Episode 2 Homes Under the Hammer

Welcome to Homes Under The Hammer.

We do some property buying and selling ourselves.

There is something special about buying at auction.

Let's find out what properties are going under the hammer today.

You could be spoilt for choice with this terraced house in South London.

It could be rented out or become a family home.

In rural Buckinghamshire, there's a little cottage that isn't exactly perfect.

I didn't realise there were problems to this extent.

These properties went to auction, and we'll find out who bought them

and what they paid for them when they went under the hammer.

I'm in an area of London which has benefited from major regeneration over the last five years.

Its facilities, buildings and parks have been updated and improved,

which is reflected in the local property prices.

I'm in Catford, Southeast London.

Ben Elton was born here.

Spike Milligan went to school here.

But property prices are no joke.

We're here to see a three-bedroomed mid-terrace with a guide price of 170 grand.

The house is on a quiet residential street around 10 minutes' walk from

a mainline railway station and a mile from the town centre.

So, great location but what about the house itself?

So what lies beyond the pebble dash of the exterior?

Well, a fairly standard house, actually.

Interesting decoration going on here. Look at this fireplace!

Faux Flintstone fireplace.

Absolutely fantastic.

Clearly, you want to get rid of that.

Over here, something more serious.

Down here,

not good news.

In there. Damp.

In itself, not too much of a problem.

Rising damp - cure that with injection damp proof course.

My only concern would be that it's affected the floorboards,

because this is a wooden floor.

It might have affected the joists as they go into the wall.

You definitely want that checked out.

But not a bad start.

Into the rear reception room. A bit dark and dingy, only a small window.

And it gets worse, because through here is the kitchen.

This is absolutely tiny.

You've got a bit of a cupboard, probably underneath the stairs.

But not much room for anything other than the sink.

However, I do see a solution.

This wall, I reckon you could take that out.

Put an RSJ, metal beam, going across the top, take out this wall.

At least you'd open it up a bit. One other bad thing.

Unfortunately, this is the only loo and bathroom in the whole house.

Access through the kitchen, not good.

All in all, needs a total refurbishment.

Some work to do to get this place up to scratch.

There are three good-sized bedrooms.

A very large master bedroom with an original fireplace,

and two smaller ones at the back.

So there's ample room to consider moving the bathroom upstairs,

but that would reduce this to a two-bedroomed house.

So all in all, not a bad little property. Good-sized rooms.

It's really only the kitchen wants a bit of sorting out.

For that guide price of 170 grand, it's a good one to go for.

Let's go to the auction.

So, Tugela Street, Lot 22.

Do I have 200?

Start where you want to kick off.

190. 191. 192.

If not, in the room, 191.

192.

193. 194. 195. 196. 197.

198. 199.

200. 201.

202. 201.

202? 201, standing up.

First time, second time.

202. 203. 203. As you've been there,

202 and a half.

203. Yep? 203 and a half.

203, sitting down.

Anyone else? First time, second time, third and last time. Blimey!

Come forwards. 203 and a half.

Come up. Can't hardly see you there.

203 and a half. 204.

204 and a half.

205.

205 and a half. No?

At 204 and a half. First time, second... Where?

205. 205 and a half.

206.

205 and a half, down here, first time, second time, third and last time. Are you all done? Well done.

What a battle. The successful bidder was Julianna,

who's bought the property along with her partner, Gordon.

She's been property developing since she was 18,

but after taking a break she's decided to get her hand back in.

This was her first time buying at auction.

-Julianna, lovely to meet you.

-Pleasure to meet you.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Got yourself a nice house here.

-It is a really nice house.

What do you do when you're not doing property development?

I do clinical hypnotherapist and consultant psychologist.

-In a nutshell, what's that about?

-Erm, hypnotherapy deals with people

who have weight problems, smoking problems, phobias,

and it's just joined together with NLP,

it's neurolinguistic psychology or neurolinguistic programming, however you want to look at it.

It's just joined together, you get good results really quickly.

-Fantastic. Are you gonna be using any of your skills on the builders?

-Oh, absolutely!

-They sometimes have a phobia of work, don't they?

-They do. They do.

Sharing Julianna's passion for clinical hypnotherapy is her partner, Gordon.

A chartered accountant, he's also interested in property

and will be helping Julianna with the renovations.

How does it work between you and Julianna?

Well, Julianna does all the hard work, I sit back and enjoy it. Is that what you were looking for?

No! Well, if that's the truth, then yes, absolutely.

That's probably how it's gonna work in this particular case,

cos I tend to be quite busy in my own business.

Julianna can come in and out of the property to help supervise the builders, and things.

So I tend to be stuck at the office when she can come and do this stuff.

And she's better at it than I am. She can negotiate better deals with them than I ever could.

Part of the reason Julianna has returned to developing is because of Gordon's experience and enthusiasm.

But this project is all down to Julianna, so she'll be calling the shots herself.

I'd like to do what next door have done.

They have the bathroom upstairs in the back room. If that's possible, I'd like to do that.

And then dividing it up so that it stays as a three-bedroom family home.

What about the kitchen? That's a disaster, and the loo downstairs is...

It's all coming down, basically. The wall has to come down.

It's just a partition. The units have to come out, damp course put in and so on and so forth.

It will be very quick.

-So what's the timescale and budgets for the work?

-Six weeks.

May drag on into eight or nine, but if we look at six we'll head for six.

Budget, covering everything, not more than £25,000.

Oh! So a reasonable budget, then.

Yeah. But that is way up the scale. I'm expecting it not to be there.

I have overestimated pretty much everything.

Julianna has all her bases covered.

Let's just hope there are no nasty surprises once work starts.

So what about plans for the future?

Well, Julianna and Gordon have certainly found a great project to work on together here.

It's a lovely house, and I'm sure that they will make a great success of the renovation.

And you can find out how they get on later in the show.

The rural landscape isn't usually awash with auction properties.

The market for them is so strong, the conventional resale route normally gets the best price.

But I've come just 12 miles out of Oxford to an interesting cottage.

I'm in Shabbington, a small village just north of the Chiltern hills.

Look around you - it's absolutely beautiful.

No wonder it's so popular with walkers, holidaymakers and those keen to buy a house.

With the station just three miles away, you've got fast rail links to London or to Birmingham.

The appropriately-named Chestnut Cottage offers country life without being off the beaten track.

This cottage was built in 1850 and was owned by the church.

Looking at it, it appears perfect, but you know what they say - never judge a book by its cover.

I've got a feeling that could be appropriate.

Not only was it owned by the local church, the roof design echoes the church building itself.

Although first impressions are good, as you look a little closer, the cracks begin to show.

Should that low guide price of 170,000 start the bells ringing

and should they be celebratory church bells or alarm bells?

Now this is the kitchen.

This part of the house was built in the late '50s. So it's about 50 years old.

You've got a larder there, old-fashioned aluminium window frames,

and on the floor it's full of tiles made of terracotta. That matches the style of the property,

but there's no central heating. Just an old coal burner.

And there's no kitchen - it's just a sink unit.

A lot of money has to spent in here. Let's see what's through there.

And this is the lounge area. It certainly feels cottage-y.

I'm not that tall and look... I can touch the ceiling!

I had heard there were a few problems with this property.

They are staring me in the face. Look at this - cracks everywhere.

On closer inspection, you can see this property has moved - cracks above the windowsill,

lumps of wallpaper hanging off.

I didn't realise there were problems to this extent.

These cracks continue upstairs where the three bedrooms show a bit more than just wear and tear.

But they do at least have the character feel of an older property.

In the bathroom, the garden is trying to creep inside,

but what is the source of all the problems? I traced it back to the front garden.

Now this house has got some serious problems. I'm going to mention a word that could be quite scary -

underpinning.

It's needed because of subsidence caused by this horse chestnut tree.

Underpinning is the process of strengthening and stabilising the foundations of a building.

A survey will need to be done to find the extent of the damage that's been done by the tree.

A decision can then be made as to whether it's a partial or a whole house underpinning that's needed.

It could cost more than £20,000 just for underpinning alone.

Structurally, the house falls well short of ideal, as does the garden space.

The three beds make it a potential family house, but the garden really isn't a family size.

Before this little cottage can get its facelift, all the hard work needs to be done.

I'm talking about the underpinning. It will put some people off.

Let's see what happens at auction.

Lot 69.

Do we hear...? Yeah, 150. OK.

Thought that would draw a few out.

How much? 155? 155.

160. 165. 170.

175. 180.

185. 190.

191. 192.

193. 194.

195. 196.

197. 198.

199. 200,000. 201.

202. 203?

If not, the bid's at £202,000.

At the back on my left, been there all along.

202 for the first, 202 for the second,

202 for the third and final time.

All done? Sold to you, sir. 202.

For £202,000, the new owner is London-based builder Kevin.

He and his son Ryan were looking for a new challenge.

Kevin used to specialise in loft conversions and extensions,

but has decided now is the time to move into property developing.

He's set up a new company with his son, Ryan, and Chestnut Cottage is their first full-scale renovation.

Am I right in saying you've jumped in feet first? Most people would choose a one-bed flat.

It's very hard to get finance for that!

Bank wouldn't entertain me. They'd lend me a million, not a thousand!

I don't think Kevin will quite need a million pounds here, but he's not planning to do things by halves.

We're talking of opening this kitchen up so we get a nice kitchen/diner.

-You'll lose the downstairs toilet.

-Yeah, unfortunately.

-Which is a shame.

-It is a shame,

but you have got a kitchen/diner, which most families want with a three-bed house.

-What about through here?

-Next door, we're talking about opening it up into a nice, big living area,

taking out the external wall, maybe some patio doors to get more light in.

The ceilings are quite low. Upstairs, just take everything out and put it all back.

The inside is the least of Kevin's worries. If he doesn't tackle that subsidence,

there will be no need for his bigger cottage or new stairs - he won't have a cottage to house them in!

-It's quite dark, isn't it?

-That'll go with the tree being gone.

-This house clearly has got subsidence.

-Yeah.

-Due to...

-The tree, yeah.

-And what will you do to rectify that?

The tree's going, then we'll underpin all this area of the house, quite deeply.

Kevin's budget is £50,000 for the whole house, with a large chunk - perhaps up to 25 grand -

going on the underpinning alone.

He'll project manage the work and plans to be onsite most days supervising the builders.

Although his building skills will enable him to put the cottage back together,

there may be one area he can't fix - that's the rather small garden. Or has he got a solution to that?

We have an agreement to purchase some of a garden that backs onto us. Her garden is a bit big for her.

We've got another 4.5 metres. When all the place is cleared,

-we'll have a nice family-sized garden across the back.

-How much is that costing you?

-£11,000.

-That's really good news. You'll have somewhere to sit, table and chairs, to entertain.

Kevin is really sorted on this one.

He's gone into the project with his eyes wide open.

It's his first project, so the pressure is on to make it work.

With this house and all its problems, I don't think it'll be a straightforward build.

Join us later in the show to see if Kevin's pinned his hopes

on a house that's more trouble than it's worth.

-It's a few months later, and there should have been some improvements.

-Let's go back and find out.

Clinical hypnotherapist, Julianna, started young in the property game

and now wants to get back to it after a five-year break.

Along with her partner, Gordon, a chartered accountant and owner

of nearly 50 buy-to-lets himself,

she bought this three-bedroom house in Catford, London, for £205,500.

This was to be Julianna's return to property development

and she was confident all would go well, but it seems she got a lot more than she originally intended.

Rather than giving the keys, and collecting the keys,

and picking the accessories - it wasn't like that at all.

I have had to be here shovelling the cookers, filling my car with bricks every other day.

And plaster, and plasterboard, and I wish I had a camera.

It's been an experience I will never forget and I have learned from it, and I will never do it again.

# Never never say never again

# Never never say never again... #

Julianna may have got more than she bargained for, but the result is fantastic.

The house is almost finished and there have been quite a few changes.

# ..You walk in a room... #

We've taken the wall down, taken the door down. The ceiling just fell down.

We have put a new ceiling, new plumbing, new floor - rebuilt the floor up,

new skirting, new doors. Everything you see, we went back to bricks.

This is what we have ended up with, which I am happy with.

We will be finished soon so it looks quite nice, I'm happy.

That awful bathroom has gone

but there was really only one place for the new one to go, and that was upstairs.

By keeping three bedrooms,

Julianna has improved the house without compromising any of its selling points.

As for Gordon, he took care of Julianna's workload

while she did this and he is very impressed with the result.

The agreement was that she wanted to do a project and get it under her belt. She did really well with this.

She had some real challenges with this one

and came through it intact, but with some new knowledge.

It's been good.

My involvement has been very slim.

It has taken Julianna six weeks in all and that was due mostly to her pushing the project all the way.

Julianna has had a tough time but thankfully finances were not something she had to worry about.

We thought it might come down a bit but really, with the problems

we've had on the project, it's going to be 20,000 by the time it is done.

But now it's done, how does Julianna feel?

The best bit is now it's over, definitely.

My smile has come back on my face after six weeks.

Just the thought of "it is over".

So, will it impress two local estate agents?

We would market the property between £250,000 and £255,000.

-Right on the mark.

-Yes, that is just exactly.

-Just what we thought it was going to be.

255 seems a bit strange because of stamp duty so maybe 250 to get sold quickly.

And what about the rental potential?

If I were to rent the property out,

I would value it for between £950 to £1,000 per calendar month.

That's actually not bad, you know.

That might make a good rental deal for us because property prices are doing well in the area.

That might be... That's actually quite good. I like that.

That figure is enough to convince Julianna and Gordon to rent this house out before selling.

For Julianna, it's a job well done, but will she say never again?

I'm quite happy with it overall.

Even though, as you say, it has been difficult.

Being the first renovation we've done in London, it was always going to be a learning curve.

Some of it was steeper than we would like but we have learnt some lessons, some hard ones, haven't we?

-Yes.

-We won't repeat the same mistakes again, for sure.

The next project is going to be much easier.

# Never say never again Never never say never again. #

Just outside Aylesbury in Shabbington,

Chestnut Cottage was being uprooted by the tree after which it was named.

This caused substantial damage, but after buying it for £202,000,

father and son building team Kevin and Ryan weren't too worried. Or were they?

# Don't worry about a thing... #

When we first started work, my son came out.

I was quite shocked. I could see it was leaning towards one side.

He used some expletives. "What have you bought?"

I'm not sure I can repeat what I said. Mainly it was, "Are you sure? I don't think so. You're mad."

Yes, it was quite daunting, but we've done plenty of this over many years.

That's reflected in the work they've done here, including a new roof and removal of the troublesome tree.

But was this a really hard nut to crack?

-Toughest part was the underpinning.

-The underpinning was tedious. Didn't enjoy that.

It was in the middle of winter, we were up to our necks in mud, down a hole two feet deep.

Two feet? It was two metres, by the way. A hell of a lot bigger than two foot!

The hole was filling up all the time. We got covered in mud.

He made me promise never to buy a house needing underpinning again!

He tends to stay rather clean. I seem to be covered in mud.

I do a lot of the hard labour, he does things with more finesse. He's the brains, I'm the brawn.

With the underpinning completed in two weeks instead of six,

Kevin and Ryan could crack on with the other jobs in the house.

Downstairs, the main lounge area has been replastered, had central heating fitted

and been opened right up to make it open plan.

And the kitchen area has undergone a complete transformation as Kevin explains.

There's no doubt that this high spec kitchen is a big selling point.

It's the first thing you see when you come into the house, so it needed that wow factor.

Here we're in the end bedroom.

This, originally, was slightly smaller. Almost identical to next door.

So we decided to push this wall back two feet, which originally came under this beam.

It turned this into a nice-sized double with built-in wardrobes.

Next door is still a good-sized kids' room. Also, it exposed the beam, which is a feature in the room.

The other rooms have also been replastered and refurbished with new windows, skirting and doors.

Kevin has been true to his word that everything would be replaced.

The bathroom's been transformed.

There's not only a brand-new suite, but by replacing the airing cupboard it's got a walk-in shower now.

The outside space has changed, too.

How is his 50 grand budget holding out now?

It now looks like 45.

The big outlay, one was the underpinning.

That probably cost about £10,000.

And then the finishes, the kitchens and bathrooms, for that high spec.

That would take Kevin's total spend up to the 260 mark.

So has this been money well spent?

Has Kevin's - or Ryan's - hard work paid off?

Let's see what the agents think.

If I put this on the market, I would ask £345,000.

I think the market will stand this property at about £350,000.

That could produce a tidy £80,000 - not a bad start to their new joint enterprise into developing.

That should mean more projects together, something they enjoy.

I love working with my dad(!) No, it's good, it's OK.

-He doesn't know how easy he's got it!

-HE doesn't know!

We'll be back next time with more Homes Under The Hammer.

-Join us then for all the action at the auction.

-Goodbye.

-Bye.

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