Episode 5 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello and welcome to the show.

Lucy and I love the world of property.

It's exciting, it's challenging

but there's nothing quite like that thrill of negotiating a good deal.

And we know somebody who feels just as passionate as we do.

Ah, Mr Dion Dublin, in you come.

Thank you very much.

Great to be here, thank you.

People know me as a footballer

but I do like my property developing.

And I can't wait to get involved with you guys

on Homes Under The Hammer.

Now, guys, as you know, getting a good deal isn't always easy but

one good place where you could start looking would be an auction house.

Yeah, hundreds and hundreds of properties are sold at auction

up and down the country every month.

Let's take a look at today's three properties sold under the hammer.

In Crayford, no roof, no walls, no property.

But there are big plans.

This is going to be a nice brand-new house on a nice road.

Whilst in Plaistow, I've got a ceiling

but I'd love to get rid of it.

They've really gone to town. It's everywhere as well. Wow!

I don't want to demolish any of this property in Wheelock, Cheshire,

I'd love to build another.

Gr-rr-rr!

This is the money. It's a building plot any day of the week.

All these properties were bought at auction and we'll find out

who got them and how much they paid

when these homes went under the hammer.

Yours, sir.

MUSIC: Get on The Right Track, Baby by Ray Charles

Today I've journeyed to a Kentish town called Crayford in Dartford.

Now, it's taken me just 35 minutes to travel here from London.

The annual price of a train ticket may put some people off

because it costs over £1,600,

so quite a tidy sum.

But the average property price here is around £200,000

compared to over 380 grand for a house in the capital.

Now, I'm not promising your train will come on time,

the signals are positive, and moving here, well,

it could put your financial situation back on track.

# Get on the right track, baby

# Get on the right track, baby

# Get on the right track, baby

# Yeah! #

It's certainly a cheaper alternative to city living

plus you benefit from a less hectic life here in the Garden of England.

Well, the guide for this lot was set at £70,000-£80,000.

Now, that doesn't seem very much money.

Well, that's because, well,

you don't get very much, I'm afraid.

No fixtures or fittings,

no bricks, no roof because, yes,

you've guessed, viewers, it's land.

Now, when I say, "Not very much money," in some parts of the country

you get a lot of property for that kind of guide price.

While here, um, well...

# Nothing!

# Nothing at all. #

This narrow bit of land, well, it doesn't seem very appealing.

But it's land with garages.

No, you're still not excited, are you?

People will pay for storage,

parking, perhaps,

but that is not going to really bring the cash in, is it?

Well, I've got some good news.

This lot comes with planning permission

and that makes it much, much more valuable.

Now I've got your attention!

# You're looking good...

# You're looking good

# ..to me

# To me. #

Well, it's looking a bit better now, isn't it?

"Yes, Lucy, it is," I hear you cry.

The planning allows the new owner to demolish these garages

and replace them with a detached two-bedroom dwelling.

Fantastic news.

Now, this is what it's going to look like.

Quite big from the outside.

You've got loads of windows there, letting lots of natural light in.

The roof isn't going to be pitched, it's going to be a little bit flat

along the top with loads of skylights in.

Again, it's going to be light and airy upstairs.

You've got a really nice big open-plan living room,

there's a kitchen, study and dining room.

And, interestingly, you get three parking spaces.

I'm looking on these plans, I can see one, two, three parking spaces.

So, there's obviously a bit of an issue with parking along this road.

I know I can see lots of yellow lines.

So, you know, for me it ticks a lot of the boxes.

This is going to be a nice, shiny, brand-new house on a nice road.

# Shiny happy people holding hands

# Shiny happy people laughing. #

The house in the plan is in keeping with the house across the road

except, of course, that this one will have an extra floor.

So, a plot with plans in a residential area,

you know that's quite a find.

Now, I can imagine you're sitting there thinking,

"House-building is not for me."

It's a lot to take on.

Well, it may interest you to know that each year

more than 20,000 people self-build a new home.

The attractions of building your own home are obvious.

You get the layout just as you want it and if you're prepared to spend

time with planning you can be fairly imaginative and innovative.

Alternatively, with your developer's head on,

this could be a nice little earner.

It's flat, it's got planning permission for a nice-looking house

and there are probably services nearby.

What does a local estate agent reckon about the plans

for a two-bedroom detached house on this plot,

guided at £70,000-£80,000?

The plot, I think, is relatively straightforward.

Obviously, any prospective buyer should look into drainage issues,

soil tests should be carried out and really they should probably

go down and speak to the local planning office.

It's always worth trying to work with your local planning department

even if you think it's straightforward.

Does the agent think the current plans are worth sticking with?

Given the size of the plot, I think it's been maximised

to its full potential as far as planning's concerned.

With the 70,000-80,000 guide price, and build costs at around 100,000,

could such a house give you a decent return?

If the property was built today and we were marketing it under

the current climate, we'd recommend an asking price of £250,000.

And with rental figures in the order of £800 per calendar month,

this could be a decent long-term investment.

A plot with planning that could stand to make profit

in a great location. What is not to like?

Let's go to auction and find out who bought it

when it went under the hammer.

Building plot for a detached two-bedroom dwelling.

It's in a residential area.

70,000, can I see?

Give me 65, see if there's a steal here.

65, I'm bid. 65, and 70?

Not big money.

At 65 I have, 7 I will take, if you like.

Another 2. 67, I'm bid. Fill it up to £70,000.

£70,000, I'm obliged.

72 now, it's against you.

£72,000, then, are we all done at £72,000?

74?

£74,000 I've got, 75 bid I have.

76, now, if you like. 76, may I say?

One more?

If not, at £75,000. Are we all done at £75,000?

76, I have.

I have 76 by the wall, 77 I'm looking for.

If not, at £76,000 then I will sell for the first time...

76,000 on the left-hand wall for the second time...

Third and final time, at £76,000 is it all done?

£76,000, thank you very much, sir, and your number, please?

Friends and business partners

Mark and Jim were a little obscured from our view

but their successful bid of £76,000

certainly wasn't missed by the auctioneer.

Jim, on the left, is an experienced builder

while Mark is a plumbing and heating engineer.

They've built up some expertise in solar panels

and they've got their own company together

specialising in renewable energies and renovations.

So, boys, you were the lucky two to have won this on auction day.

76,000!

-Pleased with the price?

-Not too bad, yeah.

-So, tell me,

how much did you know about this lot going up for auction?

Well, we had a little bit of insider information.

-We live only about three miles away.

-Yeah.

And I'd done some solar panels for the builder that owned it,

so I rang the site foreman and asked him was there any nasties in it,

any hidden things and, no, it was just, um,

I think they just needed to free up some cash for a bigger project.

Now, usually, Mark, what we say is, "Read the legal pack,"

that's what you must do to find the hidden nasties,

not phone up the man that owns it.

Did you get a chance to read the legal pack?

We did, on the morning of the auction, yes.

We had a look at it, yeah.

So you did your homework thoroughly?

Yes.

What was it about this site that made you want to bid for it?

It suited the price range, for a start.

Then we wanted to build something that we could put solar panels on

and to advertise our own business.

In most cases, solar panels can be added under permitted development.

But you'll also have to meet building regulations.

Mark and Jim want to stick to the plans

that come with the piece of land

while adding a little bit of an eco-friendly touch.

# It's not that easy being green. #

How much do you think it's going to cost you to build

that type of property?

About 100,000, ballpark.

Are you going to sort of do it at mid-range?

Yes, a mid-to-high, depending with the agents -

if they tell us we can get a little bit more if we fit out

a better kitchen, a better bathroom,

then we'll do whatever, you know, is required.

We'll be doing it to a good standard anyway, like. It's, um...

Because there's only one way to do something, is do it right.

And is that what you do, Jim, is that how you work,

-your ethos, you know, you do it well...?

-Yeah.

-You do it thoroughly.

If it's not done well, it's not done.

And Mark and Jim should avoid delays

by leaving the plans just the way they are.

# I take you just the way you are. #

They'll hope to sell it on but are prepared to rent if necessary.

Now, the pair have known each other since childhood in Ireland

and while they've worked together on various projects

this will be their first new-build.

We have lots of work projects on at the moment

and this will be, like, our project when we're in-between jobs.

So, it'll be very quick, quick, slow.

We might do nothing for two or three months

and then we might be two or three months on it and then pull off again.

So, yeah, it's like a private job

when we don't have any big projects on.

What do you work like together?

I mean, obviously, you're mates, what's it like working together?

It gets very monotonous if you don't... If you can't have the craic,

as we say in Ireland, you know?

Got to have the craic. You've got to have those big old smiles

Well, it's been fantastic meeting you today. Good luck with this.

-Thank you.

-Can't wait to see what it ends up looking like.

-Well done, thank you very much, Jim, Mark.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Nice talking to you.

The boys have full-time jobs alongside this project

but they have been realistic with their timescales.

My worry is, when they come to sell this, what will the market dictate?

Will they be forced to rent?

You can find out if the boys are still having the craic

or will there be cracks in their relationship?

Join me later in the programme and you can see what happens.

This is the residential area of Plaistow

in the London Borough of Newham.

The good thing about being in a city

is that you can have all kinds of homes next-door to each other.

From a tower block to a nice, quiet, family terraced row of houses.

The property I'm here to see

is a three-bed mid-terrace with a guide price of £200,000.

'Well, the outside is slightly scruffy

'but there are some nice original features and I don't think

'it would really take much to lift its all-important curb appeal.'

OK, small hallway here.

Quite tight, actually, in here, quite claustrophobic.

Into... Wow, a really big sort of lounge/living room area.

With a lovely bay window, as well.

But this ceiling, I've never seen anything like this before.

They've really gone to town. It's everywhere as well. Wow!

# Everywhere I go. #

And it's not just a textured ceiling that needs changing.

Throughout the downstairs, it'll need to be modernised.

Not just for aesthetic reasons but for safety reasons, too.

What I have noticed, as well, is the staircase over here, no banister.

It is a narrow staircase

but you still have to have some kind of protection here.

If you've got children in this property, dangerous,

they could quite easily fall off the staircase.

The kitchen, to me, on first look, seems to be OK.

Just needs a bit of a clean-up.

The cupboards seem to be intact.

Get this touched up, it'll be no problem at all.

Yes, I think the kitchen worktops

and units might be usable with a bit of elbow grease.

But the real negatives here are the signs of damp

and a downstairs bathroom and toilet.

Never ideal from a layout point of view but it's the condition

of them that's perhaps more worrying, with more signs of damp.

I think I need to check outside to see what's going on.

Out here into the back yard.

Completely slabbed but I've got to draw the eye to this guttering,

or should I say, lack of guttering. There's nothing here at all.

Completely bare,

I've never known a guttering been done with paper before.

# You know it ain't right to treat me like you do

# You know it ain't right to treat me like you do. #

Paper stuffed into holes in guttering is never going to work.

And it's not just the guttering I'm concerned about -

that flat roof extension generally isn't in great condition

and from the state of the downstairs bathroom,

I suspect the roof has seen much better days

and the back area as a whole really isn't that appealing, either.

I think I'd kick the old storage shed into touch and replace it

with maybe something like a summer house and then spruce up the rest.

I think it could make for a decent patio area.

There's certainly a fair amount to be done here

and a fair amount of money to be spent.

There's more to see here. Let's hope it's a game of two halves.

OK, upstairs, with the three bedrooms here.

The large one here goes to the back of the property.

Smaller one here, which you could have as an office, maybe,

even a single bed, as well, you'd get in here.

Or even a little nursery,

I think the nursery feel would go down well for a family.

And through here into this...

Another small bedroom but not a lot to be done up here.

I think it's fine. Bit of TLC and we're sorted.

Phew! Well, that's a relief.

It's not fantastic up here but it doesn't look like it would need

much spending on it to get it up to scratch.

And with London prices what they are,

this could be quite a nice investment.

What does a local estate agent think?

This property would probably appeal to families or people working

in the city that want to not commute too far, live in this area.

So, there's certainly a ready market for this house.

There is, of course, the option of losing a bedroom

and moving the bathroom upstairs and creating a bigger kitchen.

Is that an option worth considering?

In my personal opinion, I wouldn't move the bathroom upstairs

because you'll be losing a bedroom which will basically reduce

the rental amount in the property, as well.

OK, so certainly from a rental point of view,

keeping the third bedroom is a must.

But how much could a three-bed house in this area rent for?

Once this property is redecorated and carpeted throughout,

it should achieve anything between £1,400-£1,500 per calendar month.

And how might this house, that was guided at £200,000,

fare on the resale market?

Once this property is refurbished,

it would go in the region of £280,000-£290,000.

This is potentially a lovely three-bed family home

with a nice big lounge, as well.

But there are two things you would have to sort out.

Firstly, for safety reasons, the banister.

That would need to be sorted out. And those ceilings, as well.

But who was willing to take on the Artex challenge

when it went under the hammer?

Lot 16, three-bed mid-terraced house.

Start where you wish to.

200?

200 on my right.

200, 205?

205.

210, sir.

215, madam.

Yeah? 220.

225. 245...

The bidding goes quickly in increments of £5,000

until it became a battle between just two bidders.

260.

We rejoin the bidding at £270,000.

270.

271.

272.

273.

274.

275.

276?

276.

277.

278?

278?

277. Down here.

278 elsewhere?

277, first time,

second time, third and last time, if you're all done?

Sold, 277, well done.

So, for £77,000 over the guide price,

the delighted new owner of a three-bedroomed mid-terrace house

in Plaistow was Jane.

Jane worked for 25 years for the London local authority

but two years ago took a brave decision to give it up

and concentrate full-time on property developing.

I met up with her at the house to find out more.

-Jane, nice to meet you. Congratulations.

-Thank you.

Well done.

Tell me, firstly, about the auction experience,

what was it like for you?

It was really exciting. I'd never been to an auction before.

I spent a bit more than I wanted to

but I really wanted to get the property.

Why this particular property?

OK, it's about ten minutes' walk to the Tube, it's in a...

Well, very close to a regeneration zone - just up the road,

-they are regenerating the old West Ham Stadium.

-Yes.

-So...

-I know that very well.

-I think it's an ideal area

and hopefully I will rent it for a few years and then sell it on.

This will be Jane's second development project.

Her first was a flat which she refurbished and now rents out.

And she will use the same team of builders on this project.

What are your plans in order to turn it around?

Well, um...

new kitchen, new bathroom and the roof above the kitchen

may well need to come off

and that's the thing I'm probably a little bit anxious about

because we're not quite sure what we're going to find under there

so that could be a minor job or it could develop into something bigger.

You may have noticed the ceiling...

Yes, the beautiful ceiling. How could you miss it?

Obviously, we're going to take that down.

We're going to redec the whole property.

-We're going to wall this in.

-Yes.

And just, basically, give it a complete refurbishment,

do a little bit of work at the back

-just to clean up the slabs, perhaps relay them.

-OK.

-Just fully refurb, really.

-So, tell me about your budget.

My budget I'm working to is about 25,000.

We'll see how that goes.

And timescales, as well. Tell us about your timescales.

We're looking at about eight weeks.

We've got a team ready to go,

so we'll just get in and do as much work as we can,

as quickly as possible.

Well, Jane definitely seems to know what she's doing.

But this is in the early stages of a new journey for her

and she's moved from a job with relative security and a pension

into the more uncertain world of property developing.

# I want to see you be brave. #

Jane, tell us how hard it was to leave your job.

Was it a frightening decision to make to leave a secure job

and go into something that you just wanted to do?

It was quite frightening. I'd been there 25 years, it's a long time.

I'd done a number of different roles.

Initially property management

and then I moved into sort of client managing external contractors.

-So, I got an idea of what it would entail.

-Clever!

I learned how to negotiate with builders and skills like that

but I just wanted to have a chance to be my own boss.

Not look back and think,

"Oh, I could have done that and I just didn't."

So, it was the right time for me to leave.

It's a bit of a risk but I think that the property market

the way it is at the moment it will be OK.

Jane, good luck. I hope everything works out

and I look forward to seeing how you get on.

-Thank you.

-Good luck, take care.

I've got to take my hat off to Jane for being so brave.

Leaving a job of 25 years

and entering the property development world.

And this is her first house venture. So will she do well?

I certainly hope so. You can find out later on in the programme.

Coming up, in Wheelock, Cheshire,

I'm feeling a little like Doctor Who.

The inverse Tardis principle -

it's a lot smaller inside than it looks from the outside.

And in Plaistow, Jane has been doing some doctoring of her own

to the inside.

Once you get started, you just have to keep going, really.

Back now to Crayford,

where I went to see an auction lot guided at £70,000-£80,000.

But it had no kitchen,

bathroom, bedrooms,

water, electricity,

doors, windows,

roof or even walls.

Because, yes, you've guessed it, viewers, it's land.

But what it did have were some garages

and planning permission for a detached house.

Now, this is what it's going to look like.

Quite big from the outside.

You've got loads of windows there, letting lots of natural light in.

The roof isn't going to be pitched

it's going to be a little bit flat along the top.

You've got a really nice big open-plan living room,

there's a kitchen, study and dining room.

So, you know, for me, it ticks a lot of the boxes.

This is going to be a nice, shiny brand-new house on a nice road.

Enter builder friends Jim and Mark,

who paid £76,000 at auction.

And they did a bit of unorthodox research on the property.

So I rang the site foreman and asked him

was there any nasties in it, any hidden things

and, no, it was just...

I think they just needed to free up some cash for a bigger project.

Now, usually, Mark, what we say is, "Read the legal pack,"

that's what you must do to find the hidden nasties,

not phone up the man that owns it.

The two had set a timescale of around 18 months.

We're back FOUR years on, so maybe there were some nasties after all.

Did they finally manage to achieve their plans?

Yes, they certainly did.

Where there were old garages there's now a light living space.

There's a very modern downstairs toilet,

there's also a spacious kitchen-diner.

Heading upstairs, Jim and Mark have created two bedrooms

and a lovely bathroom.

I really like how they've used the structure of the roof

to create those quirky doors.

Jim is currently on holiday visiting his sons in Australia -

lucky for some -

but Mark has come along to talk us through the property.

We had to demolish the garages and remove all the rubble from site

and then we had to do the foundations.

Build up the outer and then the inner course is actually timber frame.

And then the outer course, we had to get a bricklayer in

and brick lay all that.

And obviously then the roof

and then it came inside to all the finishing touches.

Halfway through, we kind of made a decision to finish it

to a slightly higher standard than we were at the beginning

and I'm glad we have now.

That decision to upgrade the finish looks like a good one.

But they've also made a decision to change the plans downstairs.

On the plans, it did actually have a wall

that went from the centre of these two windows to here.

There was actually a doorway here into what would be a dining room,

a study or a third bedroom.

We spoke with a couple of agents

and they always said that a third bedroom would probably add more value

to the property but it was really down to the last minute,

we had to make a decision.

Mark and Jim certainly did a smart thing.

They surveyed potential buyers to find out

if this space should be an office or a bedroom.

We just made the decision,

right, just knock it down and now we have a nice big kitchen-dining room.

But only two bedrooms, so we'll see if we made the right decision.

Other decisions needed to be made that were much more difficult.

Jim and Mark specialise in energy-saving building techniques.

There's a government code for sustainable homes

which covers design and construction.

And code three energy requirements are now incorporated

into most building regulations.

So what sort of thing does that mean?

Stand by for some really techie eco-friendly stuff.

Code three is, for instance, on the floor, the ground-floor level

when we done the screed,

it would normally have 100 mil of insulation, we had to put in 120.

It's kind of even higher again than your standard building.

We have, actually, six solar panels on the back of the property,

that are unseen,

so the customers will actually get approximately £100 free electricity

a year but not only that, for the next 20 years

they will actually get a cheque from the government.

So it's about 20% more efficient

than a standard, off-the-shelf house, if you like.

And it even goes down to making sure that you have a space for your bike.

And for those of you who prefer four wheels to two wheels,

there's also three valuable parking spaces.

However, the site's previous existence as garages

meant soil tests had to be carried out, at a cost of £6,000.

Connecting services, another six grand.

They didn't manage to start work on the house

until two years after I first met them as they didn't have the funds.

Given the standard of the house and its green credentials,

I'm guessing that £100,000 budget might have been stretched.

But Mark has a good reason

for not being certain about the final figure.

My secretary, Sinead, went on maternity leave

and she brought the file home with her to tot it up.

She then, her waters broke, she went into hospital and she's had

a beautiful baby girl, Aine, and we haven't had any figures yet.

But we are about 200,000, I think.

So, 100 grand over budget, two-and-half years over schedule,

let's hope there's some good news from the agents.

Did the boys make the right decision in making this just a two-bed house?

There will be a market for it just because it's located

so close to the station, people will really like that factor.

I'm very, very impressed with the property.

I feel the builder has paid a lot of attention to detail,

produced a good finish

and an attractive house, as well.

I feel the layout as it is is probably the best it could be.

I think trying to squeeze an extra room into that kitchen-dining room,

it would detract from the kitchen-dining room.

I really like this eco-friendly house

but it has cost a total of £276,000 to create.

So the big question - will these boys make a profit?

I would expect to achieve a sale price

in the region of £320,000-£330,000.

This property could resell for £300,000-£310,000.

Wow, that top valuation of 330,000

could mean a potential pre-tax profit of £54,000.

So what does Mark think of that?

The first one is kind of in line with what we were expecting so, yeah.

Anything over 330, I think, would be a bonus.

Jim and Mark plan to sell the house and having spent so many years here,

they're going to relax and take some family time.

But was the building process a good craic, as they promised it would be?

On-site, that's sort of the Irish motto, if you like,

if you're on-site, there is a lot of banter

and maybe the air might be blue in certain areas

but that's just the way you work -

you gee each other on and you just get the job done.

I'm in Wheelock, a small village on the outskirts of Sandbach,

near Crewe, in Cheshire,

with the Trent and Mersey Canal passing through it.

It really is a lovely spot.

With its history lying in the old saltworks,

Wheelock is now a popular area for families and commuters alike,

with good rail and road links to Manchester

and into the rest of Cheshire.

Its name derives from the Welsh for winding river,

so time to swan over to the property I'm here to see.

Well, for a little village, there's certainly a lot of houses

sort of dotted about, some of them in quite nice locations.

This one, for instance, that was up for auction is down this road,

which does throw up a question straight away - who owns the road?

Who's responsible for its upkeep?

All things your solicitor needs to check out and that's even before

we've got to the house, but that is the house that was up for auction.

A three-bedroomed semi-detached, had a guide price of 125,000 quid.

Nice location, settled a bit high up, nice garden - looking good.

# Say hey good-looking

# What you got cooking? #

OK, so what does the inside have in store?

Let's find out.

Stairs up to your bedrooms there and then through into the lounge.

Nice bay window. Er... Hm, a bit of a dated fireplace.

Hmm-mmm. Not quite as big as I thought

it might be from the outside,

but you come through there into the rear of the property,

where you've got a fairly dated kitchen,

It's not a bad size, I suppose, but it just feels like everything

so far, a little bit claustrophobic for some odd reason.

Off the kitchen, a shower room and, yeah,

there's a loo in there as well. Er...

It's...

It's just not working for me yet.

# I just don't know what to do with myself... #

Now I think you know by now, I'm not one to be negative,

but I was pretty excited about this place.

However, the dated decor and cramped surroundings

now have me scratching my head.

So, upstairs, you have your three bedrooms

and two are fairly small ones, and then across this way to...

Well, it's not a bad size and it does have the benefit of a...

HE CHUCKLES

..a wardrobe conversion, is what I can call it.

There's actually a loo in there now,

so you do have an upstairs toilet facility,

but it's not what I'd like to see in this kind of house,

which should be a really good family home, so all in all...

The inverse Tardis principle -

it's a lot smaller inside than it looks from the outside.

Essentially, I just don't think this house does what it says on the tin.

# Look into my eyes

# Would I lie to you, baby? Would I lie to you? #

Yes, it's a three-bed semi,

but the rooms aren't anything to write home about

and you'll certainly need to create a bathroom up here somehow.

So lots of work to do inside, how about outside?

Well, thankfully, there is light at the end of my

disappointment-it's-not-a-bit-bigger tunnel,

because the house itself doesn't come up to scratch, however,

the garden is huge so there is the possibility for an extension,

either something at the back there, something that wraps around,

either way, often it can really ruin the sense and feel of a property

by building an extension on it, but not in this instance.

It's crying out for it. It needs to be bigger!

Well, as ever, you'd have to get planning permission,

but the space out here adds some much-needed potential.

And, guess what, it gets better.

Now, did I mention the garden was big?

Well, it really is very, very big

and not only have you got that little area over there,

you've got this plot here and the moment I thought this,

I thought, "This is the money!"

Because it's got a separate entrance there,

it's a really good size,

it's surrounded by new-builds, it's fairly flat...

it's a building plot any day of the week and I reckon you would

have a very good chance of getting the planning people on your side.

There is only one small fly in the ointment

and that is that, apparently, there is some kind of mains sewer

travelling across the plot,

which would affect both the extension on the house and also

something you build here, but that isn't an insurmountable problem.

You can build things like concrete bridges over underground sewers,

all sorts of stuff.

You've got to find out where it is and you've got to factor in the cost

of doing it into your build costs, but this...

This could really be a big earner.

Be in no doubt though - to make money here,

you're going to have to spend money and plenty of it.

# It's not about the money, money, money

# We don't need your money, money, money

# We just wanna make the world dance

# Forget about the price tag... #

But with a guide price of just £125,000 that might be a good bet.

We've asked a local property expert along to give us his opinion.

First impressions of this property when I first saw it

were a little bit dated, needs some work doing.

The fact that I was drawn to immediately

was the size of the plot

and the potential it had to extend to the side of the property,

particularly maybe four bedrooms, integral garage,

en suite off the master bedroom and retain a good-sized garden as well.

Just as I thought.

So let's consider values and see if an extension would be worth it.

If they were to improve the property as it stands,

I would consider the value, resale value to be £165,000 to £170,000.

If they were to extend the property to the side

and improve it to a good standard,

the resale value I would consider to be £225,000 to £230,000.

So adding an extension could mean a £60,000 increase in valuation,

plus an extended property would fetch around £700 per calendar month

as opposed to just £550 if it was left as it is.

It's all food for thought.

Well, for once it's not the house that delivers the excitement here,

it's the potential of what you could do with it

with those extensions and that building plot.

For 125,000, suddenly it's sounding like a bit of a snip.

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

Three-bedroomed semi-detached house, good-sized plot, off-road parking.

100 can we say? Got to be... 100 bid. Thank you at £100,000.

110 can I say now? 110 bid, thank you. 115?

120. At 120. 125?

New bidder, 121. 122.

123, 124, 125.

Got you, 126. 127.

128. 129. 130. 131.

132. 133. 134. 135.

136. 137.

No? £137,000 sill with you, sir.

If not, I'm selling it at £137,000 for the first time.

£137,000 for the second time.

Third and final time at £137,000.

Yours, sir. Well done.

The successful bid came from father-and-son team Brian and David,

who live in nearby Nantwich.

Having recently retired, Brian is hoping

that this first renovation project together with his son

will pay dividends for both of them and lead to more in the future.

-Dave, Brian, great to meet you both.

-Nice to see you.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Tell me why you wanted to buy this semi?

We know the area and there's the girls grammar school,

boys grammar school, and the primary schools got Ofsted outstanding,

-so families want to live in this catchment area.

-Right.

-Tell me about you two then. Father and son?

-Yep.

-Both in the building trade since whatever?

-Not at all.

My father was in the care industry.

I came out of university and wanted to get into building,

so I've been working in his business for quite a while,

looking after his properties.

-Right.

-We came up with the opportunity of doing this,

so thought we'd jump and try and get into property developing.

If I put a picture up, it would fall down the same day,

so I don't do any manual work at all.

-But why now?

-I sold the company after 20 years or so. I'm unemployed.

-And rich!

-I'm the money man. Well, he thinks I am.

-He's the money, I'm the worker.

-He's spending it.

So you've got a bit of cash behind you now?

-That was the thing, yeah.

-Right.

Brian and David know their roles then,

but it was a bumpy start at the auction.

When we went to auction, the legal pack -

and we watch your programme and learnt everything about it -

the legal pack wasn't available till 20 minutes before the auction,

so my solicitor didn't see it, so I read it

and, at one point, we didn't think we'd bought the land at the side,

because the lady that lived here for years and years and years

-used the land but she never owned it.

-Oh, wow.

It was only latterly she bought it, so we were...

We were nervous.

We thought we might have bought a little house on a little plot

but, actually, it didn't, we had bought the whole lot.

So then, what are we going to do with it?

We're going to have an L-shaped wraparound extension

with an integrated garage, a big living area,

kitchen area at the back with bifold doors,

and go upstairs and have a new fourth bedroom with an en-suite.

Two-storey extension there? Wow!

So planning permission going to be needed for all of that then?

Yeah, yeah, that's in the pipeline at the moment, so fingers crossed.

Let's talk about the plot, though,

because as soon as I saw that, I went, "Wow!"

The potential must have hit you when you first saw this.

I know there are issues with the sewerage, but you can get over those

by bridging it with concrete bridges, all that kind of stuff.

I think to try and squeeze another house on the side,

we'd literally just be doing it for the sake of making a profit

and, personally, I'm more interested in making a good quality house

than an extra few thousand.

I'm sure Dad will disagree with me there slightly,

but I think the extension work will bring enough profit

out of this house and I'll be happy to walk away

and say we've made a good house. We've done a good job.

The boys have big renovation plans for the existing house

and Brian's budget of £50,000, plus a £10,000 contingency

reflects the scale of the work required.

They've set a timescale of six months

and then it's going on the market, and Brian is expecting good results.

What kind of potential profit do you think there might be here?

The target is 50,000.

If we don't make 30,000, we will be extremely disappointed.

If this can be a good four-bedroom family home within a very quiet,

sought-after area, and if he does what he should do

and makes sure that when you next come, you say,

"Ooh, this is done to a very high standard,"

I think we can put a premium price on it.

Breaking even would not be acceptable

and losing money certainly wouldn't be acceptable.

-Not for the first house, absolutely not.

-Good luck with it.

-Thank you.

I hope the house is improved and your relationship survives.

Only time will tell.

Well, it's nice to hear Dave and Brian

acknowledging that it's not always just about maximising the profit,

it's actually doing a job you're proud of.

Well, that certainly Dave's view anyway.

Will there be family squabbles?

Will they get it done in time and on budget?

You can find out later in the show.

We've seen how one property fared, but what about the other two?

Yeah, shall we have a look and see if they stuck to their budgets?

Take a look at this.

It was in East London and the area of Plaistow where we first

came across a three-bedroomed terraced house.

With bay window, authentic pargeting and character features,

from the outside this house looked full of charm. But inside...

Oh, dear.

This ceiling, I've never seen anything like this before.

They've really gone to town. It's everywhere as well. Wow!

So, cosmetically, this house was a little rough

and it was starting to show its age.

And with no banister rail on the stairs,

a rather sorry-looking, leaky rear extension that housed the kitchen

and the only bathroom, and with two of the three bedrooms best described

as compact, it wasn't quite living up to the promise it showed outside.

So lots of room for improvement which, of course,

actually meant it could be a perfect investment opportunity.

Which is what rookie property developer Jane was hoping

when she purchased it from auction.

Sold 277. Well done.

And this house was to be Jane's biggest renovation to date

after stepping away from a career in local authority housing,

a job she had done for 25 years.

I just wanted to have a chance to be my own boss, not look back

and think, "I could have done that, and I just didn't."

So it was the right time for me to leave.

It's a bit of a risk but I think the property market

the way it is at the moment, it will be OK.

# This is my time to hold the world within my hands

# Let 'em know I'm here

# That I've got no fear. #

Yes, it's never easy changing careers after such a long time,

as I well know, but with a budget of £25,000,

she was hoping, with the help of a builder, to get it ready

for the rental market in just eight weeks.

And now, bang on that eight-week schedule,

we're back with Jane to check on progress.

For me, the major change was just the light downstairs,

because it was so dark and at one point

I was thinking it was not going to look good at all, but...

It just makes it a bigger house.

It certainly does.

Goodbye textured ceilings

and the rest of it's not looking back either.

I'm so glad Jane has resolved that dangerous staircase. Very nice too.

But, upstairs, there's something I didn't expect.

OK, well, previously this was divided into two.

There was a corridor here

and one tiny bedroom here, which was only really big enough for a cot

and then one single room,

so what we've done is we've put it back as one big double bedroom

and I think it just works much better this way.

# Yeah, it's always better when we're together... #

Yes, there's no doubting in this case

it's better to have two bigger bedrooms

than three of those compact single rooms.

And outside to the rear it's also looking much better

with a storage shed looking smarter and being put to good use.

I'm glad to see that like me, or any of us, Jane doesn't favour

the eccentric guttering solution and she's tackled that damp issue.

How we sorted out the water leak in the kitchen was that there

were some problems with where the chimney met the roof,

so all the flaunching had to be replaced there.

We took the roof off, cleaned it all up

and also replaced all the guttering.

The drains were also blocked at the back

and what had happened is the render had soaked up all the water

into the walls but, once the drains were all unblocked,

that resolved that problem.

Well, I think this place is a winner and a credit to Jane's builder

and her project managing skills.

They actually completed the work in just seven weeks

and she's only £2,000 over her original budget, spending £27,000.

You can't kind of half refurbish a whole house.

Once you get started, you just have to keep going really.

A £27,000 spend on top of her £277,000 purchase price

takes Jane's total cost to 304,000.

But is her texture-free house

now smooth and sophisticated enough for the local market?

What do two local estate agents think?

I think the owner has done a fantastic job with the renovation.

What really works is the kitchen and separate toilet and bathroom.

I think the property has been renovated to a very high standard.

The kitchen is brilliant.

It's very light and bright and the bedrooms are fantastic,

and it would make a lovely family home.

I think what this property could've benefited from

is a separate reception.

This could've been achieved by putting a partition downstairs

and moving the entrance further down the hallway, underneath the stairs.

I think converting it back to a two-bedroom house is much better

than a three-bedroom house, as the two front bedrooms were very small.

Jane wants to hang on to the house and put it on to the rental market,

but having spent £304,000, is it currently a good investment?

I think that this property would resell

for £285,000 to £295,000.

As a sale value, I anticipate this property can sell for £300,000.

I'm a little bit surprised.

I think they're a little bit on the low side,

but I'm not intending to sell,

so it's not really an issue for me at the moment.

Good thing too, as she may be currently looking at a small loss,

but then, as she said, it was never about the resale.

It's rental values that count.

I think this property would rent for £1,200 to £1,300 per month.

For rental purposes,

I feel this property can achieve £1,300 per calendar month.

I think they're good rental values.

I'd be pleased to get that, so that's good.

It's pretty much what I expected.

That top rental figure of £1,300 per calendar month

would give Jane just over a 5% yield,

but is it enough for her to continue pursuing her new career path?

Yeah, I'm very keen to carry on.

I've got three rental properties now

and I'm hoping maybe to buy another one at auction. I enjoyed that.

It's really good to buy property that needs a lot of work

and then work it through and see what improvements

you can make to it, so I'm hoping to carry on.

-MARTIN:

-We return now to Wheelock, in Cheshire,

where this three-bed semi seemed to defy normal dimension conventions.

It looked big enough on the outside but inside...

Er...the inverse Tardis principle -

it's a lot smaller inside than it looks from the outside.

But while it was small on the inside,

outside was a very different story.

This is the money because it's got a separate entrance there,

it's a really good size, it's a building plot any day of the week.

Brian and his son, David, decided to take this on

as their first renovation project together,

paying £137,000 at auction.

It was clear right away how their partnership would work.

If I put a picture up, it would fall down the same day,

so I don't do any manual work at all.

-I'm the money man, well, he thinks I am.

-He's the money, I'm the worker.

He's spending it.

Well, spending money is one thing, time is another.

They had a six-month timescale.

18 months later, we're back.

As they promised, they've added a two-storey extension

and that's allowed for a number of layout changes,

like downstairs, moving the staircase

and then putting the kitchen in the extension.

This means the house has lots more space.

And upstairs, increasing the square footage has allowed them

to have a family bathroom and a master bed with an en suite.

That's a big improvement

on the cupboard conversion toilet of before.

Plus, they've improved two existing bedrooms and added another.

Phew! I think that everything but let's check with Brian and David.

Given the size of the house, I'd pour another cup of tea.

This is going to take a while.

The original plans for the project have held straight through.

Total L-shaped wraparound extension, two storey, built-in garage.

In terms of what we've done, what work we've done,

is easier to say what we haven't done.

The only original part of the house that's left is the brickwork.

Because the extension was so large and such a big part of the project,

it seemed silly to try and patch up old things in the original house.

As my dad will tell you, I don't patch things up.

If it gets done, it gets done right the first time.

Every time there was an option, he took the most expensive option.

So if you look at the doors, for instance,

I'd like these doors in my house. Have you seen the door handles?

All the fittings?

They're beautiful but every time he came with an option,

it was always the most expensive that he took.

# I want to thank you, Mr Perfect

# For finding so much fault in me... #

So, Mr Perfectionist David has really shown

the quality of his work here.

They decided not to build another house on the empty land.

Wise decision, as doing just the existing house

was an all-hands-to-the-pump job.

So did Dad get involved?

With regard to my DIY skills, or lack of DIY skills,

I still lack them, Dave has done this.

All I've done is provided the money up until the last three weeks

when the race has been on and we've been here till gone midnight,

decorating, painting, cleaning,

otherwise we'd have never finished the job

and I'd like to show you my blisters.

The last three weeks really should have got some recognition.

-The painting was OK.

-THEY LAUGH

Perfection takes time but it helps if you've cost it beforehand

and you don't have to wait for planning permission.

That's not what happened here.

When you buy at auction and you take the property very quickly,

then you really want to go for it.

David had to waste a lot of time in the early stages just clearing

out really because he didn't have the permission to move.

We didn't really sit down at the start of the project

and hammer out the full price and everything that was going to cost.

We'd never done a project this size before with the extension,

so we didn't have a clue on the prices of materials and such.

And I remember telling you that I'd bought a house at auction

and then you destroyed it.

-I've made it better.

-Now you have, yeah.

While we're talking about money, I'm almost afraid to ask.

In terms of the budget, you'll recall that I set £50,000 aside

with a contingency for £10,000,

and that proved to be wholly inadequate.

In fact, it got to the stage when every call David made to me

was more money, more money, so we've doubled the budget,

but I'm very proud of what he's done and it is beautiful.

So there you have it.

£100,000 later

and lovely it is, I agree.

And I'll bet these two estate agents think so too.

I'm really impressed with what they've done here.

The extension is absolutely fantastic, very high specification.

The layout works very well.

They've included bifold doors, which is very popular at the moment

and I like the fact that they've done quite a large live-in kitchen.

Perfectionism has cost £100,000

on top of the £137,000 purchase price.

And that brings the total investment to £237,000 and - big gulp -

remember, the first time we were here,

the agent thought an extended property

could sell for £225,000 to £230,000, so can they possibly make a profit?

If this was on the sale market, I would put it at a value of 245,000.

The value of the property I would consider now to be

in the region of £245,000 to £250,000.

The top valuation would mean a potential pre-tax profit of £13,000.

So what do they feel about that?

We were really hoping to get 275.

Given the amount of land that's here and the size of the property,

we thought it would've commanded more than that.

In fact, they've decided to put the house on the market

for offers of 275,000 to 300,000.

Meanwhile, father and son have plans.

I sold my company, bought a lovely place in Cornwall,

got two smashing dogs and I enjoy life.

I've no intention of getting any more blisters on my hands,

so I would like him to have his own money

and for him to go on to build his property portfolio.

Yeah, I totally agree with that

and as soon as he transfers that money into my account,

then he can go back down to his lovely home down there

and I'll carry on working up here. That's fine.

Well, that's it for today's show.

Join us for more properties from the auctions

up and down the country next time.

-Yeah, you wouldn't want to miss it.

-See you soon. ALL: Goodbye.