Episode 70 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello. More and more people would love to have a property portfolio,

and that doesn't have to be as grand as it sounds.

No, if you can raise even a small sum,

you can usually find something to buy.

Then at least you've got your foot on the property ladder.

And one good way to start is to go down to the auctions.

Because of the variety of property available,

auctions are a great place to buy.

Yes, and if you've done your research

and got your finances in place beforehand,

then you should be able to make a success of your purchase.

So let's take a look at what interested our buyers

on today's programme.

'This 100-year-old Devon barn wasn't quite what I was hoping for.'

Maybe it will be better on the inside.

'In Catford, London, I always think it's worth repeating myself.'

I know, I'm always banging on about access out into the garden - voila!

'And in Kidby, Lincolnshire,

'some unwanted guests have wormed their way in.'

It's got to be treated,

because otherwise your whole house is going to turn to dust.

All of these properties went to auction -

we'll find out who bought them

and what they paid for them when they went under the hammer.

I'm in the picturesque village of Northlew

on the edge of Dartmoor, about seven miles outside Okehampton.

Let's just hope the property I'm here to see matches up...

to that place.

Wow!

# A little village, baby

# Ain't large enough to be a town. #

So far, we have all the classic elements

you'd expect to find in a quaint Devon village.

It also has amenities, like a post office, a school and a church.

Can it get any better?

Well, the property I am here to see is up this quiet lane,

right by the side of this little river. It's a barn for conversion,

it had the guide price of £39,000.

Oh, I'm getting so excited!

It's round here somewhere.

It...

Oh.

Maybe it will be better on the inside.

MUSIC: "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" by Green Day

Hmm, well, it's definitely not the thatched, chocolate-box beauty

I had in my mind's eye.

Oh, thank goodness for that.

I didn't know what I was going to find.

I would have been so disappointed.

But, thank goodness, you come through the door and suddenly,

wow, you see the potential of this place. Love it.

I love these beams going across there, and they feel pretty solid.

Keep those in any renovation you might do.

One big space is basically all you have got,

but what I love is the fact that you have got this huge great height,

and these beams in the roof, again, you can do so much with.

Yes, it is a bit of a shell,

but it's one that I think has massive potential.

Oh, thank goodness for that.

# If these old walls

# If these old walls could speak

# Of things that they remember well

# If these walls could speak... #

Refurbishing this 100-year-old barn won't be easy.

Outside, the rendering is falling off, and the windows are rotten.

But the potential here is so exciting...

..with the challenge of bringing all those original timbers

and walls back to life.

Well, the lower part of the building is made of stone,

but above that, it's what they call cob.

In case you don't know,

cob is basically whatever was lying around at the time,

a mixture of straw, and animal droppings, and stone,

and all sorts of stuff,

but in general, it's good stuff, as long as it's kept dry.

That's really important,

because once this stuff gets wet, it just crumbles away, and it's a nightmare.

Thankfully, the roof does look to be in reasonable condition,

so my guess is that the cob wall is OK.

The thing is, what do you do in terms of restoring this place?

Do you keep it? Well, I think you're going to have to.

You'd have to get specialists in to sort it out,

and they can also sort out the stonework, which,

as you can see, is literally held together by...

Well, I don't know, it's probably limestone something or other.

Again, it's all very loose. It needs a specialist.

It's not insurmountable, but, of course,

specialists are not going to be cheap,

and you need to factor that into your renovation costs.

You'd also need to factor in whatever it might cost

to get utilities to the house.

It currently has no electricity or plumbing.

There is no mains water or sewerage and no septic tank, so,

with a £39,000 guide price

and these basic but expensive works to do,

the meter is running, and sadly,

it's just the money meter in this case.

So you've probably worked out by now

that this is going to be a challenge.

But let me just throw up a few more complications into the mix.

For a start, this is your only outdoor space.

No garden, no nothing, only this small courtyard.

And worse than that, currently,

this does not have planning permission to be a residence.

Oh, dear.

So, then, Devon dream or Devon disaster?

We asked a local estate agent to come and give us his advice.

What would he suggest is the best plan for this 100-year-old barn

in this picturesque village?

The best plan would be to turn it into a two-bedroom character cottage,

with the additional outside space it has already,

with an outside seating area.

If you wanted to change the property to residential use,

you would have to submit a planning application to the local council.

But what if you were to succeed in getting planning permission,

is there a viable rental market?

What returns could a buy-to-let investor achieve?

As a rental two-bedroom character cottage, you would expect to achieve

a rent in the region of £600-£650 per calendar month.

What could the barn be worth after conversion?

If the property was converted into residential use,

a two-bedroom cottage, you'd be looking at a resale value

in the region of around £180,000-£190,000.

Oh, boy, this is one of those projects where it would be so easy

to let your heart rule your head.

This would make the most fantastic place to live -

the location is wonderful.

However, you are hampered by the lack of outdoor space,

and the amount of effort it's going to take to sort this place out,

oh, and by the way,

the fact it hasn't got planning permission to actually be a house.

Hurdles in the way. Who fancied vaulting over them

when it went to the auction?

OK, we move then to the barn at Okehampton. Lot 57,

I know there has been quite bit of interest in it. 30,000, then?

30,000 for the barn. 30,000?

30,000, I have. thank you, sir.

30,000.

35,000, thank you.

40,000?

36?

36,000. OK, I have 36,000.

37? 37, I have.

38? 38, I have.

39,000. 39,000.

40,000? 40,000.

41,000. 42,000.

42,000, the gentleman at the front there.

43? 43,000, I have.

44,000? Yes, 44,000.

Looking at 45, then?

45,000, I have. 45, so 46, then?

45,500, I have.

45,500? 45,500?

46? 46, I've got.

46,500? 46,500. 46,500.

47? 47,500? 47,500.

48? 48, I have.

OK, 48,500?

48,500. 49?

He looks away.

I'm going to be selling at £48,500.

Selling for the first time...

selling for the second time at £48,500...

'That successful bid of £48,500 was made by Tony,

'together with his wife Linda.

'They own a development company, and he is also an electrical contractor.

'I met up with Tony at the barn to discuss his plans.'

-Tony, congratulations.

-Thank you.

Well done. Tell me why you wanted to buy this place?

Well, we do small developments from time to time.

Over the last three years, we have restored a bungalow,

a flat and now this one.

My main business is electrical contracting.

-OK, and that is your business, is it?

-Yes.

So, of course, bungalows and the like

-are very different to a barn like this.

-Oh, yes.

Does that worry you at all?

No, not at all.

The main building work, we'll let that out to a contractor,

and then I will carry on with the electrical.

We've got a plumber lined up,

a planning consultant dealing with the planning,

and a firm of architects who will do the internal design.

The starting point for all that, of course,

is getting planning permission,

because it doesn't have planning permission, does it?

Well, we have already approached a planning consultant,

and the only thing he raised was the fact that we would probably have to have a flood survey.

What happens if you don't get planning permission?

Because you never know...

Well, we will convert it to, hopefully, a store/workshop/studio,

because there was a building next door that was demolished,

and there is planning which has been approved for a workshop/store/studio.

-Oh.

-So no doubt the same would apply to this one.

So where do you start on a project like this?

The three main elements are the roof, doors and windows,

and a sewerage plant, because there is no mains sewerage.

'This property is very tight for outside space,

'so where can that sewerage system go?

'Well, it turns out that Tony has a cunning plan.

'He's made a deal with the neighbour for a bit of their garden

'at a cost of £45,000.'

OK, which bit?

The piece... The width of this house, the width of the barn,

down to the River Lew, which is 34 metres by about nine metres across.

So it will actually have a river frontage?

Oh, river frontage, yes!

'So the barn cost Tony £48,500,

'and he has paid another £45,000 for the land.

'But I reckon it is the crucial piece of the jigsaw that makes this project practical.'

OK, let's come onto the actual building, then.

You didn't mention the walls, in terms of what you're going to have to do.

-We are going to timber-frame inside...

-Oh?

It will be like a timber-framed house.

And then internal layout, what are you going to go for?

Up in the air at the moment. My idea is an upside-down house,

with the bedrooms down the bottom, and the lounge and kitchen upstairs.

The architect has got the other way round, he wants to do it the other way.

So what are the bill costs?

We have estimated it between 50 and 60,000,

but I think we've gone over a little bit.

So what is the sort of timescale for all of this?

Well, planning, we allow two months.

And then I should think four months doing it up,

seeing as we're right in the middle of the winter.

-Congratulations. I hope it turns out well for you.

-Thank you very much. I think it will.

I really look forward to seeing how it is.

Well, clearly negotiating with the neighbour to buy

this bit of garden was Tony's masterstroke.

It makes all the difference on this project.

Still, he hasn't got that planning permission,

and you never know what might happen.

Well, you know what, you can find out later in the show.

This is Catford in south-east London, famous for, well,

that big, fibreglass cat for one,

and also the massive concrete shopping centre

which was built in the 1960s.

This brutalist style of architecture is just that -

big and unforgiving, and now very out of fashion.

Many similar buildings are being demolished,

and the sites regenerated,

and the council here certainly have plans to redevelop this area.

The question is, will our Catford property

be ready for the wrecking ball or really rather purr-fect?

Miaow!

Well, love or hate these buildings,

if the planned regeneration takes place,

property prices could be set to rise.

A mile from Catford train station, a mile from Hither Green,

and in the middle you find the property I'm here to see.

It's that great rarity in London -

a whole house with a guide price of under £200,000.

175 grand, in fact, and that is 110% worth a look.

The numbers certainly stack up from outside,

and the road the property is on also ticks some boxes.

It is wide, and lined with lovely terraced houses,

with a bit of a view - bonus.

Oh, a much bigger hallway than I was expecting.

I know I get a bit excited about hallways, but I really think

they set the scene, and start you off for a good house tour.

There's plenty of room here for a console table,

a nice big mirror, loads of light coming in as well, which I like.

You've got a lounge, it's nice and spacious.

A bit of a wasted space through here with this rather odd little room.

I think that might have housed the downstairs loo, but it's a bit big.

I definitely would be thinking about taking this wall down,

speaking to a structural engineer to see if you need an RSJ,

and really opening the space up.

It could be a wonderful kitchen-diner.

The kitchen currently is through here,

but you could, of course, bring it in here,

use that as a utility room, but I think it works as it is.

I know I am always banging on about access out to the garden - voila!

Lovely double doors leading out to that garden.

With a bit of careful thought, this could really work.

A positive attitude will definitely be needed to tackle some of these jobs.

Neither the front room, nor the back dining room are too bad,

but the kitchen has definitely wiped the smile from my face.

And there is something missing. Oh, dear.

Let's see if you can spot what it is.

Decent roof - check.

Double glazing - check.

Large Catford-sized garden - check.

Have you clocked it yet? No? OK, let's have a look upstairs.

Three decent bedrooms - check.

And a bathroom - check.

I must say, I am loving this layout.

Three good-sized bedrooms

and a decent family bathroom through there.

Not massive and it all needs refurbishing, but the point is,

it works, which is wonderful. So back to what we're lacking here.

Have you worked it out yet?

It is surprisingly easy to miss

but there are no radiators at all in this house.

In fact, I've been told there is no plumbing left in the house anywhere.

The piping has just gone - vamoose.

The sink looks like it's been fitted, but it hasn't been,

the toilet through there, well,

I wouldn't advise anybody to use it at the moment.

It's all a bit bizarre, but, more importantly,

you need to check if there's been any leaks anywhere, in case

the pipes weren't properly drained

and water is still running through, causing all sorts of damage here.

Very bizarre.

In fact, if you look closely,

the loo isn't even connected to the soil pipe.

None of the facilities are actually connected.

My positive attitude is draining away.

As all the radiators and pipe work have been removed,

this is beginning to look like a big job, and an expensive one.

We asked a local estate agent along

to see if we were plumbing the depths

with this property, that went to auction guided at 175,000.

First impressions as I walked in - needs a bit of work.

Could do with a new kitchen, new bathroom, re-plastering, etc, etc.

Needs lots of attention but could look very nice once done.

Once all the pipes are out back and the place is made habitable,

how much could it be let for?

Once the property has been refurbished to a good standard,

it would rent for around £1,300 per calendar month.

And a possible resale figure?

Once the work is carried out, around £250,000.

A good family home and it's a plumber's dream project.

This house is good value for money in a London suburb often forgotten.

Let's see who remembered it at the auction.

This is lot 107.

Three bed mid-terraced house in Catford.

Requiring modernisation, it's a vacant possession.

Who'd like to give me a start on this?

Somebody want to give me a start at 180?

Yes, got you, thank you, 180 I've got.

180 on my left. 181, 182, 183, 184,

185, 186, 187...

With two bidders keen on the property,

we rejoin the auction at £205,000.

205? 205.

206, 207...

207, 208, 209...

210, 211...

212.

212, 213. Yeah? 213. 214? No?

With you, sir. The bid is £213,000. Anybody else?

New bid. 214, 215.

No? With you, sir, first bid, £214,000.

It's against the gentleman on my left at the back.

The bid is at £214,000.

Anybody else?

If not, 214 for the first, 214 for the second,

214 for the third and final time.

All done? Sold. 214. Well bought.

The daring bidder who made that cheeky but successful single bid was Lloyd.

He secured the property for 214,000 -

39 grand over the guide price.

With the help of his builder brother-in-law Ray,

he's intending to refurbish it

whilst on a break from his career in banking.

The house is an investment for Lloyd's wife.

I joined Lloyd and Ray back at the three-bedroomed house

to find out more.

Guys, congratulations.

Ray, you weren't at the auction but you were there, Lloyd, bidding.

Tell me, why have you bought this place?

I bought this place primarily probably to live in for a short while,

maybe a year or two.

My wife has just had a baby so we're planning, at some point,

moving out to the shires, moving out to Kent.

So then we would rent this out.

In terms of the work I'd be doing on it, it would be, not top spec,

but good enough to live in and then to rent out following that.

Did Ray come and have a look at this property

prior to you bidding at auction?

No, I did a property before and Ray actually helped me.

I did talk to Ray about it, but he helped me with advice

and came up from Brighton and helped me on the last property that I did.

The intention is that he'll do the same here

because he's got a lot of good knowledge that I don't have.

I did come and see this, having watched Homes Under The Hammer

-before, I did read the legal pack and view the property.

-Big tick.

But I didn't notice that all the pipe work under the floors

had been ripped out.

There is... In one sense, that's a bad thing, in another,

it's a blank canvas because it will need plumbing throughout,

new boiler plumbing throughout, new wiring throughout,

some plastering and then flooring, cosmetic.

Obviously, you must have noticed there weren't any radiators.

-Yes, but...

-That is obviously linked.

The other thing, which you may have noticed, in the upstairs bathroom -

I think the bathroom was downstairs - when you look at the soil stack,

there's just wall behind there and the pipe has been made

-to look like it was a bathroom...

-And it's not!

-And it is not there.

Well, a word of caution here.

Remember, any property bought at auction is sold as seen and although

Lloyd did look around beforehand, I'd always recommend

that if you're not that knowledgeable yourself,

you bring along a friend who is.

Had you brought Ray, he might have noticed things like that. Do you think you would have noticed,

or would have checked for things like copper pipes?

Yes, I would have noticed all that, definitely.

Now you've seen it, what do you think the issues are?

Is there anything structurally worrying with this property?

Not really. A few of the floors are a little dipped here and there.

The brickwork and roof is sound. Obviously, it's got issues

but there's nothing that can't be done and put right, really.

What are you going to do to improve this? Let's start with downstairs.

You've got that lovely big hallway which, to me, is very welcoming.

What about in here?

Longer term, we could actually build out backwards

and that would create a lot more space, but structurally, leave it

as it is for the time being, possibly take out the chimney breast upstairs

and downstairs to make more room, especially in the upstairs bedrooms.

The first thing I would do is take that wall down.

Forget the chimney breast -

that's where you're going to get your space.

I will bear that in mind, Lucy,

and speak to my building advisor here who can, I'm sure, help me.

-Ray, what do you think of that idea?

-Exactly my sentiments as well.

I've already told him that.

I think we're going to have to gang up on you. Ray and I...

-I'm outnumbered here, Lucy.

-Ray and I are in the same camp.

Yes, you are. I don't think I've got much option.

I don't want to be pushy, but the former loo is just a waste of space.

Lloyd's wife has funded the project.

Lloyd will project manage and his brother-in-law Ray

will be lending a hand. How long does he envisage the work taking?

Probably two and a half to three months.

I've already had a few early quotes.

Ray, will be helping out but I will be getting some trades in -

electrician, plumber - and we've already started on the quote process.

Coming from a financial background,

Lloyd has included everything in his costings.

He's set a budget of 25 to 30,000 to get the house

ready for his growing family to move into.

My wife has just had a baby just two weeks ago.

We were in the birthing centre there

and we happened to have the television on as she was in the birthing pool,

and I glanced up, baby Jack was just being born

and the credits were rolling for Homes Under The Hammer.

You have brought a tear to my eye.

So maybe, Lucy, I should have called him Martin. I don't know.

Baby Martin.

Don't do that.

I can't wait to see

if Lloyd manages to deliver all he's planned here.

Lloyd has got a good little house here.

Not so little, in fact,

but there is work to do and, most importantly,

will he bow to pressure and open up the second reception room

into the old loo?

You can find out if he does later in the show.

Coming up in Keadby, Lincolnshire, it's time for some detective work.

That needs investigating and so does whatever is going on with the floor.

We return to Devon where there has been a bit of a barney.

On the conservation side, we weren't allowed to have tiles

on the roof, we had to have slate.

And we are going back to Catford

where Santa might find this house a challenge.

We've taken out both chimney breasts upstairs.

Time now to return to the picturesque village of Northlew

in Devon, about seven miles from Okehampton.

Earlier in the programme, Tony, an electrical engineer,

paid £48,500 for this dilapidated barn.

He hoped to get planning permission to convert it into a luxury house.

Tony and his wife Linda live around 50 miles away in Totnes

and had a professional team standing by to do the work.

The main building work, we will let that out to a contractor

and then I'll carry on with the electrical.

We've got a plumber lined up,

a planning consultant dealing with the planning

and a firm of architects who will do the internal design.

Apart from all the structural issues to deal with,

the barn had very little outside space,

so Tony planned to do a private deal to buy some land

from the neighbouring cottage which would give the new house

access from the road and a garden down to the river.

It sounded lovely.

Well, it's been nearly two years since we first visited

what was virtually a shell, so how does it look now?

Whoa, what a transformation.

Just look what has been achieved inside.

Tony successfully purchased the land from his neighbour,

giving the new house its own entrance.

But the planners refused Tony's application for an extension,

so he's had to work within the footprint of the original barn.

At the rear of the house,

this beautiful living room looks stunning.

The walls, ceiling and staircase all look great.

Apart from the planning delays, the Environment Agency had concerns

about the local River Lew flooding.

Tony had the added cost of employing engineers to predict the flood risk.

But although their report said it seemed unlikely,

the planners insisted the ground floor had to be raised.

You can clearly see this at the living room end,

where this window has had to replace the original door.

With all that added expense, I'm surprised Tony didn't hit the roof.

We started off by reducing the floor level

and taking out all the mud, putting in a new concrete floor,

and then increasing the floor level by another half a metre

up to the floor level you see now.

This was purely done to eliminate the flood risk.

Upstairs, the level of craftsmanship

and materials used is just as impressive.

There are two bedrooms and this well-equipped bathroom.

Tony has kept as many of the original timbers as possible.

The planning office was very strict about the materials

and the look of the property.

On the conservation side,

we weren't allowed to have tiles on the roof, we had to have slate.

We were governed with the type of paint

and the colours that we could use outside

and we weren't allowed to have our extension.

I'm impressed that, against all those constraints,

Tony still managed to make a wonderful house here.

Buying the land from the neighbour was a great thing to do.

As you can see, a lot of work has been done

on the exterior of the property -

re-plastering, redecorating,

new doors and windows made from reclaimed pitch pine.

These were made by a local joinery works.

Tony spotted an ad for a local timber yard that was closing.

It had a large tree trunk that he had cut into planks for the floor,

which complements the restored, original timbers very well.

How much has the conversion cost? Did he stick to his budget?

I think I said something between 50 and 60,000.

We more or less kept to it.

The only thing that pushed it over, say, a couple of thousand,

would have been the additional cost from the planning consultants.

All in all, Tony spent around 62,000, which,

added to the £45,000 for the garden,

plus the £48,500 he paid at auction

takes his total investment to £155,500.

What has been his role here?

Obviously, the electrical installation

and general building, labouring and a bit of plasterboard fixing.

I did the carpentry in the bathroom.

We've invited two local estate agents

to come and give us their opinions

of this lovely barn conversion.

The finish is spectacular. I love the character of the beams.

Beautiful decor inside, very spacious as well.

Downstairs, open-plan layout.

I love the property. It's obviously been done to quite a good standard.

Slight downside, it is a bit on the small side

but it's going to work perfectly from a second home point of view.

Exterior, I wouldn't have chosen green,

I would've painted the outside a more neutral colour of cream

and maybe kept the stone brickwork as an original feature.

How much could this house be worth on the local sales market?

More than the £155,500 Tony has invested in it?

In the current market,

it is my opinion we should achieve somewhere in the region of £170,000.

In the current sales market,

we'd be happy to achieve in the region of 170 and £175,000.

Those valuations would give Tony a gross profit,

before the usual selling expenses and taxes,

of between £14,500 and £19,500.

Yes, a little bit on the low side.

We'd hoped for a little bit more than that.

We'll try and sell it to start with.

If that's not a success, we will let it in the short term.

How much rental income

can the estate agents see the house producing?

In the rental market, this property would achieve

between £625 and £650 per calendar month.

I'd expect to achieve £600 per calendar month.

That is a potential yield of 4 to 5%

if he decides to put the house on the rental market.

But, after two years on this project,

52 miles from his own home, what is next for Tony?

Well, immediate plans, go back to doing my electrical contracting work

and just keep an eye out at the auctions, see what's coming along.

I'm in the Lincolnshire village of Keadby,

three miles from Scunthorpe.

I'm here to see a three-bedroomed semi-detached

which had a guide price of £55,000.

This is it, apparently built in the 1950s

to house workers from nearby Keadby power station.

So will the property have the capacity for transformation,

or will its current condition leave the new owners lighter?

Let's conduct our investigations.

# We're going to rock down to Electric Avenue... #

The exterior of the house looks pretty good.

The garden, not so much.

Will it be a light bulb moment as I come through the front door?

Well, yes, not too bad. A nice big entrance hall here.

I really like that in a property, somewhere to hang your coats,

leave your shoes, kids' bikes, that kind of stuff.

Stairs up to the bedrooms and through into the front room.

Looks like the radiator is fairly new, which is good news.

As a space, not bad.

You have this bay window. But, having said all that good stuff,

some very nasty cracks and clearly lots and lots of damp going on here.

Seems like it's coming down.

That needs investigating and so does whatever's going on with the floor.

But I'll have a look round the house first and come back to that.

So damp in the walls

and the chimney breast, by the look of things. Not a good start.

So rear reception room there and then through to the kitchen.

This is a bit of a downside to this property, as far as I'm concerned,

because it seems really small. But I think there's a simple solution.

Take out this wall, put some sort of supporting beam across the top

to create a lovely kitchen/family living area.

That would totally transform the downstairs.

Let's take a look upstairs.

Off the kitchen, the former pantry could provide more valuable space,

plus there's an outside loo and coal store.

Meanwhile, upstairs, there are three bedrooms.

Two are doubles and one is a single.

The bathroom is on the compact and bijou side

for a three-bed house, but if you could relocate the hot water tank,

you might be able to move things around a bit.

So, space-wise, not a bad property.

Back down here in the lounge,

and that problem with the floorboards I mentioned earlier.

It looks to me like we might have a problem

with...woodworm.

Now, "woodworm" is actually an all-encompassing term

for several types of wood-boring beetle,

the most common being the common furniture beetle.

You can see the damage it is doing to the wood here.

This powder is a clear indication

that there's work being carried out by the little blighters as we speak.

There might even be some proof of it over here

because they try to escape towards the light, and...

Yeah. Look on the window ledge here.

We've actually got... In fact, we have little beetles here.

One of them here looks like he is still alive. OK.

It is not difficult to treat.

It's a simple pesticide that has to be sprayed down.

You can do it yourself or you can get a proper firm in to do it,

but, either way, it has to be treated

because otherwise, your whole house will turn to dust.

Get the professionals in and it could cost you about £1,000

to get the house sprayed from top to bottom.

But this is a problem you really can't ignore.

The property went to auction with a guide price of £55,000.

We asked a local estate agent to look around

and give us his thoughts.

I think the house requires a scheme of modernisation,

probably a new kitchen and new bathroom as well,

which would hopefully spruce it up

and make a nice, modern, family property.

Once it was done up, how could it fare on the rental market?

We would expect to rent the property quite quickly

and we would anticipate achieving a rental in the region of £450 per calendar month.

What about the resale market?

At the moment, judging on the current climate,

if the property was refurbished to a good standard,

we would expect to achieve in the region of £80,000.

Well, a few issues to resolve on this one -

the damp problem and those little beetles.

Apart from that, it's a good house

and I think it would make an excellent rental opportunity.

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

Lot number eight.

A semi-detached three-bedroom property in need of refurbishment,

brought to the market with a guide price of £55,000.

Who will start me at 40,000 for this one?

£40,000, I have. At 40,000. At 40,000.

41, 41, 41, 42...

There was lots of interest in this at the auction

and we rejoin the bidding at £54,000.

At £54,000, 55, fresh place. You are both out at the back of the room.

At £55,000, at £55,000.

56, on the telephone.

57, 57, at 57,000, at 57,000,

58, 59,

at 59,000, at 59, 60, 61.

Against you on the telephone. 62, 62, 63.

At 63, at £63,000.

Are you done?

At £63,000, seated in the front here, at £63,000.

Once, £63,000 twice,

third, and the last time of asking, are we all done?

Away it goes at £63,000.

Thank you, sir, your number.

'That successful bid of 63,000 was made by Rob,

'who attended the auction with his wife Steph.

'Rob is a joiner and Steph is a care assistant at a local hospital.

'I met them back at the house to find out their plans.'

-Steph, Rob, lovely to meet you both.

-Thank you.

-Congratulations.

Tell me why you wanted to buy this place.

We wanted somewhere to rent out and just to do it up.

Right, is it something you've done before?

We've done both our daughters' houses.

They both bought a house and we've both... And they helped as well.

-We've done quite a bit in there.

-Why this particular house, then?

-I've worked in it about 30 years ago.

-You worked in it? Doing what?

-A bit of joinery work, the old wooden windows.

-How funny.

At what point did you realise you remembered the house?

When I saw it was for sale.

It came back to me then that I'd done a few bits of jobs and pieces.

I thought I may as well go for it.

-What was it you liked about it, Steph?

-I hadn't actually seen it.

-You hadn't seen it?

-No.

-Until when?

-Until a week ago.

-After you'd bought it?

-Yes.

-Wow.

How come you hadn't seen it?

I didn't want it.

I didn't want to do it at first.

So what changed your mind?

When did you switch from being fairly negative

to being quite positive?

Once I'd seen it and it doesn't need that much doing to it.

-Right.

-Our second daughter's that we did was a right mess

and it was a lot of work.

-Yeah. We had to take all the walls down, didn't we?

-Yes.

-All the walls?

You walked through the front door, you could see the tiles on the roof.

Right. It's no wonder that you were slightly put off by that!

That sounds like a major job.

Fingers crossed for Steph's sake that this doesn't become

a much bigger job than it looks.

Rob's joinery skills and help from his son,

who is an electrician, should get them off to a good start.

So moving forward from this point,

tell me exactly what you're going to do to sort it out.

Try and make a bit more room in the kitchen if we can.

-Could even end up knocking this wall through.

-Make it into a long...

You've got a thing about houses with no walls, haven't you?

Rob's penchant for removing walls might make Steph nervous,

but what else has he got planned?

-Definitely new kitchen, new bathroom.

-New bathroom.

The tank is in the bathroom. There is no room at the moment

so that will either go in the loft or somewhere else.

Just generally tidy up and modernise it.

You've obviously got beetles, woodworm.

I knew it was in the front room,

so I assumed it would be all over downstairs.

I couldn't see any signs of it upstairs when I had a look,

so it's not a big job taking the floor out and replacing it.

-Well, not when you're a joiner.

-No.

What's the costs of the work, to do it up?

Rough estimate, between 6,000 and 7,000, I think, at tops.

'With his purchase price of 63,000,

'that would take his total spend to 70,000,

'meaning a possible profit of £10,000

'based on the estate agents' valuation,

'before taxes and expenses.

'Rob's giving himself six months to do the work,

'fitting it around his day job.

'He seems quietly confident about this one.

'As long as the woodworm isn't throughout the whole house,

'and that damp in the living room checks out OK,

'I think that turning this property around

'might be straightforward enough.

'Rob just has to make sure,

'and keep Steph on side.'

And then what about plans for the future? Any more?

Oh, wait and see.

Well, listen, congratulations, good luck with it,

-and we look forward to seeing how you get on.

-Thank you very much.

Well, it seems like Rob is going to be under quite a lot of pressure

with this one, having bought it without Steph's approval.

He's got to make sure he doesn't end up taking all the walls out

and creating the same kind of chaos as he did last time.

Will they still be on talking terms when we return?

You can find out later in the show.

The big question is, have our buyers made money from their investments?

Have their efforts at improving them paid off?

Well, time has passed, it's the moment of truth.

Let's go back and find out.

'Back now to Catford in south London,

'where Lloyd bought this three-bed mid-terrace as an investment

'on behalf of his wife.

'While on a break from his banking career,

'Lloyd enlisted the help of his builder brother-in-law, Ray,

'to turn it into a short-term home for himself, his wife,

'and their new baby,

'but with the view of letting in the long term.

'But he'd missed something vital when viewing the property

'that made the colour drain from his cheeks.'

I didn't notice all the pipe work under the floors had been ripped out.

The other thing,

which you may have noticed, up in the upstairs bathroom -

I think the bathroom was downstairs -

when you look at the soil stack, there's just wall behind there,

and the pipe has been made to look like it was a bathroom...

-And it's not!

-And it's not there.

'So the house was a bigger challenge than Lloyd had initially thought.

'He planned to remove the chimney breasts upstairs and down,

'but Ray and I could see a much simpler solution

'to making some extra space.'

The first thing I'd do is take that wall down.

Forget the chimney breast - that's where you'll get your space.

Exactly my sentiments as well. I've already told him that.

Well, I think we'll have to gang up on you.

I think I'm outnumbered here!

Because Ray and I are in the same camp.

Yes, you are, and I think I've not got much option.

Well, no-one could accuse me of being subtle,

but did he listen to us in the end?

Over four months have passed,

and we meet Lloyd again, back at the house...

where the replacement windows and doors

give a much better first impression.

In the front living room...

Yes! The chimney breast has disappeared...

..and the rotten floors have been replaced.

From the hall, you can see the door to the former toilet

has been bricked up...

..and, just as Ray and I had hoped,

the wall in the dining room has been removed.

Just look at what a difference that extra space has made!

That small, damp, original kitchen has been extended

into this fabulous kitchen/diner...

..and the opening to the former kitchen has been removed.

It's been win-win here.

Lloyd's lost the chimney, and Ray and I lost the wall,

and, luckily, Lloyd's delighted with the result.

Obviously, the now-famous wall, stud wall,

came down to open this area out, to give a much bigger area,

maybe a seating area, or what have you.

And then over here, by the sink,

there used to be a step down into the kitchen.

That's been opened up and raised as well, so it's all on one level,

so you have this big, open-plan, sort of L-shaped kitchen/diner,

which I'm really pleased with.

This house, that Lloyd's wife Louisa paid £214,000 for,

really needed a total refit.

The three bedrooms now have new windows and radiators

and a boiler's been installed up in the loft.

That phantom bathroom now has new appliances,

and has been connected to the waste and water pipes.

It wasn't just downstairs that got some more floor space...

Upstairs, if you remember, we had a doorway going through here,

and it was a kind of redundant space which then led into this bedroom.

And then, obviously, on this wall, you had the chimney breast.

So we've taken out both chimney breasts upstairs as well,

and used this space, moved the doorway,

and then used the space that we've got here,

so there's a cupboard/wardrobe on both sides, just for storage.

Outside, the garden's taken a lot of work,

but the new fencing and grass

adds to an already impressive appearance here.

Lloyd's done a lot of the work himself,

so how big a part did Ray play?

Ray came up and helped me on a few things

where it needed specialist building knowledge,

but he's guided me throughout. I've been on the phone to him a lot.

And I've had my dad here working with me every day,

pretty much for the last four months.

So I've project managed it and had trades coming in and out...

Lloyd, his wife Louisa, and baby Jack, who's now four months old,

have now decided not to move in to make it their family home.

They'll let the house instead.

Lloyd's been involved with a lot of the refurbishment,

and helped the builders install a steel beam up in the loft,

in preparation for a loft conversion sometime in the future.

So did he encounter any nasty surprises?

There were, as you always get, some unexpected problems.

The floor in the room we're standing in now, the lounge,

the joists were all rotten, there was a bit of wet and dry rot,

so I had to take all of that up and redo the floors,

put in new joists and flooring.

That's all extra money.

So with a damp course injection at the front and back,

plus the replacement windows and doors costing five and a half grand,

how has Lloyd's £25,000-£30,000 budget fared?

Probably at about sort of 28, 29 now.

And I've included everything in that -

interest payments, the works.

That 29 grand budget takes the total investment here to 243,000.

Time to get some expert property advice from two local estate agents.

What do they think of the finish Lloyd's achieved here?

Really good, actually. Done it up to a high standard.

Bathroom and kitchen are fantastic, and I really like the garden.

What a fantastic transformation!

He's done a really good job, from start to stop.

You can see he's put really good attention to detail.

The thing that really stands out in this house is the kitchen/diner.

I think that will really appeal to both sales and lettings.

So, will the house be worth more

than the £250,000 stamp duty threshold?

Remember, they have £243,000 invested here.

Worst case is obviously 250, because of that stamp duty.

Best case scenario, we've just sold one at £270,000.

We'd sell the property at £250,000.

If this were sold for 270,000,

it would generate a gross profit of £27,000.

Even at 250,000, there's a seven grand gross profit.

I knew that there is that sort of stickiness around the 250 threshold,

but it's irrelevant, really,

because we're not selling, we're going to rent.

Lloyd's wife Louisa has let the house to an old friend

for £1,250 per calendar month - a yield of over 6%.

So now his career break from banking is coming to an end,

is Lloyd happy with the result? Has it been worthwhile?

It has. It's been incredibly rewarding personally,

and I would definitely do it again.

Probably, you know, back in a job,

and then managing it more from the sidelines,

but I've certainly got the bug for property,

and once you've got the bug, I think you never stop wanting to do it,

so there will definitely be more in the future years.

'Back now to the Lincolnshire town of Keadby,

'about three miles from Scunthorpe.

'This 1950s three-bed semi

'was originally built to house workers from Keadby power station.

'Local joiner Rob and his wife Steph, a care assistant at a local hospital,

'paid £63,000 for the house.

'Rob planned to refurbish it as a bit of a hobby at weekends

'and then rent it out.

'They both had a little DIY experience...'

We've done both our daughters' houses.

They both bought a house and we've both... And they helped as well.

-Right.

-And we've done quite a bit in there.

-We had to take all the walls down, didn't we?

-Yeah.

-All the walls?

You walked through the front door, you could see titles on the roof.

'This house had damp and woodworm that would need attention.

'But, hopefully, the roof could stay in place.'

Tell me, exactly, what you're going to do to sort it out.

We'll try to make a bit more room in the kitchen, if we can.

I don't know exactly how yet, unless we bring a bit of that wall down.

We could even end up knocking this wall through.

Making it into, like, a long...

-You got a thing for houses with no walls, haven't you?

-THEY LAUGH

'Well, it's now 15 months later,

'so the work hasn't exactly powered forward.

'But I reckon the new fencing, driveway and gravel

'has improved its kerb appeal.

'Inside, Rob has removed the wall between the two reception rooms,

'and it's a great improvement.

'At the back of the house, the small kitchen has been extended.

'Rob's removed the wall to the pantry

'and knocked through to the former loo and coal store,

'bricking up the outside doors and adding a new window.

'But, as Rob explains,

'the front room had some major problems that needed solving.'

We had the big damp patch on the wall,

but it was from a few years ago, it was from the lead flashing,

which had already been repaired, so it was just a stain, really.

It's been re-plastered over and covered up.

The biggest problem was the woodworm in the floor.

Once we'd stripped everything out, we sprayed for dry rot and woodworm.

We did it ourselves to keep the costs down.

Then, being a joiner, I replaced all the floors myself.

'The cause of the damp in the chimney breast

'was tracked down to damage around the flashing on the roof.

'Once that was replaced, the house has started to dry out.

'Upstairs, Rob left the chimney breasts in the two double bedrooms.

'All three bedrooms have been decorated in neutral colours.

'For once, Steph was happy to take out some wall,

'even if it was just a little bit.'

It did have a window here,

so we thought it would be best to put patio doors in

so that you can just walk straight out onto your garden.

'It took three skips to clear all the clutter from the garden.

'The new pathways and fencing look great.

'There's still some cosmetic work to do, but the structure's there,

'and there was even more rubbish produced up in the bathroom.'

In the bathroom, there's an old tank in the corner,

so we stripped that out, went right back to the brickwork.

We finished off with some nice tiles and flooring,

and I'm happy with the finish.

'Rob originally thought it would take about six months

'to refurbish the house,

'as they'd be doing it at weekends and at night.

'But it ended up taking 14 months.

'They employed a plasterer to skim the walls,

'and a bricklayer for a couple of days,

'but apart from that, who else helped?'

We've had our daughters in...

-Our daughters have both helped, grandson...

-Granddaughter.

My son is an electrician, so it kept costs down.

'It's Rob's son who is responsible

'for the numerous power sockets throughout the house,

'and there are TV connections in every bedroom.'

# Television, new religion

# Let everyone sing hallelujah... #

'What about Steph? Has she been lending a hand?'

Well, I usually get all the horrible jobs,

like the sanding down and the washing down,

but I did pick all the furnishings.

Yeah, she made a good job with the choices.

'How much has it all cost?'

Sticking to the budget didn't go very well.

I think I said 6,000 or 7,000, and we're about 11,500.

By the time we've finished it, we'll be nearly 12,000.

'Added to the £63,000 they paid at the auction,

'that takes the total investment here to £75,000.

'They're undecided whether to let the house or sell it.

'So maybe two local estate agents' opinions and valuations

'will help them decide.'

The property has been finished to an excellent standard by the owners -

kitchens, bathrooms, all to a high spec -

and would suit tenants or first-time buyers,

and would make an ideal home for either.

I feel the developers have a good eye for detail.

The amount of additional sockets that they've put in all the bedrooms

and the fact that they've put a TV aerial socket in each bedroom

obviously will be appealing to all ages and all families.

'How much of rental income could the place generate?'

If we were putting the property on the market to rent,

I would advertise the property at £475 per calendar month.

I would estimate we could ask a rental value

of £485 per calendar month.

'That's a rental yield of over 7.5%,

'even at the lower valuation of £475 per calendar month.'

It's a bit better than I thought.

I was thinking about 450, so I'm happy with that.

'Will the sell-on valuations be more than the £75,000

'the couple have invested here?'

The property has been completed to a very high standard.

Because of that, I feel the property can go on the market up to £100,000.

Within this area, there is a ceiling of what we can realistically ask

for a property of this type,

and my valuation of it would be around £100,000.

'So a potential £25,000 gross profit before selling expenses.

'How does that sound, guys?'

-Well happy.

-Wow!

I was expecting about 90.

Yeah, there's a little bit of profit there.

'Always nice! So might Rob now consider selling?'

If we could sell it quickly,

if somebody could come up and make an offer and get rid of it quickly,

I think I might be tempted then,

but it could be, with the market the way it is,

it could be renting it.

'After 14 months' work, what's next for the couple?

'Would they take on another property refurbishment?'

Maybe at a later date, but the next year is going to be fishing.

I've got a lot of catching up to do!

And have a good holiday and rest.

We hope you've enjoyed the programme

and got some inspiration from our buyers and learned something useful.

Yes, and we'll be back next time

with more property auction stories for you.

-See you then.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd