Episode 56 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello and welcome to the show.

Now, an auction really does offer a unique opportunity to find

that fascinating property at an affordable price.

Yeah, but it's not all about just opening that auction catalogue

and choosing your favourite property.

It's all about the research.

Yeah, I sometimes feel a bit like a schoolteacher.

The number of times I say you have to do your homework,

especially if you're buying your next property under the hammer.

Now, buying at auction can be a really efficient way

of purchasing property.

You can own it within a month.

Yeah, but do me a favour,

please try and look at the place some time before you bid.

You'd be amazed at the amount of buyers

we meet on this show who didn't.

Let's hope it's not the case today. Let's find out.

This two-up-two-down in Merseyside's a pretty picture.

Am I painting a picture here of a house

that is pretty much all together?

It's a bit of a no-brainer really, isn't it?

This Derby terrace is a '50s throwback.

Look at those cupboards, they work perfectly!

They are now retro and would cost you a lot of money.

The kitchen cabinets are in the bedroom in this Dulwich flat.

I'm hoping the final piece of the jigsaw will fall into place,

because right now, it's just not quite making sense.

The gentleman stood up...

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.

-Sold!

This is St Helens in Merseyside.

The whole area was once a centre of industry,

mainly mining and glass-making.

And the site of the old Sutton Manor colliery, which closed in 1991,

is now marked by this impressive 66-foot sculpture called Dream.

# Dreams can come true

# Look at me, babe, I'm with you

# You know you gotta have hope

# You know you gotta be strong... #

So, am I here to see a dream of a property, or a bit of a nightmare?

Well, St Helens is well located,

halfway between Manchester and Liverpool,

lots of local employment, which is good.

And the property I'm here to see sounds appealing.

It's a mid-terrace, £35,000, plus two bedrooms.

Let's have a look.

Well, you know, even after doing this for 14 years,

I never lose that excitement of what you're going to find

when you walk through the front door of even something as basic as this,

a sort of what would originally have been a two-up-two-down terrace.

Because even though the properties themselves are often the same

from the outside, just inside, you just never know,

and that's why it's really important

to look round properties that you see at auction.

You've got to see it, because you can't tell from the outside.

So, in that case, what's this one like? Well, pretty standard.

You've got a little porch area. We like that, it keeps the cold out.

A reasonable quality and reasonable sized front living room,

so that's pretty good.

No smell of damp, looks to be in reasonable condition.

This middle room would have been originally the rear of the property.

My guess is that the stairs would have gone up there.

But somebody's obviously done some kind of conversion.

Because as we walk through,

you can see the stairs are actually now here.

That actually opens up the space quite a lot.

And then, this from here on is an extension.

You've got a kitchen, fairly standard layout.

It's sort of a galley kitchen, long and thin.

And then at the rear of the property, you've got the bathroom.

Fairly standard. But you know, for this kind of property, pretty good.

A nice start.

# Loving you seems to easy

# No melodramas, no heartache

# There's no melodramas, no heartache

# No melodramas, no heartache! #

A simple redecoration here along with an oven hob

and some white goods, and I'd say this would be ready to move into.

I'd want to get that window fixed.

But outside, the yard is very low maintenance,

much like the rest of the house.

So, two bedrooms up here.

You've got your front bedroom, reasonable condition.

Actually, even the floorboards look OK.

And then, your rear bedroom. Not much else to report.

Apart from the fact it all seems to be in pretty nice condition.

No obvious signs of damp.

A bit of a cupboard there with what looks like a relatively new boiler,

and the central heating seems to be in half-decent condition.

Double glazing. Am I painting a picture here

of a house that is pretty much all together?

Um...

Yeah, it's a bit of a no-brainer really, isn't it?

# But it's the simple things that make you smile... #

The renovation might be simple, but would the decision to sell on

or rent out this house be as straightforward?

We've asked along a local estate agent for his opinion on the matter.

The most buoyant market in this area

is without a doubt the rental market.

St Helens as a town is oversaturated with terraced properties,

so you really do need to get them very cheap

to make a huge profit on them.

The best course of action for this property would definitely be

as a buy-to-let investment.

OK. So, just what kind of rental return might we expect?

Once completed, this property should rent for £450 per calendar month.

That brings in a yearly sum of 5,400,

which could mean really great yield, depending of course,

on the level of refurbishment chosen,

and how close to the £35,000 plus guide price it was bought for.

What about the sales market, then?

Could there be money to be made on a quick sale?

From a sales point of view,

the property would be worth £70,000, once refurbished.

Well, it looks like either way,

you could be onto a winner with this house.

Well, just remember that guide price, £35,000 plus

for a pretty decent mid-terrace.

Yeah, you can't go far wrong with this one.

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

It's a two-bed mid-terrace house

with double glazing and central heating.

You've got a guide of £35,000.

Shall we say 30?

30. I see two hands.

30, you. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35.

36, 37, 38.

I'll come back to you, it's 37.

Gentleman stood up, it's against you sitting down.

Anybody else in, if it's at 38,000?

At 38, I see now...

The bids progressed in £500 increments

and we rejoin the bidding at 41,500.

..41 for the second time.

Last couple of seconds, sir, if you want to come back in.

If not, third and final... You're in at 41.5. New bidder, 42?

42 and a half now, sitting down. 43.

And a half? No. 43 is the bid.

You, sir, by the Together board, are we all done at £43,000?

Last chance for anybody else.

Not taken. It's yours. Well done, sir, at 43.

Picking up this property for 43,000 was Paul and his wife Jan.

That seems like a really good buy for the money to me.

So, when they came along to meet me,

I was interested to hear what they had planned for this house.

-Paul, Jan, great to meet you both.

-You too.

-Congratulations!

-Thank you.

-Tell me why you wanted to buy this place?

We go to quite a lot of auctions and we buy quite a lot of properties

in and out of them and it was just one that came up.

We thought it was a reasonable price.

We bought one down the road a couple of months back before, didn't we?

-Mm-hm.

-So, yeah, bought this one.

Good. I mean, there doesn't seem anything wrong with it.

It's just a nice, solid sort of clean property.

Yeah, generally. It's in pretty good nick, yeah.

So, you say you've bought others.

Is this what you do, then? Is this your day job?

-Are you both property investors?

-Yeah.

-Well, Paul is, really. I help.

OK! Very important help, I'm sure.

-She's the interior designer.

-I do the interiors.

I see, yeah, very important.

-We do it abroad as well.

-Do you?

We do quite a lot of work in Portugal as well.

-Portugal, oh, wow.

-Yeah.

-Bit warmer, but a bit further away.

-Yeah!

-Bit further to travel.

-Yeah, yeah.

-How did this start?

How long have you been doing sort of buying and selling properties?

I've been in the building industry 25 years.

And it started from then.

-So, I've always done it.

-Right. And what do you generally do?

Do you do them up and sell them on, or do you rent them out, or what?

Both, really, yeah. Some for rent and some for sale.

-This is going to go for sale.

-OK.

-Same as the one down the road.

-So, we've completely gutted it...

-OK.

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

As you said at the beginning, Martin, it's in pretty good nick.

I mean, through the back, we're going to open up the back

and open up that staircase to give it a much more brighter feel.

-OK.

-So, I think the kitchen will lead into the dining room

and it'll become a dining-kitchen.

General decoration throughout.

We'll change the kitchen and we'll change the bathroom.

-OK.

-Fully tile the bathroom.

The kitchen we'll partially tile and partially splashback it all.

OK. There's no chance of moving anything upstairs

-in terms of the loo, is there? There's not enough space.

-No, no.

You take too much room off the bedrooms in these houses,

if you move that up, so that'll stay where it is, yeah.

So, what about timescale for doing it?

Well, we're committed on other projects

and we can't actually start for two or three months now.

But when we actually do start, four to five weeks.

So, what's the sort of budget for the work you're planning?

Probably about 8,000 on this one.

So, that puts you at about 51, 52, plus some costs.

-Yeah.

-What do you think you might be able to get back if you sell it?

Hoping to achieve about 70, between 65 and 70.

70, yeah, you can't get much more than that in this area.

-It's the ceiling price on the area, you know.

-OK.

This experienced pair know what the top price is around here.

With a quick flip, you must make sure you leave yourself

enough room for profit, subtracting not just the purchase price

and renovation costs, but always calculating any auction fees,

estate agency costs to sell, and of course,

legal fees for buying and selling.

You should also make sure you know which taxes you might incur.

Paul and Jan's £8,000 budget is quite low

for the amount of work they want to do.

But that's because they're getting stuck in themselves

and helping with some of the labour-intensive works.

I do the smashing and bashing bits and clean it out.

Jan gets involved in that as well and helping out.

Yeah, I do the carrying into the skip.

-Oh, good! Really hands-on, then. That's good.

-She's very hands-on.

And then Marcus, he's my cousin...

..who was round with us to view the property

and have a good look at it and that,

he's more the technical guy and he helps me...

Well, he does the building

and I give him a lift with it, really, then.

Right, so he's a bit of an adviser.

-He's had a look round with you.

-He's very good.

-He's a qualified electrician.

-He's an electrician, plumber, plasterer.

-Yeah.

-Does everything.

-Yeah, he's pretty good.

-Great.

Doing it yourselves is going to keep the costs down,

which as we've already established, is pretty important on this one.

-Yeah, yeah.

-And if you can't sell it, I mean,

would you drop the price, or would you consider renting it out,

or does it not quite meet your criteria?

It doesn't quite meet the criteria in what you'd achieve

on the rental value to make it worthwhile.

But if I feel like the market's in such a way

that we can't get it, then yeah, we would rent it.

-We'd have to rent it.

-Yeah, good.

What do you enjoy about doing this whole thing?

Well, obviously I enjoy the end bit.

You know, choosing the kitchens, the bathrooms,

the decor and seeing it finished at the end.

It looks amazing when you've walked into it...

This isn't too bad a property.

But when you walk into some and then you see the end result,

it's quite exciting, really.

-Well, listen, congratulations. Good luck with it.

-Thank you.

-I look forward to seeing how you get on.

-Thank you.

-Yeah.

Well, bing, bang, boom!

Paul and Jan adopting the quick-in-quick-out approach.

I don't know - I think, as a rental earner, this one,

not a bad property to go for.

However, they're going to sell on.

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

Oh, and I guess it's not going to be long before they're off to Portugal.

And I guess, on a day like today, who can blame them?

DION: This is the civil parish of Heanor and Loscoe,

just north of Derby.

I'm in the village of Loscoe, and in the 19th and 20th centuries,

Loscoe was a mining village and it had three mines,

which were Old Loscoe, Bailey Brook and Ormonde,

and they all provided jobs for the local people

until the closure of the last one in 1970.

# All I wanna hear her say is are you mine? #

I'm here today to look at one of the terraced houses that were built

back in the day for the miners and their families.

That was when they were still churning out black gold.

Now, there's great road links not too far away to Nottingham, Derby

and at a push, Sheffield.

This is our pad.

It's got a guide price of £55,000 plus.

Intriguingly, the catalogue describes this house

as having two/three bedrooms.

More of that later.

Let's have a look and see what you get for your dough.

# Are you mine? #

Nice.

A nice big porchway here.

I'm taking a guess it wasn't like this when it was built.

That being false, they must have nicked a bit of space

from whatever's on the other side of this, which is...

..I would imagine it would have been two rooms back in the day,

but it's now one big lounge

and taking the space into the porchway

hasn't really hindered this lounge whatsoever.

I can see...

..a little bit of rising damp in the corner here, look.

Let's have a look at this.

Yes.

It isn't... It isn't actually...

It isn't actually too bad and that is solvable.

But get it solved pretty sharpish.

Lots of space in this area as well.

This would have been the second reception room.

'80s solid fireplace.

'70s carpet.

And we have on here...

Oh, OK, we're taking safety to the next level here.

We've got the fire alarm on top of the fire.

Can't be too careful.

Right, what else have we got?

Down here, we've got the kitchen.

Stairs just there, going up to the bedrooms.

Now, I've seen some dated kitchens in my time,

but this one is proper dated.

There's hardly any kitchen in here, to be honest with you.

Just a few cupboards, a few sliding cupboards here.

There's your worktop. A little bit of a worktop there.

It does feel a bit tight.

Take this all out, get something modern in here.

And look at these beauties. Ha!

We used to have these back in the day.

Look at those cupboards. They work perfectly.

They are now retro and will cost you a lot of money.

And all the way down towards the bottom,

we've got a door there just going out to the back garden,

and at the end, you've got the bathroom.

Your toilet, your sink and your bath.

It does need to be redone.

You've got polystyrene tiles here, so they're a safety hazard.

Get rid of those. Needs modernising.

The whole of this downstairs needs to be freshened up.

But there's enough space to make it pretty cool,

pretty bright and more accepting of Mr Dublin.

These dinky units could be resold

to anyone looking for a vintage kitchen.

They're in good nick.

Or they could be handy in a workroom or a shed.

Upcycle where you can. That's what I say.

But when it comes to the old polystyrene tiles,

they just have to go.

The old ones were often not treated for fire retardant,

meaning the tiles or the adhesive could present a fire hazard.

Time to have a look at the first bedroom.

OK, upstairs, we've got three bedrooms,

this being the first one I've seen.

Nice and bright, white walls,

not my choice of carpet, I've got to say.

I'm pretty sure my grandma had this back in the day.

Nice, long, spacious back garden, which is good.

In here, we've got...

..a boiler, combi boiler as well, which doesn't look too bad at all.

Good start here.

But when it comes to the other two bedrooms across the hall, well,

things start to get a bit strange.

The catalogue describes this house as a two/three bedroom,

and here's why.

So, they've made... Right, just follow me.

Follow me. This is pretty strange, this.

First and foremost, concrete floors upstairs, which is pretty strange.

So, this is your bedroom, and then you've got another bedroom there.

This used to be one, I'm pretty sure of it.

Now, they've made two, which is fine,

try and squeeze another bedroom in.

But why would you have the door just there?

OK, why not have the door here?

Create a bit of a hallway here. Maybe just... You come in here.

You step to the left and you walk that way into that bedroom,

and have a door just here for this bedroom.

At the moment, if you can imagine, if someone's asleep in there.

Imagine this, that's my bedroom.

I've been to the pub and I've had one pint of ale, right?

OK, can you imagine?

That ain't going to work.

# He gotta work it out

# He gotta work it out... #

Working out how to get a bathroom up here would mean a plumbing nightmare

because of the concrete floors.

So, it looks as if the bathroom might have to stay downstairs.

OK, let's find out if it's likely to be an issue in the local market

from the auctioneer who sold this house

that was guided at £55,000 plus.

People like the bathroom to be upstairs.

Obviously, it's down here at the moment.

Normally, you would put your pipework and hide everything

between the timber floor and the ceiling of the ground floor.

Having that concrete floor means that that just isn't possible,

so you'd have to surface mount everything, from the electrics

to the pipework for that bathroom.

So that isn't something I would consider.

You could actually remove those floors.

It does only affect the front of the house.

And you could bring those floors down and replace them

with a timber structure with a ceiling,

and below, a traditional joist underneath.

My only caveat there would be until you bring those floors down,

you don't really know what exactly you're going to be dealing with.

In this case, it's best the bathroom stays put,

unless you're feeling very flush indeed.

So, based on renovating the house to a good standard

with a downstairs loo and reconfiguring the bedrooms,

what could this house be worth?

If this property were renovated to a good standard,

I would anticipate a sale being achieved

somewhere in the region of £85,000.

I think we've got a good, solid house here.

Lots of space inside, lots of space outside. DOG BARKS

Neighbours have just popped in to say hello as well.

It's just a little bit skew-whiff to me.

One-bedrooms becomes two-bedrooms.

It needs to be reconfigured.

Let's find out who wanted to reconfigure this place

and get it back up and running, when it went under the hammer.

A larger than average two/three-bedroom mid-terrace house.

The guide price today is £55,000.

Where do you want to start with this? 50?

We're going to get further than this, I know we are.

At £50,000, I'm looking for.

Thank you, sir. At £50,000 is the opening bid.

51 now.

At £50,000, 51.

51 here, 52.

52 is bid. 53, 53.

54. 54 is bid.

55, 55 now.

56, sir. 56 is bid.

57, 58, 59.

Shakes his head. With you, sir, at £58,000.

59 now? No.

At £58,000, seated on the aisle, then,

I shall sell for the first time at £58,000,

for the second time,

third and final time, the hammer's up, fair warning, £58,000, it goes.

Sold. Well bought, sir, at £58,000, and thank you.

Buying the house with a top bid of £58,000 was Steve.

We met him back at the house for a chat about his plans.

-Steve, nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Congratulations, pal.

-Thank you.

What was it that made you buy this particular place, then?

I'd actually got nine I'd been to view.

-Hold it, hold it. How many?

-Nine.

I'd been to nine viewings at nine different properties,

and I just got lucky on this one.

-You must have done a lot of research.

-Yeah.

It was a week or so's research, all the legal packs,

going through all the visits.

-But basically, the guide price...

-OK.

..was where I wanted to be and this was in the bracket.

# If you want to do something now, do it right... #

Potential property developers, take note.

Steve has definitely gone about this the right way.

Research, research, and just a little bit more research.

So, it's hardly surprising

Steve knows exactly what he's going to do with this property.

Downstairs, probably reduce the size of the porch,

probably put a false ceiling in,

-drop the ceiling to hide all the wires.

-OK.

-Because of the concrete ceiling above.

-Yeah.

Completely new kitchen.

There's very little in the kitchen, isn't there?

Yeah, there's not much really at all, is there?

So, no, the plan is to have a full new kitchen in there.

-Yeah.

-Both sides.

-Bathroom?

-Just a bit of cleaning up, tidying up,

that's all pretty straightforward, I think, in there.

So, what about upstairs then, Steve? It's a little bit...

-It's a bit strange up there, isn't it?

-Yes.

-All the paperwork said two/three bedrooms.

-Yes!

So, I'm thinking, well, how does it mean two or three?

-How can it be one or t'other?

-What's the stroke for?

Yes, exactly.

But I think, once you go up there, you find out.

OK, how are you going to sort that?

-Plan is to put a small stud wall in.

-Yeah.

Take a bit off the small one,

giving access then to the second bedroom.

-Yes.

-So, all three have got an individual access.

Steve has £8,500 to spend on the renovation,

which includes the work he plans to do in the garden.

Re-fencing one side and adding decking and gravel at the bottom.

The work should take around eight to ten weeks,

with Steve doing most of the work himself,

and he'll be doing the renovation full-time.

Steve previously worked as a draughtsman for 30 years

until sadly, his wife passed away.

-Things transpired and the head just wasn't quite with it.

-OK.

And I've always enjoyed doing DIY to quite a high level, so I thought,

-well, now or never. Why not?

-Good for you.

-You've taken DIY to the next level.

-Well, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah!

-So, I've done one already.

-Yeah.

-And I enjoyed it.

Will you continue doing it when you've sold this one?

Yeah, I'm enjoying it, so, you know,

it gives a good quality of life, I think, you know.

-Good luck, Steve.

-Thank you, Dion.

-Wish you all the best.

Cheers, thank you.

So, Steve's going to be selling on,

but he's got a few jobs to do before he does that.

First one, reconfigure those bedrooms upstairs,

which is a must.

I'm intrigued to find out what else Steve's got up his sleeve.

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

MARTEL: Coming up, it's a tight squeeze

in the second bedroom of this Dulwich flat.

I can definitely touch, if I do that.

And if you did get a double bed in, you'd have to roll out off it.

DION: And in Loscoe,

Steve was visited by someone born in the house.

Nearly finished the job and she came in

and said what a wonderful job you'd done, and that was a real buzz.

MARTIN: Back again now to St Helens on Merseyside,

and this good-conditioned two-bedroom

mid-terrace that I saw earlier.

You've got your front bedroom, reasonable condition.

Actually, even the floorboards look OK.

And then your rear bedroom, not much else to report.

Bit of a cupboard there, with what looks like a relatively new boiler

and the central heating seems to be in half-decent condition.

Double glazing.

Am I painting a picture here of a house

that is pretty much all together?

Yeah, it's a bit of a no-brainer, really, isn't it?

The house was bought by Paul and Jan for £43,000.

They bought a similar house in the same road recently.

-I do the smashing and bashing bits.

-HE LAUGHS

And clean it out. Jan gets involved in that as well.

Yeah, I do the carrying into the skip.

Oh, good, really hands-on, then!

She's very hands-on.

And then Marcus, he's my cousin,

he does the building and I give him a lift with it, really.

-He's a qualified electrician.

-An electrician, plumber, plasterer.

-Yeah, he's pretty good.

-And what do you generally do?

Do you do them up and sell them on, or do you rent them out, or what?

Both, really, yeah. Some for rent and some for sale.

-This is going to go for sale.

-OK.

-Same as the one down the road.

Paul and Jan have developing experience here and abroad.

So, they and qualified electrician, cousin Marcus,

plan to meet some other commitments and then get stuck into this

on a four to five-week timescale.

Well, we're back three months later.

# I just wanna be part of your symphony... #

I must say, opening the staircase has lifted this room immensely.

And the open spindles will allow more light onto the stairs.

And they've opened up the kitchen entrance.

The kitchen worktops add a touch of luxury.

With the house being in good order to start with,

Paul and Jan have been able to spend more of their budget

on fixtures and fittings.

The bathroom has feature tiling and has the only tiled floor.

They're confident the improved spec will help sell the property.

In the past, Paul and Jan have had good results furnishing the way

they would their own house,

and as this is to be sold rather than rented,

feature walls feature in both the lounge and the smallest bedroom.

Like the rest of the house, brightness is the order of the day.

In the larger of the two bedrooms, too.

As predicted, Paul and Jan did the smashing and bashing,

but today, Marcus has made an appearance.

We took out all this wall there.

We took out the back here, the doorway into the kitchen,

and then left you with the technical bit.

Yeah, you did all the fun stuff by knocking it all out,

and then I had to put it all back together.

Put the new banister in and the spindles,

made all the plaster good, took this doorway out, opened it all up.

-And it just really changes the room, it makes it more modern.

-Yeah.

I bet we all wish we had a cousin like Marcus!

But he's going now, so come on, Paul, just between us,

has it all been happy families?

I think working with my cousin is really beneficial.

We've got a good working relationship.

He's always... He's always ready to do favours as well when needed,

and we work well together, and good friends.

What a jolly useful chap to have around.

Mates' rate on labour must be one cost-cutting measure.

And when sourcing materials for the renovations,

Paul and Jan keep their eyes open for a bargain.

We were keeping our eye on the online auction sites

for a fireplace.

We couldn't manage to secure any for the price we wanted,

and we were just sat at the traffic lights,

and I looked to the left and there was a second-hand shop.

So, Paul jumped out the car, I spotted the fireplace,

he jumped out of the car and bought it,

-while I drove round the block to come back to...

-Load it up.

A wise buy, by the sound of it.

So, what effect did these money-saving measures

have on their £8,000 budget?

We actually came in at slightly under that at 6,700,

which was pleasing.

If you would employ a contractor to do the whole thing,

it probably would have come in at about 12,000.

But doing it the way we do it, we obviously keep costs tight.

What effect did renovating two properties on the same street

with home-grown labour have on the timescale?

We originally thought four to five weeks.

We were a bit late starting due to commitments on other work.

But when we got going, it was four weeks, as we anticipated.

So, yeah, it went straightforward on that score.

Paul and Jan paid £43,000 at auction and £6,700 refurbishing,

and they're confident of making a profit

based on their other property in the same road.

We had an offer within two weeks,

so we are expecting it to sell, no problem.

And who better to say if the same approach is going to work here

than two local estate agents we've called in to give us their take?

First, the chap who saw it first time round.

The price bracket that it's in is open to buy-to-let investors

because it's quite a strong yield that the property has, but also,

first-time buyers cos of the standard of finish on this home.

The property's been done to a really high standard.

There's been a great attention to detail.

I think even the decor is of a modern standard,

it's going to be really attractive to potential purchasers.

Paul and Jan are interested in only selling.

So, what's the likely outcome their £49,700 spend?

OK, so there's a reasonable demand for property in the immediate area.

I think in terms of price,

we'd be looking in the region of about 75,000

as an asking price for the property.

As a resale value, I would value this property at £75,000.

A £25,300 profit before taxes and expenses.

The valuation we had was 80, but we're happy to put it on at 75

because we do want a quick sale and we think that's more realistic

for the property in this area.

In the immediate future,

the couple have work continuing developing in Portugal.

But do they have any advice for non-jetsetting renovators?

All I'd say is just make sure you scrutinise everything

before you start, because it's more costly if you've got to do it

at the end of the job instead of doing it

at the beginning of the job.

One job Paul missed until late on

was a small tree growing out of the chimney stack.

It was eventually spotted when accessing the roof

to re-do the chimney flashing.

So, apart from Portugal, any other plans?

Yeah, we're viewing a property today,

but it's not an auction property. But it is a complete refurb.

Straight from this!

Well, there's no substitute for enthusiasm.

MARTEL: South London now and the area of Dulwich.

With its bars and restaurants, parks and transport links,

Dulwich is one of the most popular areas of London to live.

# London

# Keep on going back to London... #

The property I'm here to see is on one of the busiest roads,

as you can see and hear, in this area of London.

And right now, it's one of the wettest, too.

That might not be so much of a bone of contention

because it's in a very desirable part of London.

That said, it's something you definitely want to take

into consideration because this is it right here,

it's just off the road,

it's a two-bedroom flat with a guide price of £190,000.

Let's go look.

# And the rain comes down, but nobody seems to notice

# In London... #

Even before I go inside, my initial thought is

I'd want to put this door, the front door here.

We could make a nice wee porch area. Why is this outside?

You could have your cupboards inside and feel you're getting

a wee bit more internal space...

..which it turns out you need.

Of course, in a leasehold flat like this,

moving the front door might be classed as a structural change,

which would require the permission of the freeholder.

I like this, by the way, I like this colour.

I don't know what it is - teal, turquoise - it's good.

This is not a big work space, is it?

When you're talking about a kitchen, I mean,

I've not seen one smaller than this.

Erm, I'm just thinking, it actually has the feel of a caravan.

It feels quite ramshackley.

And through to the bathroom, pretty cramped,

needs to come out, modernise.

If you were keeping the bath there,

you wouldn't have room for a separate shower.

It looks like there's no shower in it just now.

And the interesting jazzy carpet continues.

I'd imagine that's where that musty smell is coming from.

If you took that out, most of your problem's solved.

The carpet goes through to the bathroom.

And then, a really small bedroom.

I mean, you could get a double bed in, but not much more than that.

I'm hoping that when I see the next bedroom, this is a two-bed,

the final piece of the jigsaw will fall into place because right now,

it's just not quite making sense.

# I can't work it out but I'm never gonna quit

# I won't let you go, gonna make the pieces fit

# Working on this puzzle, I'm about to lose my mind... #

Well, I was hoping for more a master bedroom,

but this is pretty narrow and long.

I mean, I can almost touch, really almost,

I can definitely touch, if I do that.

And if you did get a double bed in, you'd have to roll out of it.

Because there's no room either side.

So, again, the caravan theme continues.

Good news, I've found the rest of the kitchen.

So, you've got cupboards along the wall.

This place is a bit odd.

I thought it might have been a one-bed

that was carved up into two smaller rooms.

That would have made sense.

But I think it was just built like this.

I don't want to be too disparaging either,

because if you can get away with it in London

and there's an appetite for it, why not?

I can't see any signs of heating at all.

Maybe they had plug-in heaters here.

Yeah, so back to the plusses.

Double glazing, so when one door closes, another...window opens?

This might be a small property, but it's potentially a big job.

Nothing really works here, for me.

Would it be better as a one-bed or would that lose revenue?

Whoever buys this will need to think creatively and practically

to get the best out of it.

What I do like about this property is that it's set on a courtyard,

which is pretty in itself, and then you come through this covered area,

which is good on a rainy day like today.

But there's a shared garden for finer weather.

The flat is set back from the road, so for me,

the outside ticks all the boxes.

Inside, well, it's a box.

So, I'm keen to find out what a local estate agent

thinks of the flat and its £190,000 guide price.

Given the market and this type of flat,

it's going to appeal to a first-time buyer or if it's a rental,

a young professional.

So, I think having better space within the living area

and having it as a good size one-bedroom would probably appeal

to a wider market than having a smaller second bedroom.

OK, that's an interesting opinion.

But do the numbers stack up?

First, rental.

A rental market, a flat like this, as a one-bedroom,

would achieve around £1,100 per calendar month.

And as a two-bedroom, around £1,250 per calendar month.

How about on the sales market?

On the sales market, currently,

a one-bedroom flat would achieve around £300,000.

As a two-bedroom,

you'd be looking to achieve around £325,000

once the property is done to a good standard.

This property, well, it's confused.

It's a two-bed, but seems too small for that.

I don't quite know how a one-bed would work.

And it feels like a caravan.

But it's in a great area of London, particularly desirable just now.

So, that alone gives it potential.

Let's find out who saw that potential

when it went under the hammer.

Nice ground floor flat in need of modernisation.

230 anywhere?

Turn it round, what about 200?

200 anywhere?

Thank you, 200 I've got.

With the first bid of ten grand more than the guide price,

bidding is thick and fast, to where we rejoin at 230 grand.

230, 232, 234, sir.

236.

If not, gentleman straight ahead, red jacket, it's £234,000,

it's against you sitting down on my left in the middle.

234 for the first,

234 for the second,

234 for the third and final time.

All done.

Sold, 234, well done.

Selling for 44 grand over the guide price,

the successful bidders were Michael and his wife Sharon.

The couple are retired and this will be

their first venture into property development.

Sharon, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Michael, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-I'm pleased to meet you. So, this is a great location.

-Is that what attracted you to here?

-Well, for me, yes, it was.

Because I knew Dulwich, I knew it was a good area.

And when it was one of the ones that we looked at coming up

in the auction, I earmarked it for further investigation.

Tell me a bit about you. So, where do you live together?

Well, at the moment,

we've kind of like not got much of a base because we sold our house,

which was near to Windsor,

in order to do this as a project

and to have a bit of a lifestyle of travelling.

So, we're heading out to Turkey tomorrow for a time.

And then, we plan to do Spain later on in the year

and fit this project in and then hopefully,

if all goes well here, then do another project.

So, it's kind of a lifestyle thing we're looking at at the moment.

We can make that decision when we've done this one

-and see how everything goes.

-Yes.

Just so I'm getting this right, you're planning on travelling a bit,

Turkey, Spain, coming back here and really getting down to it,

-making it work.

-Yes.

And then, are you thinking perhaps of moving in here for a wee bit?

Certainly, yes, once it's done, or liveable,

we'll probably certainly live here.

Get to know the area intimately a little bit better,

because it's such a fantastic area and while it's on the market.

That makes sense. It's almost, I don't know, part of your travelling.

If you've bought here anyway, why not use it as a base?

-Yes.

-You could have good fun.

-Well, I think so.

And especially, you know, at that time of year,

you know, it's a good time.

Summertime in London.

-Probably a good time to be here.

-Yeah!

# We've been having fun all summer long... #

These guys have a great plan, winter abroad and summer in London,

and I'm glad to report that although this is their first project,

they did their homework and viewed the property.

And they've already started to think about

how they might reconfigure the space,

starting with moving the front door.

So, move it so you've almost got a wee porch area.

Yes, that's right and there's two cupboard spaces, one either side.

And then obviously, then...where the kitchen is at the moment,

move that and obviously make it a bit bigger space.

The living room's actually not too bad an area

to have a living room-cum-kitchen in.

Erm, so, yeah,

and just obviously we're hoping to do it to a really nice standard,

that sort of befits the area.

But that's the plans we have at the moment.

Move the door for that bedroom and we'd like a walk-in shower.

We've got to change the...

All the electrics have got to be done,

all rewired, heating system in, the floor's got to come up.

It's quite a small place, but I think there's quite a lot to do.

A lot to be done, yeah.

Replastering because I think some of these ceilings,

we'll prefer to have them, like, skimmed.

And some of the walls need it anyway,

so we might be as well to get the lot done.

The two beds, to me, it feels like it could be a nicer one-bed flat.

-We thought...

-And that may be the case if you're somewhere else

in the country, but I think you could accept the two beds here,

it's such a great location.

Yeah, I think it will put on significantly more money

at the end of the project to warrant having it two.

I take your point and at first, that's what we said,

we'll put a proper kitchen in and have it as a nice one-bed.

But I think being where it is and what, you know, bedrooms are worth,

I think two beds is the way to go.

First of all, what will you do once this is done up?

Right, well, Plan A will be to sell.

And if the figures don't work out for us, then we'll rent.

And either is a good option for us.

Because it'll increase our income

and allow us to do what we want to do.

# Yes, the good life

# To be free and explore the unknown... #

Michael and Sharon have a loose timescale of two months, but first,

there's holiday number one, to relax them, ready to start.

# So, be honest with... #

And how long are you in Turkey for?

-Certainly a month.

-Yeah.

We'll stay away until it gets really hot over there,

-and then we'll come back here and...

-Get stuck in.

Hopefully, the weather will be not too bad here when we come back.

This sort of like gives us a bit of a base to come back

and you're, you know, home.

Down to the nitty-gritty. What's the budget?

Maximum... 15-20,000,

although I think I might be up towards the 20 on it.

If it goes over, well, it goes over and the funds are there.

I'm a wee bit sick with envy, actually.

It sounds absolutely brilliant, the set-up you have,

and I really hope you make a success of it.

-I'm sure you will.

-Hope so.

-Good luck!

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thanks, Michael.

-Thank you.

Sharon and Michael want to use this project

as a launch pad to fund their jet-set lifestyle.

And to do so, they're keen to maximise their profit

and keep this as a two-bed flat.

Time will tell if two beds really are better than one.

You can find out what happens later in the show.

So, earlier, we saw property number one.

But don't worry, we've still got two more to go.

Did our buyers back a winner?

Let's go back and find out!

Time to head back to the village of Loscoe in Derbyshire,

where I saw this mid-terraced house

that was much bigger than first expected.

The porch was massive and the living area had been opened out,

which I did like.

However, I didn't like the rising damp in the front.

The '50s kitchen was cute, but impractical,

while the polystyrene tiles in the downstairs bathroom just had to go.

But my biggest gripe was upstairs and that third bedroom,

which had been created

by splitting up the front bedroom with a partition wall.

But why would you have the door just there?

OK, why not have the door here?

Create a bit of a hallway here.

Maybe just...you come in here,

you step to the left and you walk that way, into that bedroom,

and have a door just here for this bedroom.

It also had a concrete floor,

which would mean even trying to get a bathroom up here

would be impossible without digging it out.

Not a small job,

so probably best stick with my corridor and bedroom plan.

This idea was shared by Steve,

who paid 58 grand for this house at auction.

As well as altering the bedroom access,

he was going to do a full refurbishment of the house.

A change of skill set for the former draughtsman.

I've always enjoyed doing DIY to a quite high level, so I thought,

now or never. Why not?

Good for you. You've taken DIY to the next level.

Steve was going to be working on this house full time

and hoped to have it all completed within ten weeks.

But we're actually heading back a whole five months later

to see how he has got on.

And he's been working hard.

# Well, if you want it

# Go out and get it

# You've got to do it yourself

# Do it yourself

# Well, if you want it

# Go out and get it

# You've got to do it yourself

# Do it yourself... #

DI-why not?

Especially if you can do as good a job as Steve.

This modern kitchen really brightens things up.

Although there hasn't been huge changes in the bathroom,

the old polystyrene tiles have gone.

And all round, it's looking fresh and clean.

The rising damp has been treated and the porch been made smaller

to give this room a bit more space.

Upstairs, the changes are more than just cosmetic.

The house can now be called a three-bedder,

as Steve has added a corridor just off the stairs,

meaning there's a separate bedroom to the right

and another to the left.

It's a simple, yet effective change.

The master bedroom has been given the same level of redecoration

as the rest of the house.

There are new radiators and internal doors throughout.

Outside in the huge garden are also big changes.

So much work has been done at this house,

and I can see why it's taken Steve a lot longer

than his ten-week timescale.

But he couldn't have done it all himself, surely?

I did the majority of the work.

You know, from top to bottom.

But I did have a plumber in to plumb all the new radiators in.

I also had a bit of help from my brother,

who gave me a bit of a refresher course in hanging doors.

So, he hung the first one for me, which was a great help.

And then I carried on doing the rest.

And also, got my dad involved.

He was a great help doing the kitchen.

The kitchen worktop's quite a long thing.

You can't carry all of those on your own.

So, good old Dad came to the rescue.

Steve, of course, had a certified professional in

to take care of the gas, and got a plasterer in

to redo the walls once the damp had been treated.

But doing most of the work himself couldn't have been easy.

I think learn, just crack on.

Nose to the grindstone, as me mum would say.

And yeah, just keep working hard and get it all done.

No need to panic. It will happen when it happens.

Yeah, just a bit of hard graft and carry on.

Steve also didn't panic when it came to his £8,500 budget.

He had to spend a little more to solve the damp issues,

buy new internal doors.

And decking in the garden.

So, it's now at £10,000.

But it's been fruitful.

I'm quite happy with the finish.

Yeah, quite happy, it looks clean and fresh.

In fact, I had quite a good compliment.

I'd nearly finished the job and I had a knock on the door.

And it was actually one of the sellers of the house.

They came in, and she used to live here. In fact, she was born here.

And she came in and said what a wonderful job you'd done.

That was a real buzz. So, I think, yeah, nice job done.

Let's see if two more visitors give it the thumbs up.

We've asked along two local property experts for their opinions

on the changes to this house.

My first impressions of the property

are that it is extremely well presented.

It's clean, it's tidy.

I mean, clearly everything has been renewed, refurbished.

So, you'd expect it to look fairly pristine, and that's what it is.

The change in layout from what I understand the original to be

is a major improvement.

It just gives three bedrooms and privacy in each one of those.

So, they like the job Steve's done on the house,

but having invested £68,000 on this project,

will he get rewarded on the sales market?

I think if this went on the open market,

you'd probably achieve something between £90,000 and £92,000.

In terms of sale,

the owner ought to achieve something in the region of £95,000.

They would have been my initial feelings for that kind of figure,

but since then, I've obviously had an increased valuation,

which it's on the market for.

So, I think they're probably just a smidge low.

Steve has put the house on the market for £98,000

and if he achieves this, would give him a healthy profit

of £30,000 before taxes and fees.

So, with this second renovation in the bag,

what does the future hold for Steve?

Next on the agenda is a bit of down time, a bit of relaxation,

participate probably in two of my favourite pastimes, a bit of golf,

have a couple rounds of golf and then, with a bit of good weather,

get out in the little American car I've got,

a Corvette Stingray 5.7 V8,

have a bit of a trundle round in that.

Back to Dulwich, South London,

where earlier I took a look around a two-bedroomed flat with a courtyard

and shared garden space, but not much square footage.

My initial thought is, I'd want to put this door, the front door, here.

You could make a nice wee porch area. Why is this outside?

You could have your cupboards inside,

and feel you're getting a wee bit more internal space.

It was something I was pleased to hear new owners Michael and Sharon

planned to do. They bought the flat for £234,000 at auction.

They planned to mix a bit of property developing with travelling,

using this place as a base before selling it on.

And they had a plan for this bijou flat.

The living room is actually not too bad an area to have

-a living room-cum-kitchen in.

-We'd like a walk-in shower.

We've got to change the... All the electrics have got to be done.

-Heating system in.

-Yeah.

-I think the floor's got to come up.

It's quite a small place, but I think there's quite a lot to do.

-Yeah.

-A lot to be done.

Re-plastering, because I think some of these ceilings, we'd prefer

to have them, like, skimmed, and some of the walls need it anyway.

So it might be as well to get the lot done.

We're back four months later to have another look.

The front porch idea didn't come off, as structural changes like that

required the permission of the freeholder.

Sharon's taken care of the interior design,

with coloured splashes dotted around the neutral background.

They left the plumbing, heating, and electrics to the certified trades.

Michael fitted and tiled the kitchen, with Sharon's help.

# Oh, oh, oh, I'm gonna follow you home... #

The old bathroom layout was cramped, to say the least.

The new shower cubicle makes the most of the available space,

but Michael didn't do the tiling here - they got in a tiler,

a plasterer, and a professional laminate floor fitter

for the rest of the house.

Access to the smallest bedroom was improved by knocking down

a partition wall and moving the door further away from the window.

# And I've been waiting for a lifetime or so

# Oh, oh, oh I'm gonna follow you home... #

The larger of the two bedrooms would take a double,

but it's just used for storage.

All in all, it's a good result for their first auction purchase.

Here's Michael to take up the refurbishment story.

OK. Well, originally the kitchen was over here,

and we felt it flowed better and lent itself to go over there.

In here ,we've made a mini laundrette.

Originally, there was water tanks there, which we don't need

because we have a combi boiler.

So we gained space there, much needed as it was.

Here, we've reclaimed a scaffold board and cut it up

and made some shelves. Sharon's very pleased with that, I have to say.

We've got a little table with two leaves that come out for eating,

and we've also, down there, we've got a breakfast counter.

Very pleased with the end result, I have to say,

and hope everyone else thinks so too because, at the end of the day,

it's about the market.

The couple did spend over £1,000 renting a B&B in the early days

before deciding to move into the work in progress.

To be honest, we moved in too early,

and we should have stayed in other accommodation for longer.

Yeah. We had the floor down and we had a bathroom and we had a bed.

-That was pretty much what we had when we came in.

-Yeah.

And the rest was like a building site.

Yeah, so I would not go down that route again.

What else has been learned from the experience?

Oh, lots!

Lots and lots. I can now probably quite easily build a kitchen. Erm...

Wardrobes. Yeah, I've learnt all these skills, and I have done

a lot - a LOT - of painting.

Yes.

The original timescale was two months after returning from holiday,

and Michael reckons it's been 11 weeks of work in total,

with another week of snagging still to do.

How about the £15,000 to £20,000 budget forecast?

We've spent, on doing the refurbishment,

£16,500.

Yeah, so quite good.

So we're a little bit over the £15,000, you could say,

but well under the £20,000.

And it could have gone higher, because I didn't really have

any experience about what it might cost.

Time to find out if their money has been well spent.

We called in two local estate agents for their opinions.

Wow, is my first thought.

It's very small, but very well thought out as well.

So I think they've done a really clever job in the design,

and making it feel comfortable and nice.

It has a nice feel to it, but tiny.

I think the buyers have done the best they could have done,

given the existing layout of the property.

One idea would have possibly been to convert it into

a very large, into a decent sized one-bedroom flat,

but in order to maximise their return,

I guess they wanted to keep it as a two-bedroom.

That's exactly the reason why Michael and Sharon kept it as

a two-bedder, having sought advice from their own estate agent.

The couple are awaiting valuations before deciding whether to rent

or sell on. In either case, they'll probably live here for a bit longer,

as they really like Dulwich.

So, what kind of rental could they expect for their two-bed flat?

I believe we could achieve in the region of £1,100 and £1,150

per calendar month.

If I were renting this property,

I would be looking for £1,250 per calendar month.

Well, a little bit... The £1,250, I think is where it ought to be,

-personally.

-Yeah.

-I think the other's slightly low.

The top figure would give them a yield of nearly 6% on their

total investment of £250,500.

What about the sales values?

If I were putting this on the market today, I would ask £325,000.

If I were to put the property on the market today, I'd put the property

on the market at somewhere between £300,000 to £315,000.

We were expecting to get a minimum of £325,000 upwards...

-Yeah.

-..shall we say. So that £325,000 would be

the bottom figure that we would be looking at.

So we'll have to...

Sharon and I will have a chat now and see what our options are,

based on those figures. Mm-hm.

One option, based on the top figure,

is to sell at a potential profit of £74,500 before taxes and expenses.

Regardless of that decision, I'm sure Michael and Sharon

will have made up their minds about where to travel next.

Probably back to Turkey, I think, and then we're thinking

maybe, sort of early part of next year,

we might head off to the Far East for a month or so.

-Yeah?

-Yeah, we'll see.

-We'll see what they've got to offer.

-Yeah.

Am I jealous? Mm, a wee bit.

Seriously, you two have a great trip.

Well, that's your lot for today.

"Oh, no," I hear you cry, "it can't be true!"

Yes, that's auction lots Martin's talking about.

There'll be lots more next time.

So join us then on Homes Under The Hammer.

-Goodbye.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.