well, congratulations, nice to meet you.

-And you.

-Good luck.

Thank you very much.

Well, to be able to do a property up pretty much on your own,

that is certainly the way to keep your costs down.

I think Gary's got himself a good property here.

Find out how he gets on with the renovation

and how Stoke does on the regeneration later in the show.

We always hope our buyers have set themselves realistic budgets

and timescales.

There's only one way to find out if they did

and that's to catch up with them after they've done the work.

Back to Harold Wood, near Romford in Essex, where I met Matt, Donna

and their children Jack

and new baby Holly.

The couple paid 244,000 at auction

for this four-bedroom, semi-detached house that needed lashings of TLC.

Becoming a family of four meant they outgrew the house they were renting.

With their tenancy just about to end,

the pressure was on to complete the renovation here.

-Were they worried?

-I am.

He's a bit laid-back about everything.

-Well, I'm worried.

-Everything will work out in the end.

Of course it will!

I'm the baby of my family, so everything works out for me. I don't seem to worry.

The property had lain empty for over a year

and was definitely showing signs of neglect.

The kitchen needed replacing,

the ceilings needed to be repaired

and that's not to mention the state of the bathroom, electrics,

heating, flooring or decor.

A total overhaul was needed before they could move in.

Now, more than two years after I first met them,

Matt and Donna are finally ready to show us

how they transformed their first family home.

Well, the exterior has had a total facelift.

Let's go inside.

The wall between the kitchen and dining room has been moved

and the space opened out with a new fitted kitchen.

New French doors have replaced the old dining room window,

allowing access to the garden.

Walls and ceilings have been re-plastered

and decorated throughout.

Upstairs, a new bathroom has been fitted

and all four bedrooms have been be redecorated.

It looks like this has been a huge job.

Other than the door frames, every thing has been replaced.

We made a decision quite early on we would probably go over budget

and do it properly, rather than do a bodge job,

so everything is different.

When we bought the house, the house was basically a shell.

The ceilings were falling in, walls were falling in.

There was a lot of work to do.

Obviously, new walls, new ceilings have gone in there.

It's liveable, but it's taken a long time to get it to that condition.

It certainly has, but what a difference they've made here.

They must be enjoying their opened-up kitchen

that leads out onto the garden.

The kitchen we knocked through

because I wouldn't have been able to cook in that small kitchen.

We decided to knock through and it's nice for me

to be able to see the children when I'm cooking.

They're sitting there drawing, or whatever they're doing,

and it's a nice family space.

I think the biggest job was replacing the roofs on the bedrooms.

Initially, we thought it was a matter of relaying the asphalt.

But as they pulled it back, they could see the wood was rotten.

So the woodwork needed to be replaced,

that was probably the biggest job out of all of it.

Matt's an auditor for risk management company,

but used to earn a living as a competitive shot putter.

With so much to be done here, the big question is,

did it all prove too big a weight on his shoulders?

We sort of came to the realisation,

once we started looking at what was needed to be doing,

that we were in over our heads.

Fortunately, my brother, who was in the building trade,

stepped in and acted as co-ordinator and got all the workmen in.

I was pretty much reduced to getting cups of coffee and teas.

Phew! Thank goodness Matt realised he'd bitten off more than he could chew

and that his brother was able to step in and save the day.

But out in the garden, Matt could get his hands dirty.

The garden was a bit of a mess when we moved in.

Lots of trees and shrubs that were overgrown.

There was a rusty fence that was partitioning the garden off

and we got that all cleared out.

A guy came in with a mini-JCB

and managed to rip all the trees and the fence out for us.

This renovation grew into a much larger task than planned.

So what affect did that have on the original timescale?

We got the keys for this house in December.

We had to be out of our rented accommodation in January.

Obviously, it was going to take a bit more than four weeks

to get the house ready to live.

But we managed to get an extra month and a half from our landlord,

so from start to finish

it took about ten weeks to get the house ready to move in.

As the project became bigger than they'd expected,

did that impact on their original budget?

Our original budget was 24,000,

which we knew was probably unrealistic

once we saw the state of the building.

We probably ended up about 45, 50,000.

So the budget almost doubled, but, of course, this was never

going to be a short-term profit-making venture.

It was always intended as their family home.

Now they're settled in, what do they think of it?

It's brilliant as a family home. The kids love the garden.

They've got lots of toys, lots of space out there.

Obviously, they can play freely, because Matt's got his office now,

so they enjoy the house. They absolutely love their bedrooms

and I've done it up exactly how they like, so they love it.

Including the £244,000 purchase price, the couple have spent

somewhere between 289-294,000 on this property.

Have their improvements added value?

Let's find out what two local estate agents make of it.

It looks so much different.

They've done an awful lot really well, to be honest with you,

considering last time I came here, it was just a wreck.

You couldn't imagine it would end up looking like this.

The finish is fine. They kept it neutral, great,

that's what everybody loves, neutral finish.

It's got the ground-floor toilet

which is great, bearing in mind it will be a family that moves here

and it's great they've got the kitchen-diner.

The lounge, it's not massive.

I would have liked to have seen the lounge wider,

but there's not a lot they can do about that.

But, in general, it's great.

And I love the garden. The garden's great. Great location.

Yeah. A good property.

So, potentially, what sort of monthly rental

could a four-bed family home such as this earn?

Great rental property. Four bedrooms.

About £1400 per calendar month.

You'd be able to rent this out the 13-1500 per calendar month.

That's a reasonable yield of around 5% or 6%.

But two years after they purchased the house,

how have their changes affected its resale value?

Remember, they've spent between 289,000 and 294,000 here.

Looking at the market at the moment,

and other properties that have sold,

I would say that you would be looking for around £290,000.

If I were to put this property on the market,

I would recommend it goes on at £290,000.

I think we pretty much agreed it would be 290.

-Yes, we guessed 290.

-Or even lose a bit of money if we sell.

I think we pretty much break even,

but as it's a family home, we're not planning to sell, anyway.

I'm going to be here when I'm old and grey.

Well, I'm grey now! So, yeah, it's fine.

Yeah, happy with that, yeah.

So having potentially broken even on the project

and created a home in which to live for many years to come,

Matt and Donna have successfully achieved what they set out to do.

We went from a two up, two down.

Now we've got a four-bedroom house

and there's plenty of space for all of us.

The kids get to run around and do what kids need to do,

so we're all really happy.

It's a great family home for us.

Back now to Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent,

where self-employed gas fitter Gary

paid £70,000 at auction for this three-bedroom end-of-terrace house.

It was in need of some updating.

He had been aware of the property before the auction

and had already had an offer turned down.

-I did offer 63 before the auction.

-Oh!

But it was declined, so we had to go to auction.

-But you're still happy with what you paid?

-That was my limit.

-Right.

That was my cut-off point

and if it had gone higher, I wouldn't have bought it.

The property was partially double glazed around the back.

And it had partial central heating, too, just on the ground floor.

As for that kitchen, it was from another era.

Gary hoped to do most of the work himself in around three months,

fitting it around his full-time job.

But he was going to have to roll up his sleeves and get cracking,

because as there was so much to do,

he was going to be up to his eyes in it.

So not three, but just over four months later, how has he got on?

When we first moved in, it was very dark.

Blue carpets, panelling on the wall. When we removed the panelling,

the plaster came off, so we had to re-plaster that.

Fitted new central heating, rewire,

new windows, laminate floor

and, obviously, we've painted it white to brighten the room up, because it was very dark.

And now we're very pleased with the results.

Upstairs, the renovations continue,

although there are no structural changes.

The toilet and bathroom are still separate,

but the bathroom fittings are completely new.

In the bedrooms, the built-in wardrobes have been removed,

new double glazing installed at the front of the property

and new carpets and fresh decor provide the finishing touches.

A project of this scale is a large undertaking, even if, like Gary

you have the necessary skills to do the majority of the work yourself.

Of course, it does allow you to keep the budget down,

but fitting it around your day job is a challenge for anyone.

-# All work

-All work

-# And no play

-And no play

-# No pain

-No pain

# And no gain. #

I go out, do my work and then ended up coming here,

putting in whatever I hours I can.

Probably, four, five hours a day.

And then the last week, I've been here all the time.

HE LAUGHS

# Don't give up your day job

# Unless you're on TV. #

Gary had considered putting in French windows,

opening onto the back garden, but this is not happened.

The garden doesn't look as though it's changed much, either.

Even the double garage,

which was potentially to be replaced with a single, is still as it was.

So, what's the plan?

We're going to leave it for now.

It'll just be tidied up when we get some decent weather.

The fencing'll be finished this week.

After all that hard work,

what are his plans for the property now?

We're still going to rent.

Hopefully, tomorrow, somebody's moving in.

I've even had people trying to buy it.

Straight after the auction, I had someone approach me to buy it.

I wasn't tempted. It's going to be my pension fund, at the end of the day.

# You've got a beautiful future

# A beautiful future. #

The original cost of the work was estimated at between

6,000 and 6,500, with most of the work done by Gary himself.

Has he managed to keep within his budget?

We've gone well over.

Were up to about 11,000, just under.

Quite an overspend here, then,

but that was because there ended up being more plastering work

and Gary spent more than he expected on the kitchen and windows.

So the standard's higher, but has that been at the cost of his profit?

His budget, added to the purchase price of 70,000,

makes a total outlay of 81,000.

Let's find out whether he'll reap the rewards or pay the price

when it comes to that overspend.

The changes to the house are really positive.

It's got a really fresh, modern feel.

Neutral decor, it's ideal for the type of property.

First impressions of the property is that it's been done extremely nice.

It's been decorated to a very high standard

and they've made the maximum out of the property.

What would be the best choice to make here, sell or rent it out?

I think rental is the best route. I think it would sell easily,

but I think it's targeted at first-time buyers.

At the moment, it's still difficult for a first-time buyer to get a mortgage.

I think potentially letting or resale are viable options.

The market for letting a property like this is very strong at the moment.

But there is a demand to be able to sell this

and hopefully make a profit.

Gary's got tenants lined up, a family, in fact.

They're ready to move in straight away.

So what rent could he charge them?

I would imagine the likely rental income

would be around £450-£500 per calendar month.

The rental price I think you could get here

would be £475 per calendar month.

It's about right for the area.

I would've thought 500. 525 I was expecting.

In fact, Gary's getting £500 a month,

a yield of 7.5%, but let's check out those resale estimates.

Remember, he's spent nearly 81,000 here.

Resale, I would market this property in the region of £105,000.

Sales value, I'd say around £95,000.

Nice one, Gary.

What he spent seems to be reflected in those values,

which could give them a pre-tax profit of between

£14,000 and £24,000, minus the usual selling expense.

But, for now,

he's happy to rent this out as part of his pension plan.

Meanwhile, is he raring to go on the next one?

I've enjoyed doing it,

but it is very tiring, so I think we're due a little rest now.

Those stories have now been added to our Hammer archives.

But we'll have lots more for you next time on Homes Under The Hammer.

-See you then.

-BOTH: Goodbye.

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