To want to share my shock at this?

[GardenPart]

6 months ago - me and my siblings sold our childhood home for £500,000.

My parents bought the house when they got married in the 60s.

Both parents dead now, so estate sorted out between us.

We sold the house to an experienced developer.

My siblings and I have moved out of our home town but my daughter has moved into a flat about a mile away from our childhood home. Anyway - 2 days ago my daughter was visiting me and out of curiosity scrolling through her phone at local property sites and suddenly called me over -

anyway - to my surprise my childhood home was on the ‘for sale’ section - I was so shocked my initial thought was that it was the house next door to my parents that was for sale which looked identical from the outside. I honestly thought the developer could not possibly have done the property up so quickly ! But no, it was our old property.

‘I’m surprised about 2 things basically :

1. The speed it took them to develop and modernise many - or even most aspects of the property - it was actually on the market last month so that meant it took them 5 months. Don’t get me wrong - I know we sold it to an experienced developer - who wouldn’t waste any time and would be very efficient with the progress of the property - but even so !! 5 months? I thought it would take them at least a year.

1. The price. We sold it for £500000 6 months ago - it’s now on the market for £800000 - a 60.% mark up! If it was resold I expected the selling price to be circa £650k and only around £700k at the very most.

if it sells for the £800k asking price that’ll be the second most expensive sale ever in the street - this is surprising as it’s a semi detached house and the most expensive went for £820k 8 years ago - but detached.

The pics of the house look absolutely lovely - they’ve modernised it to a great standard - bathrooms, toilet, kitchen looks gorgeous and my goodness it needed loads of attention - my mum let the house go to seed after my Dad died - it was too big for her living there alone - it was a lot for a young adult in prime health to manage alone let alone an 89 year old !! They’ve also kept some of the lovely original features. It’s so nice to see our old childhood home so loved and modernised and less tired looking so I tip my hat to the developer and really glad we sold to him - but -

AIBU to be surprised by the speed of the turn around and the amount of the price elevation on the property? Or is this normal ?

My parents house will be one of these. It has recently been valued for probate at around 2M, despite being completely rundown and never really been updated since it was built over 100 years ago. It isn't even double glazed, and has the original horse hair plaster and the garden breaks my heart, the way they let it go It could easily be worth 5M if done to modern standards due to size, land and location. I would love to be able to do it myself, and dreamed of living somewhere like that but I don't have the time or money to finance the renovations, nor do I want to upsize as I am approaching retirement!

Someone lucky is going to get a bargain, and I am going to pay a lot of inheritance tax!

You can do it yourself if you're a good DIYer of course but you can't make nearly as much money as a good developer. For a start, it's going to take massively longer, most people will be limited to fitting it around another job, weekends etc. You might not have the necessary trades contacts and you won't get trades rates aand discounts at merchants because you're bulk buying.

The developer hasn't made even nearly 300k either. He's probably spent at least 100k+ on it especially if it's got new bathrooms, kitchen, he's had to pay upfront for all parts and labour. Then he has stamp duty and fees to pay on sale. Even if he sells at roughly asking price, he's might have made around 100k ish - that's before tax. So yes a tidy profit, but every week that it takes to sell eats into that profit - so the quicker he can get it flipped and on the market the better for him.

Someone lucky is going to get a bargain, and I am going to pay a lot of inheritance tax!

We'll be a lot more if it was 5m!

@GardenPart I think that is a pretty fast turnaround tbh. The developers near me don't do it that quickly.

The idea would be that the asking price is lower so they don't have to pay as much up front which saves on interest and leaves more for renovation. Then you take a share (not all) of the profit to reflect the risk taken and also to get the money back that you discounted.
Probably more worth it if you don't need the cash urgently and want to sell to someone with less cash on hand

Good money in trades these days I think, the days of cheap renovations are long over. That being said that is quite the mark up, I would think it might have cost 100k max to do depending on the quality of the materials and fittings. So £200k profit in 5 months is very good going. However, they do need to sell for that. Lots of overpriced property sitting around right now, not a lot of sales happening. Personally I wouldn't buy from a developer, you can guarantee all the choices have been made to maximise their profit rather than your enjoyment or the works longevity.

Yes thanks for that. Maybe I can see it working If you are buying something that required planning permission say from a single house to 7 or eight flats. But if it’s just one house and you’re just making it into a better house. Profit would be too tight to do that.

What a little bubble you've been living in, I suggest you stay there, it sounds quite nice!!

Neither aspects are remotely unusual, I would love to buy a bungalow, but they are snapped up before they go on the market by developers 'done up' and sold for a price I can't afford!!

🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

i'm pleased you are happy with what they've done to it, and aren't upset by it being so pulled about!! Objectively it is a very good thing, but sometimes it's hard to see the family Home being so chopped about.

I'm taking you've never watched "home under the hammer"!

I have - but not much recently so forgot quick turnaround times !

They are building new houses across from me. In 5 months they have nearly finished and there are 4 of them

Except if I could afford to do it up, and was young and energetic enough to justify having such a large house and garden, I would sell my house, move into it and pass the inflated inheritance tax problem to my kids!

But mostly I feel sadness that they let such a beautiful house fall into disrepair and have left me trying to sort/empty it all out because my siblings live too far away.

New kitchen, new bathrooms (possibly putting up walls to fit in en suites), secondary glazing, complete rewire, dealing with the garden and any hard landscaping, new boiler (and possibly cylinder), any necessary repairs to roof, woodworm treatment, dealing with any damp, carpets or other flooring, insulation, repointing - I doubt the developer saw any change out of £100k, as others have said.

And if the developer bought the house with a loan, there will be interest to pay between purchase and resale - that could easily rack up another 15k.

@EilishMcCandlish my parents house has gone a bit like that. there's a lot to be said for downsizing before you get to the point a house to big for you to maintain. It's put me ever wanting a big house.

Me too - absolutely! I could see the disadvantages for myself

Thing is they know exactly what order they need trades in for and when, and will have people they use regularly who can work quickly. They know lead times on ordering kitchens/bathrooms etc and will be ready to go. Trade accounts at builders merchants etc etc.
when you’re set up for it and experienced, yeah it can be quick

I agree. You sound lovely OP. I hope you have happy memories of your childhood home and are able to enjoy the proceeds of its sale.

Thank you ❤️ - and yes we’re enjoying the proceeds ❤️

Property developers have teams they work with regularly, so the electricians would have been in as soon as the keys were handed over and the plumbers, as soon as any plaster could go on the walls that would be done too. The whole team would have been in working on different rooms at the same time. Most developers like to flip a house in 3 months so that they have minimal mortgage payments to make

I agree these places look good on the surface, OP, but remember we rarely get to see how the job's been done

My late, exMIL's place went to a developer - it was way beyond a DIY job for most - and they filled the place with grey, stripped wood and cheap modern fittings for quick appeal, but left the cellar with the ceiling fallen in and full of building rubble

I still wonder if viewers even looked down there or if they were too dazzled with the do-up to bother ...

Developer here, build costs are so high now
the speed of turnaround is vital
not an easy way to make money now

@GardenPart link, link please!

I’m shocked that you’re shocked.

Sounds like your agent knew the developer and turned a profit at your expense to me.
I built a whole house in 12 months, so know builders can work far more efficiently than they often do.

Not surprised really.
This is what experienced property developers do for a living and get paid handsomely for it.