Episode 36 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello, and welcome to the show.

Auctions are an interesting place to buy and sell property.

And that's why they've become so popular.

Yes. Literally thousands of properties

are sold at auctions each year

and end up under the auctioneer's gavel.

Well, people who buy regularly at auction get to know

the tricks of the trade.

And one way to make sure you're not inheriting a whole

load of problems for the property you want to buy

is to make sure you read the legal pack.

Oh, yes. Better to be safe than sorry.

Here are the properties that inspired the buyers on today's show.

First up, in Crewe, I regret not bringing my wellies.

That's even worse.

There is actually, like, lots and lots of water.

In Kent, I regret not bringing a bulldozer.

Come on!

This is a perfect plot for a bigger and better house than this bungalow.

And over in Surrey, I meet two friends with seemingly no regrets.

-It's a lovely little spot.

-Isn't it?

It's great, isn't it? It's absolutely perfect.

All these properties have been sold at auction.

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

when they went under the hammer.

All done, sir. It's yours.

I'm in Crewe, Cheshire, famed for its links with transport.

Railways and Rolls-Royce car production are part of its heritage.

Just two miles from the town centre

is one of the most desirable villages - Wistaston.

Well, situated on this lovely residential street is

the property I'm here to see.

A 1930s three-bedroom semidetached.

At a guide price of 115,000 quid, there it is.

Let's take a look.

Well, I liked the long drive,

but what is hidden behind all that foliage?

A bit of a sticky door.

Umpf! Not a particularly good start.

But straight in through the front door,

I expected a fairly traditional layout.

Stairs up to the bedrooms there,

but straightaway, it looks like the house is in need of a bit of work.

Very odd, actually. I talked about traditional layout,

that's not very traditional at all.

Almost under the stairs to get through to the kitchen.

But then into a really nice dual-aspect living room.

Over this side, big bay window.

HE GIGGLES

Open brick works in fireplaces.

Not sure it works necessarily there.

And the floor feels a little bit, well,

dodgy, for lack of a better word.

But it's a nice sized space and as I said, dual-aspect,

which is really good. This sort of rear area here. Erm...

Good place for a dining table. Hole in floor.

I'll come back to that.

Let's carry on under the stairs through to the kitchen.

Wow!

HE LAUGHS

Well, it's a project for somebody. Yes.

It's good size, though. This bit here, a little extension.

Nice views out into the garden.

Good-sized space, but clearly...

Straightaway, this is one of those "Rip it out and start again" jobs.

# Rip it up and start again... #

Also true in the lounge.

# Rip it up and start again. #

OK. So what on earth is going on with this hole in the lounge?

Well, first of all,

really nasty case of...

..woodworm there. That's not good, but...

HE LAUGHS

That's even worse.

There is actually, like, lots and lots of water underneath there.

Wow!

Still, ever the optimist - if there's nothing on the telly,

you could pull back the rug and sit yourself down for a spot of fishing.

Well, maybe not.

So, upstairs with some trepidation. What am I going to discover up here?

Well, three bedrooms. That one, not too big. Those two, a good size.

Lots of light again coming in. A bathroom. Again, a decent size.

Needs total refurbishment,

but, yeah, it's where it should be.

But then, to this bedroom here.

Where, in such a small space, so many problems.

For a start, a boiler.

Boilers in a bedroom, never good.

Carbon monoxide poisoning and all that sort of stuff.

So move it out of here, or at the very least, get it serviced.

But then, how about this?

Patio doors out on to what - a patio, perhaps?

No. On to a flat roof.

HE SIGHS

And no balustrade or safety thing at all. Slightly dangerous, you think?

I did say it was a "rip it out and start again" job.

This is not for the faint of heart,

but I still think this house has great potential.

The house is surrounded by quite a lot of space.

The gardens or in this case, driveway,

and some sort of patio area.

What's been done in the past, though,

is this fairly dubious-looking single-storey extension here.

I think there's scope to build something

much more elaborate on the back.

Single-storey, within permitted development rules.

That would certainly make a lot of sense.

But step towards the back of the property

and almost its hidden treasure is revealed.

Well, it's still partly hidden, and let's be honest...

..you don't come across this kind of thing very often in a back garden.

I couldn't work out which was worse -

the house, or this wreck of a classic Hillman Super Minx.

Then I saw the shed.

# And I know

# It is time for falling apart. #

We called in an agent from the auction house who sold it

to tell us a bit about the prospects

for this bit of a wreck guided at 115,000.

I would imagine the new buyer of the property would change the layout.

People do like open-plan kitchens nowadays.

Family dining areas within the kitchen.

If the property was modernised to a good standard throughout,

with no extensions,

the resale value would be £185,000 to £195,000.

If a single-storey extension was added on to the property,

the value of the property would be

in the region of £195,000 to £205,000.

Well, lots of work to be done, so not a project for the unwary.

But a great location and a house that just screams potential.

And that means potential profit.

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

Lot number 19.

What's this? 80 to start me?

80 bid, thank you.

£80,000.

85 I'm going to say now.

85. Thank you, got you.

£85,000. 90, is it?

95?

No? At £90,000. Bids left. I'll take 92 if it helps.

It does. 92, ticket there. Seen you, sir.

£94,000.

96. £96,000.

Do you want to come in at 98?

£98,000.

99 anywhere else?

If not, £98,000 for the first time.

£98,000 for the second time.

Third and final time, at £98,000.

All done, sir, well done.

Well, Joanne and Mark couldn't hide their joy

at getting the house for £17,000 less than the guide price.

That £98,000 sealed that first auction purchase.

Mark, who used to work in sales, proposed to Joanne,

who worked in HR, earlier in the year,

and this house is part of a new future together.

I met them to find out more.

-Joanne, Mark, great to meet you.

-Hi.

-Pleased to meet you.

-Congratulations.

-BOTH: Thank you.

A bit of a doer-upper then?

Yeah, I'd say that.

What was it that attracted you to the house?

The location was one of the biggest things. The garden.

And the potential to, obviously, get it to work.

We'd like it to be for selling on or for staying in, for moving into.

Is this something you do?

-No, until now.

-No.

-THEY LAUGH

-OK.

We've both just been recently made redundant. Me prior.

-Sorry.

-No, it's one of those things.

-Over the space of what period of time?

-About three months.

Right, OK. That wasn't good, was it?

BOTH: No.

So, what kind of experience have you got?

I've done a certain amount of labouring/kitchen fitting

in different guises, with the brother-in-law.

So, I'm fairly hands on.

Albeit, I won't get involved with the electrics, the gas,

anything like that.

So talk me through exactly what the plans are.

First things first, the roof.

Right.

It's going on in two weeks' time and it's going to match next door.

We've got a perfect match on the tile.

Second job, we're waiting for the architect's plans,

and that's going to hold things up a little bit.

But because it's within the government guidelines,

we don't need planning permission.

-So that's three metres extension. Single-storey?

-Single-storey.

Yeah. And then hoping to put some doors in.

Sort of behind us here, as a closed-off sitting room.

Sounds like you're really designing it with the end user in mind,

which is really what you should do. But sometimes, people don't.

Yeah, I think it's got to be done that way because,

at the end of the day, if we want to stay here,

it's got what we would like, but likewise we want to sell it.

And it's got to be what most other people would like.

What about upstairs?

It's going to be kept pretty much the same layout.

The patio doors, which open out onto the flat roof?

We thought they might go. And just have a normal window there.

We don't think, again, it's not child-friendly.

-No, completely the opposite.

-Absolutely.

Joanne's going to need that positive attitude with this house

and with Mark's "three or four months" timescale.

But to be fair,

he's already organised someone to do the extension.

What about budget for all this?

-I think 25.

-I think 30.

I think it's going to be there or there...in between the two.

Now, you do know that this whole working together on a project

is going to throw up, naturally, sort of questions

which you might not agree on.

I think, in fairness, Mark is going to project manage it

and on this one, I'm certainly going to be his labourer.

However, when it comes to making final decisions on kitchens

-and bathrooms, they were my choices.

-That's true.

-Brilliant. Listen, congratulations.

-BOTH: Thanks.

Good luck with it. We look forward to seeing how you get on.

-Thank you very much.

-See you soon.

-Yeah.

And we'll be finding out how they get on later in the programme.

For the next property going under the hammer, we've come to

Rainham, in Kent, just outside the towns of Chatham and Gillingham.

It's perfect commuter territory

with everyday amenities on your doorstep.

The M2 motorway is only minutes away, as well as a train line

that would get you into Central London in under an hour.

Five minutes or so from the train station

and this is typical 1930s suburbia.

Nothing wrong with that, nice and practical.

And the property I'm here to see is this, a detached two-bedroom

bungalow which had a guide price of 190 to 200 grand.

Well, there's not a lot of kerb appeal, but if the front is

anything to go by, this is a very big plot - and there's a garage.

I really like the fact that there's enough parking for, at least,

three or four cars on that driveway.

As expected, in this little bungalow, look at this,

it needs decorating, it needs attention.

There's a big old crack along there, so I'd get that looked at.

But on the positive side, what I do love is the fact that

I can see into every single room from standing here.

It makes it very welcoming and I do like a nice open hallway.

I'd say that's a bedroom, we've got a bathroom,

which will need completely updating.

A great kitchen, a lovely size.

I mean, there is a lot you can do with that.

And through here, you've got the sitting room, the lounge area,

whatever you like to call it. You could have a dining room.

There's two doorways here,

which was probably considered quite posh in the day.

But a lot of work to do and it's very spacious. I do like it.

# I like it

# I like it. #

I always love a project,

and there's no denying that this is certainly one.

And I also like a bungalow,

and they are increasingly popular with an ageing population.

This could be well worth the hard graft

of bringing this up to a really good standard.

However, hold on. If you thought the front garden was big...

Ah!

Well, at the back, there is a significant parcel of land.

0.38 acres, in fact. Look, it's huge!

Not enough to stable a horse,

but quite enough to take a more substantial property. Come on!

We're all thinking it.

This is a perfect plot for a bigger and better house than this bungalow.

Now, you could renovate, you could extend, it's worth thinking about.

But knocking this place down and making the most of this plot

is more than worth a thought as well.

As far as gardens go, this is a whopper,

with sheds and greenhouses galore.

You could put a whole swimming pool in here

and you wouldn't make much of a dent in this place.

And it got me thinking.

Now, there's scope to build a bigger property here,

maybe a bit further back from the road.

But before you get carried away, it's time to do the sums.

Say you bought the bungalow for the guide price,

around £200,000.

You knocked it down, built a four or five-bedroom place,

did it nicely, high spec...

How much are you going to spend?

200K, maybe more?

So you're into a £400,000 project.

If you go by the rule that you should spend

a third on your land, a third on your build's cost

and you walk away with a third as profit,

you'd be hoping to sell for £600,000.

And I simply can't see a house here making that sort of money.

You can pick up a large family home for well under 500,000 grand on this

road, which makes me think maybe this bungalow is worth working with.

Look, I'm not saying a possible 100-grand profit on my hypothetical

five-bedroom house wouldn't be worth aiming for,

but it does rest on lots of ifs and buts.

That possible profit could quickly disappear if it goes well over

the guide, or demolition and building costs escalated.

Are there any other options?

Well, a big plot like this could easily bear

a pair of semidetached houses, which might increase your margins.

But would it get planning permission?

Now, this street does seem to be dominated by detached homes.

What would the local estate agent recommend

for this interesting bungalow?

I would recommend extending and going up into the loft

and making it bigger that way,

because the cost of knocking it down and moving it

might not justify the final cost of the completed project.

But whichever option is viable, it all comes down to the maths.

So what kind of values will these options make?

If you extended the property and made it a four-bedroom,

you could see a value from 450 to £500,000.

If you knocked the property down and made it a new detached property,

four, maybe five bedrooms, you might push the value up to 500,000 plus.

Sounds like knocking down isn't necessarily the way to reap

the biggest rewards.

What about the renting potential?

If a bungalow is left as a two-bedroom, I think you would

achieve a figure of between £700 and £750 per calendar month.

As a four or five-bedroom detached property, the rental income

should be in the region of say £1,400 to £1,500 per calendar month.

This is a very interesting lot with lots of options.

Do you renovate, do you demolish? What would you build here? Hmm.

Let's see who had some ideas at the auction.

Where do you want to start me on this one?

190 would be a good place to start.

Tell me 180, then. 180. 180, I'm on the way.

I've got you on the left-hand side.

180. And five. 185. 185.

190. And five.

195.

The bids came fast and furious

and became a battle of wills between two bidders.

We rejoined at £240,000.

240 on the internet, I'm obliged, and 245 I'm looking for.

241.

242 I've got on the internet bidder.

243. 243.

244 I've got.

245 is against you. 245 I have.

246 is against you on the internet.

It's in the room, it's not on the internet bidder, just so you know.

At 245 for the first time.

245 for the second.

Third and final time, you're sure you're all done. It's yours, sir.

£245,000 in the room.

# If I could change the way

# I live my life today

# I wouldn't change. #

The successful bidder getting the bungalow for 245,000 was Joe.

He worked in IT for 25 years and embarked on a career change,

becoming a teacher for five years.

However, he's now decided being a property developer,

which he already has experience in, is a less stressful career.

A couple of months after the auction, we caught up with him

at the bungalow, by which time he'd already made a start

by clearing the trees and shrubbery

and also had time to come up with a plan of action.

-Joe, congratulations.

-Thank you.

What a fantastic plot!

So, what are you going to do here?

There are a number of options.

When I first looked at the property,

I was looking at keeping it as it is and then extending it slightly,

renovating it, going outwards and backwards.

And then possibly putting something at the back with a side access.

We've come up with a few other ideas as well,

and one of those is, my other half would like to keep it

for our own personal residential home as well.

Before Joe's wife set her sights on living here, the plan was to

chop the garden in half and create a new house with its own access.

-OK. So, you looked at this as a big development project.

-Yes.

But now your wife's got all excited.

She's seen it for herself and she wants to live here.

She likes the size of the plot.

We've got a Doberman and he loved it

when we came down after we got the keys and everything.

And she fell in love with it. She likes the size of the plot.

I'm still trying to convince her with a couple of other options.

Keeping the plot,

but maybe alternatives at the back at the moment.

So, do you think you'd like to build your own house here

or would you just develop this bungalow?

At the moment, I've got somebody drawing up plans

to come up with a new build.

So knock this down and build a new one on top of this

or just a little bit further back.

A larger family home, which would be at least,

if not slightly bigger than the one we've got at the moment.

Joe has already worked out some plans

and a budget for the new build.

He's hoping to spend no more than 250 grand.

If you add that to the 245,000 he paid at auction,

that's already 495,000.

Pretty much what the state agent thought

was the going price for a house here.

Still, that wouldn't matter

if you wanted to make it your home,

especially if you got planning permission

to put another house on the plot.

But is that really the best route?

Now, the bungalow as it stands is fantastic.

It's got lovely, wide rooms. You could go up.

You could go out just with permitted development

and make this a fantastic space.

Surely that's a better option for you,

and then try to get planning permission

to build a separate house in the garden.

It...it is, and that's another one I'm seriously considering,

and have been considering and I'm trying to convince my wife

that we can still do that and get away with a reasonable-sized house

even if I go back another couple of metres

and apply for planning permission.

That shouldn't be a problem.

But if there weren't already enough options,

there's another that Joe is now considering.

There's another alternative to rebuilding something at the back.

My next-door neighbour has shown some interest in selling parts

of their garden and the neighbour on the right-hand side

has also shown possibly some interest as well,

which would then give me a T-shaped plot.

If I can get access from the back,

and there is a road directly behind that,

then I'm possibly looking at anything

between sort of four to six semidetached properties.

-Wow!

-Assuming the planners allow this, of course.

Amazing! Now, that is a moneymaking development and a half!

Complicated, though, with lots of borders to haggle,

boundaries and rights of way to discuss,

and it turns out there's a covenant in the legal pack

that sets out some restrictions on what can be built.

And although he's confident he can sort that out,

this doesn't sound like the less stressful life that Joe wanted.

And first things first - Joe may have to sell the family home

to release equity for this, so he needs somewhere to live.

And he still has his wife's wishes to consider.

Maybe best to take some time to think about it all.

What are you going to be doing in the next few months?

In the next three months, it's going to be getting the plans drawn up,

submitting the plans, whether it's a new complete build

or whether it's an extension to this

and hopefully get some agreement with the planners

about what we can do at the back.

What options there are and what they would be happy with.

Joe, I am very excited to see which option you go for.

It's really exciting times for you

and this is a fabulous plot. Well done. It was a great buy.

-Thank you. Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Cheers.

So, Joe has options galore here

and I'm not sure he knows which way to turn.

What will we find when we come back?

A five-bed deluxe home?

A refurbished bungalow?

A development in the back garden? Ha-ha!

Who knows? Join us later in the show and you can find out.

Still to come, in Surrey,

a renovation that needs plenty of planning and foresight.

We're just going to refurbish the whole house.

Tiles, carpets throughout.

But in Kent, Joe finds that a bit of hindsight can be useful too.

In a way, if I had known what I know now,

I probably would have knocked it down.

We return now to the historic railway town of Crewe

where Mark and Joanne have picked up this unloved, three-bedroom

semidetached house as their first project.

Costing £98,000 at auction,

they hoped it would signal a new beginning for them

as they attempt to build a business in property development.

So talk me through exactly what the plans are.

-First things first, the roof.

-Right.

It's going on in two weeks' time and it's going to match next door.

Second job, we're waiting for the architect's plans

and that's going to hold things up a little bit.

But because it's within the government guidelines,

we don't need planning permission.

So that's three metres extension, but single-storey.

-Single-storey.

-Yeah.

The couple had a clear idea about what they wanted to do.

They thought there was a possibility they might even move in.

But although they agreed on a three-to-four-month timescale,

budget was a different matter.

-I think 25.

-I think 30.

And I think it's going to be there in between the two.

And on this one, I'm certainly going to be his labourer, however,

when it comes to making final decisions on kitchens

and bathrooms, they'll be my choices.

That's true enough.

Mark and Joanne were making a new start after being made redundant

and this house and garden needed someone to love and care for it.

Nearly ten months later, have they spread the love?

# You are so wonderful

# Being near you

# Is all that I'm living for

# You've shown me more kindness

# In little ways

# Than I've ever known

# In all my days

# Tell me we'll stay together

# Let me love you forever. #

This really is a wonderful transformation.

Top marks to the new developers on the block.

It's hard to believe that this is the same house.

The only things that are left are the joists upstairs

and the roof trusses and the windows.

That's literally all there is left.

Everything else has all been replaced. It's all brand-new.

The plaster on the walls is all new everywhere.

All the electrics are brand-new.

Brand-new central heating and plumbing systems and...

-New bathrooms.

-New bathrooms.

-New kitchen.

New kitchen, new floorboards,

new floor joists all downstairs throughout.

So, yeah, it's been...been a fair old...

A labour of love.

Yeah, a labour of love.

# The look of love

# Is in...

# Your eyes... #

There's clearly been a lot of thought behind the layout changes

and that new extension that was promised.

This was a through-lounge dining room,

which we've basically taken back to the old, we've bricked up,

so you have a separate lounge, and the old extension,

which was here, has been knocked down and totally rebuilt.

New footings suitable for two storeys

and then upstairs, every wall was stripped back to brick

and replastered.

You know, we think we've got the good finished article.

-We've also replaced every floorboard downstairs, haven't we?

-Yeah.

-Every architrave.

-All the doorframes.

-Absolutely everything.

For first-time developers, Mark and Joanne have shown great courage

in this project and the results speak for themselves.

How would they summarize their endeavours?

As a first project, I think it's far, far bigger than we thought.

I think we were probably slightly naive -

even down to the cost of skips

and how many skips it was going to cost to remove rubbish.

And how many vans we would have to hire to remove garden rubbish.

I'm proud of us both that we've done it

because, you know, at the end of the day,

we've taken on a massive task and it's come to fruition.

-You know, we've got the perfect house at the end of it.

-Yeah.

Perfect family home in a lovely area, you know?

The roof has been done to match the neighbours and looks terrific.

But the outside did present a test for their patience,

with three attempts to get the outside rendered

to the right standard.

You've got scaffolding going up three times and down three times

and it's just...

And then all the jobs are then put back because of that, you know?

The build went swimmingly well.

Almost too well, if I'm being honest with you, you know?

You don't normally see things happen in the way you want them to.

This is very true, but again, our first-timers seem to have

dealt with the issues in a calm and practical manner.

But what about that dreaded woodworm?

The woodworm was located predominantly at the back wall

and there were other areas, but it was just patches.

So the actual infestation wasn't too bad.

And all the joists upstairs are absolutely fine, so...

-So, we were lucky.

-Down here.

Well, as the saying goes,

"The harder you work, the luckier you get."

And Mark and Joanne certainly earned theirs.

So, will the numbers prove to be lucky, too?

How much did they end up spending?

-I think we are somewhere in the region of just over 40,000.

-45.

45...

Which I think probably 5,000 of that has probably gone in skips...

-There's been a lot.

-And van hire.

Van hire, skips... beyond our expectations.

That skip thing is a cautionary tale, indeed.

One of those hidden costs that can trip you up.

On a more positive note, the local scrap yard took the car,

which was unfortunately beyond repair.

Given the quality of finish, that spend is hardly surprising,

but it is significantly over their original 25 to 30 grand estimate.

I do worry when there is no clear plan for the property

that's being developed, and in this case, Mark and Joanne seem torn

between whether this is a first step into business, or their home.

So this might be the root of the overspend.

So, what is their plan?

Ultimately, we want to...

We'd like to be mortgage-free within five years

and live in an ideal home.

We have the ideal home, but we wouldn't have a business.

So, it's, you know, my head says, "Sell it."

And my heart says, "Move in, cos it's your ideal home."

So, to help them decide,

we asked two local agents to give us their opinion.

Nice modern kitchen. Centre islands are very fashionable at the minute

and I really like the fact he's put two nice big double doors

overlooking the private garden in.

I think the way they've updated this house is superb

because they've left the bedrooms quite open

for anybody to have fitted wardrobes put in if they wanted

or you could put fitted dressers and things like that

in the downstairs rooms

so I think they've done enough to make it interesting.

Mark and Joanne have invested a total of £143,000

creating this lovely house.

What could it sell for?

I think if you achieved around £200,000,

a little bit more, would be excellent on this house.

I think when this property goes onto the open market,

we'd be looking £200,000 to £210,000.

So, if you take the top estimate of £210,000

and the overall spend of £143,000, that is a potential profit

of a more than satisfactory £67,000 minus taxes and fees, of course.

Well done, Mark and Joanne.

Yeah, more than happy with those valuations, you know.

If we can get anywhere near that, I'd be more than happy.

With that input from the estate agents, what's the verdict?

Will they stay or will they go?

Do I want to drive past and every time I look at it think,

"They're living in my house"?

That's... So, you know...

There's fors and againsts for both aspects

but I think for the business side of things, we'll sell it.

It's a shame, but watch this space.

# Should I stay or should I go now? #

Uh...right, so that was a decision, wasn't it?

They've done a great job and I don't blame them

for being in a bit of a quandary.

But whether they stay or go,

I have a feeling we'll be seeing them again at auction.

Addlestone, in Surrey, began life as a quiet agricultural hamlet,

but today it has a train station as well as shops, restaurants and bars.

It also has excellent motorway links, being very close to the M25.

I'm exploring a neighbourhood

three to four minutes' drive from the town centre.

Well, in this quiet, leafy residential area

is the property I am here to see.

£240,000 was the guide price for this, a three-bedroom semi.

Now, the auction catalogue on the negative side

says it is in need of modernisation.

But on the plus side, there is extension potential.

Let's take a look.

I love that word, potential.

And it's not a bad-looking '60s house.

And since the house isn't that old, how bad could it be?

Pleasant little entrance area here.

Stairs winding up that way to your bedrooms, under-stair space.

You've got a living room towards the front there

and then straight through here to your kitchen.

It's not bad in terms of size

but modernisation most definitely required in here

and it's a room that you could make a massive amount of difference to

just by picking some nice units

and carefully converting this into something a bit more modern.

In terms of extension potential though...

Just because there is potential for extending

doesn't mean you should, of course.

It's worth thinking it through

because there is a fair amount of space downstairs.

Between the front room with the '60s psychedelic walls

and the dated kitchen, there is a dining room

which, in terms of floor space, is great

but in terms of flow, not so good.

I want to have a think about that.

There is already a small extension added.

It houses a ground floor loo and a utility room which looks...

underutilised.

And I reckon something better could be done.

Now, in general, it's always easier

to get planning permission for extensions at the back

and side of a property rather than the front so that is good news

because that is exactly what you'd want to do here.

And just looking at it, you can see either an extension out the back,

possibly one or two storey, possibly an extension at the side

over the existing single-storey bit that is there,

definitely worth doing.

How about a wraparound that encompassed the two?

At the end of the day, it would all come down to the cost

and if it was going to add that amount of value or more

to the property itself.

To extend or not extend? That might be the question.

I think I'll take a look upstairs and ruminate.

There's a bathroom, a good place to ruminate in,

and two bedrooms.

Oh, and look, up, more potential. A loft.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

However, that one definitely needs homework.

Loft conversions can be expensive.

So what about taking the focus off the bigger

and thinking about the better?

One room you might want to consider enhancing is this here.

It's your main living-dining room area.

And your first thought might be to take out

this rather large bit of wall which incorporates the chimney.

It wouldn't be too difficult.

Stick a supporting beam in there, open plan it all up.

How's this for an alternative?

This is, as I said, a fireplace

and I've seen a design which I really loved

where a fireplace like this was opened out on both sides

so you have a really nice fire in the middle

and then you can access it from both sides of the room.

It makes a stunning feature in a property

and would basically be really easy to do

and certainly cheaper than taking it out.

There are indeed bags of possibilities and lots of potential.

But you do have to remember that this is a semi

and so it will have a ceiling price.

And there is also something else

that might have a bearing on the resale figures here.

A development of over 360 houses is under way nearby.

You need to think of what kind of impact that would have

on this house, guided at £240,000, and its ultimate value.

A local estate agent came along to tell us more.

I think the new development will have an impact,

certainly, on the local area.

What was predominantly a very green belt area with open fields

which was really popular with dog walkers

has now become a housing estate.

Density with traffic and school places

certainly plays a key factor for people

when they are making decisions as to which area to move to.

With that in mind, extending might not be an option

if you're looking at this house as an investment.

What would the agent advise?

Ceiling price for a property such as this is around £390,000,

which is something you really need to bear in mind

when you're thinking about extending.

My honest opinion is the property would benefit from a minor

or small ground floor extension.

Maybe pushing out the dining area

or actually making more use

of what is predominantly a utility area at the moment.

Time to see how the maths pan out. What does the agent think?

Once this property has been renovated and kept to the original size

but with new fixtures and fittings throughout,

I'd look to achieve somewhere in the region of £320,000 to £325,000.

Well, it's certainly a lovely area

and a reasonable amount of house for the money

but it could be oh-so-much more.

Let's see who had the imagination to take this place on

when it went under the hammer.

This is lot 61. Three-bed semidetached house.

£200,000.

Thank you. £200,000.

205 anywhere?

205. 210?

210. 215?

220. 225. 230.

235. 240. 245. 250.

255. 260. 265.

266. 267.

268. 269.

270. 271.

272. 273.

274, sir?

275. 276.

275 down here. 275.

First time. Second time.

Third and last time. If you're all done.

Sold, 275. Well done.

And that final bid of £275,000 was from Heather,

who came to the auction with one of her sons.

This purchase is a family investment but first-time developer Heather

came along with her friend Helen to tell us more.

Helen, Heather, great to meet you both. Congratulations.

Tell me why you wanted to buy this place.

We're doing it really for investment reasons.

And it was my son that saw the property

and thought it had some really good potential

and which is why we went for it.

-I mean, it's a lovely little spot.

-It's great, isn't it?

It's absolutely perfect.

So, Helen, what's your involvement in all this?

I've done a bit of this before so I'm going to try and help out

and between the two of us, we should be able to keep it on track.

So, have you two worked together before?

No, actually, no, we haven't.

-Not yet.

-This is our first project.

-So you're chums but not working partners.

-No.

-Is that going to be all right?

-I think so.

-Well, you can hardly sack her, can you?

-No, exactly!

This is a family and friends project

but it's the friends that are going to be in charge of the work.

So what's the plan?

Well, basically, we're just going to refurbish the whole house.

We're going to change the kitchen, new bathroom, new downstairs loo,

tiles, carpets throughout, paint every room and the outside as well.

-The garden, just tidy it up?

-Definitely.

The garden, we'll put nice little picket fence up just to segregate it

and we'll just make it into a really pretty, cottagey, little house.

A cottagey feel in a '60s house? Hmm.

Maybe it's time for my fireplace idea.

So talking through the rooms then, this one where we're standing,

what about this fireplace?

I think we want to open it up if we can

and turn it back into a fireplace.

Now, I did have a thought which you might want to nick, basically.

-Open it up so you can see it from both sides.

-Ah.

-Well...

-It's a possibility.

As long as it draws well we could easily do that, yeah.

I've seen it done and it looks really nice.

-It definitely would work. It'd be a nice feature.

-Yeah.

-It would be a nice feature, actually.

-Watch this space.

So what about that extension?

We looked at that but then if we go for an extension

and we do an upstairs extension we'd have to go for planning permission

so that would delay the project by two or three months

so it was just a headache.

So we just decided on keeping it simple.

Obviously you've got what is a single-storey extension on the side

and that has formed the various little rooms out there.

What is your plans for that?

I think we're just going to try and make a bit more sense of that space

because it is wasted, really and hopefully

we can make it into a decent room and a nice downstairs loo.

And then keep it separate from the kitchen,

which will be essentially a galley kitchen.

They've set a budget of £15,000 for the work

and they spent £275,000 at auction.

With the value being around £320,000 and upwards, there is profit in it

but I think they are right to be cautious.

We're just going to try and play it really safe with what we do,

-keep it simple.

-Right.

-Yeah.

And if you stick to that 15 grand budget,

you need to really make sure that you're going to maximise the profit.

I think so, yeah.

-We should be OK.

-Should be OK.

-We'll see.

-Well, listen, congratulations.

-Good luck with it.

-Thank you.

We look forward to seeing how you get on.

Well, Heather certainly seems to have the right idea for this place,

however, margins are tight

so she does need to keep a close eye on the budget.

How will she get on? You can find out later in the show.

I wonder if our buyers' plans have worked out.

-Have there been any problems?

-Well, it is the day of reckoning.

Let's go back and find out.

We return now to Maidstone, in Kent,

where Joe purchased this sweet little bungalow

on a massive 0.38 acre site for £245,000.

-So, what are you going to do here?

-There are a number of options.

When I first looked at the property,

I was looking at keeping it as it is and then extending it slightly,

renovating and going upwards and backwards

and then possibly putting something at the back with a side access.

We've come up with a few other ideas as well.

One of those is my other half would like to keep it

for our own personal residential home as well.

Before Joe's wife set her sights on living here,

the plan was to chop the garden in half

and create a new house with its own access.

-OK, so you looked at this as a big development project.

-Yes.

But now your wife has got all excited.

She's seen it for herself and she wants to live here.

She fell in love with it. She likes the size of the plot.

I'm still trying to convince her with a couple of other options,

keeping the plot but maybe

alternatives at the back at the moment.

So Joe had many options here - to extend the existing bungalow,

to knock it down and build a new house, to break up the garden

and build numerous houses.

Decisions, decisions.

All relying on planning permission.

And 11 months later, the result.

We originally wanted to go with the option of a house

and basically extend the bungalow upwards

and also build a couple of properties at the back of the garden.

We didn't get that option from the planners

so I decided I would go for a side extension

and a chalet bungalow,

which is what we eventually got passed by the planners

so we've gone about four metres to the right-hand side,

half a metre or so on the left-hand side and we knocked down the front

because it looked rather ugly

to make it a little bit more appealing

and give it a wider hallway and an entrance area.

I'm wondering why, with so little of the original bungalow left,

he didn't just build from scratch.

Because they wouldn't let me build a house on here.

Their argument was there's bungalows to the left

and bungalows to the right.

My argument was there's a house across the road

which has bungalows to the left and the right.

The planners' argument was that, "Well, that was done in the past.

"We've changed the rules."

Joe weighed everything up and opted to extend the original bungalow

to create this chalet bungalow with upstairs space.

It will have, upstairs, four double bedrooms.

One, a master bedroom, will be larger,

two en-suite rooms, en-suite bathrooms,

one main bathroom upstairs.

Then downstairs, there will be three reception rooms,

one large and two double rooms, and a large kitchen and a garage.

Wow. A new house in all but name,

especially when you consider the extra square footage

being added to this property.

Well, if you just take downstairs, it's increased by just over 50%.

If you take the upstairs, it's more than double the living space.

I reckoned from the start this big plot could take a big house.

However, all the wrangling over planning

has taken its toll on Joe's six to nine months' time frame.

We got approval, in the end, in March.

Unfortunately, I got let down by my architect,

which meant I had to find somebody else

to take over the next part of it,

which was to do the building regulations plans

and he couldn't work for another three, four weeks

so we got another delay there.

And then eventually, he started working on it

and we got that approved and we are now into our ninth week.

So, we've made pretty good progress,

considering the fact that we've only had two months at it.

Joe predicts it'll take another two months to complete the work.

It's been a long battle and not just with the paperwork side of things.

The building process has proved troublesome too.

The original plan was to use the bungalow's internal walls, but...

The bricks basically were held together by the render.

The mortar inside was purely just sand

and you could pick it up, you could pick the bricks up,

so there was no other option than to actually rebuild the walls.

Add to that issues with woodworm in the joists and foundations.

Oh, this has not been an easy journey!

Joe originally did his sums and worked out

that extending was the better financial option

rather than building an entirely new bungalow.

But with all the issues he uncovered...

If I'd known at the start

that the walls inside were going to be this bad,

I think it would have been cheaper, where we've got to at the moment,

to actually say, "We'll bulldoze it all down."

So, in a way, if I'd known what I know now,

I probably would have knocked it down.

Hindsight, as they say, is a wonderful thing.

But at £245,000,

this plot was still tremendous value.

Building spend wise, how are things progressing?

We've spent approximately £45,000.

It's about £25,000 on materials

and probably around £20,000 in terms of labour costs.

It's just a basic split.

We still have quite a bit to spend.

Joe reckons his eventual spend should be around £100,000,

but he's prepared for £125,000.

If we add that higher sum to his purchase price of £245,000,

it would mean a grand total of 370 grand invested here.

We asked two local estate agents to come along

and tell us how this chalet bungalow might fare on the local market.

The appeal of the chalet bungalow that they've ended up with

is that it would be a house, yeah?

It has got an upstairs, but it is a bungalow

so could be adapted for somebody who needs rooms downstairs.

My first impression is it's an excellent house

in an excellent position on an excellent plot.

Well, there you have it. Positivity all round.

But Joe's into this project for £370,000.

So, what sort of resale value could it make?

The sales value of this property,

when completed, as I said, dependent upon a good finish,

could be from £470,000 to £500,000.

I predict a sale value for this property

to be in the region of £450,000 to £475,000.

I would probably say it's going to be around £500,000 to £525,000.

Maybe more. It depends on the finish.

When finished, there's an excellent chance

of Joe selling this property for £500,000.

If he manages to stay within budget,

he is looking at a profit of £130,000,

minus taxes and expenses, of course.

That's the kind of figure that would bring a smile to anyone's face, I think.

With those kinds of numbers,

is Joe still seriously considering making it the new family home?

If somebody offers me the right price for this,

then I probably will sell,

although I'd like to move into it

cos I think it's got a lot more potential.

We'll see what happens.

We will indeed

and we shall also return to find out how Joe got on.

We return to Surrey now and the small town of Addlestone,

where earlier, I visited the nearby village of Row Town

and this three-bed semi in need of some modernisation,

but with great potential.

It was bought by local businesswoman Heather

who, for £275,000,

had purchased it as a family investment.

And along with family friend Helen helping,

had some pretty big plans.

Well, basically, we're just going to refurbish the whole house.

We're going to change the kitchen, new bathroom, new downstairs loo,

tiles, carpets throughout.

You know, paint every room and the outside as well.

-Mm-hm. The garden, just tidy it up?

-Oh, definitely.

The garden, we'll put a nice little picket fence up,

you know, just to sort of segregate it

and we'll just make it into a really pretty, cottagey, little house.

With the more experienced Helen advising,

not to mention Heather's two sons also mucking in,

she seemed confident that this tired, three-bed semi

could be revitalised.

Six months later, we've come back to see if she was right.

Filling the gap between the two reception rooms

has actually made the downstairs feel more open and spacious

and that reconditioned fireplace

gives that cottagey feel that Heather was after.

The brand-new kitchen is bright, fresh and attractive

and leads to the previously dark and dingy extension

that now houses the brand-new downstairs cloakroom.

Even though Heather and her team haven't extended downstairs,

I think what they have done has gone above and beyond my expectations.

I just love this house.

It is just lovely and bright and fresh.

I could easily live here.

You've got a big kitchen,

you've got two good-sized reception rooms,

three good-sized bedrooms.

It's just...all of it's lovely.

Speaking of bedrooms, let's take a look.

They've opened up the area above the stairs

to create more space for the smallest of the three bedrooms.

And along with the sleek and modern bathroom,

the upstairs compliments the downstairs

with its contemporary cottage feel.

With a close eye on interior design,

Heather and her team have created a desirable, modern home,

which is also full of character and appeal,

with the newly-tidied back garden the icing on top.

But this project certainly hasn't been a piece of cake.

We literally stripped everything so it was a shell.

The loft...

We had issues with the loft - waspnests, rats' droppings.

Everything had to come out of the loft.

The driveway was just an absolute nightmare.

We didn't know what to do with the driveway

and we didn't know whether we should be spending this or that

or try and do it ourselves.

We were very fortunate with the driveway

because a company was doing several driveways down the road

so we were able to capitalise on that

and we ended up with a lovely driveway.

The fact Heather could see the quality of work being done by this company was a good thing.

However, always be cautious if people knock on your door

and offer you these kind of services out of the blue.

It often ends very badly.

I didn't spend a lot of time on site whilst the job was being done,

but both my sons were on site.

Her friend Helen was involved too

and they are all delighted with the result.

This is a high-end finish and Heather should be very proud.

So, how has she done on her timescale and budget?

Budget to start off with was quite small.

We were hoping for round about the £15,000 mark

and we kept the spreadsheet going

and we knew exactly what we were spending

and then it started to go over the £15,000,

but it was things like we wanted to change the soffit

and put the pipes all underneath,

we wanted to put a new driveway up, so things started adding up.

And, you know, it was so lovely inside,

we had to do stuff on the outside as well to match it.

It just seemed silly to do half a job.

So, the budget, unfortunately, came in at around...

It was about £30,000 after everything.

But, yeah, money well spent.

In terms of timescale,

we anticipated it taking about three months.

It took six months, but then, having said that,

we spent double the budget, but we weren't bothered by that.

It wasn't a problem because

the property prices were going up month by month

so we were happy to sit on it.

Heather was lucky she found a reliable local builder to do the work

while she balanced the books herself.

And even though it's gone over budget

with a total spend of £305,000, she's clearly delighted.

But will two local estate agents share her delight,

starting with the agent who saw it originally?

Since I last saw the property, it's come on in leaps and bounds.

The finish they've put on is really, really nice.

Nice, modern, contemporary finish

that I'm sure will be really popular with families.

The property will appeal

to both professional people with young families

and also people downsizing

because of the fact there's nothing to do here.

You can open the front door, unpack and move in.

Well, before anyone can do that, we need valuations...

..starting with rental predictions.

I'd expect to achieve probably a value of around £1,400 to £1,450

per calendar month.

The property is very lettable in its current condition

and I believe would rent for around £1,350 to £1,400 per calendar month.

Taking the highest estimation there,

that would mean a possible yield of nearly 6%.

So, what about the sale figures?

I'd expect the property to achieve somewhere in the region

of £365,000 to £375,000.

I think this property would sell for around £390,000 to £395,000.

Taking that top valuation

would mean a possible pre-tax profit of £90,000 -

a figure Heather and her team can be very proud of.

But has this experience scared her off

or is she raring to go again?

If we sell this, I would happily do another project

and maybe a slightly bigger project, now that we've done this.

And it's been such fun and it's turned out just...just great.

So, yeah, I would definitely do it again.

Well, we hope you've enjoyed watching the properties

that went under the hammer on today's show.

And we look forward to seeing you soon

for more thrills and spills from the auction room.

-Goodbye for now.

-Goodbye.