Episode 5 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello and welcome to the programme.

Now, spotting a property bargain isn't easy,

but sometimes rooting one out can be half the fun.

Yes, you need to know your budget

and believe you can stick to it,

do your research and then...

try and find a bargain. But where do you do that?

Well, why not pop down to your local auction house

and buy your next home under the hammer?

I'm in Devon in the pretty village of Feniton.

It's 12 miles from Exeter and the train...

will whisk you to London in around three hours.

Well, the property I'm here to see is just ten minute's walk

from Feniton railway station.

In fact, it was built in the 19th century

to house railway workers.

Good news is lots of off-road parking.

Bad news is...

..I can't find it.

MUSIC: Looking For Love by Whitesnake

# I'm looking for love to rescue the state of my heart. #

-Here it is.

-HE CHUCKLES

So access - a bit of an issue.

Guide price, though, £125,000 plus.

Hm, that seems pretty reasonable for a two stroke three-bed

semi-detached cottage.

Looking good.

Hm...

Well, maybe not.

This is the kitchen.

Um, as you can see,

it is fairly shabby...

Um...

And, straightaway, I'm not particularly

getting a good feeling about the layout of this place.

Interesting spot for the boiler...

Good news is, at least, it has a boiler, so it's got central heating.

Bad news is the boiler's situated in the lounge,

or at least one of the lounges, because come over this way

and separated by this very large chimney

is a second living room area here.

I mean, it's almost like the cottage started quite small back there

and then over the years it's been added onto and added onto.

Because you come to this rear room.

Admittedly you've got nice views out onto the garden,

but these little stairs to the bedrooms...

The layout downstairs just isn't working for me.

How about trying to move the stairs into the middle reception room?

And make a bit more of the sunny room at the end?

That would be just PEACHY...

MUSIC: Peaches by Presidents Of The United States Of America

# Moving to the country I'm going to eat a lot of peaches

# I'm moving to the country

# I'm gonna eat me a lot of peaches. #

So is the layout upstairs any better?

Something tells me possibly not.

Bathroom's in a good place and it looks to be

in reasonable condition.

But, then, this narrow corridor.

Bedroom there,

bit dark, bit dingy, bit claustrophobic.

Through to, well, it's actually a bedroom, sort of,

in the fact it is a through bedroom.

I guess that's why the cottage was described as two stroke three bedrooms.

There's a bedroom at the end, but, as I said,

you can only access it through this room,

which makes this room either maybe a study or a work room.

Not ideally a bedroom.

And again it's just...on the outside you think, "Yes, great."

You come inside and you think,

"No..."

HE SIGHS

And on top of that dated decor,

there seems to be our old foe dampness,

suggesting the roof might need some work.

That's a must do even before you start shifting stairs

and knocking down walls.

So are there any solutions presenting themselves?

Well, at the rear of this property you've got this good-sized garden.

That's not what interests me.

It's at the side of the house...

where I think the solutions could be,

because lots of space here to build an extension.

And not just a single-storey extension.

I think a double-storey extension,

either on that bit at the front or, why not, the whole thing?

The plot is big enough

and so that is your solution.

All you've got to do is talk the planners. Oh, yes...

and get on good terms with the neighbours!

We asked along an expert from the auction house

that sold the former railway cottage to get her thoughts.

I think if you just carry out the replacing of the kitchens and bathrooms

and tidying up the accommodation that's here,

maybe you'd be looking at around £175,000.

If, however, they extended and did a lot more work,

I think you could be looking at over 200.

It is quite an individual cottage, really.

And on the rental market?

I think for a property of this sort of size,

you'd be looking at around about £700-£750 per calendar month.

Well, it does need a lot of work,

but this little railway worker's cottage has a lot going for it.

So I'm sure it was full steam ahead when it went under the hammer...

Lot 131 - lovely little property, this.

It is guided here at £125,000.

Anybody want to start at £125,000?

On the nose of the guide - 125.

Thank you, sir, now seated here. Close in at 125.

125, seated, 130 somewhere else.

130. 135 can I say?

Standing - 135, nod of the head.

137.5 now...

Any advance on 135,000, then?

If you're out, he's in.

Sure we're all done at that level?

£135,000 standing.

I'm going to call it for the first...

second...

third and last time.

It's with sir here at £135,000.

£135,000, sold to you, sir. Thank you.

And that successful bid of £135,000

was made by local builder Barry.

I met Barry back at the cottage to find out his plans.

-Barry, good to meet you.

-And you.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Well, it's a pretty little spot, isn't it?

-It is nice.

HE CHUCKLES

Tell me why you wanted to buy the place.

-I've bought it to rent or to, obviously, to sell.

-Right.

One of the two depending on how the figures stack up.

At the moment I would edge along the fact that we are going to rent.

-Right, OK. Is this something you do?

-Now and again...

in between our other work. We're in the building trade,

so when we get some spare time,

we drop back and do up some properties if we can.

So who's going to be doing the work?

There'll be a few of us. I have a bit of a team.

Plumber, electrician, carpenter...

In fact, Barry's not going to hold back

and has already identified the need for an extension.

There's a lot of garden, there's a lot of space.

I think we can do quite a bit with it.

What do you think about the inside?

-Cos it's sort of disappointing, isn't it, at the moment.

-It is.

Very dysfunctional.

That's a good word, actually. Dysfunctional.

The stairs is in completely the wrong place,

which hopefully will move into the new extension which will open it up.

Oh, wow.

And then we can rearrange bedrooms upstairs, obviously,

-and not go through other bedrooms to get to them...

-Yes.

..and introducing hallways.

So there's, I think, quite a bit of scope.

So, let talk about the extension.

What's the plan for that?

Where will that be? How big? Where will it go?

The extension will go on the side of the property as you approach it,

so it will give it some frontage,

-a nice front door straight in front of you.

-OK.

It will make... The garden will become then private.

And inside the extension, there'll be a shower room, toilet,

the main stairs and off of the stairs,

you'll go off into the existing property.

There'll be a fourth bedroom on the first floor.

Barry is allowing three months to get the planning permission okayed

and he's hoping to have the work finished within six months.

Let's talk about the costs then.

Let's just focus on the extension first of all.

How much do you think the extension on its own is going to cost?

About 17,000 - 18,000.

-And that your price, cos you're doing it as a builder.

-Yes.

Somebody else it would cost, what, double that or something?

-23-24.

-23-24.

So what the budget for the rest of the works, not the extension?

I think we're probably looking at somewhere around 22-23.

-OK, so 40 in total.

-Around the 40 mark in total.

Well, listen, congratulations.

-Thank you very much.

-Good luck with it.

-Thank you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Cheers.

So builder Barry not going for the quick profit and selling on,

but sticking with the long-term plan of renting this place out.

And what a transformation it could be when we return.

Still a few issues such as planning permission

to get through before then.

How will he get on?

You can find out later in the show.

This is Cobridge, an area of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire.

Now this area is considered the home of the pottery industry in England,

so I think it's safe to say

it's time for me to potter on

and find today's auction lot.

And the property I'm here to see is a mid-terraced house,

just a stone's throw away.

It's got two bedrooms.

It had a guide price of £25,000.

I usually know what to expect from a property like this,

because I have seen so many of these before.

And from the outside, well, it looks like a standard terrace.

Will it all be as seems, though, inside?

OK!

Well, some major reorganisation needs to be happening in this house.

So, it's as I'd expect.

But, you know, look at this.

It could do with some modernising.

There's beds here, there's a fridge there.

It's all a bit skewwhiff.

So you've got a sitting room, basically.

You walk through the back of the property to a second sitting room.

Now, you've just got to look at the carpet - go down and look at this.

Carpets are truly worn, they need to be ripped up

and a brand-new carpet needs to be put down.

And right at the back of the property is the kitchen.

Again, that needs to be taken out

and something modern and fresh installed.

That's not the end of the sad news,

because right at the end there

is a bathroom which is in a similar state and a loo.

So I think whoever takes this house on has got to start from the bottom

and work their way right up to the top.

I think getting a big skip is first on the to-do list

and then just rip it all out.

Bathrooms, kitchens,

carpets, ceiling tiles, wallpaper,

wood cladding, furniture - the lot!

Begone with you!

And then you might need to order another skip for upstairs,

because this isn't much better.

Once you've cleared it all, I think, maybe, underneath,

there might be a reasonable property.

It just needs some love and attention.

# Give me some loving

# Give me some loving

# Give me some loving

# Give me some loving

# Give me some loving

# Every little day. #

Outside it just gets better...

I joke!

Somewhere beneath all these overgrown leaves

and bristly bushes lies a backyard.

It's more like a jungle and I'm certainly not going to venture too far out

without my secateurs.

Ow! They're quite prickly...

# My head is a jungle, jungle

# My head is a jungle, jungle. #

..so now I'm thinking you might need the local skip supplier on speed dial!

The backyard has certainly got a little wild,

but it's extra space and it leads out to an alleyway.

And I think it's always handy to come in through the back door,

especially on a wet day or if you have a bike.

But I'm less keen on what's out the front...

Just take a look across the road.

Doesn't have the best view, does it?

No. It's a factory over there.

Now, before buying this place,

I would want to find out what businesses

could be inside that building and are they going to be noisy.

Well, I've done my research

and I found out that, yes, it's a manufacturing company for windows

and it includes lots of drilling which can hear,

banging and potentially vans coming and going all day long.

I don't think it'll put everyone off,

but it certainly will deter some.

Hm, this is a tricky one.

You could be thinking to yourself there's more negatives here

than positives and you might be right.

But there ARE positives in that it appears structurally sound.

But most importantly, it's that guide price of £25,000,

which could mean there's room to build a decent return on the outlay.

What does a local property expert from the auction house

that sold it think?

To resell the property after modernisation,

I would anticipate in the region of £55,000 - £60,000.

Alternatively, the rental income would be in the region of

£375 - £400 per calendar month.

So some money to be made on resale.

But with potential rental yields in the region of 10%,

it's on the letting market that it could really make its mark.

Yes, this terrace certainly needs to be thought through.

It needs a lot of work,

but that says potential to me.

You can only make this place better!

And in this popular rental spot,

well, I think it could be a worthwhile investment for someone.

Let's see who agreed when it went to auction.

Lot 30.

We now goes to Cobridge in Stoke-on-Trent.

It's a mid-terrace house, sitting room, living room,

kitchen and bathroom with two bedrooms, as well.

We're guiding it at 25.

20 can I say?

20 on the phone. At £20,000.

I'll go in ones, I've got 20,000.

21 can I say now?

21, 22...

23, 24...

25?

25 in the corner, 25.

26. A half, 25.5.

26, sir? 26.

26 1/2...27.

And a half?

27.5, 28? 28.

28.5. 29?

New bidder at 29.

29.5.

29.5. 30? 30.

Another half?

No? At £30,000, then.

Another 500 anywhere else?

Against you on the phone.

At £30,000 then once.

£30,000 twice.

Third and final time at £30,000...

You bought it, well done.

And so, for £30,000,

the two-bed terraced house in Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent,

was bought by Atul.

This was to be a joint property development project

with brother Altur, and this was to be their first renovation project.

I hope they like challenges.

-Congratulations.

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

So, who was it who wanted to buy this house?

We've always looked at these sort of houses

but we've never had an opportunity with the budget and everything

and we saw this one at the auctions and thought, "Well, let's have a go."

Did you view this property prior to the auction?

We did, yeah. We looked at it and...

the smell wasn't...

It wasn't in a good state, no.

So, now you've actually got the property, tell me,

what you think of it now you've seen it?

-It's worse now.

-SHE LAUGHS

It's worse now?

Cos at the time when we viewed it through the auction,

we couldn't get inside into it properly

because of the smell and everything.

Now that we've got the keys and looked at the condition of it...

Oh, dear.

-Some work needs to be done in here.

-Why are you doing this?

Are you going to let this out or are you selling on for profit?

We're going to have a look at both options and see which one works out

the best so our main option will be to sell it out again.

Failing that, we'll be looking at the letting it out.

So, what do you think you can do to set this place apart?

We're going to be stripping the whole rooms out,

everything from here.

We're looking at putting the new, brand-new radiators,

the boiler, new bathrooms, completely new kitchen...

..painting and decorating.

I think it will brighten up the place a little bit more.

So, what budget have you got to spend?

We're looking at about £12,000.

So, tell me, what is your timescale for the work?

At least three months. Yeah. At least three months.

-So you're not daunted, Altur, by the work?

-Absolutely not.

-I'm looking forward to this actually.

-Really?

-I am.

-So are you happy you've got it at auction?

-We've got it.

Now that we've got the keys, we just need to get on with it.

Guys, good luck with this. Lovely to meet you today.

-Thank you.

-Congratulations and well done.

-Thank you.

So this property marks the start of what will hopefully become

a new career for them both.

I'm pleased to hear they love a challenge

because I am sure this will be just that.

I just hope they end up getting a healthy profit,

otherwise we might end up seeing the "To Let" board outside.

Join me later on in the programme and you can find out

how they both get on.

Coming up, in Derbyshire there's a building with surrounding land.

So, I reckon that could be a very interesting opportunity.

We return to Stoke-on-Trent to see how the brothers got on

with their first development project.

It was absolutely a massive challenge for us.

But first we return to Devon and the pretty village of Feniton.

It was here that we tracked down a former railway worker's cottage

that had, over the years, been somewhat derailed

by a series of add-ons, which gave it a layout

that was a muddle of rooms branching off in all directions.

But, with space at both rear and side,

this two to three-bedroom semidetached cottage

did have the chance to be turned around

and made into a decent family home.

And the man hoping to get this house back in line

was local builder Barry, who bought it at auction for £135,000.

What do you think about the inside cos it's sort of disappointing,

-isn't it, at the moment?

-It is. Very dysfunctional.

Yeah, that's a good word, actually, dysfunctional.

Provided planning was granted for the extension,

he hoped that, with a budget of £40,000,

he could completely refurbish and revitalise the house

in around six months,

depending on other work commitments of course.

Well, his building firm must have been busy as we're now returning

13 months later.

And I am really hoping things have altered.

# I wanna see a big change in you baby

# Oh a big change in you baby

# A big change in you baby

# A big change in you baby. #

Wow. A shiny new side extension is now in place,

creating a new, centrally positioned front door.

It certainly looks very smart

but what effect has that had on the inside layout?

# Big change in you baby

# A big change in you baby

# A big change in you baby

# A big change in you baby... #

The stairs are now in the middle

with rooms flowing from the hallway.

So, the old kitchen is now a utility area

and the rear reception room is now the kitchen.

Oh, that's so much better. Much more functional.

# Big change in you baby

# A big change in you baby... #

We looked at the property and realised it needed an extension.

I think we could have gone and not done it

and then kicked ourselves after, but we went for it

and it's really paid off.

The house has got frontage and we've got two storeys.

We've got an extra shower room and an extra bedroom.

And that fourth bedroom now goes alongside three good-sized bedrooms.

One of which is ensuite.

And there's a completely new family bathroom.

We've probably spent about 20,000 on the extension,

which is pretty straightforward, but we've gone over budget a little bit

on the renovation on the old parts.

We've spent probably about 32,000.

I think it's the fact we've put a higher spec kitchen in

and the fact that the fittings are of a good standard

and there's lots of insulation in the house now. It's nice and warm.

So I think we've spent our money wisely and I think that will show

when we come to rent or sell.

A £52,000 budget on top of Barry's £135,000 purchase price

takes his total spend to £187,000.

So, is Barry right? Has it been worth spending that little bit

extra to get a better finish?

What do two local property experts think?

The rental value I'd put on the property at the moment

is between £950 and £1,000 per calendar month.

In the current market, I believe the property, if it was rented out,

would actually realise £850 per calendar month.

Even that lower £850 per calendar month could see a rental yield

of around 5%. But how about the all-important resale value

on a property Barry's invested £187,000 into?

The value I'd put on the property today as the property is now

is between £250,000 and £275,000.

In the current market I believe the property should be marketed

at £250,000.

I think 250 is around the right mark

and if it needs to sell fast, I think it'll be going on for 250.

And if he managed to sell the house for the £250,000 valuation,

he could see a potential pre-tax profit of £63,000.

Not bad as a sideline project to his main building work.

But what now is his preferred next step with the property?

I think we're going to sell just purely so we can move on

and buy something else and do something else up.

This is Somercotes, which is close to the borders of Derbyshire

and Nottinghamshire and two miles from the town of Alfreton.

Somercotes is a former mining village

and was once surrounded by more than five working mines.

Well, I'm here to see something that definitely normally

grabs my attention - a former chapel. What's it going to be like?

Well, for a start, it's got lots of land attached to it.

This, car park's a good thing.

Now, this is part of it.

Well, it's not quite living up to my expectations of anything too grand

but the good news is, this is only part of the lot

because the new part of the chapel is actually here.

Still not that inspiring but hey-ho.

At a guide price of 75,000 quid, let's take a look inside.

# I have to celebrate you baby

# I have to praise you like I should... #

The original chapel at the front was built around the 1890s

and is now pretty derelict and used mostly for storage purposes.

The replacement newer, bigger chapel was built in 1962.

Let's take a look.

So, what have we got?

Straight into a little entrance area,

where you've got loos and a kitchen

and then into the main body of the chapel

and basically 1,300 square feet of space.

A little stage area, some storage behind there.

Not a bad amount of room, actually,

and it doesn't seem to be in too bad condition.

Now, currently it's got D1 Class planning permission,

which basically means it can be used as a church, as it already is,

or something like an art gallery, a creche, maybe a daycare centre.

The good news is that it's also had planning permission approved

for change of use to be one use, which is office space.

So, all in all, lots of flexibility and options.

Or of course you could just keep it as a church.

# All you've got to do is repeat after me

# ABC

# Easy as 123

# Simple as do-re-mi

# ABC

# 123 baby you and me girl... #

Well, to the side and rear of the property,

other potential uses for the site start to become apparent.

It's quite big - 0.2 acres.

So, one thing you might consider is actually knocking the former chapel

completely down. What you've got then is a very large,

well, large enough, building plot in a good location.

We've got mixed use around here.

We've got some commercial units, some residential property,

so you'd probably get planning permission

for building flats or houses.

It's a bit long and thin in an ideal world,

but it's flat and, as I said, it's in a great location,

so I reckon that could be a very interesting opportunity.

Yes, yet another option available to whoever buys this property

and at a guide price of just £75,000,

I imagine there will be plenty of people taking a pew, ha-ha,

at the auction for this former chapel.

But before that, we asked the auctioneer to take a look around.

I think probably you might get two pairs of semidetached houses on.

Alternatively, you might get a higher density of townhouses.

It's got a good access and it's got a lot of car parking already,

not that you'd need that for the housing purpose.

However, if you put a semidetached house on here with three bedrooms,

it would have a resale value probably of around £130,000.

And what if it was to become a commercial property and was rented?

If this had consent for office use and assuming it was adapted

and upgraded for that purpose, I would say it would have

a rental value of probably about £7,500 - £8,000 a year

and you might actually be able to rent out some of the car parking

to other concerns around here.

I'm sure there's a possibility of additional income.

Well, it's not the prettiest chapel in the world

but it does offer quite a few options for change of use,

either for business or residential.

I think you could knock this thing down and build houses in its place,

and I don't think particularly that would be too much of a loss.

Getting planning permission to do that however might be

a different thing. Who took a chance on the chapel?

Let's find out when it went to the auction.

Lot number 49 is the former Somercotes Hill Methodist Chapel.

It does have planning consent for conversion to office use.

Having said that,

it's equally suitable to a variety of other purposes.

How much do you want to bid me on it?

75? 70? £70,000?

70. Thank you very much.

At £70,000 opening bid.

71. 71 I've got. Thank you. 71.

72 at the back.

73,

74,

74,000, 75.

75,000, 76?

76 is bid. 76,

77, 77,000.

78 I've got. 78.

79 for you, sir. 79, 79,

80,000...

After a slow start, the auction room has come alive

and we rejoin the auction at 100,000.

..£100,000,

101,

102,

103,

103,000, and 4?

£103,000,

104,

105,

105,

106?

£105,000. We're selling at 105...

106. 106.

7?

No?

£106,000 in the corner then.

At 106,000. Going once,

going twice...

Third and last opportunity.

All done at £106,000.

-GAVEL BANGS

-Sold in the corner at 106.

Thank you.

# Take me riding in the car car

# Take me riding in the car car

# Take you riding in my car car

# I'll take you riding in my car... #

That final bid of 106,000 was made by local couple John and Jacqueline.

In fact, they're more than local, they're neighbours.

Their garage and car sales business is right next-door to the chapel,

so they just popped round to tell me why they bought it.

-John, Jacqueline, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

Tell me why you wanted to buy the place.

Well, it's so close to my business next-door

that we really had no option.

We needed to buy it to enhance the business and to improve it,

give us a bigger area.

We were using the car park so much that we thought we had no choice

but to crack on and get it bought.

Right. Have you known about the property obviously for a while?

How long has your business been established there?

Here, it's been seven years.

This place has been empty for about three years,

so when it first came up for sale we did make enquiries

but was a little bit on the high price. We made an offer.

-It was rejected.

-What was the offer?

The offer was approximately around about 138.

Well, you most be delighted then cos you've just bought it

-for a lot less than that.

-We are obviously, yes. Yes.

Well, yes. Having paid £106,000 at auction,

that's a saving of £32,000 over the original offer price.

Result!

And it should give them more funding to carry out this project.

So, tell me exactly what you're going to do with it then.

Well, at this stage we're probably going to open it all up at the front

so we can get cars inside.

Take a lot of this area out

so we give as much space as possible inside, and use it as a car showroom.

-Right.

-Get the nice cars in here,

make them safe, and hopefully people will come in and have a look.

-We were going to put probably some old classics in, as well.

-Oh!

The front, we need to open it up.

We thought we might do away with the kitchen

and have big open glass doors all the way across the front.

So a really spectacular showcase for you from the road?

Yes, hopefully. That would be good, yeah.

Now, at the moment, it doesn't have planning permission

for anything that you want to do, does it?

-No.

-Not yet.

So, what's the steps to getting that, then?

Well, we did make provisional enquiries before we bought it

and we were told it probably wouldn't be a problem.

So, what kind of budget have you got for doing the work?

-That's a great question.

-OK, thank you.

-Um...

We're probably looking at I think probably 30,000 - 40,000 to spend.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-That sounds quite a lot.

-I want to do it right.

I want to make it nice and make it look the part.

What kind of the timescale for the work?

-Six months to a year? That's what we're thinking of.

-Right.

As long as we've got the time and we've got the money,

-we should be fine.

-Listen, congratulations.

-We look forward to seeing how it all goes for you.

-Thank you.

-Thanks very much.

-Nice to meet you.

-Thank you.

Well, John and Jacqueline certainly seem to have found

the perfect place to expand their business

but from a chapel to car showroom, it's one heck of a change of use

and there's no guarantee the planners will go for it.

Find out how they get on later in the show.

It was in Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent

when we first came across a two-bed terraced house,

which was... Well, to be frank, cosmetically in a terrible state.

And with a guide price of 25,000, there was potentially room

to do the full refurbishment

and still see some profit, and that's what locally based brothers

Altur and Atul thought when they paid 30,000 for it at auction.

And they had a £12,000 budget to make it better.

The brothers hoped, with the help of their building team,

they could put it back together again to rent or sell

in three months.

And now, just slightly over that three-month timeframe, we're back.

Well, things are looking promising with the new tiles on the roof,

double glazing and a smart new front door.

And inside?

Let's go upstairs first.

That's more like it.

The bedrooms are now clean and fresh and clutter-free,

and there's no longer just the two bedrooms up here.

By taking some space from the back bedroom,

they've managed to squeeze in a shower room.

That really is a great bonus.

But what about downstairs?

Well, that's certainly getting there with new radiators,

skirting and plasterwork.

And the kitchen?

Well, I'll let Altur update you on that.

We've got a lovely kitchen unit here.

We managed to get a really good deal on the units as well.

Nice worktops here as well.

The door here was actually on the right-hand side.

We've decided to put it in the middle

so you've got a nice walking area here, no obstructions.

So, in this room we've had a new door, brand-new windows,

new radiators, new skirting boards.

All the four walls, including the ceiling, had to be re-plastered

and it looks really nice, actually.

I'm quite happy with what we've achieved so far.

Down here, the bathroom is also still a work-in-progress.

As is the rear yard, which needs slabs to be laid.

But overall I think they've done pretty well

in their three-month timeframe.

It's been quite fun actually.

Yeah, it's been really enjoyable working with my brother, yeah.

He's been supportive, and we have had ups and downs all along the way

but we got there.

As projects go, this was quite a challenge

and my biggest fear was potentially the house could be a money pit

and their 12 grand budget might just go in the blink of an eye.

Spending has gone over to 15,500 now and this is purely because

of the roof, the tiles that needed to be put on,

as well as the toilet that we had to put in the upstairs.

Well, that's impressive if they do get all the work done for 15,500.

And with that £30,000 purchase price,

the brothers' total spend will be £45,500.

What do two local property experts think of the work

they've carried out so far?

There is a demand for this sort of property,

which would mainly come from landlords

and I would anticipate a resale value in the region of £50,000.

If the property was to go on the market, I would suggest

that in today's market it's likely to achieve in the region of £50,000.

A little bit less than I expected but with the climate...

I'm OK with that. Mm-hm.

Well, yes, resale isn't looking great at the moment in this area.

Those valuations would offer a potential profit

of under £5,000 minus taxes and expenses.

Perhaps the rental figures will be more encouraging.

I would place this property on the rental market

in the region of £375 per calendar month.

In today's market, I'd expect the property to achieve

in the region of £350 per calendar month.

Again, I was expecting a little bit more

but we've had some private tenants offering a little bit more than that,

so I think we're going to go through that option.

Well, even £350 per calendar month would see a rental yield

of around 9%.

That's good! But was it really worth all the effort?

It was absolutely a massive challenge for us but at the end,

seeing the end result, I'm very happy with that

and looking forward to something like this, similar, again.

Ah, well, there's one developer happy with his lot

but will the same be true for our next auction purchase,

which we first saw over four years ago

in the Derbyshire village of Somercotes?

This former mining village was a setting for an unusual property,

a former Methodist chapel,

and it had the Holy Trinity of property development -

lots of land and space, a good guide price at 75,000

and potential for planning permission.

And revving up to get started on this property

were John and his wife, Jacqueline.

Their successful bid of 106,000 was to buy the property next-door

as they owned the adjacent car sales business and garage.

And when we returned over four years later,

was it the Grand Prix of showrooms or not off the starting grid yet?

# Nothing changes round here

# Nothing changes round here... #

Ah, that's not exactly what I was expecting

when the couple talked about a forecourt of classic cars.

I woke up one morning and thought it was the wrong decision.

More a business decision because of how many cars sales...

People just don't survive in this game.

It's very, very tough and I thought, "I've got enough room at the front

"of my garage to put all my car sales."

So it was a complete change of plan.

Well, the plans may have changed but they didn't leave the site idle.

We've gutted the Methodist church, we've flattened the land,

we've taken two buildings down, we've built walls,

we've put fences up, we've made it a lot safer.

We then decided that the next plan would be for housing,

which we've now got complete planning permission for.

When I get close to retiring, then we've got to look at it then

and whether I develop it personally or we sell the land on

for somebody to develop it. And that is in the next stage,

but at the moment we're still using it for all the servicing cars

-that we have in every day.

-Great.

But what does he mean by "planning permission for housing"?

We've got plans for four houses.

One dormer bungalow, where we stand,

and then three houses along the front with an archway for access.

The planning was a little bit slow for the houses.

We had to change quite a few different designs.

The only thing we might do is to put down some foundations

for one of the houses so that we keep the planning.

If we do put footings down, then it's work-in-progress

and we can hang onto it for a little bit longer

so we've got the complete planning.

I think John and Jacqueline have made a good decision here.

Even if they don't build the three townhouses and the bungalow,

plots of this size can be very valuable

because of that planning permission

and if John puts down foundations, this generally stops the permission

from running out. Very clever indeed.

So, is it best now to sell on the plot with planning permission

or should they develop it themselves?

What do two local property experts think?

John and Jacqueline spent £106,000 at auction

and then spend 25 grand on demolition and planning consent,

so their total spend is £131,000.

So, what is the plot worth as it is with the permission?

I would estimate that the value of the site now, with the benefit

of that planning permission, has got to be in the region

of £130,000 - £140,000.

I think you can market this particular plot as it stands

for around £130,000.

£130,000 would mean John and Jacqueline break even,

but then they still have their car park secured

for the business as a bonus.

What about the long-term plan?

The agents think if they carried through the planning permission

for three townhouses and one bungalow,

the townhouses would have a top resale value of £125,000 each,

while the bungalow could be worth up to 150,000.

That means that the built properties could be worth as much

as £525,000 before building costs, taxes and the usual expenses.

Yeah, I am pleased with that valuation.

It's roughly about what we thought it would be.

Yeah, I'm pretty pleased with that.

# I know it's going to happen

# Someday... #

If John and Jacqueline are tempted to build one day,

we'll be back to see how they get on.

But has the site been good for their business so far?

It's benefited us by so much.

It's just given us so much to use

and I would do it again if I had to, definitely.

Well, that's it for today's three properties

but there are plenty more where they came from.

Join us next time for more tales from the auction rooms.

-We will see you then.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.