Episode 41 Homes Under the Hammer

Sometimes buying property can just be a long, drawn-out affair.

I mean, it can take ever and a day just to get that deal over the line.

Yes, there is one option that lots of people choose

that can make it easier and quicker.

Yes, so if time is of the essence,

why not head down to your local property auction

and see what you can find?

To many, property developing might sound like a walk in the park,

you buy a place, give it a lick of paint and then sell on for a profit.

Yes, but we've all seen people

underestimate the amount of effort that's involved

and the problems that can lurk around the corner.

Yes, so, let's see if today's purchasers

can tackle the issues that were thrown at them.

In Newcastle-under-Lyme, in Staffordshire,

this plot of land might not look much, but...

I honestly think this is an investor's paradise.

If I look hard enough maybe I can find a piece of paradise

at this three-bed semi in Swinton, Manchester.

Let me double-check.

Oh, no.

Manor Park in south London might be a paradise for some, but for Lucy,

this terraced house certainly doesn't smell like it.

If my nose is telling me the right thing, I can spell damp.

Going to go at 55 bid, thank you.

All these properties have been sold at auction,

and we'll find out who bought them

and what they paid when they went under the hammer.

Your lot, sir.

Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire is a market town

and, funnily enough, it's called that for good reason.

A general market is open four days a week,

selling anything from antiques to flowers, to fresh local food.

I'm heading just east of the market to see an auction lot.

Just a ten-minute walk away from the town centre,

up for auction was a plot of land approximately 300 square metres.

It also comes with planning permission

for a four-bedroomed detached property.

And here it is.

Now, I wasn't expecting garages.

Anyway, it has a guide price of £60,000-plus.

Let's investigate a little further.

# Oh-oh-oh

# We come from garageland

# Oh-oh-oh

# Oh-oh-oh... #

What I do like is a decent sized plot of land.

Now, it might not look like it and feel like it right now,

but if you get rid of all these garages,

you'd be able to see its full potential.

It's already got the dropped kerb for the driveway,

it has outline planning already in place

for a four-bedroom detached house.

I honestly think this is an investor's paradise.

You'd be barking not to see the potential here,

but before I get carried away, I need to put my sensible hat on.

Plots aren't always just about straightforward demolition

and clearance costs.

Often you've got drainage and water to sort out,

or sometimes there's unexpected things like ground contamination

to deal with and there are other expenses involved too.

As I've been walking around,

I've been searching for utilities on this plot of land

and I haven't found any as of yet.

There's nothing in the garage,

there would only be electricity in there anyway

but what I would suggest is factor that into your budget,

cos getting utilities connected can be costly.

To give you some idea,

assuming that there is a local supply,

connecting to the gas mains can cost you around £300.

Connecting to the National Grid for electricity

can cost you several thousand pounds.

Although, ironically, you don't have to look far

to find a source of electricity.

# Danger, danger

# High voltage

# When we touch... #

Next-door is a substation.

It can put some people off buying a property

and when you're looking at a plot,

it's always worth looking around the area.

Now, you have got a decision to make with this plot of land

cos when building a house, you have got to be in keeping

with your neighbours and your surroundings.

To one side, you've got flats

and to the other, we have detached houses.

Yes, you'd get a lot more flats on, smaller income, but more of it,

or one detached house would give you one big lot of income.

What you decide to do depends on who bought it

and what they want to do with it.

The current plans are for a four-bed detached house,

but if you want to change that to flats or a couple of semis,

you need to get back to the drawing board.

The local council are the ones to check with

to see what would be allowed on the plot.

Can a local agent shed some more light on what's good for this plot,

guided at £60,000?

The plot itself is reasonably large, so you've got a space to get,

you know, a detached house on here or potentially two smaller houses.

So you've got options for both.

There's demand for both types of properties.

With this one area of land being near to the hospital

and areas like that,

there's going to be the demand for detached houses for doctors

and nurses and things like that, and families,

and equally there's going to be a demand for flats as well.

I think the detached house option is a good route to go down

just based on the properties nearby, they're a gated community of

similar four or five-bedroom detached houses.

So let's get some numbers.

What could a four-bed house sell for?

It depends entirely on the specification

but a four-bed detached house in the area can go for £200,000 or more.

Another possibility for the plot could be two three-bed semis.

If you were to build three-bed semis,

it would go for approximately £130,000 or more each.

And what about a price for some flats?

Two-bed flats would be somewhere in the region of £65,000

to about £80,000, depending on spec.

Could this lot be as easy as one, two, three?

One, knock the garages down.

Two, build something new.

Three, move in or start making a return on your money?

You'd need nerves of steel or a lot of experience

to take on a new-build.

Let's see who had what it takes when it went under the hammer.

Lot 15, residential building plot,

planning permission for a detached dwelling.

55 sounds good.

Let me get it going. 55 bid, thank you.

At 55,000. 56 can I see now?

At 55, looking for 56.

56 now, 56.

57, 58...

59? 59.

60?

At £59,000, then. At 59.

60 anywhere else?

At £59,000, are we all done?

60. The bid's at 60, standing here.

61 anywhere else?

If not, I'm selling it at £60,000 for the first time.

£60,000 for the second time.

Third and final time, £60,000.

Your lot, sir, well done.

60 grand, right on the guide price, was the successful bid for Trevor.

He was at the auction with his wife, Claire, and son, Joseph.

Trevor and Claire used to run a bricks supply company

so they know a thing or two about bricks and mortar.

They also know a thing or two about renovations

as they have three under their belt, including a new-build.

Trevor is retired, well, allegedly.

I met him to find out what changes he plans for this plot.

Today's interview also had a special guest,

the ever-changing British weather.

-Trevor, nice to meet you.

-Morning, Dion. Nice to meet you as well.

-Congratulations, sir.

-Thank you very much.

You've got yourself a building plot.

-We certainly have.

-Why a plot of land and why this particular plot?

We've done a couple of houses up in the past,

buying them and actually modernising them

but it has always been a dream of mine to actually build my own house.

I've worked in the building supply industry

since the age of about 25

and seen house builders build and thinking,

"Oh, I'd like to do this, I'd like to do that."

-Now's the time. Yeah.

-"I can do that."

-Yeah.

-Is that what you're thinking?

-That's, well... I'm hoping.

Yeah, that's the hope. Yeah.

Is this what you're thinking for yourself, buying this for you?

We are undecided. Yeah.

We're going to see what it's like when it's built,

we live quite locally now, we're only about a mile or two miles away.

It's a nice spot, couple of things around here,

but, you know, it's either going to be we'll build it to sell

or to actually live here ourselves.

So, Trevor, what are you going to do with this plot of land?

OK, we want to build

a nice four-bedroomed detached house on here,

something that's got nice room sizes, nice layout,

and nice kerb-side appeal so we're very keen on the design

and look of the house from the street.

We want to try to fit into the gated community style down there,

following the style of those, erm, and...

try and build something that we're proud of

to either live in or to actually sell.

It comes with planning permission.

Are you going to stick to those guidelines

or are you going to change it somewhat?

We'll stick to the basic guidelines but the outline planning permission

is purely a footprint, there's no detailed drawings whatsoever.

It does have planning permission for a four-bed detached,

so that's what we will do.

-We might change the footprint slightly.

-Yeah.

It actually shows the garage being set back.

We actually want to bring it forward

to keep the back garden as big as we can.

And where, where are we looking without a...

sort of driveway there or driveway there?

-Just give us some indication.

-OK.

We're hoping to follow the street line of the house there,

with the garage on the left-hand side,

probably an integral garage, we've appointed an architect

who's actually going away and actually doing the design now.

We've got a meeting with the architect in about two weeks.

He's thought we'd maybe put flats on here.

We've been told no by the residents.

They don't want that, they'll object.

-But we want to build a nice four-bed detached.

-Sounds good to me.

Who's going to do your work for you? Have you got people to do it

or do you do a lot of work yourself?

No, I don't. Whilst I've worked in the building industry all my life

and mainly in the supply side of it,

we used to manufacture prefabricated brickwork

for the national house builders, I've never laid a brick in my life.

Done a bit of painting, that's about it.

But, no, I have a builder,

who is very, very good on the last house, having the construction.

The guy's brilliant, he's built about 50 houses

-and he's good.

-Experienced. Knows his stuff.

-Experienced,

-he's got as much pride in his work as we've got.

-Perfect.

Yeah, so long as his price is right, we've got the plans drawn up...

-You're getting involved!

-He'll get the job, he'll get the job, yeah.

And Trevor has a budget of £155,000 to build it.

I just hope he's factored in one key cost into those numbers.

-It's all about research, isn't it, Trev?

-It is.

If you're buying a plot and it doesn't have any services,

that can really eat into your budget.

One thing that did surprise me is that the gas is subsidised

from the cost of it by the government,

the other two services aren't

-and there's a massive differential between them.

-Oh, yes.

And it does add up to quite a few thousand pounds.

And there's a little extra, I mean,

even something like getting the street number for the house,

you know, we have to pay for that.

I just guessed it would be the next one in the street.

-Pay for everything!

-Yeah, absolutely.

So we've learned little things like that and, you know,

we can bring it hopefully to this one and make it unique.

-Good man.

-Yeah.

# Knock me down with a feather

# Clever Trevor... #

With a realistic timescale of 12-18 months,

Trevor has been really clever here,

he's using his experience and others' expertise

to create his own home.

But is the substation a shocking problem?

What we will do, obviously, at the moment,

the back of the garages screen that.

When we demolish them, we'll actually build a wall down there

and hopefully some screening of some sort to try and actually separate it

and hide it from view.

It is something that we've thought about.

We still think we can build something nice.

I'm glad it's not put them off.

He seems to have everything worked out,

but I'm wondering if wife Claire gets any input.

-Claire's favourite hobby is visiting show homes.

-Oh!

So, she's always looking at designs, room sizes,

and she will have a massive input into the design of the house...

-Perfect.

-..and the interior room sizes and layouts and that.

You sound like you've got most of your bases covered,

-you've the building work sorted, the architect.

-Yep.

-You're going to keep the residents happy.

-We hope so, yeah.

-Yeah, we hope so. Yeah.

-Listen, I wish you all the best.

-Thank you very much.

-Good luck to you, Trev.

-Thank you very, very much. Really nice to meet you.

-Thank you, sir.

So, Trevor has definitely made a decision to build a house,

but will it be his dream home or just another investment property?

You can find out which way he goes later in the programme.

This is Swinton, a town in Greater Manchester.

It's close to major motorway links,

and is between Bolton to the north and Manchester to the south.

# We're halfway there

# We're halfway there... #

Well, you certainly can't complain about access to the house

that I'm here to see. Really well supported by the road network,

with the Manchester ring road very close by

and actually to get into Manchester itself, not too far away at all.

Good schools too, so a popular residential area

which is good because I'm here to see a house,

£75,000-plus was the guide price for this, a three-bed semi.

So, what have we got? Fairly standard layout,

stairs facing you as you come in through the front door there,

leading up to your bedrooms and then into your living room.

Judging by that fire there, my guess...

Oh, yeah, and the fact there's no radiators,

I don't think there's central heating,

so that's something you're definitely going to want to factor

into your costs of renovation.

And, likewise, let me just double-check.

Oh, no. No double glazing either,

so definitely double glazing and central heating two things

that you're going to put in.

But that's good news, you can add some value by doing that,

immediately modernising the house in the eyes of anyone else

who might look around it. So a decent-sized living room

and then throw in a fairly traditional layout to the kitchen.

It's a little bit haywire at this point

because the kitchen is relatively small for the size of house.

That's because the portion of the rear of the property here,

almost half of it, is taken up with this bathroom.

Judging by the size of that,

my guess is there's no bathroom upstairs.

You know, straightaway,

is there some way of playing around with this here?

I think take out this wall,

maybe put a small loo perhaps and a hand basin down here

and maybe create some kind of little utility area at the same time

and then let's see if we can get that bathroom upstairs.

I don't know yet. So it's a good start, it's got a nice feel to it,

but one you can definitely play around with

and add value big-time too.

This, as an old school report might say, is a case of "could do better".

Reorganising these spaces would be my priority

and that would probably mean the downstairs bath has to go.

The upstairs is going to need playing around with too.

# Play with me... #

So, upstairs and our all-important question,

can we get the bathroom up here?

Well, one option, of course, would be to convert that small bedroom

into a bathroom. Not a bad idea perhaps,

although it does then drop it to a two-bedroom property

and, really, it's about whether or not you want to rent this out,

whether you want to use it yourself.

I mean, if it was just a couple in here,

then I think I would definitely do that.

The alternative way of not losing, obviously, a bedroom

is to try and find space in here.

Luckily, the front master bedroom is actually quite a nice size

so, theoretically, you could put a stud partition wall in here,

separate door into the bedroom there and a door into a bathroom here.

So there are options.

Again, it's going to come down to whoever bought this

and what they plan to do with that.

Yes, do you squeeze in a bathroom and try and keep the three bedrooms

or sacrifice the bedroom but keep two good-sized bedrooms?

Or there is a third alternative around the back of the house.

There's garden space, so you could build an extension,

you could add that much-needed space onto the rear of the property.

Again, it's about checking what you're going to use it for,

it's about checking what similar priced properties have got.

Is there a ceiling price for houses around here,

is it worth doing if you're buying it, renting it?

Lots of things to weigh up.

But certainly a house that has possibilities aplenty.

I think overall there is plenty of room for improvement,

which would add value here

and that is what we like to see in a property.

Perhaps a local estate agent can clarify things.

What does he think would be the best configuration for this house?

If it was my property and I was renovating it,

I would 100% be looking to move the bathroom up onto the first floor

so I envisage that it'd be a, you know, a two-bed property,

with a decent-sized bathroom at the end of the project.

Interesting, but what effect on the end value would that have on a house

that was guided at £75,000-plus?

Renovating it as a three-bed,

and squeezing a bathroom in upstairs,

I believe that the sale value would probably be in the region of

about £125,000.

I don't believe that sacrificing one of the bedrooms

to get a bathroom on the first floor

would make much of a difference to the sale price of the property.

I still believe that as a two-bed with a bathroom upstairs,

we'd be looking at listing, you know, between 120 and £125,000.

Hmm, OK. But surely there is a more significant effect

on its rental potential?

From a rental perspective, as a three-bed, once complete,

with a bathroom upstairs,

I would imagine that we'd be looking at something like in the region of

£625 per calendar month.

As a two-bed, I still think that we'd quite easily achieve

£600 per calendar month.

So, a good solid house

that just needs the classic renovation touches,

a new kitchen, a new bathroom perhaps,

some jiggling around, central heating, double glazing.

One you could definitely add value to

so possibly a good investment.

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

Lot 56. Good potential for modernisation

as a buy-to-let investment, owner occupation

or resale following improvement.

It's up to you, but you've got to buy it first.

Start me at 75, who's here for this?

70 bid here.

At £70,000. At 72 here.

74, 74 there. 76, sir?

Can you do it at 76?

78 behind you.

80. 80 I'm bid.

Well, the three-bed house was off to a steady start

and we rejoin the auction with bidding now at 89,000.

89.

89 and a half.

90. Not much to beat.

Silver lining.

90. Half.

Half. 91.

No. At £90,500, with you, sir.

At £90,500, against you seated.

First time, then, at 90 and a half.

Second time at 90 and a half.

I'm here to sell.

Well done, sir.

After some toing and froing, the hammer eventually fell at £90,500

and the successful bidder was Artur.

Artur is originally from Poland and together with his builder Sebastian,

has previously refurbished a number of properties in the area.

Artur, Sebastian, lovely to meet you both, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Tell me why you wanted to buy this house.

Well, I know the area.

So, good development for renting.

The house has a lot of potential.

There was a slight complication, wasn't there,

the person who owned the house before hadn't owned it

for longer than six months so did that create a problem for you?

Yes, and that's why my mortgage application has been declined.

Oh, no!

And, luckily, I took a loan from a bank,

lending money from my family and friends

and then we get it, because otherwise,

I can lose all deposit, it was £10,000.

So when did you find this out, after you'd bought it?

-Yes.

-Oh, nasty!

So this is for people who are watching us, be careful.

Read the pack and also ask the auctioneer about this kind of stuff

-to avoid the surprise.

-Yeah, of course it was.

So you must have had some sleepless nights

-and worry over that.

-Yes, yes, it was very difficult.

Many buyers have been caught out by this particular pitfall.

Lenders may well refuse to give you a mortgage on a property

which the seller has owned for less than a six-month period.

Be sure you thoroughly research this if it's a possible issue.

The bottom line is if it hasn't been registered

with the Land Registry for six months,

you might need to be a cash buyer.

So talk me through exactly what you are going to do to renovate it.

Yeah. First of all,

install new central heating,

new kitchen, new bathroom,

-new shower room upstairs.

-OK, is that an en-suite

or are you building a completely new bathroom

-and keeping the three bedrooms?

-The front bedroom,

so I'm building four partition walls, take out the chimney.

It'll be smaller, the room,

but it will still be big for a double bed and a nice cupboard

or something, plus, separately, going to the bathroom suite.

-OK.

-Still be space for the three rooms, plus the bathroom,

shower, toilet and small sink, downstairs as well.

Downstairs in the kitchen,

they aren't quite sure what to do with the layout,

they know they want a bigger kitchen

but aren't sure exactly how it will all work.

They could remove the back door to fit in more units

or they could sacrifice all the space in the downstairs bathroom.

Either way it's not going to be cheap.

What do you think it's going to cost?

I think 15, maximum £18,000.

They are planning on getting straight to work

and spending some of that £15,000-£18,000 budget.

They've got a two-to-three-month timescale to get this ready

to add to Artur's rental portfolio of four properties.

Is the plan to do more?

Yes. I'm running a Polish shop as well.

-Oh, are you? What kind of shop?

-With the Polish food.

-Great. Is that local?

-Yes, it is local.

So all the money I would like to invest in the property.

So, I hope...

-one per year.

-Right.

Listen, congratulations, lovely to meet you both.

-Good luck with it.

-Thank you very much.

Look forward to seeing how you get on.

So, some ambitious plans for Artur and Sebastian

but it seems like the team is working really well.

A few questions about the choices of what they're going to do

in terms of them moving around,

certainly moving the bathroom upstairs is a great idea,

other things probably need a bit of thinking about.

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

Coming up, a three-bed terraced house in Manor Park, south London,

that has Lucy flummoxed.

Oh, I don't quite know what this is, look!

Back in Manchester,

did Artur and Sebastian have any issues renovating the house?

I ran out of money.

But first, back to Newcastle-under-Lyme

where I parked myself at a plot of land that had 15 garages on it.

Although the neighbouring properties made this a very desirable area,

a substation, on the other hand, made it less so.

Now, it might not look like it and feel like it right now,

but if you get rid of all these garages,

you'd be able to see its full potential.

It's already got the dropped kerb for the driveway,

it has outline planning already in place

for a four-bedroom detached house.

I honestly think this is an investor's paradise.

# Welcome to paradise... #

The absence of any paradise-type palm trees or beaches

didn't stop Trevor paying 60 grand.

Trevor was supposed to be retired but he certainly wasn't ready

to sit down on a deck chair with a cocktail.

But it has always been a dream of mine to actually build my own house.

I've worked in the building supply industry since the age of about 25

and seeing that house-builders build and thinking,

"Oh, I'd like to do this, I'd like to do that,"

now's the time, yeah.

-"I can do that."

-Yeah.

-Is that what you were thinking?

That's, well... I'm hoping, yeah, that's the hope.

So, Trevor, what are you going to do with this plot of land?

OK, we want to build a nice four-bedroom detached house on here

and try and build something that we're proud of

to either live in or to actually sell.

Trevor wasn't doing this all on his own,

as he and wife Claire have done a new-build in the past

and planned on using the same builders.

They also hoped that son Joseph might lend a hand

and they'd get the work completed in 12 months.

We're back just one year and one day later.

# Cos you're right on time

# Cos you're right on time... #

So we're on time but a little bit off the original plans

which have changed from an L-shaped building

to a more traditional four-bed detached house.

The utilities were all close to the site

but it did cost four and a half grand to get them all connected

so it wasn't cheap.

And I don't think anything inside's going to be cheap either.

# You just walk right in

# Walk-walk-walk right in

# Oh

# Oh

# Oh-oh

# Oh-oh-oh-oh... #

The family-friendly layout really works well

and while there is still some flooring to be laid,

the overall effect is cracking.

The downstairs toilet and upstairs main bathroom are ready to go

and look great.

There are four bedrooms up here

and some of them have really nice touches,

like double aspect windows and fitted wardrobes.

The master bedroom benefits from a tidy looking en-suite,

so all in all, a very impressive finish and just to think,

a year ago, all this was just a twinkle in Trevor's eyes.

So how has building the dream gone?

The build has gone really, really well.

We've used a builder that we know very well

and he's got a really good reputation for quality

and he builds very much to the standard as if it was his own house.

My role in the house was really just being a nosy parker

from the builder's point of view.

The only issue that I did have was that I've actually worked

in the brick industry all my life

and we couldn't actually use the brick that we wanted to use

so I had to compromise a little bit

but I've still used my second choice of bricks

but I love the brick that we've chosen.

It's been one of my, sort of, ambitions to always build

my own house and choose a brick that I actually wanted to use

on my own house and we're very, very pleased with it.

Claire's played a major role in the design of the house.

Joseph's doing business studies at school

so I've actually encouraged him to get involved more

with the financial side of it.

My part in this house was doing spreadsheets with all the costs,

like working out the profit,

putting all the price of everything in

so we could calculate how much we were spending and if we needed to,

if we could spend more or cut back a bit.

It was a bit tiring at times, got me working a bit late,

but it was worth it in the end.

Good on you, Joseph.

A young lad who isn't shy of putting in a bit of work.

That's what I like to see.

But how's the number crunching adding up?

From a budget point of view,

we initially looked at 155,000 for a build cost,

but when we changed the planning,

we actually spent £165,000 with the builder.

The actual total cost on the whole of the house,

including the purchase, including projected estate agent's fees,

is £265,000.

Ah! Did I hear you say estate agent's fees, Trevor?

Does this mean you've come to a decision

on what to do with the house?

Our plans on whether we were going to move into the house

or sell the house has changed constantly over the 12 months.

We like where we live now.

I probably have a slight preference to living here,

my wife has the slight preference to stay where we are.

So we've actually decided to put the two houses up for sale,

see which one sells first and let fate take its hand.

We are actually in a position where someone is interested in the house

but we are still thinking, "Do we want to live here

"or do we want to stay where we are?"

So we haven't made a final decision yet

but we're in a great position to be able to make that choice, really.

Absolutely. It's a nice dilemma to have.

But let's see if the opinion of two local estate agents

will influence the decision one way or another.

The main selling points of the property, I think,

would be, first of all, the size of all the rooms.

There's a great living space and the spec,

the kitchen and bathroom are done to a really high standard.

The only negative, really, is obviously the size of the garden.

For the size of the house,

the garden that's available is quite small,

but there's obviously very little that can be done about that

-because of the size of the plot.

-Well, I think the house is great.

Love the open space downstairs,

open-plan's really popular now.

But it's quite nice as well that the bedrooms upstairs,

they aren't small, they're all nice and spacious as well.

And you've still got a separate sitting room as well, which is good,

so, yeah, layout ticks all the boxes.

I'm wondering if the valuation might influence Trevor

on which house to sell.

Can he make a good profit on his 265 grand project?

I think this property would achieve around £375,000.

I think this property could achieve between £350,000 and £375,000

on the current market.

I think the valuation of 375 is about where we actually see it.

The valuation won't really have a great deal of bearing on

whether we do sell or whether we move in ourselves.

The house we live in at the moment is probably the same sort of value.

It really is a question of us sitting down,

making that final decision which one we want to go for.

So a potential 110 grand profit is not going to sway Trevor's decision.

Perhaps Joseph can break the tie.

I don't really know. I like some aspects of this house,

and some aspects of my house I'm in now,

but it's not really my decision, is it?

Lucy's in east London, in the rather posh sounding Manor Park.

So called because of the Aldersbrook Manor House and farm

that previously existed in the area.

This then led to the naming of the train station.

The influence of the railway to the area could again be significant,

with Crossrail linking to the station,

which should cut down journey times into central London significantly.

This is likely to see house prices rise in the area,

so this could be manna from heaven for any would-be property investor.

Now, this road is about a 20-minute walk to Manor Park station which,

well, it might be a little bit far for some people,

but for a guide price of £200,000 plus, you do get a house,

not a flat with this one,

not two, but three bedrooms

and it's not very often you can say that in London these days!

That guide price does sound awfully low for London.

Do you hear alarm bells ringing, Lucy?

Oooh, now, a little bit down at heel on the inside.

It's quite cold out there.

And it's feeling quite cold and chilly in here, to be honest.

Now, there's a lot you could do to improve this.

You've got a bit of a sort of heater just stuck on the wall,

but it's really dirty.

You can see this place hasn't been touched or decorated

for a very long time.

You've got lots of woodchip wallpaper up there

that's going to need to come off.

You've got a nice sitting room there, good space, although...

SHE SNIFFS

..if my nose is telling me the right thing, I can smell damp

and I can see black splodges all over the walls,

so I'd certainly get somebody to investigate in there.

And, erm, I don't quite know what this is!

Look, somebody's sort of...

I think there must have been a door there once upon a time,

so that's got to be taken down.

Kitchen through here, really small, bit disappointing,

and into a second sitting room.

You know what I'm going to say.

I'd probably, to improve this place, get this wall down,

open up the space, have a nice kitchen, dining room.

But whoever does take this property on,

I've got a feeling they might be ordering a skip...

What do you think?

Ha-ha, agreed! And that's certainly going to be no small job.

# This mess was yours

# Now your mess is mine... #

Underneath all of this there is an OK-sized garden, but what a mess!

# Your mess is mine... #

The back of the kitchen here, the very small kitchen,

you've got a little door leading out to the very messy garden,

and another door here,

which surprisingly houses a large shower at the back and a loo.

Now, it's always good to have a downstairs toilet,

so I'm pleased about that.

Something that is glaringly obvious, in my eyes,

that I would need to get sorted out,

is this big, old damp patch up there.

Now, I'm not sure whether there's water leaking down from the roof,

but I'd certainly get an expert in to have a look at that,

because you just never know how much something like that

is going to cost to repair.

Of course, the space the flat roof extension creates is terrific,

but the quality of the roof and the structure

needs to be taken into account.

The kitchen needs to be more family friendly,

so removing a wall seems the right solution here.

Opening up the utility room

and stealing space from the downstairs bathroom could also help,

but definitely leave a downstairs toilet.

And how about some patio doors into that garden?

Once it's cleared, of course!

Upstairs, there's another bathroom and three bedrooms,

all pretty grimy, showing signs of damp

and in need of full refurbishment.

Although it's fairly spacious,

there is a possibility of a loft extension,

to make it four bedrooms.

Now, wouldn't THAT be something?

What does a local estate agent think about the house,

and the best way to maximise its potential?

It's going to need a full development programme on it.

I'd potentially lose the downstairs bathroom,

give myself a bigger kitchen.

There's a nice bathroom on the first floor, which is a good size as well.

So I think layout's actually pretty good.

I wouldn't necessarily mess around with it too much at all.

And would there be any merit in extending into the loft?

In terms of loft conversion,

I don't know how big a loft conversion you'd get

with the property. There's not a great pitch on the roof.

By putting a dormer on the back, you'd create space,

but head height would be a potential issue.

I suppose it's see what the architects say,

and see where it goes from there, really.

OK, so the jury's out,

but what price difference is likely to be seen

between a three-bed and a four-bed house?

As a three-bedroom property,

once renovated the property's going to achieve somewhere in the region

of about £370,000-£380,000.

As a four-bedroom property, you're going to be looking somewhere

in the region of £400,000-£410,000.

And the possible rental returns?

As a three-bedroom, the property would achieve somewhere

in the region about £1,500-£1,600 per calendar month.

As a four-bedroom property, rental figure you'd be looking around about

£1,700-£1,800 per calendar month.

Does it need renovation?

Yes, it does.

Is it in an improving area with Crossrail coming?

Well, yeah, that's a positive too.

Could it be a good one to go for?

I reckon it might be.

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

Right, Lot 33 is mid-terraced house.

So, Manor Park, popular area.

250 anywhere?

250 sitting down.

255?

255 with you.

Got you, thank you. 260?

260...

But after a slow start, the bidding for the Manor House lot picked up,

and we rejoin it at 292,000.

292. With you, 292.

294. 296.

298. Round off to 300, one more crack?

300. 302.

302. 304.

Back to you, 302.

First time.

Second time.

Third and last time. It's against you. Third and last time...

Sold, 302.

Out of the sight of our cameras,

the successful bid of 302,000 was made by Sean.

Sean is a builder by trade and this is his first property purchase,

and it seems he was all revved up and ready to go and meet Lucy.

# Motorbiking

# Motorcycling... #

-Sean, congratulations.

-Thank you very much.

How happy are you to have got this on auction day?

Erm, mixed feelings,

it wasn't what I was looking for, but I put in a bid,

my hand went up, the gavel went down and I got it.

Did you view the property prior to bidding?

-No.

-So you didn't even see inside?

-No.

So, when you saw inside for the first time,

what did you think and were you pleased?

-Erm... No.

-Was it in worse condition than you expected?

No, no, no. In fact, it was...

I didn't have to do a lot of stripping,

the wallpaper is already off the wall.

It was already in the condi...

No, I was all right with it.

Got a bit of rubbish clear out to contend with.

I mean, that was a bit of a shock to walk in and see that!

-That was a shock.

-Wasn't it?

-Yeah. It's about 250 a skip,

that's about £500 worth of rubbish out there.

Absolutely, I mean, that's before you've even started.

That I wasn't expecting.

-Who's going to have to lug all of that rubbish out?

-Moi.

-# Change is down to you

-Change is down to you

# Oh, didn't you know?

-# Change is up to you

-Change is up to you... #

Yes, so Sean is not afraid to muck in and get his hands dirty,

but what changes inside the house is he looking to do?

I think just putting a lick of paint on it

and putting it back on the market won't get me much money.

I think we need to add an extra room,

so we're going to go for full loft conversion

on a permitted development. Put another bathroom upstairs

so it's going to have two bathrooms, four bedrooms.

Take the bathroom away from downstairs

and make that a much bigger kitchen.

It's sad to lose the toilet downstairs,

but we're going to create another one in the loft area.

That's great, you're still going to have two loos, which is fantastic.

I'm going to keep the quirky old roses and some of the old features.

-Yeah, lovely.

-Everything's going to be nicely re-plastered,

brilliant smooth walls, new sockets, new radiators.

What about the damp, because you can smell the damp,

you can see little areas of damp sort of around?

Especially at the back of the kitchen,

there's a sort of damp patch at the top.

Yeah, the damp at the top is a roofing issue.

We'll take the old felt off, put it back down and we'll reseal it.

I think most of the damp in the house is condensation.

I don't think it's rising damp.

Once it's aired out a lot better, better placement of the radiators,

we should be fine.

So, come on, tell me, budget?

I've got £20,000 and I hope to do it within £20,000.

-And that's a loft conversion as well?

-Yes.

So, being a builder, surely you know a timescale, don't you?

We're looking at three months, four at worst.

So, yeah, three, four months.

Is it going to be you on your own or you and a team of people?

Me and family.

We're not paying ourselves wages,

we've got a budget which we're going to use on materials,

and we'll do the work and then when we sell the house, payday.

You have to admire Sean, he is fully committed to making this work,

but with the issues in this house, it's not going to be an easy ride.

# Motorbiking Motorbiking... #

So, now, how are you planning on getting to work with all your tools

and bits and pieces you need on your motorbike?

-How's that going to work?!

-If you live in London,

you know it's very difficult to drive any vehicle in London,

so I've got all my stuff in storage, get a van, get everything here,

got to buy a locked safe, lock it all up,

and come in by bike every day. Put my kettle on, have my tea,

get to work and then off on my bike, easy-peasy.

You're quite excited, aren't you?

You're really excited to get stuck into this project,

and it's so lovely to see somebody that finally,

after learning their trade, is putting it into practice themselves.

It's something that, a lot of people always told me to do it, you know,

you've got the skills. I'm actually a gas engineer myself,

I'm actually a qualified electrician.

I've actually started from building,

I've done a lot of loft conversions for people.

But, yeah, doing it for myself, yes, I'm going to enjoy it,

-I'm really going to enjoy it.

-Sean, I really mean this,

I'm so excited to see the development,

and I think that's because you are doing it yourself.

-Congratulations, and good luck.

-Thank you very much.

-Well done.

Thank you.

So, Sean has big plans to completely transform this property,

although I don't envy him clearing out that garden by himself.

Join me later on in the programme

and you can find out how Sean gets on doing it for himself.

One buyer down, two to go.

Yes, did they pass go and collect £200, or go straight to jail?

Well, let's hope it didn't come to that, Martin. Let's find out.

Back to Swinton now,

where I saw a three-bed semi that had seen better days.

It needed modernising throughout,

a central heating system and double glazing,

which is pretty standard stuff. But...

It sort of goes a little bit haywire at this point,

because the kitchen is relatively small for the size of house.

That's because the portion of the rear of the property here,

almost half of it, is taken up with this bathroom.

And judging by the size of that,

my guess is there's no bathroom upstairs.

And I guessed correctly. So you could think about

possibly moving the bathroom upstairs somewhere,

or maybe leaving it downstairs.

Decisions, decisions.

The person who bought this house for £90,500 at auction was Artur.

Luckily, his friend Sebastian is a builder,

and together they had thought that they'd figured out what to do here.

First of all, install a new shower room upstairs.

OK, is that an en-suite,

or are you building a completely new bathroom

and keeping the three bedrooms?

By going the landing, foregoing the front bedroom,

so I'm building four partition walls, take out the chimney.

It will be the smallest room but it will still be big for the double bed

and nice cupboard or something.

Plus, separately, going to the bathroom.

So, have they managed to find space for that upstairs bathroom?

We're back, bang on schedule, three months later to find out.

And, yes, they have.

Building that partition wall and losing the chimney breast

means they now have a decent-sized shower room,

which is modern and smart.

The three bedrooms have also been transformed.

The walls have been freshly re-plastered

and there's now double glazing and central heating.

With new carpets and neutral colours,

the place feels like a new house.

But what's happened downstairs?

The chimney breast has gone and so has the dividing wall,

which has been moved back to open up the room a bit more.

They've certainly rejigged the layout almost everywhere,

but why did they decide to keep a bathroom with a full-sized bath downstairs?

I thought it would have worked better as a downstairs toilet

and utility area, which is probably better suited to a three-bed house.

What do they think?

We thought just one small bathroom in the upstairs

would be not enough.

That's why we decided to keep originally the bathroom downstairs.

Upstairs, lots of people like it for the shower, it's quick,

but downstairs, for the bath, if people move in for the small child,

you must use it from the bathroom.

The shower, no chance to use it for the shower for

three months child, yeah?

So that's why probably I think it's the best way with full bath, yeah?

I guess that's a fair point - kids do like to splash around in a bath.

Artur and Sebastian had given this renovation a lot of thought

and care, which, it seems, has impressed others, too.

Plenty of neighbours is very impressed

because everybody has got only two bedrooms upstairs,

and bathroom and I'm doing three with two bathrooms.

I think they've done a great job with the space

and the finish is contemporary and neutral.

Sebastian's team have worked hard and tackled messy jobs,

like plumbing and plastering, but what was the worst bit?

The chimney is a fierce work because it's the most

difficult and most dirty job.

So everything is...

Me and my friends were working together.

Sebastian's team managed to get the job done just within

the two-to-three-month timeframe, but there was one stumbling block.

As we all know, money doesn't grow on trees.

I had just one main problem, I ran out of money!

This was a reason we

maybe took longer than we thought, but three months is a good result.

But unfortunately because we chose better quality tiles and shower,

you know, the budget has gone

up to 25,000.

But this is OK, I think, for what we have done.

Going more like the full-scheme house.

Yes, I agree, Sebastian.

The budget may have gone up to 25 grand, but it is like a new house.

So, what now?

Now it's time for renting out

and get back a little bit of money!

They went for top spec here

and the whole outlay for this house now sits at £115,500.

So we've asked along two local estate agents

to see if it's been money well spent.

First impressions are that they've done a fantastic job.

I was concerned about the possibility of them leaving

the bathroom downstairs, which they've done,

but the fact that they've got in a shower room upstairs,

and the finish of the property, retaining the three bedrooms,

getting in two bathrooms, I think that they've done

a really, really good job.

I think it was a wise move to keep it a three-bedroom property,

because obviously there's more value in a three-bedroom property and

there's more demand as far as sales and rentals go

for three-bedroom properties.

So, the guys did well not to lose that third bedroom.

But what about that overspend?

Well, Artur has spent £115,500,

and the agents think it could sell for between 120 and £130,000,

so he could make a small pre-tax profit of up to £14,500.

But Artur is hoping to get his money back via rental.

Properties around here, three-bedroom properties,

we'd normally rent for around £600 per calendar month.

With this particular property, because of the standard of finish,

the way it's been presented,

I'd be looking at a rental valuation of 725 per calendar month.

I think that the true rental value of the property is probably in the

region of £700 per calendar month.

However, given the standard of the property, and given

that they've retained three bedrooms with two bathrooms,

and that supply and demand at the moment dictate

that potential applicants can't find quality accommodation

and that properties are letting really quickly,

we'd probably achieve a little bit more than that and

I'm guessing that we'd achieve £725 per calendar month.

Yeah, it is just what we thought.

Maybe slightly less.

We think 750 is the right...

answer for this quality

and, actually, we already find a tenant,

probably we'll move tomorrow.

It's nice tenant.

Nice people because otherwise it would be a shame to

destroy our work!

I'm sure the new tenants will love living here

and Artur will love getting a yield of almost 8%,

which is a good return.

It just goes to show that in competitive markets,

spending a bit more money on a rental property

can really bear fruit.

Back now to Manor Park in east London,

where Lucy saw a three-bed house that needed some serious work.

There were signs of damp, especially in the extension,

and it needed a full scheme of modernisation.

There were positives, good-sized rooms and two toilets,

one downstairs, and a bathroom upstairs.

The downstairs layout wasn't ideal for modern living.

The obvious solution was knocking down that wall.

That would sort it.

But there was something unexpected to sort, too.

But whoever does take this property on,

I've got a feeling they might be ordering a skip.

What do you think?

The man who needed a skip hire company on speed dial

was builder Sean, who paid £302,000 for this.

He planned on doing the bulk of the work himself,

including clearing the garden,

and he wasn't going for just any old repaint-and-sell-on job.

I think we need to add an extra room.

So we're going to go for full loft conversion,

on a permitted development.

-Really?

-Put another bathroom upstairs.

It's going to have two bathrooms, four bedrooms.

Take the bathroom away from downstairs

and make that a much bigger kitchen.

Sad to lose the toilet downstairs but we're going to create

-another one in the loft area.

-So that's great.

So you're still going to have two loos, which is fantastic.

Well, he certainly had a bit to lose here,

as his big plans were a lot to take on, pretty much on his own,

not to mention in a three-to-four-month timescale.

So it's exciting to see what's happened here, five months later.

Wow! Sean has certainly been grafting hard.

Just getting all that stuff skipped must have been a monster task.

The garden was in, like...

There was about a week of carrying stuff but three skips at £300 each,

that's £1,000 of skips.

We thought we saw this expensive designer watch,

which was normally, what, 5,000 but it was a fake copy.

So a bit disappointed!

The air-raid shelter was a skip, so we cleared it out, cleaned it up.

It's a man cave now and the doors open out so if we get a

zombie apocalypse, they can't get in.

Well, not sure about the walking dead,

but the walk-in shed is far more appealing than what was here before.

But let's leave talk of zombies behind

and get back to the real world, to see if the rest of this house

has been brought...

# Back to life, back to the present time

# Back from a fantasy, yes. #

This house has certainly been resurrected.

Sean removed that wall and got rid of the ground-floor loo to create a

nice, big, open-plan kitchen-dining space.

All the damp throughout the house has been taken care of,

the walls replastered and freshly painted,

with only a few finishing touches to be done.

Upstairs, the three bedrooms have been redecorated and the bathroom

has also been modernised.

But Sean didn't stop there and has taken it up a level,

quite literally, by converting the loft space.

He's added a fourth bedroom with an en-suite and he has been living here

while tackling this build almost all on his own.

Tough or what?

It wasn't too difficult, really.

I do... I'm a builder, I do lofts all the time.

It's done on a permitted development,

so it wasn't really much of a problem.

It's a tricky size, tricky shape,

but it's my property and I'm more working to cleanse the spec

so I can do what I want and make it an easy build for myself.

So no problems, really.

Sean has been working on his first project for five months

and hasn't been taking a wage in order to make his 20-grand budget

spread as far as possible. So what has been his total spend?

25, maybe, but no more.

If I had that much more money, so, 25,000 has covered the whole budget.

It's mainly materials.

I've had one or two casual labourers work with me

and I had to get a mate of mine

to do the roof but generally, 25,000.

I only had 20 to start with and I had to borrow from Mummy to get 25.

I really enjoyed the build.

I love building.

My dream is to build, I'm a builder.

And if the right price comes along, and I sell it,

I'm quite happy to go and do this all over again.

I really enjoyed it.

Well, it's time to find out if the prices are right

from two local estate agents. Let's see what they think of the property

before giving us their valuations.

We saw the property about five months ago.

Really impressed with what they've done with it today.

Looks great, looking round the property,

very impressed with the finish. I like the way they've put the

kitchen into the second reception room

and a nice tidy-up on the garden.

I think the loft conversion's a great addition as well.

There's a real big demand for four-bedroom properties in

the area currently. We find that they seem to sell very quickly

in this marketplace, due to the fact we've got bigger families these days.

It's a slightly cheaper area to be in, so yeah,

it's a really good idea to have done it.

I think the ground floor layout definitely works well

within the size of the property. It's definitely bright and airy.

It's got natural light coming through and, in my opinion,

he's done a very good job.

To be honest with you,

having an extra bathroom on the ground floor

would definitely help sell a property. So, in my opinion,

I don't think he should have lost the ground floor WC.

OK, well, let's see how those opinions translate

into profit for Sean.

He spent a total of £327,000 but what could it sell for?

For sale, in this market at the moment, I'd say

you're looking in the region of about 430 to £440,000.

I would value the property in the present condition it's in

anywhere between 400,000 and 425,000.

I was expecting 1.5 million...

Well, he's joking!

At least, I think he is.

Beggars can't be choosers so yeah, not too bad. I'm happy.

Well, it is London so maybe if he held on to it, you never can tell.

All joking aside, with those real valuations,

Sean stands to make a profit of anywhere from 73 to 113,000,

less fees and taxes, of course.

So he must be pleased with his first project going so well.

Really happy. I really, really enjoyed it.

I get to do what I want, no slagging lists any more!

Very, very happy.

I can't wait to do another one.

I'd love to do another one, yes.

Really happy. Really happy, especially if I get this money.

Yes, very happy.

Property auctions attract all manner of people with different stories.

And we have followed thousands of them, all over the years.

So make sure you join us next time for more here on

-Homes Under The Hammer.

-See you then. Goodbye.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.