Would you go for "ready" house or lots of building work needed?

[stilllovingmysleep]

Hi, we're in the process of buying a house (our first) in London. Looking at prices, and from our first viewings, it's very notable that there's a big price difference between houses that are 'done up' and thus one can move in immediately, and those that need 'work'. The difference in price in some cases is more than 50,000£ or even 100,000£ for similar square footage.

What would you advise to go for? We have no experience in building work but have lots of friends who have gone through that process & have advised us that it's possible. On the other hand, moving in quickly seems a plus, particularly as then we could gradually (perhaps) identify what we'd like to do with our house & do it slowly.

Main questions:
--what is the average / approximate cost to redo a whole, say, 3-bedroom small house (not loft conversion)? I have in mind IKEA-like materials for kitchens etc, generally mid-range
--what is the average / approximate cost to do a small loft conversion (one room & bathroom / shower room)
--do you think the price difference in houses that are 'ready' is worth it, compared to price / time in doing the building work ourselves?
--how long does building work realistically take, if we find a good company at this early stage of making offers etc
--how much hassle would it be to do building work (some, not necessarily loads) after we're in the house, bit by bit? Eg do people do loft conversions or kitchen extensions and live in the house?

Thanks in advance for any advice (lots of questions I know!!)

It often costs a bit more to do up a place than it does to buy it 'ready'. A lot of it is to do with whether you can borrow the money to do it up, and whether the work to be done can be done when you're living there - if not, and you don't have somewhere nearby you can sleep for a while, it's not going to be doable. If you can live with it as it is now, if it is functioning, then you can redo it bit by bit and save money cleverly by doing it. Doing it quickly will always cost a lot more. You can definitely do loft conversions or kitchen extensions while you're living in the house - dependent on ages of children. We're at the start of a house extension and won't have a kitchen for about a month but the children are at school and I go to work so it's not that big a deal. If I was home with small children it would be a lot more stressful.

I think the thing to ask yourself is how long will I have to live with it as is until I can save/find builder/research what I want.

We blew our theoretical renovation budget on actually buying a house. ie we had a budget of X to buy a house and a Y decoration budget but added that Y to the house price of X to buy our dream forever house. No regrets but no money to do anything immediately.

5 years on we are still renovating. It isn't even a big house, but because we have to save to do stuff it takes time. So, we converted a double garage into a massive playroom for the children, plus it houses a lot of stuff like coats/shoes/school bags etc We also did a kitchen extension and had to level off the garden at the same time.

Now we are renovating the lounge. The last room downstairs. Dining room and cloakroom are done. Children's bedrooms have been done, plus ours, office never has.

But I still have bathrooms with gold taps and terracotta tiles. It does piss me off everytime I have to clean them. It will be next year before they are re-done. In total about 6 1/2 years from start to finish.

Our last house we gutted from top to bottom. I said never again and then we fell in love with this house.

I did up a 3 bed ex council and it cost me £7000. I didn't replace the kitchen units in the end as by changing the flooring, tiles and wall colour they ended up looking ok and were in good condition. It did take nearly a year though, involved lots of favours from friends and was very, very stressful (I split from my ex after 4 months and bought him out). I'm not sure I'd be in a hurry to do it again, unless I could live offsite while it was being renovated! x

I think it depends partly on whether the 'done' house is done to your taste. You are paying a premium for the finishing, so the worst of all worlds would be to buy the 'done' house and then still end up changing things that you are not completely happy with.

Completely worth it to get the done house, if done to a good standard.
I know someone who bought one already done but it had been done so badly and cheaply that they ended up replacing half the stuff within 2 years.

We once bought a house needing lots of work, would never ever do it again.

DH and I were in the same position a couple of years ago, and because he is in that line of work, we were leaning towards something that needed work doing so we could add value.
However, the sums just didn't add up. Even a basic loft extension is in the region of £40k, and that is assuming they don't uncover any problems. Then new kitchens, bathrooms etc all inevitably mean living without one for weeks, which means eating out or going away.

Long story short, we went for ready to move into. The work was finished to a much higher standard than we would have done, and everything was done, where as we would probably have got halfway through until it was 'ok' and then called it a day.

Our neighbours are currently having their loft done and a bit of a refurb, and they are beyond stressed by it. I would never live in a house while it is being done up, based on their faces at the moment...

What about the option of doing some minor things, eg painting it all, wall to ceiling shelving, built in wardrobes, and maybe replacing kitchen cabinet doors? Perhaps one bathroom too. (all to be done before moving in). Would that be a reasonable budget do you think? (and in what price-range do you think we'd be looking at)?

If it's your first house I'd go for the best location and size you can afford.

Costs will depend on who does the work etc but I'd budget about £3-6k for a bathroom, £10-30k for a kitchen.