Where are all the do-er uppers?

[Didicat]

We sold out house last August and now sitting in a rental. DH is after another fixer upper to make our own.

All the houses on the market seem to be done up to the nines already. Maybe naively (and poor taste)I thought there would be a fair few probate sales on the market.

Do probate houses come to market at particular times of year? Any suggestions of the best way to find a do er upper?

We’re in exactly the same boat - sold, renting and waiting for a house to come up. We would like something that has a bit of space so we probably need a do-er up so we can afford it.

What area are you op?

Might be because we’ve been in a rising market, they might have been snapped up and flipped. Sit tight, there are rumours of a prices coming down over the next 12 months.

We like fixer uppers too and I often browse Rightmove (not seriously looking to move) but nothing has tickled my fancy recently, everything is just sooo ridiculously overpriced.

Re Probate, I expect if beneficiaries choose to sell, properties will just come on as Agents/Solicitors are instructed.

Could you ask local estate agents to let you know as any come on the market? Act casual about it though, could make it difficult to negotiate if they think you’re too keen.

What area are you in? Scour Rightmove day and night, if one comes up book a viewing ASAP, expect it to cool soon but the property market is bonkers atm.

Have you looked at auctions?

Not brave enough to go to auctions, although have been browsing but since sept only one we fancied came up and it went £20k more than we’d have been parted with.

We are in North Wiltshire, the houses do seem to be reducing a bit now, there seems to be 1/3 reduced to new properties every day but only really talking 10-15 properties a week, so 5 would already be on at a more expensive price.

Yes maybe I should email all of the estate agents just with the area we are looking in it would be loads of estate agents.

@Didicat I’m the same, suctions scare me, I worry that they really do have something wrong.
I’m looking in North London, but my family all live in north Wiltshire so I know it reasonably well, good luck with your search.

Ours was a doer upper, hadn’t been touched really since the 80’s and you could see what decade each room in the house had been done, the house next door is now also a doer upper after our neighbour died, she had lived there for over 40 years.

Didicat we are in North Wiltshire and selling at some point in the next year. But we bought ours as a do er upper and its done. However we priced it last Feb- put it on, sold and fell through and we are now seeing other do er uppers on the estate going for waaay more than we would estimate in comparison to ours. So ours was definitely competitively priced originally however it remains to be seen if we will get that price again!!
Good luck though! Its a tough call and do er uppers are becoming more scarce around here.

I think alot of people have improved rather than move .

There is this one near me, cash buyers only though!

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/77373969?utmcampaign=property-details&utmmcontent=buying&utmmedium=sharing&utmmsource=copytoclipboard

My neighbours literally cycle around the area looking for places that look like the owner has passed away. They flip them after doing them up.

We got one only by angrily ringing every single estate agent weekly once our sale was agreed plenty of houses never make it to the open market. They get viewed by a handful of people who are actively chasing and on the estate agents' lists. We sold ours this way and we got ours this way. You are renting and I assume ready to go with MIP and deposit etc so be more assertive with the agents. Good luck

We're buying a probate house to do up, it's a very plain looking 1950s house. We're going to have to live in it for a while before renovating as it will need planning, we think. Bit daunting but I don't think we can just get done houses now, we have such particular taste that we'd want to change everything anyway. I don't like the idea of buying a done house then ripping stuff out that's perfectly good just because its not your taste. This has a perfect location and plotsize so I hope that keeps us happy until the interiors are finished.

Oh I agree nothing worse than buying a recently fitted kitchen or bathroom that you just don’t like. We’ve only every bought tatty condition or doer uppers, that last one (which we sold in July) had been in the same family for 40 years and was a mess, it took is a couple of years and lots of money to get it right, we were there for 7 years.

Yep, I agree about houses never being actively marketed. The estate agent came & told us about a sale falling through as they knew we had a relative in a strong position who could offer quickly, keeping the chain intact.