Episode 7 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello, and welcome to the show.

Now, the housing market can be turbulent,

so sometime's it's difficult to know when to make your move.

Yes, and you know what, just best not to jump in feet first.

Take your time and consider your options.

Yes, and one of those options is to see what's on offer under

the hammer.

Well, buying at auction is not a way of procuring property that

-everyone considers.

-Yes, and it's not as intimidating as you think.

There's great value and great variety to be had.

Yes, so let's see what caught the eye of our three

buyers on the show today.

In Ripley, Derbyshire this terraced house has some, let's say,

interesting light features.

Oh, dear, that's no good. Ha.

But fortunately things are looking much better in this four-bed

property in Erdington, Birmingham.

I think you would get yourself a bargain.

And we're leaving the best for last with this three bedroom

mid-terraced house in East Ham, London.

It really could be the icing on the cake.

All these properties were bought at auction,

and we'll find out who got them and how much they paid for them

when these homes went under the hammer.

Well, nine miles north east of Derby is Ripley, believe it or not,

and up for auction was a two-bed mid-terrace,

guide price £46,000 plus. This is it, bit of garden at the front, sort of.

Yes, that is definitely what you call a low-maintenance garden.

But what have we got. Uh, OK, so front sitting room.

A nice size in here, seems fairly decent condition,

no nasty horrible damp smells.

Stairs in the middle, a very classic design for this kind of property.

And then through into your rear sitting room.

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

A-ha, he says, speaking too soon. Look down there.

What's going on there? Some signs of some kind of surface mould.

Now, that could just be the property has been left unoccupied over

the winter or whatever,

and that's the result of it just not being lived in.

Hopefully, that's the only problem, because it is an internal wall.

Rising damp is obviously the other possibility there.

Very classic design though, through there and then into your kitchen.

Well, you know, it looks like it needs a bit of tender loving care,

but it's a decent size and the good news is I can't see a bathroom,

cos I was expecting to see one out from the kitchen there,

but there isn't one, which is good news.

Well, it's either there isn't a bathroom, which is unlikely,

or it's upstairs, which is good.

Yes, the downstairs bathroom seems to be a continual issue with

properties around this era.

So it's a relief to find there isn't one here.

It's also a relief to see the house is a good size at a very

reasonable guide price, so let's find that bathroom, shall we?

# Seek, and you shall find... #

So, top of the stairs and bedroom to the left.

Decent size and to the right a really good sized room,

probably about four metres square, which is fantastic.

A bit of a cupboard here, ooh, and actually roof access.

Oh, dear, that's not good.

Now, whenever you look around properties it is really

really good practice to try and see into the roof space.

In this case, you don't need to

go up there to see light coming through.

That's not ideal, cos if the light can come through, so can the rain.

So, obviously some roof repairs required.

But now, the answer to where the loo is. Yes ,it is upstairs, woohoo.

Unfortunately, you can only access it through this master bedroom,

which of course isn't ideal. Now, there are various solutions I guess.

Putting in some kind of corridor or partition wall to get to it.

You know what, you're going to lose a lot of space if you did that.

So, depending I guess on who bought this, depending on their own

personal circumstances, will dictate what they do.

If it was just a young couple or whatever, then maybe just

having the bathroom here off their bedroom wouldn't be an issue.

MUSIC: One Way Or Another by Blondie

While it might suit some, it's going to put some buyers off.

It's nearly always the bathroom that's the let down.

Wrong access, wrong floor or wrong colour.

But moving on from toilet troubles.

So, at the back of the property something good

and something potentially problematic,

because through this little gate here we have a kind

of passageway, which has part of the property over the top of it.

It is what's known as a flying freehold.

Now, when talking flying freeholds they're not necessarily

a problem, although some mortgage lenders don't like them,

but you really need to know a bit more about the legal status,

for instance, of this little passageway.

Who owns it, who's maintaining it etc.

Does somebody else have the rights to walk up and down here?

It's all stuff which your solicitor needs to check out

and then hopefully that won't be an issue.

So that's the potentially problematic thing,

the good news is the garden. Look at that.

Absolutely massive, goes all the way down to those sheds.

It's long and thin,

but I reckon if you chop down this privet hedge you'd increase the

width, and then you've got a really really pleasant little garden.

trees at the bottom. Brilliant.

So, a good little house, though not without its troubles.

We invited along the auctioneer who sold the property to find out

what it could be worth.

My first impressions of the property are that it's tired,

it's down at heel, it wants some fresh life breathing into it.

Now that's not unexpected, because this is a property where it's

been owner-occupied for something over 25 years.

It's very difficult to keep property up-to-date.

So, you walk in here and you look at it and you think, yes,

it needs a new kitchen really,

it probably needs some improvement to the central heating system,

it probably needs some improvement to the wiring.

There's traces of rising damp, the decor's a bit dowdy.

So, it becomes in the end of the day a fairly full

schedule of renovation.

There's a bit of work to do here, but once complete,

what could this house, with a guide price of £46,000, be worth?

For sale it would have an asking price of around £110,000.

For rental, £475 a calendar month.

So, a nice little property in a popular location.

A few bits and pieces to do to sort it out,

not least something to do with the roof.

And also those flying freehold issues, or potential issues.

Who bought it? Let's find out, when it went under the hammer.

Lot number 20.

There is a commission bid on this,

and I will start the bidding at £52,000 on a commission bid.

So the bid is with me at £52,000 and it is in the market,

it's going to go.

At £52,000. Raise it to 53, somebody.

52 I've got, 53. 54.

55. 56. 57. 58.

59. 60,000.

61. I've finished.

At 61,000. 61, 62 somewhere.

61 is the bid, 62.

Once the commission bids were out of the way, there was

some back and forth bidding.

We returned when bids had reached 67,000.

67 at the back. 500. Sure?

£67,000. 500 elsewhere. At 67,000.

Going once. 500. 68.

68 5.

You sure about that?

£68,500. Second row bid here.

Once. Twice. Third time.

GAVEL BANGS

Sold at £68,500, thank you.

# Build my baby up build him up... #

With that successful bid was builder Andy. Although the hammer fell at £68,500,

after some discussions he got the property at £65,000.

I met up with him back at the house to see what

he had in store for the place.

Andy, great to meet you. Congratulations.

-Thank you very much.

-Tell me why you wanted to buy this house.

Just an investment potential, really.

Right, so is this something you do?

I do kitchens and bathrooms, that's what I've got as a company.

Oh, great.

General property renovations, but this has got good potential.

You know, it's not in too bad disrepair really.

And you've obviously done other ones before.

I've built before, I've bought land a couple of times before,

and I've built a couple of times, but I've not actually bought.

I've done loads and loads of renovations for other people,

complete renovations, but I've not actually done it with my own house.

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

Well a full back to brickwork renovation, to be honest.

It needs a rewire and it's only got a gravity fed boiler,

so that's going to have to come out and put a combi in.

A lot of the walls as you can see is artex,

so to try and skim over them is going to be a nightmare,

-so it's probably going to be a chisel back to brickwork.

-Oh, wow.

All reboarded, new plaster, new door linings, architrave,

skirting board, doors. New kitchen, new bathroom, everything.

And the roof's scaffolding's coming on Friday

and I'm doing the roof next week.

I was just going to say there are a few issues with the roof.

It's not actually that bad, it could probably be repaired,

but for the money I can re-do a new roof, it's just not worth bothering.

How much is a new roof costing?

Well, I can do it for not a great deal,

just over £1,000 for materials.

Oh, really, well, your expertise obviously.

This has not got felt underneath it,

cos obviously the period of the house.

So, we'll put new felt, new laths, new tiles.

Probably use concrete rather than slate, and that'll be it watertight. Job done.

MUSIC: Ain't No Sweat by Major Lance

He makes it all sound so easy, but I can assure you,

the renovations on this house will be anything but.

Fortunately, Andy sounds like the person to do it though,

and plans to have the work completed in 12 to 14 weeks.

-What's the budget for what you're planning?

-What, to the pound?

-Why, are you that precise?

-More or less.

-Are you?

Well, I've worked it out to about £14,600, I think,

-with a contingency of about £3,000 on top of that.

-Wow.

I'm hoping that we can do it for under 15.

Although Andy's budget for that roof might seem tiny, his skills and

knowledge mean he is certain of his pricing for any job he undertakes.

It stacks up. New kitchen, new bathroom, new roof, scaffold.

You can't do all that for eight, nine thousand.

You're going to spend a good chunk of money.

If you're going to do it properly,

and make a really nice job of it, you've got to spend the money.

You've got to do it properly.

We might look at marketing before we actually finish,

to give a potential buyer a choice of say,

kitchen units or bathrooms, sanitary ware and what have you.

But we're not sure yet, we'll decide when we get closer to that day.

Obviously the bathroom upstairs, bit of an issue with access.

What are you going to do about that?

Well, there's nothing you can do with it really.

I mean, I've seen a few properties where they've put a corridor in.

The problem with this one is that the window is directly in line

with where the corridor would go, and I think, to be fair,

the sort of people that are going to buy this are first-time buyers.

Perhaps young couples, and because of the budget that they're

going to be spending, you can't have everything.

And there are hundreds of thousands of houses with this

configuration, so I'm not too fussed about that to be fair.

What about the flying freehold thing that seems to be outside?

Well, I've read into it

and it doesn't seem to be any major legal problems.

It didn't come up in the legal investigations

that my solicitor did, so I'm not too fussed about that to be fair.

-Right. Well congratulations, good luck with it.

-Thank you very much.

-Look forward to seeing how you get on.

-Thank you. Bye.

Well, I think you can take a tip out of Andy's book

when it comes to budgeting correctly for property renovations.

AndI love his idea of actually trying to get

a purchaser before it's actually finished

so they can have some input in terms of how it's all done.

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

I'm in the Midlands.

Erdington, to be precise, a northern suburb of Birmingham.

It's home to what may be the most known piece of motorway

construction in the country.

Its posh name is Gravely Hill Interchange.

But most people know it as Spaghetti Junction.

Opened in 1972, it covers 30 acres, has two

and a half miles of slip roads, and 599 columns.

All of which provides you access into Birmingham City Centre,

and also out into the rest of the country.

So, four minutes from that junction, far enough away that it's not

on top of you, but close enough so you can get all around the country.

Anyway, the property I'm here to see is a four-bed,

mid-terrace house, with a guide price of £75,000.

Let's investigate.

Right. OK.

Really long hallway to the back of the property.

Reception room one is of a decent size, with a nice big bay window.

High ceilings.

Reception room two is pretty much the same, slightly smaller.

But they are decent size rooms, lots of floor space,

and what I do like is that you've got lots to play with here.

Yes, there's a lot of cosmetic damage, there's a broken

window as well, but lots of scope, and I've only seen two rooms,.

But I do want to see what's at the end of that hallway.

I'm going to take a look.

Well, the stairs up to the bedrooms, into the kitchen area here,

which has got a really high ceiling, which is good. It's a decent size.

It is in a bit of a state, but just take it out,

start again in here, it'd give you a decent size kitchen.

Through into here there's more space, goes even further back.

I would imagine this would have been added on at a later stage.

Doesn't look too safe in there either.

There's a lot of work to be done from what I've seen.

But there's loads of potential, absolutely loads of potential,

this place is huge.

What you do have to bear in mind,

though, is because it's a big area, and looks like there

are issues in every room, it all adds up to a lot of problems.

In particular, the room at the far end of downstairs, where the

toilet and shower are, is in one of the worst conditions I've ever seen.

MUSIC: High by James Blunt

On the middle floor, the third bedroom overlooks the back

garden, and is the smallest of the four.

Then bedroom two is just past the house bathroom - more of that later.

It's a good size room and there might be a fireplace to rescue.

The largest bedroom on this level is at the front of the house

and is plenty big enough, albeit missing a few floorboards.

But I'm intrigued to see what's available to utilise on that

bonus top floor.

OK, I'm at the top of the house now and there's even more space.

And its more space than what I was expecting,

this is a decent sized bedroom. OK, here's the interesting thing.

At present, this property has a 125-year lease on it.

But if you can turn this around within 12 months to being

a residential occupancy again,

the council will give you the freehold to this very property.

Now, I think that is a huge incentive.

Judging the size of this property, I think

you would get yourself a bargain.

Back down again one flight to the middle floor,

and a look at that bathroom, which has an unconventional mix

and don't match approach to colour scheme.

Back down again but this time to the exterior,

where things look generally tired.

But I wanted a closer look at the ground floor toilet

and shower extension.

And it is, as I expected, it isn't in great condition.

This is the part of the house that's a little bit

further on from the kitchen.

I'd be inclined to get rid of that, make it neat and tidy here.

Maybe put a bit of decking down there as well.

But the garden itself is of some size,

it goes all the way back to that wall.

You can't see at the moment because it's full of debris

and full of mess, but I do know there's an access point to the back of this garden.

So you could actually create a bit of off-street parking as well,

which would be a huge bonus.

Big back garden, you've got a big property as well.

I think both have got loads of potential.

'My opinion is probably not as focused as the local estate

'agents, especially when it comes to valuations round here.

'Which is why I called in one for his opinion.'

Erdington is good for both those people who want to buy,

do them up and sell them on.

But equally there's a great demand on the rental market too, so if you

wanted to buy it, do it up and then rent it out, equally strong demand.

It's good to know that both markets are healthy.

Will the fact that the property is currently leasehold put

potential buyers off?

I think that the fact that the freehold is going to be

available, subject to satisfactory completion of the works,

should negate any problems there may have been over the lease.

What do you think the property's value will be once refurbished?

Two options on this property.

On the open market,

I would suggest that it would for a figure in the region of £150,000.

On the rental market, I expect it to achieve somewhere between £700

and £750 per calendar month.

OK, this is a big property.

Needs a lot of work doing to it, so if you don't mind

getting your hands dirty, rolling

your sleeves up and really mucking in, this could be the place for you.

And if you get it for anywhere near the guide

price of £75,000 you're definitely on to a winner.

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

Today there are some special conditions for this

section of the auction.

You can only buy a Birmingham council lot

if you have a bankers draft in your possession right now.

So who will bid me, with a banker's draft then, lot 2 to start me

if you will.

Where are we sir? We're 50 again.

At 50 in front of me. Is it 60 anywhere?

60, do you have a draft sir? Thank you. At 60. 70, sir? 70.

80. 90. 100.

At 90,000 then, are we all done? New bid at 100, do you have a draft sir?

Thank you. At 100 I'm bid. 110?

105?

102.

104, sir?

No. That was shrewd bid then at 102.

Sir, do you want 103?

103, 104. 105?

No. At 104,000 right in front of me. Are we all done?

One, two, three, can you get your draft ready please.

He's holding it above his head, that's what I like to see.

GAVEL BANGS

We're in, well done, number 457.

104,000, congratulations sir. Well done.

The top bidder, complete with his banker's draft made

out for £104,000 was estate agent Golam.

He buys properties as a side line, renovates them,

and then resells them. I met him at his latest purchase.

-Golam, nice to meet you, sir.

-Nice to meet you, sir.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Why this particular house?

"Why this particular house?", it's just on a main road, and something

that will appeal to investors as well as first-time buyers.

What are you going to do with it?

Gut it out top to bottom and restart on it really.

And who's going to do that for you,

because you've got a lot of work to do.

Yes, I've got several contractors coming in to do bits as we're

-going along.

-What's the budget to get this whole place turned around?

-About £15,000. Yes,

-you heard right, 15 not 50.

What is Golam hoping to achieve from that relatively small sum?

Well we're going to put rewiring, new windows, new kitchen,

new bathroom, new plastering, so pretty much everything really.

And at the back of the property you've got a bit of extra

space there after the kitchen.

Yes, what we're planning to do is knock that building down

and rebuild it again and put a new bathroom in there.

Into your middle floor, what are you going to do with the bedrooms?

Leave them as it is, replaster them, put a new bathroom in,

and same again, just refurbish the whole house.

-I might take some of the chimneys out, but not sure yet.

-OK.

-And the top floor you just keep?

-Just keep it as it is.

-Keep as is.

What about outside,

at the back of the property you've got a decent sized back garden.

What we're going to do with the garden,

we're going to cut all the trees down and flatten the garden.

And on the side of the bay window, we're going to knock that out

and rebuild that again.

How long's it going to take your team of builders to get it finished?

-I would say about three months, maybe four. Not sure.

-OK.

So you've got a 125-year lease on this property at the moment,

but there's maybe something just to entice you in.

Yes, basically, Birmingham City Council has given us

a 125-year lease, cos this was an empty property for several years.

So, what they're trying to do is make sure that we actually

refurbish the property and actually bring it back to use

so that somebody is actually living in the property.

So, what they have said is they'll give us the 125 year lease.

Once we've done the work they'll actually give us the freehold.

So what's going to happen to your full-time job,

you've got a full-time job, this is part-time, is it going to switch?

I think this will probably be more full-time next than the job

-I'm doing at the moment.

-So Golam, you've got everything in place.

-I wish you all the best.

-Thank you.

-Hope it works well for you, good luck.

-Thank you, sir.

I don't know if Golam's just incredibly cool or just very,

very confident.

I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done to this

house to turn it around.

He hasn't given himself the largest budget either. £15,000.

Will he get it turned around with that money?

I'm not too sure, but I like the house, I like Golam,

and I wish him well.

You can find out how he gets on later in the programme.

Coming up in East Ham...

Steve's got tunnel vision

when it comes to his future in property development.

Get as many as I can before I retire to golf.

While in Erdington, Golam's budget isn't exactly on par.

I'm not disappointed about spending the extra money because...with

the amount of work we had to do.

Let's meander back to the Amber Valley,

and the town of Ripley, where I visited this two bedroom

terraced house with a guide price of £46,000.

On the ground floor, two reception rooms

and a decent sized kitchen, all of which were in need of modernisation.

But it was upstairs where the problems began. The back

bedroom looked all good, as did the front bedroom.

Only, it had a bathroom in it. The only bathroom in the house that is.

Something that would be tough to correct given the layout

and dimensions of the house, and therefore something, well,

you'd probably have to just live with.

And then there was the discovery in the loft.

Oh, dear, that's not good.

Light coming through.

That's not ideal, cos if the light can come through, so can the rain.

MUSIC: Up On The Roof by The Drifters

That roof would need repairing ASAP.

And builder Andy was the man to do it,

buying the property for £65,000 at auction.

With his experience he intended on doing a full top to bottom

renovation in 12 to 14 weeks, and with a very particular budget.

I've worked it out to about £14,600 I think, with

a contingency of £3,000 on top of that.

-Wow.

-I'm hoping we can do it for under 15.

You've got to be realistic, you know,

when you start talking about a rewire,

whole central heating system, re-plaster boarding

and plastering, new kitchen, new bathroom, new roof, scaffold.

You can't do all that for eight or nine thousand.

You're going to spend a good chunk of money.

If you're going to do properly, and make a really nice job of it,

you've got to spend the money, you've got to do it properly.

Intending to sell, Andy was also thinking about marketing

the property before starting the renovations, to allow

a future buyer some input on the new fittings and features in the house.

A nice idea, I thought, so how did he get on?

We've returned five months later to have a look.

As you can see, Andy's opened up the previous dining room and kitchen at

the back of the house to create this stunning open-plan kitchen-diner.

In doing so, he's moved the back door into the dining area,

to offer more worktop space in the kitchen.

It's now a fabulous family space finished to an excellent standard.

MUSIC: Brick By Brick by Newton Faulkner

Next door in the lounge it's all changed too.

As planned, Andy's stripped this house back to the brick and started

again, installing new wiring, new plasterboard and plaster.

Central heating, as well as doors, skirting and carpets.

With neutral tones, it's now looking brand-new in here.

Upstairs, the two bedrooms have had the same treatment.

A thorough refurbishment and now it's looking fantastic.

The only down note here is that the bathroom is still

accessed from the bigger bedroom.

But, like the rest of the house,

it's finished to an impeccable standard.

Andy's also raised the level of the floor in here, removing the previous

step down from the bedroom, giving the two rooms a much better flow.

And going up again, as intended the roof has been re-done entirely.

It's now watertight and prepared to face the elements for years to come.

The back garden has had a tidy up too,

with new fencing as well as some much needed pruning.

It looks twice the size.

This has clearly been a major job undertaken by Andy here.

So, did he stick with his original plan of marketing

the property before the renovations began?

We decided not to market it before it was finished.

Mainly because a lot of people that come to buy are not

going to see through whatever they see in an unfinished state.

So, eventually we decided that we was going to get it

completely finished, with the bathroom and kitchen finished,

you know, tiles, carpeted, painted etc.

Before we decided to put it on the market.

Well, regardless,

I'm sure he'll find someone who loves the finish here.

So, who was responsible for all the hard work?

I've undertaken most of the work myself.

Obviously with the electrics I had to get my sparky that

I use on other jobs.

He did all the first fix and the second fix electrics.

I fitted the boiler and I fitted the central heating system

and got it all running.

And then I've got a plumber that comes in and tests all

the gas for me and commissions it, and gives me a certificate for it.

I boarded it all, I got it on skimming

because I don't plaster, so I've got a plasterer that comes in

and plasters all the walls and the ceilings.

But other than that, all the tiling, the kitchen, the bathroom,

the joinery, I've done myself. And it's been a long job.

A long job, though pretty close to his original

timescale of 12 to 14 weeks, taking 14 and a half weeks in the end.

But what about that precise budget of £14,600?

The actual fees for the renovation come in at around £17,500.

Mainly because when we opened this room up we realised that

we could get a bit better kitchen in.

I've gone for slightly better tiles for the bathroom.

So, I've not really gone over budget,

because I've put better things in, and I've made it a little bit

better quality than what I'd originally planned.

But, yes, the budget has gone a little west.

Well, just short of £3,000 over budget.

But he did plan for that with a contingency fund.

That takes his total spend on the property to £82,500.

So, will it have all been worth it?

We invited along two property experts to find out.

Let's start with the auctioneer who saw it before.

Total transformation, but I suppose in a way that's what I expected.

But compared to what it was originally - different house.

Looking around the house, I think what they've

achieved in terms of specification standard is extremely good.

I wouldn't be surprised if they've actually probably spent a bit more than they've budgeted for.

But very, very acceptable.

I think the main selling points of this property is the open

plan kitchen-diner, it's really popular nowadays.

The upstairs layout is a little bit disappointing with having to

walk through a bedroom to get to the bathroom.

So, given the somewhat unorthodox layout,

what do they think this property could achieve?

Well for rental, the auctioneer

and agent recommended a value of between £475

and £500 per calendar month, giving a potential yield of just over 7%.

But as Andy always intended to sell,

let's get those all important sales figures.

So when it goes on the sales market, I think it would have an

asking price of between £105,000 and £110,000.

I'd put the property on the market between £110,000 and £115,000.

Yes, I think they're there or thereabouts to be fair.

We've had three agents round who all valued it at 115,

one saying market it at 120,which is what we've done, a week ago.

With a view of achieving 115.

If Andy did manage to achieve £115,000, that would give him

a very healthy pre-tax profit of £32,500.

So, after this successful renovation, what's next for Andy?

Probably a week off, bit of a rest,

and then straight into another one I think.

As soon as I found another one, get it bought, get it done up

and get it on the market.

East Ham in the London borough of Newham was one of the six

boroughs to host the 2012 Olympics.

Newham recorded the capital's top property rise in 2015,

partly due to the development around the former Olympic village.

A 23% increase has been recorded.

And talking of records, this area was home to Bert Wheedon,

whose guitar books taught, amongst others,

Beatles Lennon, McCartney and Harrison how to play.

Bert's first solo performance was in East Ham's town hall.

So, what kind of property have we plucked from the auctions today?

Well, I'm here to see a three-bedroom mid-terrace,

and it had a guide price of £180,000.

Now, for London, even East Ham, that sounds pretty cheap.

So, no sign of an Olympic uplift with this guide price.

Hmm, it does make me wonder.

Hoo, lots of crisscross windows everywhere,

but it is quite nice to have a little porch. I do like that.

So, on the inside not bad at all.

Walking straight through into two reception rooms that have

been opened up into one big space. I'm not quite sure about all this.

It feels a little mock Tudor to me,

not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not quite

working. I would say it's a little bit past its sell by date in here.

And you've got two replica fireplaces with your brickwork

there and there, two exact, which is quite posh I suppose, really.

And round here, well, I'm not quite sure what this room is.

It's like a sort of exterior outside room with a plastic roof on the top.

It doesn't feel like part of the house at all.

And a big danger zone area here, look.

Loads of damp in the corner,

that certainly will need to be looked into.

That's a little bit worrying.

And through here we've got the kitchen,

so a really nice space, big long kitchen,

and a bit of an empty room at the back, which is telling me

there's no bathroom downstairs, so it must be up there.

And that's quite good, I'm quite surprised by that.

Mm, now the room at the end of the kitchen is a lean-to

conservatory, but it's in a bit of a tired looking state.

Turn through the door on your right, and this leads into the room

with the French doors that I saw in the through lounge.

Why have one lean-to when you can have two, eh?

But I've taken my quest for that missing bathroom upstairs.'

I've found it.

Yes, here is the upstairs bathroom. It's um, it's quite unusual.

This seems like a sort of reception area over here.

The toilet is a little cheeky toilet behind, you can't really see it.

And then you've got the corner bath.

So, jokes aside, I don't think this bathroom works,

and it's quite a luxury to have such a huge space. So, what would I do?

I'm thinking I'd turn this into a bedroom, have a nice en suite

so you've still got the facilities.

Perhaps put a bathroom downstairs,

now I know I don't often say that on Homes Under The Hammer,

but I do think you'll need to have access to a bathroom

somewhere for the other bedrooms.

And also, I would speak to the local agents and see what

they would advise, because they know the area better than anybody.

Whatever the outcome, the fittings here are well past it.

And whoever heard of a tandem basin and loo arrangement?

The mind boggles. Literally.

MUSIC: Taking A Bath In Rust by The Eels

My hunch is that this bathroom used to be the third bedroom.

Here's a clue, there's plain glass in the window.

So, a bit of geography. Top of the stairs, turn left for the bathroom.

Next to that is bedroom two, then coming to the front of the house,

bedroom one, and next to it, a tiny boxroom, bedroom three.

Back in bedroom two, there's not a lot that redecorating

and re-carpeting wouldn't fix.

Bedroom one has a large bay overlooking the street, but at some

stage has had a partition wall fixed to divide off the small

boxroom next door.

I suspect around the same time the large bathroom conversion happened.

Knocking down the partition, and moving the bathroom, could be

the key here.

So if you really were thinking about moving that bathroom

from upstairs to downstairs, this could be the right place to put it.

All the plumbing is at the back, you would need to

think about putting a permanent roof on here, though.

So, not small jobs, but it really could be the icing on the cake.

Well, that's what it looks like. Doesn't it?

We called in a local estate agent to get his opinion on the property,

and to see what he values it at.

Plus, would he move the bathroom?

Having looked around inside the property,

I feel that the property is in quite a good order, it doesn't need

too much work too it, a little bit of modernising here and there.

A little bit of small alterations in regards to moving the bathroom

to a different room.

Well, I considered the back downstairs, which is

where I think the bathroom was originally.

In terms of the value of the property

if you do move the bathroom downstairs, it could put buyers off.

As well as perhaps being less appealing,

my idea does involve a fair amount of cost in building an extension.

Now a lot would depend on what you got it for at auction.

So what could it be worth after renovation?

As a three-bed, once renovated the property would

sell for £380,000 and it will rent for £1,350 per calendar month.

So, this terrace is tired, it's dated,

but my biggest issue is what to do about that bathroom.

Who was ready to make some decisions with this one?

Let's go to auction and find out.

Unfortunately, we were unable to show you the bidding for this

particular lot, but it was sold for £320,000.

The person paying £140,000 over that guide price was roofer and builder Steve,

who bought it along with his friend and golfing buddy, Senna.

This was their first venture together. So will they end up in the bunker with this one?

-Steve, congratulations.

-Yes, thank you.

So, here we are, in your house now in East Ham.

You did pay quite a bit over the guide price, didn't you,

-on auction day.

-Slightly.

Did you plan to spend that much, did you have a budget set aside?

No, no, we had a budget of about 315, but then they started

going up so we followed it and got really nervous towards the end.

-Did you?

-Yes.

-Did you enjoy it?

-Yes, Yes.

And when the hammer went down and this was your property,

how did you feel?

Really nervous, like your stomach is all jitters and everything,

like you've just done your test or something or done some

exam at school or something.

So now you've got this house and you've had time to think

about it and realise how much money you've spent, how do you feel now?

Are you quite excited, do you think you've got a good deal?

Yes, Well, I think so, yes.

What are you going to do,

-have you bought this for yourself to live in, or...

-No, we might do it

to rent, depending on how much money at the time when we've finished it.

I think we're going to spend around ten grand, roughly,

and see how we go from there. What people will give us for either renting or selling.

So what are you going to do with this one, I'm dying to know,

cos its got a sort of mock Tudor feel to it.

I don't know, is it mock Tudor?

It's got that very dark oppressive wood everywhere,

-and it's just a little bit dated.

-Oh, very dated, yes.

We're going to knock all this down, spots everywhere, clean it up,

tidy it up, change obviously the tiles in the bathroom and stuff.

We're not too sure whether we're going to move

the bathroom from upstairs to down, we're not too sure yet.

But there's a few little problems, isn't there, with this property?

The bathroom upstairs is huge, it's a real luxury,

you've got that lovely designated area for the sink.

-A little partition, haven't you?

-Just what I like, actually.

A corner bath, I mean, it is really set about in a really unusual way.

-Bit strange.

-Yes, like a big luxury room.

But if you moved it downstairs,

then you would have a bedroom upstairs, but actually should

you move the bathroom from upstairs to downstairs? I don't know.

We was going to put an en-suite upstairs, keep the bathroom,

cut it in half as such, well less than half, put a little en

suite in so at least you've got an upstairs toilet and shower.

And then put the other bathroom downstairs, the main one downstairs.

Because we think that's a bit easier, really.

Now I looked out the back there and thought "Oh,

"it's not even got a roof." But now I'm talking to you, you're a roofer!

So for you that's quite an easy job, isn't it?

Yes, it's nothing, that's probably a couple of days work really.

Couple of days work, how much would that cost for you to sort that out?

Probably say tops about a grand.

So you could do that, you could knock that job off,

and then you have got a nice downstairs bathroom.

And I think the idea of putting in a nice luxury en suite to the

master bedroom is a good idea,

cos whoever takes this on wouldn't be put off by the fact there's

-a downstairs bathroom, because they've got en suite facilities.

-Yes.

So actually I think you've hit the nail on the head, that could work really well.

So how long do you think it's going to take you to refurbish this

-property?

-About four weeks I reckon.

-And will you be here every day?

-Yes.

-Overalls on.

-Yes.

-Working really hard.

-Yes.

See, it's great when it's in your control

and you don't have to rely upon others.

No, it's true.

Maybe a few others, a plasterer, I'm not really good at plastering,

I've tried it but I'm not the best.

So four weeks, £10,000, I mean you really think...

We'll probably do it under that, I think it'll be under that.

-Seriously?

-Cos you think, if you take your money out of it that you don't put

into it, of the labouring and stuff like that, it's going to be less.

-And what about the kitchen?

-It's a lovely kitchen, don't you like it?

-You're keeping that kitchen?

-No, we're going to change it.

Oh, you joker. So, do you think having bought in East Ham, you know,

that you've bought at the right time here?

Just about, probably a year late really.

But, we're still on the bandwagon, so everything's still

sort of mooching up, so as long as it stays that way we're OK.

So what's your long term property plan, then?

What do you hope to achieve?

Probably to have fixe or six properties that I own,

or rent as such. So that would be nice in the long run.

If I can get as many as I can in the next 10 or 20 years, before I retire to golf.

Before you retire so you can play more golf.

Yeah, of course, you know, it'll be more easier then,

I can play every day. Well, I don't know about that, no.

Steve, congratulations, I'm really excited to see the outcome here.

-Well done.

-Thank you very much.

-Nice to meet you, aw, thank you.

-Thank you.

-No problem.

-I'm blushing.

So, Steve certainly has some useful skills that he can apply

to his first auction purchase.

But what will he decide to do about that bathroom?

And will he really get all the work done in four weeks'

time with the lure of the golf course looming?

You can join me later on in the programme to find out

if Steve's handiwork is over or under par.

So, we've seen how one of the properties has turned out,

-what about the other two?

-Yes, have they hit the jackpot or not?

Here's hoping they've done well. Let's find out.

Let's head back now to the suburb of Erdington in Birmingham.

I visited this mammoth four bedroom mid-terrace property,

with a guide price of £75,000.

Inside the house, and well, to be honest with you,

it had seen better days.

At the back the kitchen was a decent size,

but in need of a complete overhaul.

Then there was the extension next door,

which housed a downstairs bathroom.

The less said about that the better. Upstairs, more of the same.

Four decent sized bedrooms, over two floors, all in various states of disrepair.

There's a lot of work to be done from what I've seen,

but there's loads of potential.

As well as that potential, there was

something else lurking in the legal pack that had me smiling.

At present this property has a 125-year lease on it.

But, if you can turn this around within 12 months to being

a residential occupancy again, the council will give you the freehold.

I thought that was a major incentive,

and local estate agent Golam agreed,

and bought the property for £29,000 over the guide price of £104,000.

What you going to do with it?

Gut it out top to bottom and restart on it really.

And who's going to do that for you,

because you've got a lot of work to do.

Yes, I've got several contractors coming in to do bits as we're

going along.

So, with the help of his contractors,

Golam planned to replace bathrooms, kitchen,

as well as knock down the extension and rebuild it.

Not to mention rewiring, replastering,

and general cosmetic work. Which, believe me, was no small task.

All for a budget of £15,000 and the timescale of three to four months.

It's fair to say he wasn't lacking in confidence,

so would he pull it off?

We've returned five months later to find out.

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

That tired old extension has been knocked down and rebuilt.

Even the foundations have been dug up.

But it has meant that Golam

and his team were able to create a nice modern kitchen-diner.

The kitchen was in a very dilapidated condition,

and there was an outbuilding there which was really bad.

So when we came to actually renovate the property, what

we found was that the outbuilding just fell down altogether.

So, what we had to do was rebuild the outbuilding, and integrate

the kitchen with the outbuilding, to make it a kitchen-diner now.

That wasn't the only structural job here, though.

The chimney breast was taken away to allow for this open-plan design,

and I think it's worked a treat.

Now, I said the downstairs shower and toilet was in the worst

condition I've ever seen, but now it's been moved under the staircase.

It might be small, but it's smart and functional.

The two reception rooms were decent sizes, but Golam's team have

gutted them, rewired, replastered, and put new windows in.

On the first floor, things look fresher here too.

The smallest bedroom has increased in size by the removal of that

chimney breast, so now is a decent sized kids room.

The bathroom on the first floor also had a refit, and is now clean

and simple, allowing scope for the new occupant to make their mark.

Upstairs in the attic, the final bedroom has been tidied up too,

and is now a fresh and bright space.

We were thinking about the HMO,

and we were thinking about the family home.

After speaking to several people,

what they said is that this area is very popular for rentals.

So, a certain amount of work we've done to HMO regulations and a

certain amount of work has been done just for a normal standard house.

So, it's an option for whoever buys it to have it to either have

it as HMO or as a family home.

I think that's smart.

Making this property fit for both a family and shared residents

will see Golam access a wider market when it comes to selling.

Now let's move on to that freehold situation.

I actually spoke to Birmingham city Council about the freehold,

and they will be coming round to assess the property,

and they've shown me that the freehold will be available to us.

Excellent news.

Golam intended on completing the work in three to four months,

but it's actually taken him six months.

Not all that surprising, given the scale of work that's gone on here.

But how did his equally ambitious 15 grand budget hold up?

We've actually gone over budget, we've actually spent around £20,000.

I mean, I'm not disappointed about spending the extra money

because of the amount of work we had to do.

I had a feeling that budget would grow.

That takes his total spend on this property to £124,000.

So, what will the experts think?

We invited two local estate agents along to find out.

This is my first visit to the property.

The property's been finished to an absolutely superb

standard for somebody that would be looking to buy or rent the property.

I think the main selling points, really,

are the size of the property.

It's not very often that you get this type of property

come on to the market for sale or for let.

And the size of the rooms, they're all very good proportions.

The layout's extremely good

and the location's quite sought after as well.

This is the first time I've been into the property,

and I'm quite impressed.

He's done a good neutral job of decorating and improving it,

with an excellent extension on the kitchen,

which I think has made all the difference to the accommodation.

Everyone these days wants a modern, spacious, breakfast kitchen

and that's what it offers.

So let's move on to valuations,

and see if Golam will get a return on his £124,000 investment.

I think currently this house would have a market value

of around £175,000, give or take a little bit, depending on the buyer.

Resale value on this property,

I would look to market it for £165,000.

The first valuation is more realistic valuation, but because

property prices have gone up since we actually purchased the property.

So, we've had other valuations and they were more at 175, 180.

If Golam was to achieve that top figure of £175,000,

hat would see him pocket a profit of 51 grand, before taxes and fees.

But what about rental?

For rental I think this property would achieve about £750 per

calendar month.

I would look to put this property on the market at a rental

of £850 per calendar month.

Rental is about the norm for the area, about £750 to £800.

I wouldn't actually go through the rental route,

I will definitely put the house on the market.

So, despite that potential yield of just over 8%, Golam intends to sell.

After this successful property renovation,

has he got anything else in the pipeline?

Next is a couple more developments in the pipeline,

I've already got two lined up.

And hopefully 2016 will be a prosperous one.

MUSIC: Green Onions by Booker T & The MGs

Now we're returning to East Ham, London,

where earlier I looked around this mid-terrace three-bedroom house,

although one of the bedrooms was a tiny boxroom,

partitioned off this main bedroom.

It also had an unusual and large bathroom,

with an unconventional layout.

I don't think this bathroom works, so, what would I do?

I'm thinking I would turn this into a bedroom, have a

nice en suite so you've still got the facilities.

Perhaps put a bathroom downstairs,

now I know that I don't often say that on Homes Under The Hammer,

but I do think you'll need to have access to a bathroom

somewhere for the other bedrooms.

The new owner Steve, along with his business partner and golfing buddy,

bought it at auction for £320,000, way above the £180,000 guide price.

They too were contemplating moving the bathroom downstairs

to the lean-to affair off the back of the kitchen.

But it wasn't without its problems.

Now, I looked out the back there and thought, oh,

it's not even got a roof, but now I'm talking to you, you're a roofer.

So, for you that's quite an easy job, isn't it?

Yeah, that's nothing, that's probably a couple of days work,

really. Say tops about a grand.

And then you have got a nice downstairs bathroom.

With an optimistic timescale of just four weeks, have Steve

and his business partner taken on too much?

And was the 10 to £15,000 budget something even roofer Steve

couldn't stop going through the roof?

We're back three months since our last visit to find out.

MUSIC: We Found Love by Rihanna

And the kitchen now has its own rave lighting. Perfect for mojito making.

And it's not the only improvement down here.

Witness the old lean-to with a dodgy roof.

Not only was it re-roofed, it was rebuilt.

I know downstairs bathrooms are something of an alien concept,

but this really is a case of greater good for the rest of the house.

You just have to get over any prejudices.

# We found love in a hopeless place

# We found love in a hopeless place... #

With the Tudor style woodwork removed,

the through lounge is a lot more contemporary.

A modern colour scheme and flooring help with the look.

The modern look continues upstairs, with a neutral carpet

and feature black stair rail.

If it's a homage to the previous Tudor lounge, well,

it's one that works.

The master bedroom was compromised in size by the partition wall.

No longer.

The second bedroom has been cleared

and is now a much more welcoming space.

And finally, bedroom three, which was the old bathroom.

There's now en suite facilities at the entrance to the room,

but it's not without it's compromise of bedroom space.

An impressive transformation,

and Steve has a good reason for the overrun on the timescale.

He had a bad period of fibromyalgia syndrome, the condition which

can cause extreme fatigue and muscle tiredness.

This bout of illness put him out for a whole month.

I'm quite lucky, with my illness,

I've obviously got a good partner to fall back on.

So he pulls my back and I pull his,

so I'm sure in the summer months I'll be smashing around and

doing a lot more work than what he's doing, and he could be slacking.

If that's what you want to call it.

Steve's condition is less severe in the summer months, which is

fortunate when your golf is your main hobby.

So, how did the 10 to £15,000 budget fare?

The budget's sort of went over slightly,

probably to about near on 18.

Which was a bit sad, but it had to be spent, it had to be done.

So, now the property's finished, we're going to stick it up for sale.

Hopefully take the best offer and hit and run as such. Maybe go again.

To help with market valuations, we called in two local estate agents.

The first agent got to see the property before work began,

so what will he think to the new layout?

My thought on the layout changes is, in terms of the master bedroom,

fantastic, great, much more space

and made the size it should be for this sort of property.

The bathroom removing and making downstairs has created much

more space upstairs for the other bedroom.

I really like the modern style of it that they've done it in, the white

walls, the clean lines, I think it's a really really nice property.

I love the garden now somewhere to play for the kids.

And I really like the bathroom as well,

so it's a very very good property.

Steve and his business partner fully intend selling on after

completion, but could the rental figures sway that decision?

This property will rent for, per calendar month, for £2,200.

As a rental figure, you're looking somewhere in the region

of £1,500 to £1,600 per calendar month.

That's a yield of almost 8% on their investment. Tempting, Steve?

No, I would say no, really.

I think I'm more interested in this, so we can go on and again

and do something else with the money.

Otherwise you've got money tied up that you could lose, so no.

So that's a definite no.

With £338,000 tied up in this house, what could he

and his business partner hope to make on a sale?

This property will sell for, in the current market,

in thousand pounds, for £425,000.

As a sale value,

we're looking somewhere in the region of about 410 to £420,000.

Taking the top figure, that's a pre tax

and expenses profit of £87,000.

Happy with that, Steve?

The values are great, it really worked out.

Really looks like it's going to work out well.

A good profit in there and I look forward to doing it again

if it works out that well.

So, are there plans for future joint ventures?

Yes, we've already planned our next golf trip to

Tenerife in about three or four months' time.

So, looking forward to it, should be nice weather

and a good bunch of lads.

Yes, could be fun.

Well, they've already come a fairway down the property

development line, so let's hope they continue to stay out of the rough.

Well, as you can see, there are lots of factors that come into play

when it comes to investing in property.

Yes, and hopefully we've been able to offer some words of wisdom.

Yes, and hopefully you might want to take the plunge yourself.

So make sure you join us next time, for more Homes Under The Hammer.

-We'll see you then.

-ALL: Goodbye.