Not wanting to support my husband's home renovation idea

[Mrstherockjohnson]

Currently my husband and I are renting. He is wanting to purchase a house that needs renovations that we will live in for 1-2 years then flip for a profit (think 150-200k pounds profit). Renovations include inserting new kitchen and 2 bathrooms, painting the walls, redoing the floors, landscaping the gardens etc. I am wanting to say no for a couple of reasons 1. We both have really stressful jobs where we both work 12 hour days 5 days a week. Currently we can barely complete basic household chores (i.e clean the house, cook dinner). I don't know how we will manage doing a renovation on-top of our current work. B.) my husband becomes incredibly annoying when he feels like he has too much work on his plate (which I think this renovation will lead to) and he has a large project this year that will demand more of his time. C.) I'm really bad with living in houses that aren't up to scratch. Already I'm living in a city I don't want to be in. Doing this renovation may lead to me becoming even more miserable. Am I being unreasonable with saying no to this renovation/house purchase idea?

Goodness no, YANBU. And profits from renovations are not what they once were.

Is he planning to buy in cloud cuckoo land?

See if you can dig out a few episodes of that Sarah Beeny programme where they spend a fortune doing houses up despite getting free labour from an army of friends and relatives and she says at the end that most of the profit was due to the rise in the market and anyone who had given up work to 'become a property developer' would have earned more working in McDonalds.

It doesn’t sound like he has really thought it through properly. He needs to create a realistic day to day schedule in which he can see where he would be finding an extra twenty plus hours a week for renovations. Renovating + working full time means no time off for a long time. Can you both sign up to that? Something’s got to give.

You definitely need to do a list of work, how many hours each project will take and then work out how much time you both have to spend on it. Then look at realistic time scales. You'll be living in a shithole for years. The profit won't be worth the effect on your mental health and relationship. People often make it work by living in a caravan on the property. But usually over spring to autumn. If the house can't be done within a year, it's a definite no.

Jesus, that sounds like a world class ball ache. If he intends that you do the work yourselves you'll grind yourselves into the floor with it and it'll never be quite finished. If you get people in you'll deal with the fucktangular mess of trying to get proper tradesmen. Forget it.

No.
You don’t have to do it and it would make you miserable.

How expensive is the house you're buying that he thinks you'd make that much profit?!

When DH has bad ideas I have found the best technique is to talk about all the good reasons to do something else instead, rather than the reasons something's a bad idea - the latter will put people on the defensive and I find they'll be much more amenable to 'X would be much better because...' Can you think of something else to do with time/money that might lure him away?

Where in uk is this profit being made?

I’d ask him to put together a coated spreadsheet with timeframes.

He’ll soon go off the idea.

He sounds like a dreamer.

It just sounds the kind of idea that one might think up (I remember having a similar idea about a big run-down house I could do up and let out rooms in...) before remembering ones full time job and the fact that most tradespeople need to be contacted in working hours and their work actively overseen and that having no weekends off for a year would get painful etc.

What gives him the confidence that he's able to estimate all the costs accurately? And foresee the post-Brexit market over the next couple of years?

I think the people who really can do this stuff well are tradespeople, who can do a lot of the work themselves and have friends in related trades, who'll fit in work for mates rates and reciprocal work.

*costed!

Is there potential for progression in his career? Maybe encourage him to think about that instead. Extra income every year, plus pension.

Also, if you can get it right (and that cannot be guaranteed at all), the real money is to be made by picking the right 'up and coming' area and letting the market do the work for you.

He sounds utterly delusional from what you have written.

Do not allow him to drag you down with his ridiculous ideas.

Your husband clearly has no idea what he'd be getting the both of you into. Say no and mean it.

Dh and I have done 2 properties, not for profit, just homes that needed work. Luckily no structural work but in this house alone for example kitchen extension, double garage conversion, new boiler & new radiators, double glazing throughout, sofits and facias. New kitchen to go into the extension, new flooring throughout and bathrooms. Plus a bit of roofing work. Every room decorated.

I am a SAHM, here to supervise any works being done. Never underestimate the head space for just choosing a kitchen and everything that goes in it, cabinet design, layout, appliances, which sink, which tap, which worktop, what splashback, upstands yes or no, what flooring, what lighting? I am able to do all this because Dh and I have been together almost 25 years and I can pretty much guess what he likes so I short list everything. But it takes time. Time you do not have.

It sounds like a great idea but it can feel relentless when you have people in and out and you don't get to enjoy it before moving on to the next project. Dh and I can fit bathrooms, tile, simple electrics, decoration.

We have taken our time with this house as we are here for the next decade. Your Dh is crazy.

On the plus side, you won't have to do too much cleaning whilst it's being done! Much of the work can't be done by the home enthusiast, unles s/he has professional qualifications,

I've watched enough Homes under the Hammer to know things never go as well as intended.

Please let me know where he's finding these profit margins for an easy Reno! £200k PROFIT on a quick flip?! (Work in the industry so that amount of work would be a quick job)

😂 no. Deluded

Ha ha ha....£200k profit? No. For all the reasons above. YANBU.

Don't do it.

Renovating houses is bloody hard work and very stressful. Even if you get tradesman in to do it, you still have to deal with the people themselves, the mess, the money, deadlines etc. If you're both working 12 hrs a day it's a recipe for disaster

That's exactly what me and my husband do, but you gotta be up for it.
Most recent one, I had no kitchen (nothing at all) for 14 weeks during lockdown one.
There was also a week in June when there was literally no back of my house - windows and doors were a week late, house was secured with hall door wedged shut with a broom! I look back now and laugh but it was awful. You have to both be up for it though.
Ps we both have full time stressful jobs and 2 kids under 4, and we did it all ourselves. So I'm not underestimating it.

We did this but I quit my job to supervise and take on some work myself. Woukd never leave people to it, it goes wrong and too expensive. Do yes tell him you're happy but he has to take 6 months off and do it full time!

He is right that if you grt the right house with the right requirements then you can still turn a great profit

My favourite part was having no toilet when the builders broke the only one left. It's a commitment