Episode 40 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello. You never know what you'll find in a property auction catalogue.

It could be a tiny terrace, a super semi or a monster of a mansion.

You'll find them all when you go to the auctions.

Visiting a property before you buy it is an absolute must.

It is the only way of really knowing what you are getting.

It's advisable to get a survey done because you never know what old plaster is hiding.

So what have we got for you today?

In Derby, double doors make me definitely undecided.

Two ways in?

Take your pick, really.

In Dartford, Kent, this lean-to is certainly a room without a view.

Get rid of this. It's just a pane of glass, then the neighbour's wall.

And a case of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" in County Durham.

Which all leads to the conclusion that there really isn't a lot to do.

All these properties have been sold at auction. We'll find out who bought them and what they paid

when they went under the hammer.

No, we're not here for a derby, but we are here to look at a property IN Derby.

This East Midlands city beautifully combines the old with the new and is host to bustling markets.

I wonder if today's lot will offer a bargain.

Well, I've come just a couple of miles outside Derby to this popular residential estate

and a house that went to auction at a guide price of £68,000 plus. Three-bedroom semi-detached.

It benefits from the corner plot, so you've got this quite extraordinary garden.

The house itself, well, two ways in.

Take your pick, really.

A bit confusing, that, but once you are inside this little entrance vestibule,

into the kitchen. Now it's an interesting shape.

It's very strange to have that odd angle there. It doesn't look to be in too bad condition.

I'm being a bit generous there. I'd replace that if you could.

An understairs cupboard and then through to what should be the main entrance, but is currently not.

Out through this door, you've got your entrance porch. Clearly isn't used as the main entrance any more.

Not quite sure why. You might want to think about reinstating that. That's the natural place.

Stairs up to your bedrooms there and then through into a really nice-sized lounge.

I mean... At some stage, my guess is, this has been knocked through,

but it creates this wonderful space. So that side not so good, this side, big tick.

# Tick my box! #

But I don't just tick the box for anything and it's a big red cross for the conservatory.

It's not doing anything for me or the property.

I think this lean-to should get the big heave-ho.

So what's on offer up the stairs? Oh, that's quite nice.

A bit of a landing area here which gives an open feel.

Bathroom and loo there. That needs a bit of work, for sure.

Then you've got three bedrooms - small one, good-sized double and a reasonable double here.

That's not so brilliant. It was all looking so good and then you come up to this rear bedroom

and there's obviously been a bit of water ingress.

My guess is you wouldn't have to poke around too much with the roof to discover a small leak.

That's led to that. I don't think it's too major as long as it hasn't gone into the joists.

All in all, this is not a major job. And that's good.

'Whilst I don't really think it's good that they've swapped the main door,

'this one I entered through attaches to a brick storage room

'and a covered walkway to the back garden.'

Inside's quite neat and tidy.

Step outside into the rear of it and it is - whoa! - a bit of a surprise.

You've got quite a few outbuildings, some sheds,

a few greenhouses. I mean, just... Yeah. If you like your sheds, this is perfect.

And then you've got this conservatory area here and this quite extraordinary garden.

This was obviously someone's pride and joy and in such a small garden as this it's incredible.

Whether it's to everyone's taste is another matter, but I guess it's down to whoever's bought it.

'Low maintenance this isn't, but I love it.

'However, while keen gardeners might welcome the chance,

'it might be that if it was for a young family, it might be wise to fill in that little pond for safety.

'I do think some of the outbuildings might have to join the same skip as the lean-to.

'That would allow space to play or sit in the sun. The back has more privacy than the front garden.

'The house had a guide price of £68,000 plus. We invited the auctioneer round and asked

'how this compared locally.'

It's a typical ex-local authority house. Three-bed, semi-detached.

Interestingly, there are several build types on the estate.

Some are pre-fabricated, some brick.

This one is brick, so it comes to the top of the tree, really.

Solid, well-constructed, immediately post-war

and it probably just wants a bit of a refit, but it's fine.

'Once renovated, the experts think the house could sell for between £100,000 and £110,000,

'but what could it earn on the rental market?'

From a rental point of view, once renovated and upgraded, it would be in the region of £525 per month.

Well, for someone who loves their gardens, this property is an absolute delight.

Once you go inside, too, I think it's a good one to go for. Let's see who agreed.

A three-bedroom, semi-detached house,

requires some upgrading and improvement.

Start me where you will. Who's got 65,000 to move it on?

65? 65 I have, thank you. At 65,000 and well worth it.

66 I've got. 67.

68. 69.

70,000. 71.

72? Don't stop yet. You've not bought it. £71,000. 72?

72. 73. 73. It's worth another shot.

74. 75. 76. 77.

77 is the bid. 78?

No? 77,000.

500 tempt you? At £77,000 once.

77,000 twice. Third and last opportunity. All done?

Sold at 77. It's yours, sir.

That very calm and collected bidder who picked up this property for £77,000 is Steve.

He and his young family have just returned from living abroad.

I met him back at his new pad to find out more.

-Steve, good to meet you.

-And you.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Interesting little property.

-Yeah. It's going to be a fair bit of work, mainly outside,

-but I'm looking forward to it.

-So tell me why you wanted to buy it.

This is a bit of a new career for me, hopefully.

I've been living in Prague for the past year, with my wife.

She's just given birth about nine months ago. We've got a new son.

-Congratulations.

-Thanks, yeah. So basically moving back to England

-and looking for a way to make some money and this is it.

-Great. What was Prague like?

Lovely, yeah. My wife's Czech, so that was one of the reasons we moved out there.

She wanted to give birth over there to be close to her family and friends. It all worked out well.

I learned a bit of the language, got to know the place a bit better.

Wow. What prompted the move back?

Well, it was only ever really intended to be temporary.

I'd had a business that I'd sold prior to leaving to Prague.

Part of the move was to have the baby over there,

the other part was to recover from the stress of the business.

And we'd always planned to come back so, yeah, this is it.

-So do you have somewhere to live?

-Living with parents. We're buying a family home to live in.

And so, hopefully, I'm looking to maybe get this finished before we move on to that place.

Actually, that's in a worse state than this place!

'Taking on two properties at once? Brave man!

'Steve's previous business was in the betting industry. Hopefully, this won't be too much of a gamble.

'He's never taken on a full refurbishment before, although he has done DIY

'and has someone on hand to help here.'

My mum, who's 64 now, she's excellent with tiling.

-She's done about five bathrooms, all to a pretty good standard.

-Wow!

And she's just retired, so she's going to be very keen to come down and help me out.

I won't be able to keep her away!

You want to encourage her in!

She's 64 now, so I don't want her to get involved too much,

but hopefully I can learn some of the tiling skills and bathrooms and so on. It's good to have.

So tell me what you're going to do.

I'm going to start outside in because there's a huge amount of rockery

and there must be half a dozen outbuildings. I'll clear the whole area. I've got a skip tomorrow.

We'll get cracking on that, clear the whole thing out and see where we are.

-The pond, all that's going?

-Yeah, the pond's going. I've got to find a new home for the fish.

The lady next door has her own pond, so I'm hoping she might rehouse them for me.

-And the conservatory/greenhousey thing on the outside?

-That's going to have to go.

It takes up half that back garden and it's a bit ancient. We'll take that down with everything else.

-How many skips have you got coming?

-Well, I've got one large one.

I don't imagine it'll be the only one. We'll fill it up and see.

'It seems a shame that all the features in this garden are going,

'but with Steve's aim to sell the house on as soon as possible,

'low maintenance is the name of the game when it comes to gardens.

'Once the outside is sorted, he can turn his attention to the inside.

'He is planning a new kitchen and bathroom, plus redecoration throughout,

'as well as new electrics and central heating. Not a short list.

'And his maximum budget is £15,000. The plan is then to sell the property on,

'but how long it will take is still not definite.'

So what's the timescale?

I'm sort of originally hoping 2-3 months,

but we're in the process of buying a family home and that may have to take precedence over this,

depending on when all of that goes through. So it could be that it ends up being a bit longer,

maybe up to six months, but hopefully I'll be able to get cracking straight away, finish off this

and then move on to the family home and start doing bits and bobs with that.

-Great. Well, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Good luck with it.

-Cheers.

-Enjoy being a dad and we'll see how you get on.

-Thanks.

So dramatic changes in store for the house, but even bigger changes for out here in the garden.

It's going to be very different when we come back, but will Steve find somewhere to rehouse the fish?

Find out later in the show.

Dartford in Kent is all about connections - road links to London and the south east

and around 40 minutes by train to Charing Cross. But this station has a different claim to fame.

It was right here a teenage Mick Jagger bumped into Keith Richards and the rest is history.

While we all know with property that you can't always get what you want,

fingers crossed the house today is hot stuff.

# Hot stuff! #

The property I'm here to see is very close to those fabulous Dartford road links

and just off a busy roundabout. An issue for some, not for others.

And the house itself is a semi-detached three-bedroom home

that had a guide price of £110,000-£120,000.

'The house has off-street parking, which is essential. It looks like a classic 1940s semi

'in need of some TLC.'

Well, a really pleasant space to walk into.

All the rooms go off this hallway and it feels really homely straight away.

You've got a little room tucked away here, some storage space,

a sitting room to the front which is a decent size.

Second reception room - could be a dining room.

A little loo tucked round here. And the kitchen.

It's obviously dated like the rest of the house. Very '70s indeed, but I do like this L shape.

You can imagine once this has been transformed to be clean and crisp, it will look fantastic. Great views.

And through these rather weird sliding doors into a lean-to conservatory.

It's not a solid structure. This is an outside wall.

I think I'd be inclined to put something permanent here.

You could then have the kitchen coming out to a nice breakfast room.

Get rid of all this. That's just glass and then the neighbour's wall.

But I'm not sure what I'd do in that area. Incorporate it as part of the kitchen space or brick it up?

It depends what sort of family you are and how big you like your open spaces.

Some nice big French doors leading out to the garden and you could have a really nice family home.

Just imagine - bi-fold doors opening out to this lovely garden on a warm summer's day

with the kids playing hide and seek around this hidden garden.

# There's a secret garden she has... #

But while the ground floor rooms are generously sized, upstairs is not.

There are just two bedrooms with a far from blooming bathroom in the middle. All rather disappointing.

So you've got two bedrooms and a bathroom.

That little box room downstairs must be the third bedroom then.

I'd like to see a third bedroom upstairs. Is that a possibility?

Yes, I think it is. This bathroom is just an extension on the roof.

I looked outside and you could extend either side of this to make one big, long extension.

You may not need to do that, but the opportunity is there.

That little ground floor room - it's a bit optimistic to describe it as a bedroom.

I'm not sure you'd get a double bed in.

Extend upstairs, however, as the neighbours have,

and you could have three proper bedrooms, but it's only worth it if you're planning on living here.

Apart from the lack of space, there are also some damp issues.

But, in general, for that £110,000-£120,000 guide price,

it's a solid-looking house.

Time to ask a local property expert what she thinks of it.

My first impression is a lot larger inside than it looks from outside.

It does look very tired and there is a considerable amount of work to do, but it will be worth doing.

Will the place benefit from extending to create that new third bedroom?

I think it will be worth it. The ground-floor bedroom is small

and the bathroom is quite big. It may be a case of reducing the size of the bathroom for a bigger bedroom.

How would the figures stack up with a straightforward renovation?

I think the resale value would be in the region of £220,000-£230,000.

If you added another bedroom upstairs, you could increase the value by £15,000.

If whoever bought this got it near the guide price of £110,000-£120,000

even with renovation costs it seems a promising investment.

If an investor bought this as a buy-to-let, what kind of rental returns might they expect?

The rental value for this property I would put at £800-£850 per calendar month.

If you added in an extra bedroom, you could probably ask for another £50 per month.

This is a straightforward, easy-peasy property in a good area

with scope for an extension if somebody fancies. I wonder who that was.

Lot 12 we go to now.

Start me where you will on that one. 120? Top of the guide price. 120?

110, then? Start me where you will. 110. 112. 115. And 18.

118. 120. And two. 122. 124. 126. 128.

And 30. And two. 32. 32.

34. 36. 38.

-And 40.

-There were several keen bidders trying to purchase this lot.

We rejoin the auction when the bidding's reached £160,000.

160. And two. 162.

162. 164. 166. 170, can I say? 170.

170 I'm bid. 175 now.

175. 180 I've got. He wants it. 180.

185. 185.

190. 190. Yes?

190. And five. 195?

Two I'll take. 192.

195? 195.

197? It's against you, ladies. It's in the front row at 195.

For the first time at 195. Second time at 195.

Third and final time at £195,000. In the front row. All done?

Well done, sir. 195.

Those successful bidders were Terry and Dolores, there with their son Ian and granddaughter Kelsey.

Terry and Dolores are in the property development game, but they're not exactly local.

I'm here to discover why they've exchanged sunny Spain where they live for a dreary day in Dartford.

Terry and Dolores, congratulations. Why did you want to buy this house?

Our granddaughter lives three minutes' walk from this very house

and her school is five minutes' walk. We don't see much of her in Spain, so we thought we'd buy a house

and the rest of the family are in the area. What is going to happen now

is our sons will look after the house and when we come back from Spain - not very often - we'll stay here

-and she can come and see us.

-How is it working out for you two living in Spain and here?

It works out fantastic.

For the years that we have lived in Spain, we can still run our business from over there.

It's wonderful. We have our two sons here if we have any problems and they do the troubleshooting.

But we run it all from Spain. We're still keeping busy, buying the odd property here and there,

both overseas and in the UK.

-So you're retired property developers?

-We didn't go to Spain to develop. We went to live and retire.

But what actually happened was the first villa, it started off as a three-bed,

but now I've turned it into six doubles - five bathrooms, two kitchens,

a garage, terraces. That was our first house.

-And swimming pool?

-And a swimming pool!

# Twistin' by the pool We're twistin' by the pool

# We're twistin' by the pool Twistin', twistin' by the pool... #

Well, I reckon Terry didn't need his arm twisted to start again.

Once a developer, always a developer. He clearly has the bug. What are his plans for this place?

We've discussed it, but we only arrived yesterday and only came into the house for the first time.

But our eldest son viewed the property on our behalf

and said it's got a bit of damp, but we can do it.

So that was that. Obviously, new kitchen, new bathroom.

I want to put a shower room downstairs, conservatory gone, brick up, flat roof.

New patio doors, new windows, rewire.

Total refurb. Total.

-I might keep the carpets.

-Stop it!

I like your style!

Aha! Well, I hope he IS joking! The pair have around £25,000 for the work

and have given themselves three months to get it done. That should be ample with Terry's contacts.

That small downstairs room will be a bedroom for their granddaughter.

But have they considered extending upstairs?

I've thought about it, but it won't put any value on the house. That's my opinion.

-I think it's big enough anyway.

-Perfect for what you need it for.

My next question: how are you going to work this area here?

You're going to sort of have a nice kitchen space there. Will you have a wall here? Keep it open-plan?

I'll put an RSJ between the kitchen and the conservatory, knock the wall down each side,

this is coming out, an archway here.

-So it will be kitchen, conservatory, dining room.

-So lots of flow.

A really nice big, open space looking out onto your garden, then a cosy sitting room.

With natural light coming in as much as possible so that it's nice and bright.

When it's all finished, hopefully it will be good, light colours that reflect everything.

Does this excite you two? Is this really what you want to be doing?

-Yes.

-Or might you want to stay in Spain and let your son do most of the work?

No, I want to be here and oversee it.

This is what I enjoy doing. This is what we're retired from,

-but we now have a portfolio in Spain. I'm like you. I can't stop.

-I know!

-I wish I had your job!

I have got the best job. So it's obvious that Terry's passion is property. What's yours?

My passion is also property, but I do love my sport.

And, in particular, golf. I do enjoy my golf very much,

so when Terry's doing the property, usually I'm out on the golf course.

-In Spain or in England?

-Both!

-Really? How long have you played?

-Since 1981.

-Is she good?

-She IS good. She was lady captain at Sidcup and I always say it's luck,

-but she's had three holes in one.

-Wow!

Congratulations. I can't wait to see what you do in the three months.

-Thank you. Our pleasure.

-We'll be back to check up!

-Thanks, Lucy.

So price-wise I'm not quite sure this place is a hole in one,

but it is a fabulous part-time home for Terry and Dolores.

I can't wait to see how it's transformed. Join us later in the show to see for yourselves.

Coming up: in County Durham I find myself weighing up the options for this semi-detached property.

Back in Dartford, Kent, how have Terry and Dolores approached their house renovation?

-Thrown a lot of money at it and a lot of labour!

-Yes!

But first, in Derby, Steve has some useful advice.

Don't take on too much in one go!

We're back in Derby now to catch up with Steve. He purchased this three-bed semi for £77,000.

Whilst the inside looked like it needed a fairly standard renovation, outside was different.

This was a house with two front doors, too many outbuildings to count and a very ornate garden.

If these challenges weren't enough, Steve had some more in store.

We're living with parents at the moment. We're in the process of buying a family home to live in.

So hopefully I'm looking to maybe get this finished before we move on to that place.

-That's in a worse state than this.

-Right.

That's right. Two house renovations at once. With his family home, his new career in property

and a maximum timescale of just six months, the stakes were high.

Well, one year later, we're back.

The outside couldn't look more different. The greenery has gone and been replaced by hard landscaping.

It gives a much more direct route to the one front door instead of two. Very sensible.

While I'm intrigued to see inside, it was the outside that presented the biggest challenge.

So let's have a peek over the fence first.

Crikey! Well, it's certainly a whole lot less cluttered

and there's no doubting it's low maintenance. It's certainly practical, but less attractive.

Where I'm standing now was probably inside one of the outbuildings.

This entire area was really covered with sheds and greenhouses and various other things.

This entire area was cleared. This side sloped away to the road. I've built a wall around the outside,

levelled it all off, put some turf down and created a nice family garden, hopefully.

He's certainly worked hard out here. So let's see how the inside is shaping up.

Some great changes. Blocking up the second entrance allowed Steve

to make the whole downstairs a bright, light, open-plan living room, dining area and kitchen.

Whilst doing this project, he learnt to plaster and put those skills to use throughout.

Also on hand, and a dab hand at tiling, was Steve's mum Margaret.

She'd encouraged him from day one of this project.

I went to the auction with Steve. We've both got a passion for auctions and property,

so I went along, got sucked in and felt obliged to help him out.

Because I always do tiling, I tiled the bathroom and kitchen.

His mother's been working her magic. She's done a tremendous job and so has Steve.

It has taken a year, but he's had to contend with renovating his family home, a bout of illness

and the great British weather, which of course impacted on all that outside work.

The unknown was the landscaping project. It was far too much to take on for me on my own.

I didn't even have a labourer to help me out.

Just a hell of a lot of hard work. If I was advising anybody,

I'd say for a first project, stick to what you know you're capable of

and don't take on too much in one go, really.

I take my hat off to him. He's had a tricky time on this renovation, but he's still smiling.

He hopes to take the lessons he's learned onto his next project and forge ahead

as a property developer. So will his mum help next time?

I don't know. I kept saying no. I just retired last year and this has been more like a hobby.

The last time I put the last tile on the kitchen, I said, "I'm absolutely fed up with tiling,"

so I'm saying no, but who knows? Never say never.

Famous last words, Margaret.

Steve planned to spend £10,000 on the work, but that's been pushed to £18,000.

The additional outlay mostly went on the garden, but something did come out of the garden, too.

There were some scrap metal merchants who came by and one took the fish

and said it was for his dad's new pond. So they've gone to a good new home.

Well, before I give in to temptation to make any fishy gags,

let's find out what two local property experts make of this place.

First up, the auctioneer who sold it.

The change has been fairly dramatic and very pleasing, really.

They've put a lot of imagination into it, done the right things,

even changing the position of the footpath up to the front door.

Logical, but would you have thought about doing it? Well, they have. So hats off to them.

First thoughts are that it's a very appealing house from the outside.

As you get inside, it doesn't fail to live up to its expectations.

Talking of expectations, Steve bought this to sell on.

He's overspent, mainly because of the landscaping work, so his outlay is now £18,000.

Add that to his purchase price and he's invested a total of £95,000.

So do the experts think he will make any profit?

If this house went on the market, I think a sensible asking price would be about £120,000.

I would market the property at a maximum of £125,000.

That sounds about right. It's slightly more than we originally hoped for, but with the extra work

on the landscaping, it's nice to know we've got that money back at least

and it's on the market for 125. Hopefully we can achieve something close to that figure.

If Steve does achieve £125,000 that would make his pre-tax profit a very well-earned £30,000,

minus the usual tax and expenses.

So after all that hard work outdoors, is he glad to get back indoors?

Unfortunately, I've got my own garden that's just ready for seeding at the moment.

So I've got to go from one to the other, unfortunately.

It's nice to work outside. That was one of the attractions, especially when the weather's nice,

but not so nice when it's covered in snow and minus two. That's probably more to the point, I think.

Today I'm in County Durham

and this is the village of Shotton Colliery.

# Working in a coal mine going down, down, down

# Working in a coal mine... #

The village really came into its own in the 1840s when a coal mine was sunk locally.

The mine's long gone, but the village remains. The property I'm here to see is this.

Three-bedroom, semi-detached at a guide price of £39,950.

Looks pretty solid from outside. Let's take a look inside.

'Now, for your information, I am not leading you up the neighbour's garden path.'

# She told me to walk this way

# Talk this way Just gimme a kiss... #

'It appears that access is shared between the two properties. I'd get my solicitor to doublecheck that.

'The front garden looks pleasant enough. So far, so good.'

I just noticed it looks like it's got a relatively recent electrical consumer unit, which is good news.

So hopefully no rewire required. And in terms of the layout, pretty much what you might expect.

Through the door, a little entrance area and stairs to your bedrooms,

then into this main living room. It's a nice size. A gas-ish fire.

Gas effect. You know what I mean.

Probably replace that. It's a little bit dated. Then through this equally dated archway

into the kitchen. Again, it's got a nice feel to it. A sort of open-plan feel

with that archway through to the lounge there. A few negative points.

This is the bathroom, the only one. Then over there is the loo.

So they're off the kitchen. That's an unusual layout and certainly not ideal.

It may be expected round here, but obviously in an ideal world you'd want to move it upstairs.

Let's see if we can do that.

# I'll lead you upstairs

# Leading you up now... #

Well, the good news is there is a room that you could potentially put a bathroom in,

but the bad news is you would lose a bedroom. Given that the toilet and bathroom downstairs

are not in bad nick and the rent, as a result of losing that bedroom, would be lower,

I guess it comes down to that old thing of what are you buying for?

If you rent it out, does it matter? If you're going to live here, does it bother you?

Which all leads to the conclusion that there isn't a lot to do here.

# I love you just the way you are... #

I don't like the bathroom downstairs, but for a buy to let,

moving it upstairs might not make any sense financially. It has central heating, double glazing,

three bedrooms and large garden, so it's good to go for rental.

But what does a local property expert make of this place and its guide price of £39,950?

First impressions of the property are quite good, actually.

It's in quite good order, especially for the rental market. Kitchen's nice, bathroom's OK.

It's a little bit dated, but for rental purposes it'd be quite good.

What could this property earn if it were put up for rental?

The rental market is quite strong overall because the mortgage market is still quite fraught.

If you placed it on the rental market, I'd expect £475 per calendar month.

What about the resale market?

With some minor improvements, neutralise it slightly, I would expect to achieve around £60,000.

Well, there you go. It just goes to show it's not just the doer-uppers that come to the auctions.

Nothing wrong with this place. Let's see who fancied it.

Lot number 92. A well-maintained, three-bed, semi-detached property.

It comes with gas central heating. It's got double glazing, refitted kitchen and bathroom.

We've got this advertised with a price guide of £39,950 plus. Can I ask for 40,000?

40,000 anywhere?

How about 38? Without 38, I'm going to withdraw.

38,000? Any bid at 38?

38,000.

Sorry. £38,000. Second row at 38,000.

39 anywhere else? £38,000.

39?

39,000 anywhere else? The lady has bid at 39.

40. 41?

42. 43.

44. 45.

46. 47. 48.

49. 50. 51?

50,000 on the second row. 51?

Gentleman's bid, second row, of £50,000. Do I have 51 anywhere else?

I'll take 500 if it will help. I'm selling at £50,000.

500? I'm going once at 50.

It's your last chance. Second time at £50,000.

Sold to the gentleman in the second row at £50,000.

That successful bid of £50,000 came from Glyn, who used to be a joiner.

Something tells me he won't be calling on those skills on this one. Or will he?

-Glyn, good to meet you.

-Thank you.

-Congratulations.

-Tell me why you wanted this place.

-I bought it as a rental property.

-I'm looking to expand into this area.

-Right.

-It sounds like something you've done before.

-Yeah, I've been investing since 2002.

-How's it gone?

Good, yeah.

-On the whole very good. I'm still actively purchasing.

-Right.

So how have you weathered the storm of the last ten years?

It's been fine. We've been able to keep on adding to the portfolio

and also now buy for other investors as well.

-How many properties have you ended up with?

-We have 65.

-Oh, wow.

Great. It's going OK? Tenant problems or not?

Some, but on the whole we wouldn't keep on adding if it wasn't working.

We manage and do all the refurb and maintenance ourselves through a building company I have.

Word of mouth gets a lot of tenants as well. Families recommend friends and family.

'Sounds like Glyn has got this property lark pretty much sorted.

'As well as his own extensive portfolio,

'he sources, manages and maintains properties for other investors,

'so even if there's not much to do here, he will be keeping busy.'

# We spend all our time running for our lives

# Going nowhere It's really something Getting busy doing nothing... #

So was this property bought for you or for an investor?

It's for an investor who lives down south. I've bought it for them.

They haven't seen it. I went on their behalf.

-Is that much pressure on your shoulders?

-I wouldn't buy a house for them I wouldn't buy for us.

And I wouldn't put a tenant in that I wouldn't put in one of ours.

The first tenant who wants it, I wouldn't automatically take them just to say I've got it rented out.

How do you check the tenants?

We do referencing on them. If they've rented, we get references from previous landlords as well.

-So what's the plan for this one?

-We won't be doing very much at all. The electrics will be checked.

Get a certificate. Gas, the same. Do some bits of pieces, make over the garden,

just to tidy it up really. And rent it out as soon as possible.

-Inside, any changes at all?

-Probably not. Very little.

-Not even a lick of paint?

-I find quite often tenants like to do it themselves, their own touch, to make it home for themselves.

-Right.

-So how soon will it be rented out?

-Probably within two or three weeks of being purchased.

Do you have any budget at all?

-Em, no, not really.

-Zero budget? And with a timescale of 2-3 weeks you're not going to do anything.

-How often does it work out like that?

-Quite often. Tenant demand is really strong.

We get calls all the time from people looking for properties.

-And they're happy to move in in any state and do it up?

-No, if it needs things doing,

it's got to be safe, we'll do these things and full refurbishments.

But the bathroom's fairly new and the kitchen doesn't need anything.

-It just depends on what it's like when we buy it.

-And for you, then, what does the future hold?

-More properties, yeah. And continue to build and buy and manage for other people.

-Great.

-It sounds pretty straightforward. Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-We look forward to seeing it.

Well, there you go. Another property to add to Glyn's management portfolio.

I know this property doesn't need a lot of work doing, but I expected maybe a coat of paint.

But why not give the incoming tenant the chance to personalise it?

How will he get on? Well, it's not going to be too hard!

Find out later in the show.

There are often tears and stress where buying property is concerned.

-So have today's properties turned out to be living nightmares or had happy endings?

-Let's find out.

It was Dartford in Kent where I saw this three-bedroom, semi-detached house. I say three bedrooms,

but only two were upstairs. The third was more suited to being a study.

And with ageing decor, signs of damp and damaged plasterwork,

this house had certainly seen better days.

But with a good-sized garden and quite a decent amount of space, there was plenty of scope

to turn it into a pleasant place to live. Or, in the case of property developers Dolores and Terry,

a home from home.

-Why did you want to buy this house?

-Our granddaughter lives three minutes' walk from this house

and her school is five minutes' walk. We don't see much of her in Spain,

so we thought we'd buy a house here and the family are in the area.

What is going to happen now is our sons will look after the house

and when we come back from Spain - not very often - we will stay here and she can come and see us.

They paid £190,000 at auction for the house.

With their budget of £25,000, they were ready to swap sun and sangria for three months

to prepare their new Dartford dwelling. Now, 12 weeks later,

we're back.

The sun may not be shining, but the house is a whole lot brighter.

It's been re-rendered, it's got new double glazing

and the garage has been replaced with a more substantial brick one.

And with the garden landscaped and tidied up, it looks more like a place you'd want to come home to.

Basically, we gutted the place from top to bottom,

replastered, took down ceilings, renewed the ceilings. Everything.

This house, from the inside, is like a new house.

So that great, new, crisp exterior now has an interior to match.

A warm, inviting front reception room and a homely downstairs bedroom.

While at the back of the house there's a light, airy dining room

leading to a rebuilt extension room with patio doors onto the garden.

And remember that somewhat dated kitchen?

Well, now there's a fully-fitted kitchen with all mod cons.

By blocking up the other kitchen door and utilising the cloakroom,

they've created enough space for a downstairs shower room. Not bad.

What about upstairs?

The changes we've made to this floor are this used to be a passageway

which led to the family bathroom, shall we say? But now I've turned it into an en suite

and not a family bathroom. We've created another bath area downstairs for the rest of the house.

This is my favourite room. I'm really, really pleased with it.

This is going to be Terry and Dolores' UK pad, so the layout was planned with that in mind.

They made the master bedroom en suite, while the second upstairs bedroom is perfect as a guest room.

All the changes were done in just ten weeks. How on earth did they manage that?

-We've thrown a lot of money at it and a lot of labour!

-Yes!

-And a lot of hard work.

-Hard work.

-And a great team. We've had a really, really first class team.

The plan was to stay in the UK during the renovation work, keeping an eye on it and getting involved,

but with the weather being not exactly fabulous, were they tempted to sneak back to Spain?

-We've stayed the whole ten weeks.

-It's better to be here onsite when so much work has to be done.

If we had gone back to Spain, things might not have turned out as well as they have.

So we're pleased that we stayed.

Staying in the UK has paid off as far as the timescale is concerned,

but did it also help them keep to their £25,000 proposed budget?

Basically, we are £31,000 over budget

so...that's life.

I might add that I didn't do this as a project to make money. I done it as a home.

Even so, that's quite an overspend and takes their renovation costs to £56,000.

They bought the house for £195,000, so their total outlay is £251,000 before other expenses.

Are they likely to get much return on their Dartford dwelling? What do two local estate agents think?

From the outside, it hit me how nice it looks, compared to before.

The changes they've made, particularly the shower room, are very good.

Having that extension room built in is much more user-friendly.

The property has been refurbished to a good standard throughout. I particularly like the kitchen.

The choice of units is nice, being contemporary, which a lot of people are looking for.

It's undoubtedly an impressive change and the house looks great,

but having been slightly indulgent with the budget, will they see any return on their £251,000 outlay?

The property would resell for £230,000-£245,000.

If we were to market the property, we would suggest a marketing price of £235,000.

Those valuations would potentially see a £7,000-£21,000 loss in the current market.

What do they think of that?

We're not too disappointed. It would have been nice if it was higher,

but it's going to be our home and for the family's use,

so it's neither here nor there.

Yes, their plan is just to keep it as a UK bolthole.

But if they did decide to let it, what kind of returns might they see?

I think this property would rent for between £950 and £995 per calendar month.

If we were to rent the property, we would suggest an asking price of £1,000 per calendar month.

Rent of around £950 per calendar month would see an annual yield of around 4%,

which is OK.

But having spent three months back in not so balmy Britain, are they now tempted to stay?

-We'll be going back to Spain.

-Definitely.

-Yes.

-We love the weather.

Yeah. It's been so cold here. We are looking forward to going home

-and getting stuck in to all the chores we have to get back to.

-And the new projects.

-Yes.

Let's get set to return to the village of Shotton Colliery in County Durham

where I viewed this three-bedroom semi. It had a guide price of £39,950

and was in a prime rental area. From the outside, all looked in good order.

The windows were double-glazed and there were no issues with the roof.

What about inside? Well, that was all right, too.

The decoration was dated, but the kitchen was in fair shape. All it needed was sprucing up.

The bathroom was downstairs, but moving it and losing a bedroom would have negatively affected

the sale value and rental income.

Which all leads to the conclusion that there isn't a lot to do.

In complete agreement with me was Glyn, an experienced developer with an extensive portfolio,

who bought the property for a client for £50,000.

-Inside, any changes at all?

-Probably not. Very little.

-Not even a lick of paint?

-No. Tenants like to do it themselves and put their own touch on it.

Right. Easy peasy, then.

We're back after just two months to find out if it was indeed easy.

# Yeah, ooh...

# That's why I'm easy

# It's why I'm easy...

# I'm easy like Sunday mo-o-orning... #

This semi has been tidied up and let out. In less than a month,

Glyn had a tenant in place and this investment property earning.

We advertised it

and we've now got a tenant. He's moving his things in. So we're happy.

Apart from clearing out a little clutter, what exactly has Glyn done?

We've had a gas check done, we've had the electrical certificate done.

I had to move one base unit across because an oven wouldn't fit in the gap that was left in-between.

Just a quick tidy in the garden outside.

# So far, so pleased

# I like the way you touch I like the way you tease... #

Glyn has every right to be pleased. The total spend is only a few hundred pounds above £50,000.

With the property already let, it's proving to be a shrewd purchase.

He clearly has a winning formula, not only running his own successful portfolio,

but spreading his expertise by helping others. He will have further involvement as a manager.

His investors must be very happy with this apparently trouble- and stress-free investment

and it was a quick turnaround.

Investors are very happy.

Now that we've got it rented out, they're getting a return on their investment.

And the investor is my brother and his wife. They live down south. They haven't seen the property.

One day they will get to see it!

Or maybe they'll just watch the show.

We invited two local estate agents to give us their opinions on this property.

As expected, there hasn't been a great deal of money spent on it.

The lesson for any potential purchaser is that you can buy it, put a tenant in

or maybe sell it, and make some money.

It's a typical example of being able to purchase a property, not spend any money

and place it on the lettings market for a profit straight away.

Despite investing around £50,400 on the property, Glyn's investors are in this for the long term

and have no intention of placing it on the market. But if they did, what might its sale value be?

If I was to place this on the market I would recommend an asking price of £60,000.

If I placed it on the market, I'd be looking at £55,000 or, at a push, £59,950 for the house.

He'd get takers pretty quickly.

Those figures, if achieved, would give Glyn's investor a pre-tax profit of £5,000-£9,500,

minus the usual expenses. The semi is being rented out.

Let's find out how much the estate agents believe it's worth and if Glyn is achieving value?

The rental market is buoyant. With that in mind, I'd recommend a rental valuation

of £450-£500 per calendar month.

In terms of rental value, I'd suggest £495 per calendar month.

Over to you, Glyn.

We've actually rented this out for £470 a month.

Glyn's investors are getting a very healthy rental yield of just over 11%.

Well done to them and, of course, to Glyn for spotting a bargain.

I'm sure they must all be very happy with the outcome.

Very pleased. It's given the investor a great rate of return on their investment, so good.

This property is a prime example of the fact that not all renovations

need involve ripping out kitchen units and knocking down walls to turn a profit.

Sometimes it is, as Glyn makes it look...

# Easy like Sunday morning... #

That's all for today. We'll have more stories from the auction rooms for you next time.

-So join us then for more homes under the hammer.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.

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