Episode 75 Homes Under the Hammer

Welcome to the show.

As everyone knows, the property market can go down as well as up.

Sometimes you just have to make your own decisions

and trust your instincts.

Yes, the best way to find out how the property market is doing

is to check it yourself.

Another way is to pop down to your local property auction.

All manner of properties go up for auction every month.

There are thousands of them, from studio flats to country mansions.

Yes, so you can be bewildered by the choice.

But the buyers on today's show weren't. Let's see what they bought.

In Kent, Lucy feels this auction lot might be a step too far for her.

It's a bit of a jungle, and I'm not wearing the right footwear.

Whereas I don't have to look too far for the issues

in this Birmingham house.

Before I even get to the top step I can see there's quite a big crack.

But for me, the path is less clear on how to tackle the bathroom

in a Cornish cottage.

Why? Why's it there?

I need to figure out a solution to this.

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.

You kept with it. Well done, sir.

The cathedral city of Canterbury in Kent is one of the most visited cities

in the UK and is a Unesco World Heritage Site.

But Lucy's destination, six miles outside the city,

is one you might not be so familiar with.

This is the village of Upstreet.

Now, it emerged as a ribbon development along the main road, the A28,

which connects it with Canterbury.

A ribbon development is one that's formed along a transport route,

so it might be a railway line, canal,

or a ye olde stagecoach route,

or in this case, a main road.

However, this kind of development fell out of favour with planners,

hence the advent of green-belt policies.

So you might have guessed the property I'm here to see

is on a very busy main road,

and it has no parking or front garden,

so there's no getting away from the noise.

But it's this cute little two-bed cottage

and it went to auction with a guide price of £120 to £125,000.

Hopefully it will be right up my street on the inside.

OK, not quite what I was expecting on the inside.

There's a missing floorboard there, for starters.

Anyway, looks like the work may have already started.

Look.

Very small...and, erm, cosy? Could it be a good thing?

It's a little cottage, it could be fantastic in the winter months.

What I do like, though, are these rather wide floorboards.

They would look lovely if they were sanded.

So you could bring a little bit of character back into here

and you've got these lovely old latch doors.

They're so romantic, with that nice latchkey noise.

I do like those.

Walking through the corridor... That's not so beautiful -

so obviously somebody's going to be using that.

In here we've got the bathroom.

There's no door. It's all been pulled apart.

The plumbing looks like it's in a right old mess,

so that needs to be sorted out.

You've got the little stairs that lead up there,

and through into the kitchen. Now, this is a bit of a bigger space.

Nice and bright and sunny, which I like, but in a right mess.

The units all need to be ripped out.

You can see, I think half of them have been ripped out.

A lovely new kitchen could be put in place and it will be nice,

so, you know, you can't hear the noise too much when you're inside.

I'd say it's a little bit small, but cosy.

After all, it's a cottage, and it's very near to Canterbury.

So, earplugs not required, but a kitchen sink most definitely is.

And really, we can't recommend a bathroom door enough.

Upstairs, the back bedroom also seems to be missing

a few vital ingredients.

Not only a door and a windowsill,

but more importantly in this case, a wall.

That's not good from a health-and-safety point of view.

Next door...is there one?

A door, I mean. Yes, a master bedroom and that's it.

It's very bijou.

That's polite for tiny.

And there's no room to move the bathroom up here,

so downstairs it will stay.

So outside sounds promising,

the birds are tweeting, the sun is shining,

I'm told there's a very nice garden out here with a spectacular view at

the end. And I would...but, no, I'm not going to,

because it's a bit of a jungle, and I'm not wearing the right footwear.

The wrong shoes?!

What an excuse, Lucy.

Well, it's tough, but someone's got to do it,

and is this garden overgrown?

Oh, boy, yes, it is.

# Welcome to the jungle We got fun and games

# We got everything you want Honey, we know the names... #

Bit over the top, that. We asked along the local estate agent

to find out if he was wild about this cottage,

guided at 120 to 125,000.

It's a really nice property. It's very typical of its type.

There's no real issues with the bathroom being on the ground floor,

people expect that for this type of property.

The back garden's lovely. I know it's very overgrown at the moment,

but the neighbouring gardens are lovely.

You've got a lovely field view, countryside to the rear,

southerly facing, so it'll appeal to a lot of people.

It certainly doesn't sound like this house

needs any major layout changes,

and it has some very appealing selling points.

So what could it be worth once renovated?

Once renovated, this property could sell for £175,000 as a guide price,

to gain close to that asking price,

and on the rental market between £850 and £900 per calendar month.

Well, this cottage needs plenty of work

to bring it back to the 21st century, but with all that done,

well, I think it could be a really cute little home for somebody,

especially when you can actually SEE those views out the back!

Who agreed? Let's head to auction and find out.

Let's see if this whets your appetite.

It's a two-bedroomed cottage for improvement.

It's got rural views.

Can I see 120 for it?

120.

Give me 110, then. 110, I'm on the way.

110, 115 bid.

115. 120 if you like.

120. And five, 125 do I say?

At £120,000 bid I've got, 125 I want.

125 sitting down, 130, and five?

135, and 40.

140, and five?

Yes? 145?

No. With you at 140, then, sir.

140. And five anywhere else?

145 anywhere else?

140,000 first time,

140 second,

third and final time, at £140,000...

Yours, sir, at 140.

The successful bid, of 140,000, came from Doric, on the left,

who was at the auction with his builder, Ken.

Regular viewers of the show may remember Doric from 2007,

when Lucy met him after buying a property in Margate.

Doric and Ken, congratulations.

Now, Doric, we have met before, haven't we?

-Hello, Ken.

-We have, yes.

So a property many, many, many moons ago.

A long time ago, yeah, when I was a bit younger than I am now, but...

And here you are, buying at auction again,

-and you brought Ken along today, your builder.

-Yeah,

I've got to have someone who knows what he's doing along there

to make sure I don't do anything silly. So that's why Ken comes in.

So tell me what made you want to buy this property in Upstreet.

We found a gap, because we've got quite a few rentals and we've seen...

we're getting to a stage where we've almost caught up,

so we thought, the market's looking good,

we'll get something that doesn't need too much

that we can do reasonably quickly to keep us...keep us going.

We were just looking through the auction and we saw this one.

We nearly missed it.

We got waylaid because they had bacon sandwiches and coffee, I think.

Never get waylaid by bacon sandwiches and coffee,

that's the first rule of an auction room.

So we were sitting there and then Ken said, "Is that the house?"

I said, "No, we've got ages yet."

Then we thought, "Oh, no, that might be,"

so we actually had to run into the place

-with our hand raised as we went in.

-No!

-Dear, oh, dear.

So really, really making a big scene. Good job you got it.

-Yeah.

-Ken, can I ask you, how nice was the bacon sandwich?

-Very nice, actually.

-Was it worth it?

-Yeah.

-Good.

And the tea was nice.

Never come between a builder and his tea.

Not even at the auction.

Doric is hoping that Ken will turn this one around for him to sell on

while the market is favourable.

They've been teamed up for the last year-and-a-half.

Ken is Doric's right handyman when it comes to looking after

a pretty substantial rental portfolio.

-This is 22, yeah.

-22!

-Yeah.

Can I just say, everybody needs a Ken. When you've got 22 properties you need a Ken.

It is, there's a lot of work.

Ken's only 18, look at the state of him.

So we keep him working well.

So, Ken, you're the man that gets the phone call in the middle of the night if something goes wrong.

-That's it, yeah.

-Fantastic.

"I've got a little problem, can you sort it out for me?"

So, Doric, what sort of budget have you got here?

Er, we put a nice contingency in

that I think with a bit of luck we won't

have to use, so we kind of say 15,

then we hope it's going to be more drifting towards the 10 to 11,

so if we don't use contingency.

So we think 15, but probably a little bit less with a bit of luck.

So what are you going to do to really sell this place?

Because at the moment the kitchen is awful, the bathroom's...

There isn't really a door on the bathroom, I noticed!

There's not many doors or walls up.

So tell me how you're going to sell it to somebody.

Well, we've got to keep the budget down,

so we're not going to put the door on the toilet back.

-What?!

-We'll leave that one there.

It's a small place, straightforward refurb, I think.

Views are nice, Canterbury is quite a nice place,

so it should be a fairly straightforward in-and-out,

in-and-out refurb.

So they have a budget of £15,000 and a timescale of eight weeks to

complete the work, which will include a new kitchen,

new bathroom and central-heating system.

So no surprises, but it turns out Ken might have one up his sleeve,

as his speciality is to light up the room.

He's the LED man. It's brilliant, it's like Santa's grotto sometimes.

-Fantastic.

-So have you got anybody that's going to help you with this,

apart from of course the gorgeous Ken here?

Yeah, Ken does the work.

Sometimes I use people in the family to help out.

My son Sebastian is quite interested, so he's quite good.

He tends to turn up and come up with very inappropriate suggestions.

I did use the wife before, but she's not very good with the budget.

We sent her out a short while ago to get some kitchen appliances

and she came back with a designer handbag that was less adequate

for knocking up lunch than we'd hoped for, but she seemed to think that was quite good,

so we're now using Sebastian.

OK, so the wife's been demoted.

Son has been promoted.

So in all seriousness, is he going to follow in Dad's footsteps, do you think?

-Is it something he's interested in?

-Yeah, he's thinking about it.

He wants to go to university and go into civil engineering and, yeah,

-we hope so.

-OK, you two, I'm really excited to see the outcome of this.

It's going to be brilliant to see what it looks like when it's done,

and those lovely LED lights.

-Yeah, lovely.

-Good luck, Doric, I hope it's not too long for next time.

-Thank you. Lovely to see you again.

-And you, Ken, well done, thank you.

Doric is an experienced property developer, and for him, well,

this seems like a straightforward little project,

especially with builder Ken already on board.

But most importantly,

will there be a decent profit at the end of it all?

You can join me at the end of the programme to find out how they get on.

Next, we are in Birmingham - well, Yardley to be more precise.

In contrast to the city's constantly developing modern centre,

this suburb, a few miles east,

boasts quiet leafy streets and a historic village.

Here you can find protected buildings

dating back to the 16th century,

including this old school, which was built in 1512.

Today's property, however, doesn't date that far back.

So on this very typical and traditional terraced street,

which isn't too far from the city centre, and Villa Park,

where I spent six very happy years, is the property I'm here to see.

Now, it's a semidetached house,

it's got three bedrooms and a guide price of £70,000.

I'm going in.

OK. Into the hallway.

Done out in a lovely shade of lime green.

Reception room one, lots of colour going on in there.

Lime-green carpet, you've got pink and red walls, blue picture rail.

You've got a fireplace in here,

old-fashioned fireplace on a bit of a skewwhiff,

taking up a bit of space.

Not a bad size, though.

Reception room two is a similar size as well.

Hasn't been touched in a while, taking a guess.

You've got polystyrene tiles.

This is all old-fashioned-type decor

and you've also got a fireplace in here which is on the skewwhiff.

So I'd look into maybe taking both fireplaces out,

the one in that room and the one in this one.

What else am I going to find?

Further down the hallway, stairs up to the bedrooms.

A little downstairs cupboard/pantry area under the stairs,

with a window, actually, looking outside.

In here we've got a bath and...

bath and a sink, but no toilet.

Through into the kitchen.

Tiny. Very, very small kitchen.

Very old-fashioned, some really nice old-fashioned touches.

And there's the toilet, right at the end.

There's got to be a better way of using this space.

Could you get that toilet from there and relocate it into the bathroom?

Got to be a way of doing that. This is a wasted space.

Make this a big kitchen/dining area, lots of light, lots of brightness.

Modernise everything in the whole of this downstairs.

There's a lot of work that needs to be done here.

Before I pop upstairs to have a look at one of the bedrooms,

it's a good time to appreciate the narrow footprint of this house.

With one long passageway from front to back,

there is a stretched-out feeling to this place.

Looking outside in the back, you might not believe it,

but this undergrowth isn't the end of the garden.

It actually extends a further 20 metres beyond this point.

That's enough for a full end cricket wicket.

# I don't like cricket... #

But I've found an overgrown stump which is way too close for comfort.

Right, this house has been empty for some time now.

That has grown since this house has been empty,

which I think is about ten years.

Look at the damage that the roots have done down here.

And the roots won't only be coming this way.

They'll be going that way, too, into the foundation of the house.

Priority out here, get rid of that before that starts moving.

Don't be tempted to knock this one for six yourself.

With it growing so near to the house it would be easy to get caught out,

so get a fully insured professional tree surgeon to do the job for you.

Anything else just isn't cricket.

Right, upstairs.

OK, let's see what we've got upstairs.

OK, before I even get to the top step

I can see there's quite a big crack on the landing, just there,

and I can see in that corner there

there's some really bad water damage.

That looks like it may have come from the roof,

the guttering somehow, but that's quite severe.

Get both of those sorted, get the pros in to look at that.

The bedrooms are, as you might expect, very old-fashioned,

and in need of complete modernisation.

There's an upstairs loo, so that's a start,

but there would need to be a clever rejig to get a bathroom up here.

For what the house lacks in central heating

it certainly makes up for with quirky heaters.

# I'm just a bit old-fashioned and I can't help living that way... #

As pretty as it is, that's got to go.

Get some central heating in here.

And we've got double-glazed windows in here,

and I did notice those double-glazed windows in the front room as well.

Every other window would need to be changed to double-glazed.

Bit of money to be spent here.

But I like it.

It's basically a good house, if you can see past the neglect.

But is there any profit to be made here,

bearing in mind that guide price of 70 grand?

We asked along an agent from the auctioneer's who sold it

to give us his thoughts.

My first impressions of the property are...

wow, it wants a lot of work doing to it!

I think it's basically sound.

It's a good-sized property,

in the sense that you've got three bedrooms upstairs.

To get the property back onto the market,

I would imagine one's going to spend

something between £20,000 and £25,000.

That's a fairly substantial sum, so what could it sell for?

If the property is all modernised, got a nice big kitchen,

I would imagine that it would be somewhere between

£115,000 and £120,000.

Hm, so if you paid the 70-grand guide and spent 25,

there could be a bit of profit,

but there's not a lot of room for manoeuvre

if any serious issues were to occur.

What about rental?

If the property's done up to a reasonable standard,

as a rental, I would imagine somebody would pay

somewhere between £500 and £550 per calendar month.

Right, let's not gloss over the fact there's a lot of work that needs to

be done in there and in that back garden as well.

The cracks and the damp do concern me,

but apart from that I do think this is a good project to get hold of.

Somebody's bought it. Let's find out who, when it went under the hammer.

First of our lots for Birmingham Council,

it is a vacant three-bedroomed semidetached house.

Where shall we start, folks?

At 50, is that, sir? Do you have a draft with you?

You do. Thank you. At 50 I'm bid, is it 60 now?

Thank you, at 60.

70, sir? Five, then?

65, 65, 70?

70, madam?

Thank you. At 70, at 70.

Sir, I want you to have it as well, is it 75? Two. 72.

Madam, 74?

74, 76?

78? 78.

80? 82? 84?

86? 88?

90?

No. You've been a great bidder, madam, we'll try and find you something else.

But with you, sir, £88,000.

One, two, three.

Sold in front of me, 88,000, well done.

Congratulations and the best of luck.

Making that successful bid of 88 grand was Golam.

He's been on the show before,

when in 2015 he refurbished this auction purchase in Birmingham.

I met him back at the house to find out his plans for this one.

-Golam, it's good to see you again, sir.

-Good to meet you again, Dion.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you, sir.

Er, tell us why this particular house.

It was lot number one and most people don't bid on lot number one,

so I thought I'd go in first and I was lucky enough to get it.

Is it what you do all the time, do you go to the auction house

and think, "I want to get lot number one," or...?

No, with lot number one, you normally see a lot less demand for it,

because the auction has just started and they don't know which way

it's going to go, whether prices have dropped or increased,

so you're taking a gamble on it.

You've now got it. What was it about this house that made you think,

"I really want it"?

-It's very close to my office and I can sort of...

-LAUGHTER

..sort of manage the project really more closely, to be fair with you.

OK. What were your ideas when you've first seen this house,

"I'll buy it to live in, I'll buy it to rent," what were you thinking?

No, well, I'm a seasoned developer,

so basically I'm going to refurbish it and put it back on the market.

OK, so what is your day job away from property, then?

-I'm an estate agent.

-OK, and do you have a bit of an insight there,

-know what to go for?

-I do know what to go for,

but on the rental side I keep away,

because I manage a lot of people's properties

and I see what happens when you go back after 12 months.

-OK.

-So I'd rather just refurbish them and put them back on the market.

Golam doesn't want the hassle of having to keep refurbishing and

maintaining his own rental properties,

so his current business model is to sell as quickly as possible.

So give us a bit of insight into what you're going to do to this property.

Well, with this property I'll refurbish it top to bottom.

I'm going to put in new windows,

new electrics, new kitchen, new bathroom,

pretty much everything, re-plaster,

and the house has been empty for maybe ten, 15 years,

so it does really need an upgrade.

You've got a bit of space out the back.

You could play with the kitchen, you've got an outside toilet too.

Are you going to use it, are you going to change it?

Yeah, well, I'm going to... The outside toilet,

I'm going to knock it all out and make it into a kitchen/diner,

and put a bathroom downstairs as well, and maybe a bathroom upstairs as well.

How are you going to squeeze in a bathroom?

What we're planning to do is steal a bit of the third bedroom and then put the bathroom in.

How much is all that going to cost you? Your budget?

I'm hoping to do it within £10 to 12,000.

Really? From top to bottom?

Top to bottom.

A pretty slim budget for a pretty slim house,

but Golam has lots of renovation experience and reckons he's turned

around about 50 properties in his career.

This one is a former Birmingham City Council house

and there's an incentive attached to the lease.

The clause on the lease stipulates

that I need to refurbish this property within 12 months

and once I've refurbished it they'll offer me the freehold.

If we don't refurbish it, then they won't be offering us the freehold.

What is it all about? What's the reason behind their decision to do that?

That's the initiative taken by Birmingham City Council

to bring derelict properties into use,

because there's so many empty properties in the city and they just don't

want someone to buy it and just sit on it again.

On that note, how long is it going to take you to do the job? What's your timescale for this?

Timescale is two months, but you probably won't believe me.

-Really?

-Yes.

Two months, in between ten and 12 grand?

-Yes.

-All done, finished?

All done and dusted.

I spotted... I don't want to worry you,

I spotted some very slight bits of damp as well.

A little bit of cracking as well. Do you know what that's down to?

-I mean, the damp's probably...the guttering needs cleaning up.

-OK.

The cracking, I'll have to get a surveyor in, to be fair with you.

-Get the pros out.

-Yeah.

-Get it sorted.

-Get it sorted.

-Get the place watertight.

-That's right!

-You know, you've done it many times.

-Yeah.

-I'm pretty sure this one will be a success, as your other properties have been, too.

Thank you very much. It's been nice meeting you again, Dion,

-and I hope you have all the best as well.

-Good man. Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

OK, now, I know that Golam has got loads of experience in turning

properties like these around,

but he's pushing the boundaries this time.

Two months and 10 to 12 grand?

I'm not too sure. That's a little bit tight for my liking,

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

Coming up - in Cornwall, I have a layout puzzle to solve.

The answer could be upstairs.

And in Birmingham, was Golam's refurbishment money well spent?

I always underestimate, for some strange reason,

but I did go over budget.

But first, we return to the village of Upstreet,

six miles from the cathedral city of Canterbury,

where Lucy saw this little cottage on this rather busy road.

Not much you can do about that,

but there were definitely some changes needed inside.

In here we've got the bathroom.

There's no door, it's all been pulled apart,

the plumbing looks like it's in a right old mess,

so that needs to be sorted out.

Elsewhere, the kitchen needed to be completely ripped out,

and upstairs was a bit of a building site.

However, albeit pretty wild,

the enormous back garden offered some breathtaking country views.

So it's not hard to see why full-time property developer Doric

paid £140,000 for this charming little property.

And Lucy caught up with him and his trusty builder, Ken,

to see what his plans were for the cottage.

The kitchen's awful, the bathroom's... Well,

there isn't really a door on the bathroom, I notice!

There's not many doors or walls up,

so tell me how you're going to sell it to somebody.

Well, we're going to keep the budget down, so we're not going to put the door on the toilet back,

-we'll leave that one there.

-What?

It's a pretty...

It's a small place, straightforward refurb, I think.

Straightforward except for Ken's speciality.

He's the LED man, it's brilliant, it's like Santa's grotto sometimes,

it's fantastic.

So, with an eight-week timescale and a £15,000 budget,

will we be seeing some sparkle?

Let's see how it looked when we returned four months later.

-# Roxanne

-Put on the red light

-# Roxanne

-Put on the red light

-# Roxanne

-Put on the red light

-# Roxanne

-Put on the red light... #

Well, Ken has certainly lived up to expectations with that bespoke LED

lighting in this stylish monochrome kitchen with high-gloss tiles.

Here's Doric to tell us more.

The kitchen's come out very well.

We always spend a bit of time and effort on the kitchen,

so we put some very nice integrated appliances in there,

we hide them away,

so it's got a nice washing machine in there hidden behind the door.

I can see Ken's underpants are still in there at the moment,

perhaps those ought to be removed before the sale.

An integrated dishwasher.

As per usual, Ken's excelled himself with the lights.

He always does very well with lights, and they bounce off the high gloss,

so, lights, please.

Looks very nice.

And in case you think the other rooms are missing out, well,

the bathroom has had the lighting treatment, too.

# Purple haze all around... #

Even better, the bathroom has a door! Highly recommended.

We weren't going to put a door on the bathroom

because we thought it had good comedic value,

but it was pointed out by the surveyor and the agent

that a door on the bathroom is quite useful.

Moving upstairs,

we can see that Doric has rectified those safety issues

by building a wall,

and a small landing area to separate the bedrooms,

which are now both fully decorated and ready to move into.

Well, we've had to do a reasonable amount of work on the garden.

One of the things about the house is the view that you get at the back,

so we put a raised decking area,

we moved it away from the house, which is a little bit unusual,

but we put it right at the back of the garden to maximise the view.

Cut everything down,

we did find Tarzan of the jungle in residence there

so he had to go, but, yeah, all looking quite nice now,

nice little garden, nice view at the back.

Going from the back to the front, and that reception room has been

freshened up and given a personal touch.

So, experienced team Doric and Ken have done a great job,

but how did they get on?

I can trust Ken, and, as per usual, he's done very well,

so very pleased with Ken, he's a top man.

Ken is definitely a top man

when it comes to helping Doric stay on budget.

This lovely transformation has been carried out for £10,500,

and was completed in the planned eight weeks.

But did Doric get his hands dirty?

Doing quite a lot of work on here, I've been coming in, making tea,

that's quite important on that.

Sebastian's been doing the garden,

and I come in and point out if there's anything that needs doing.

I've been sworn at quite a lot.

Ken's done a lot of swearing at me,

and Sebastian's sworn at me even more when I've pointed out anything

that they've found, so I've actually been doing quite well,

I think they both love me.

It would appear that serving the bacon sarnies and tea

hasn't quite won Ken and Sebastian over, then.

Time to ask two local estate agents along

to see if they are suitably impressed

by Ken, Sebastian and Doric's teamwork.

It's a cracking property,

it's not what you'd expect from the outside.

It's very modern, and it's been well finished.

I think it's a very nice property,

it's been finished to a very good standard.

Good-sized main bedroom,

good-sized single bedroom,

and the bathroom and kitchen have been finished to a very high spec.

In my opinion the selling features is that it's a turnkey property,

first-time buyers can just come in the property and unpack

and they're at home.

The agents are impressed,

so will Doric's £150,500 investment bring home the bacon?

I believe this property could achieve somewhere in the region

of £200,000,

and rent for £850 to £900 per calendar month.

This property would sell from between £195,000 and £200,000,

and for rental purposes,

it would rent at between £850 and £875

per calendar month.

Should Doric achieve that top estimate of 200,000,

that would mean a pre-tax profit of almost £50,000,

and if he were to rent the property out,

he could achieve a yield above 7%.

So, based on those valuations,

what does Doric plan to do with the property?

This has always been a straightforward buy-sell job,

so this will go back on the market

and, if you're interested, let me know!

So, dream team Ken and Doric have done it again,

but how did Doric get on with his extra helpers?

Sebastian's been very good, he came down with my other two,

Alice and Alexander.

They helped me quite a lot on this,

they've been very hard-working, industrial people,

and really, if you believe that, you'll believe anything - they're rubbish!

And what's next for Doric and Ken?

I think I deserve a break because coming down here,

making tea for Ken, you do need a good break,

so Ken does all the work and I come in there and bring the tea,

so, really, I think I deserve a nice long break.

Well, today, I'm in beautiful Cornwall,

in the little village of Constantine,

about seven miles south-west of Falmouth.

It was actually named after St Constantine,

the Cornish saint, and each year on 9th March,

they have a big day to celebrate the feast of St Constantine.

This is a simply gorgeous part of the world.

Quaint little houses, pretty spires and wonderful lush scenery.

# Leaves on the trees

# I swing in the meadow... #

Most people who move here, unsurprisingly, tend to stay,

so any opportunity to buy around here is pounced upon.

Well, right in the centre of the village

is the property I'm here to see,

but a bit of good news, it's on this side road,

so not much through traffic, which is a great start.

Around here are a lot of fairly old properties,

but the property that was up for auction

is actually something a bit more modern,

probably built around the mid-1960s.

It's this detached house, has two bedrooms,

guide price was £135,000.

Let's take a look inside.

OK, so it's not the most picturesque property in Constantine.

The outside could definitely do with some attention.

By the look of the stuff lying around here in the garden,

someone's already made a start ripping out carpets,

but it is detached and has a garage, which is an added bonus,

so let's check out inside.

Nice little useful entrance porch there,

keep the cold of the Cornish winters out.

Then through into your living room, I guess.

Staircase, open plan.

I mean, it does give the room a feeling of a bit more space

so, actually, although it's a little bit dated,

paint that or strip it back

and I think you can have some fun with that.

Very disappointing room here, though.

This is the kitchen, and, um... I'll have to look at the layout

to figure out what we can do about that.

However, the second downstairs living area

is also a really good size, so we like that.

Um...not sure about the fireplace, but at least it is an open fire,

so that's nice to see, maybe stick a wood-burning stove in.

But before we get involved in that, what is going on here?!

This is the bathroom and the loo for the property.

Why? Why is it there?!

I need to figure out a solution to this.

One thing that's immediately coming to mind is,

maybe that gives a solution to our tiny kitchen,

maybe extend into there in terms of the kitchen,

but before you do that,

you've got to find somewhere to put the bathroom.

The answer could be upstairs.

-# Oh, what's going on?

-What's going on?

-# Oh, what's going on?

-What's going on... #

While a downstairs toilet is a good thing,

and in new-builds is standard,

when it comes to baths and showers,

I still think most people prefer them upstairs.

So I'm on the hunt for a solution,

but before I hopefully find that, just point out a few other things.

Lots of light coming in through the windows

and they are fairly new double-glazed units,

which is good news.

Also good news, two really decent-sized bedrooms,

one over that side and one here.

And then, possibly, the answer to our problems.

To the rear of the property, I guess this is some kind of an extension,

it's actually above the toilet which is downstairs,

and it's this strange little room -

you've got a loo, you've got a basin,

so surely this is where you put the main bathroom.

However, you've then got a slight problem,

that you access it through this bedroom,

which is never ideal.

The answer could be in an old children's rhyme -

Jack And Jill.

A Jack and Jill bathroom - it has two doors,

one from each bedroom, leading onto the bathroom.

I think you could do that by creating a corridor here,

and there you go - thank you, Jack and Jill.

# So, hey, Jack You better get right

# Or Jill won't be impressed

# Hey, Jill, you better get right

# Cos Jack expects the best... #

That means you can get rid of the bathroom downstairs,

making a bigger kitchen,

and make this bathroom upstairs much more practical.

There is even more restructuring potential

around the side of the building.

Well, at the front of the property, not much garden to speak of,

and what there is is basically laid with flagstones.

But something really exciting, an additional feature -

this is a garage, a single garage.

That in itself is good, but look at the potential above it -

obvious space for an extension.

That, at the same time, could give you extra space

and enable you to sort the layout issues

and the bathroom problems upstairs out.

Great news.

This house is a bit higgledy-piggledy,

but there is potential for a really sizeable home here.

However, there is one thing I can't see an easy solution to,

and that's out back.

All you've got at the rear, anyway, is this small triangle of space.

So if you're looking at this as a family home,

hmm...a bit of a disappointment.

However, if you're thinking about renting this place out,

what people want is low maintenance -

that's good, because you've got basically flagstones everywhere -

and they don't want that much space, so again, a big tick.

So I guess, is it a good thing or a bad thing?

It comes down to what you're planning to use the house for.

I think that the area it's in and the potential this property has

is going to attract a lot of attention

for this house on the market,

especially at what was a guide price of 135,000.

What does a local property expert think?

We asked one along to have a look.

It's a nice little two-bedroom detached cottage,

it's a little bit different to all the others in the road here.

The fact that it's detached,

there are very few properties that are available in Constantine

which are detached, of this size.

It's got the two bedrooms, two reception rooms

and sought-after garage and parking.

It obviously needs a fair amount of work and some money spent on it,

but I think it could be a great little home,

either as a rental or an investment.

So, once some work is done,

what does he think the potential is on the resale market?

Once renovated, I would anticipate to achieve up to £200,000.

And what if the buyer wanted to let it out?

If it was done nicely,

£575 per calendar month.

Well, this is clearly a highly desirable location,

and to find a house of this kind of size here

is a really interesting opportunity.

I'm sure it was extremely popular when it went under the hammer.

Guiding £135,000

for this two-bedroom, two-storey detached house.

Somebody be brave

and start the bidding off at £130,000.

Don't be shy, £130,000 -

thank you very much at the back.

Any advance on £130,000 at the back of the room?

Looking for 135 now.

I have 140 at the back, 145?

145, 150?

155 seated.

160 standing.

165 sitting?

165 sitting, 170?

Take a smaller increment, if it'll help you?

166?

166.

167. 68?

£167,000, then, ladies and gentlemen.

For the first time, for the second,

it's the third and last time of calling,

are we quite clear we're all done?

The bid is with you, seated, sir, at £167,000...

And it is sold to you, thank you very much.

And that final successful bid of 167,000

was from Scott.

Scott is a carpenter who's been making furniture in Falmouth

for the last 15 years.

# Let us now praise the carpenter and the things that he made

# And the way that he lived by the tools of the trade... #

He's been looking for a new home for the last three years

for him and his three sons,

and finally, this is the one he's gone for.

So I caught up with him back at the house to find out his plans.

Scott, congratulations!

-Thank you very much.

-Good house!

Yeah, it's great, really good.

Tell me why you wanted to buy it.

I really wanted to be in the village because my boys are at school here,

all three boys are in the school, and it's a lovely little village,

I know quite a lot of people here,

so I've been looking around Constantine and Penryn,

and this house come up and it's just perfect for us.

The fact that it isn't that character cottage,

does that cause you a problem, or...?

Not really. I think with those,

they're all quite...pokey,

and this obviously has a bit more space

for the boys to rattle around in.

There is certainly plenty of room for his lads,

Danny, Hamish and Charlie, inside the house,

but not so much out the back.

Never mind - there's always this handy park nearby.

With their school close by too,

and his carpentry business only about 20 minutes' drive away,

this village is ideal.

So you're going to kit this place out in your furniture?

I'd love to, it'd be really nice,

but we can't really afford my furniture!

But it wouldn't cost you anything, you make it!

I know, but time is money, you know!

I'm hoping we'll have one or two things,

maybe some old exhibition pieces I've got, maybe,

will find their way in here and we can use those,

because it would be nice to have.

It'd be horrendous to think you'd buy flat-pack furniture and stuff!

I know, it's not right, is it?

Rattly tables!

Hopefully he can sneak his pieces in and around all over the house

on top of the full renovation that he's got planned.

He's even going to get a wood-burning stove

to replace that old fireplace

and, being a carpenter, he won't be short of fuel.

So, what's the budget for the work?

I think I'm looking at spending around £10,000.

And the timescale?

We want to be in probably inside a month,

and then, um...have it all warm and cosy for Christmas,

and kitchen and bathroom are going to be longer term.

We're very busy at work and I've got to do it around that as well,

so...we'll just see how it goes.

What are you most excited about?

I think being in the village.

In the short time we've come to the house,

there's lots of people been passing that we know.

It's a very friendly village and just really excited for the boys

to have some more room and their friends down the road

and that's just going to be really good.

Great. Well, listen, congratulations.

Good stuff, I look forward to seeing how you get on.

Thank you, Martin.

Well, it seems that Scott and the boys

have found their perfect home, and that's fantastic news.

How are they going to get on with the renovations

and what's the going pocket money rate for doing a bit of painting?

You can find out later in the show.

Well, time and tide wait for no man.

Have our remaining two properties been transformed

and restored to their former glory?

Or have they had a reality check? It's the moment of truth.

Let's find out.

It was in the Birmingham suburb of Yardley

where we first came across this three-bed semidetached house

that was in a bit of a state.

It was dated, tired, cracks, damp and a very overgrown garden.

It also had a layout that just wasn't suited to modern living.

Through into the kitchen.

Tiny. Very, very small kitchen. Very old-fashioned.

Some really nice old-fashioned touches

and there's the toilet right at the end.

There's got to be a better way of using this space.

It had a downstairs bathroom with no loo

and this house just wasn't working for me.

But what do we do on this programme

when we need advice on how to maximise a property?

We call in an estate agent.

In this case, it was local estate agent Golam

who had bought the property for 88 grand.

He was following the old estate agent mantra -

it's all about location.

What was it about this house that made you think, "I really want it"?

It's really close to my office.

-I could just...

-THEY LAUGH

..manage the project more closely, to be fair with you.

OK, what were your ideas when you first saw this house?

"I'll buy it to live in, I'll buy it to rent..."

-What were you thinking?

-No, I'm a seasoned developer,

so basically, I'm going to refurbish it and put it back on the market.

Yes, a seasoned developer indeed.

With 50 property projects to his name,

he was hoping that he can untangle this muddled house

with a budget of 10 to 12 grand and in a two-month timescale.

Now, three-and-a-half months later, we are back.

Well, there are signs that work is happening on the outside -

or should that be

there are SIGNS ON the outside?

But it was on the inside that needed a new direction.

Yeah, so far, so good.

Stripped back with all the old fireplaces gone,

it's much more modern.

But it was the kitchen space that really needed some work.

Wow! Now it looks great.

Thumbs up to that, Golam.

There were some outbuildings.

We've incorporated that within the kitchen

and made it a bigger kitchen-diner.

So, without having to add an additional extension,

he has cleverly reworked the old outbuildings

to create a fabulous space, and there's more.

We've created a bathroom downstairs,

with a shower and the toilet and the bath again.

That's great, but does that mean there is still no bathroom upstairs?

The upstairs, it only had a toilet,

so what we did, we took a bit of space from the smaller room upstairs

and we've turned that into a bathroom.

And there's still three bedrooms upstairs as well as the bathroom.

And there is still one thing to see,

and that's something I couldn't even get into when I was here.

The garden.

That's amazing. Who would have known?

It really is as big as a cricket pitch.

I'm BOWLED over.

So, hats off to you, sir, this is a top job,

but with a busy estate agent's to run, how hands on was Golam?

I actually did more than I planned

because I had to project-manage this on a daily basis

cos when my original contractors let me down,

I found the new contractors weren't pulling their weight

and weren't doing the job as I specified to them

so what I had to do was be on site

and actually supervise the work throughout.

So, with Golam keeping an eye on proceedings,

this project has been kept on track,

but did he keep to his 10 to 12 grand budget?

I always underestimate, for some strange reason,

but I did go over budget.

I think we're round about £15,000 at the moment.

That 15 grand spend on top of his £88,000 purchase price

takes his total costs to 103 grand.

Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

What did two local property experts

think of their fellow estate agent's handiwork?

This is my second visit to the property.

This time around, I've come in

and it's all been modernised

and the guy appears to have made a really lovely job out of it.

This is my first time in the property today

and it is a lovely property.

It's airy, it's got a good-sized kitchen,

which is a fitted kitchen,

large rear garden. The fact it's got two bathrooms

is a great benefit to the property as well,

with the two reception rooms.

Selling points of the property are

that it is a nice, well-maintained property now,

of three bedrooms,

in an area that doesn't have that many properties

coming up for sale in.

Golam has, up until now, sold his property refurbishments on,

but he is rethinking his strategy.

He's going to rent this one out, but is that the right decision?

Could he have seen a profit on his £103,000 investment?

If they're going to place the property on the market,

and resell it again,

I would imagine that they would achieve somewhere between

£130,000 and £140,000.

I would value this property at £150,000 to £160,000.

I think the valuation between 150 to 160,

I think that's more of a realistic valuation.

The 130 to 140 valuation is at the lower end of the market.

I've had it valued myself at over £150,000.

So, for once, a potential pre-tax profit

of in between £27,000 and £57,000 isn't for him.

It's all about the rent.

If they decide to rent the property,

then I would imagine that you would be in the region

of £650 to £700 per calendar month.

On the rental market, you'd be getting around about

the £750 to £800 per calendar month.

I've already rented this house out for £775.

That is great news, and a rent of £775 per calendar month

gives a healthy yield of 9%.

So if he's going from resale to rental,

what's next for Golam?

In the future, I want to build up a big portfolio,

maybe up to 300 properties.

We return now to the small village of Constantine

and it was a village full of idyllic,

quintessential Cornish cottages,

but unfortunately, our lot wasn't one of them.

It's actually something a bit more modern,

probably built around the mid-1960s.

It has two bedrooms.

The guide price was 135,000 quid.

Let's take a look inside.

Inside, I was surprised that the layout was anything but modern.

A pokey kitchen, a very odd downstairs bathroom arrangement,

coupled with some dated open stairs.

There were, though, two good-sized bedrooms

and a garage, which potentially offered more room for extending.

Local furniture-maker Scott

earmarked it for himself and his three boys,

Danny, Hamish and Charlie, so he snapped it up for £167,000.

So you're going to kit this place out in your furniture?

I'd love to, it would be really nice,

but we can't really afford my furniture.

It wouldn't cost you anything, you make it!

I know, but time is money, you know!

It'd be horrendous to think you'd buy flat-pack furniture and stuff!

I know, it's not right, is it?

Rattly tables!

While Scott did plan to do most of the work himself,

even if he wasn't going to be filling it

with his own bespoke furniture,

he had a £10,000 budget and a timescale -

well, he hoped to move in with his three boys in a month,

but then he wasn't sure about how long it would take to complete.

Is it a year later we returned?

Two, maybe? Possibly three?

Surely it can't be four?

No, it's none of these.

# Five years

# What a surprise

# Five years

# Five years... #

Yes, almost incredibly, FIVE years on,

we return to catch up on Scott's progress.

Outside, it's grown - well, some foliage anyway -

and some of Scott's handiwork is on display.

Hope he hasn't been resting on his laurels

when it comes to the inside.

That is a relief. It's looking really good.

Open plan, rustic, yet modern.

So, come on, Scott, I'm listening. Take me through this.

# Step by step... #

Well, when we moved in five years ago,

we very quickly did the bedrooms, got them sorted first,

so we could move in and have somewhere to sleep.

# Step by step

# Little by little

# Step by step

-# Take it line by line

-One day at a time... #

Along with the two main bedrooms,

Scott's created an extra sleeping area

in what was a small washroom off one of the bedrooms.

So, no upstairs bathroom, then.

Wood-burner in was the next step

cos that does all the heating as well.

Warm the place up a bit.

And not just because of the wood-burner.

It does undoubtedly look more cosy and warm.

Bathroom, we took the bathroom out, the horrible pink bathroom,

and so we put in just a shower room, cos we like showers.

OK, so still downstairs,

but much more practical and a better use of the space.

So, inside, it was just the kitchen to sort out.

One of the big tasks was doing the kitchen

and I thought we'd try and do a nice one -

cos I'm a furniture-maker, we thought we'd do a proper one.

# Step by step

# Little by little

# Step by step

-# Take it line by line

-One day at a time... #

The kitchen is where Scott's carpentry skills

have come to the fore,

with bespoke units and worktops,

and it's finished off the interior beautifully.

And step outside, where there is now a hardwood decked area.

But why, oh why, has it taken so long?

It's been quite a challenge to fit it in around work

cos obviously, you're picking up the tools

when you get back home at night

and you put them down, and you're not on the job continually,

so trying to maintain that flow is quite a challenge

and then obviously, life intervenes in the middle of it all.

I've got a busy life with the boys

and I run a Scout group as well in the village,

so quite stretched for time, to be honest,

and we've been really busy at work,

so we've had lots of big projects on.

So, yeah, it's taken as long as it's taken.

The three boys, work, outside-work activities

and actually living in the property whilst trying to do it up

does make for slow progress.

But taking this long has meant his plans have also changed.

When we moved in, I thought we'd be here for maybe 20 years or so,

so I've done it up in that way, so we could live in it and enjoy it

and try to do it really nicely but five years on,

I have a new partner now,

and Vicky and I are looking for a new place

cos we need a bit more room.

We'll miss the place but going to find somewhere a bit bigger.

Well, Scott may have been way off any estimated timescale,

but he did stay nearer to his £10,000 budget,

with his spend to date £13,000,

which makes for a total investment of £180,000

on this protracted project.

So, was it worth the wait?

What did two local estate agents think?

After seeing the property today,

I think they've made a good use of the space on offer.

It's very light and airy,

it got a lovely garden at the back

and parking is definitely a bonus.

I like the property. It's very bright

and it's in a good location in the centre of the village.

The property has been finished to a good standard throughout.

The kitchen-diner downstairs is very nice

and very in keeping with the age of the property.

I think the layout works for the size of the property.

The downstairs bathroom might be a problem to some people,

but there literally is nowhere else you can put it.

Scott is now keen to sell the property on,

as it's not big enough for him and his new partner, Vicky,

who also has children of her own.

So, having spent £180,000,

has this house been a profitable investment?

If we were to put this property on the market today,

we'd put it on for offers in the region of £225,000.

In my opinion, the property is probably worth

somewhere in the region of £220,000 to £225,000.

I've put the house on the market slightly more than that.

I've had some other valuations that were...

Had quite a broad range of valuations

so, yeah, I would hope for a little more.

Scott's hoping to sell it for £235,000

but even the agents' values would see a pre-tax profit

of between £40,000 and £45,000

and they both thought rental of around £650 per calendar month

would be possible,

which would generate a small yield of just above 4%.

So how would Scott sum up his five-year odyssey

to create a family home?

The boys, actually, when we first looked at the property -

I didn't know this till recently -

but they were a little bit shocked at what we were moving into

and now...they come in and they just love it.

Well, behind every property, there is a story

and we'll have plenty more for you next time here

on Homes Under The Hammer.

Yes, so join us then to find out what happens when the hammer falls.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.