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Property/DIY

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‘It just needs some TLC’

17 replies

Overdon · 14/07/2021 13:32

Viewed a house yesterday apparently needing some ‘TLC’.
It had rotten window frames and the doors need replacing, full rewire required, old boiler, an asbestos garage and a massive crack’above a window lintel with brick work showing movement. New kitchen also required.
I think ‘full programme of modernisation’ would more apt.
Anyhow It’s going to best and final offers due to demand, the market still bonkers round here.

OP posts:
dotdotdotdash · 14/07/2021 14:44

That's a classic EA line - TLC indeed. I think you need to be especially careful to avoid overpaying for these sorts of properties, especially now at what feels like the top of the market. There is one I have had my eye on that needs at least £25k spent on it to bring it up to standard, and it's been on with 5 agents for months at a price point I can only describe as 'aspirational'!

Overdon · 14/07/2021 14:53

So true @dotdotdotdash, the problem is compounded by the fact that builders materials have shot up in price and they are all so busy at the moment.
The last thing I needis to be chained to a money pit.

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HP79 · 14/07/2021 14:58

That's hilarious! I viewed a property recently that has been stagnating on the market (in an area with a very hot market) and when I went inside I could see why. I'd estimate £100k required to get it up to the standard I'd want. It's been a rental for many years and everything was completely grotty, ancient and/or bodged - couldn't even open the front door fully because they'd installed it too close to a step. When the agent rang me for feedback, I said it was at least £100k overpriced (in my opinion) and she tried to convince me that the only thing it needed doing was a skim over the Artex ceilings. I know she's trying to flog a lemon, but I don't know how she was able to say that in all seriousness.

dotdotdotdash · 14/07/2021 15:06

Yes @Overdon, you would have to add another 25% on to your materials costs??? Plus all the effort and work to renovate it - the very least you expect is a bit of a discount - but some vendors are greedy I think.

Overdon · 14/07/2021 15:31

@HP79 the nerve of them!

I suspect in ‘normal’ times such properties would be put up for auction, but as some people are buying any old crap at inflated prices at the moment, it is good time to offload troubled properties.

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Bythemillpond · 14/07/2021 15:40

There used to be an estate agent where we lived years ago who coined the phrase “would be of interest to the diy enthusiast”

In other words it didn’t have a roof

Noseylittlemoo · 14/07/2021 18:09

We put an inherited property on the market last year . It was structurally sound but had been lived in for 40 years and was looking quite sad and tatty . While it would be quite feasible to live in , any new person buying would renovate as it was so dated. The EA took such flattering pics I barely recognised it and said it would be perfect for someone to "put their stamp on it". I suggested maybe they should say it needs modernising. But they said that would exclude alot of interested parties...
Then when we got feed back there was a lot of ' they liked it but too much work to do/ above their budget when they considered what needed doing etc'Hmm

Overdon · 14/07/2021 19:59

@Noseylittlemoo It’s like the garden photos they use, when you view the lawn has magically shrunk to the size of a postage stamp!

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FifthName · 14/07/2021 20:14

This one does at least say "development opportunity". However none of the photos reveal that the first floor is missing for some rooms. Fast forward to 13:49 of the tour

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/107734847#/

flashbac · 14/07/2021 21:21

@Bythemillpond

There used to be an estate agent where we lived years ago who coined the phrase “would be of interest to the diy enthusiast”

In other words it didn’t have a roof

Oh my! I've seen a house with that very description! Needs a full rewire, new ceilings, new kitchen and bathroom, rotten wooden windows need replacing, and that's just the obvious stuff! 'DIY enthusiast' indeed!
VVKills27 · 14/07/2021 21:30

Sounds just like ours - perhaps even nicer - a real ‘do everything from scratch again’ job. Laughably ours was advertised as ‘recently refurbished’. The refurb was badly painting a 40 year old, falling apart kitchen with cheap brilliant white paint & putting down some basic carpet in the hall way & rather helpfully in said kitchen too. It was a bargain for the size though, even though 3 years later we’re still nowhere near close to it being properly ‘refurbished!’. Estate agent language is amusing.

Pinuporc · 14/07/2021 21:43

We viewed one once that was described as suitable for someone looking a project.i mean it was a project but a complete rebuild project. We couldnt even go in all the rooms because they were unsafe, and there were gaps around the window frame that you could put your hand through.

surreygirl1987 · 14/07/2021 23:47

@ovendon that sounds like one we considered buying a few weeks ago... except this one had two massive cracks above two of the windows, with quite a lot of shifting brickwork! I could almost look past the holes in the walls, the roof needing replacing and the fact that they'd abandoned a bathroom renovation half way through... but the brickwork was the dealbreaker. Definitely money pit territory! And what do you know... it sold a few days after we viewed it!!

Overdon · 15/07/2021 01:18

@FifthName that is hilarious!

The annoyingly perky music accompanying the devastation too🤣🤣🤣

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Bythemillpond · 15/07/2021 11:08

flashbac

The estate agent did say
“would be of interest to the diy enthusiast
In other words it doesn’t have a roof”
In the brochure
I think you had to have a thick skin if you put your property with him as he made a joke out of any potential issue

My friend bought her house through him.

Hers was described as having really quiet neighbours as they were all dead. It was next to a funeral business

He obviously did well as he was in business for years.

Bythemillpond · 15/07/2021 11:22

We viewed a house (pre Internet and Rightmove etc) where it described the dining room as 14ft x 4ft
We thought it must be a typo
It wasn’t. The estate agent showing us round said the dining room table had been specially made for the size of room and if we wanted to purchase it with the house it was another £450.
I blurted out. £450 for a floorboard nailed to a load of trestles. No way.

From the outside it looked like a reasonable size detached house but you couldn’t get in the front door as it was blocked by a sofa
The kitchen where you entered, once you had got inside they had built the units on 3 walls and then brought them down the 4th line so close to the other wall that you had to turn sideways to shuffle between the wall and the units in order to get to the rest of the house.
It gave me claustrophobia just being there and it wasn’t a small house

Hebeee · 15/07/2021 13:15

Similar to @VVKills27 the house we purchased three and a half years ago was originally described as recently refurbished. We didn't actually view it then as we're just checking out the area ahead of a long distance move (England to Wales) and wanted to see what was available with land in our budget. Actually, in our case we were looking for a project as we've done loads previously 🙄

Anyway, when scrutinising the pics I noticed that not only did it have very obviously peeling paint to front door and windows (which looked ancient, and not in a good way considering the property was a 400 year old cottage!), but that both bathroom (actually a shower room) and kitchen - which were both described as newly fitted - looked at least ten years out of date. But, because of its great location/land and its project-worthiness, I saved this particular one to my RM list although I didn't really think about it again till a couple of years later when it turned up, hugely reduced in price as a repossession!

Of course during the intervening years when we finally viewed in person in Jan 2018 the condition had deteriorated, but nonetheless I was proved right about the pics from the original listing. Turned out it had been refurbed by a previous owner in 1999 😮, then sold in 2006 at a massive profit to a couple from the US who subsequently did very little. These were the ones who got repossessed. We even found dates on the kitchen and bathroom fittings dating them to the early noughties (2000/2001) with the previous owner's name...she's an artist, well known locally.

So a really recent refurb - of about fifteen years when the place was first advertised for sale! We're still uncovering poorly done jobs too and by the time we're finished nothing from that recent refurb will exist (we're not in a listed building, btw!).

On the subject of ridiculously sized rooms, one recently sold near us with a kitchen that was 16' x 3' 😂 meaning there was a 30cm sliver to stand in whilst cooking etc!!

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