Would you max budget on a doer upper as a longterm project?

[ColdAsMice]

We've seen an amazing property, the type we could never in a million years afford if it was in good condition. It's huge, period so lots of character and in a great location too. But it's at the top end of our budget and it's in major need of modernisation.

It isn't derelict...it's currently lived in by an elderly couple and habitable. But there are degrees of habitable, aren't there. As in - it has water and electrics and some sort of heating system, but all ancient. The decor is vile, but that's the least of my concerns. Structurally it seems pretty sound except for some exterior plasterwork cracking. Windows etc are all in place although it's old single glazing. Massively dated bathroom and kitchen suites but usable.

We would have no money to do any work to it en masse so it would have to be dribs and drabs over time, as money came in. But its the only way we could ever possibly afford a house like this, and we'd never need to move from it once complete (if it ever was complete!)

Good investment or really stupid idea?

Good investment as long as you have a full survey done so you don't get surprised with a new roof or subsidence in the first year before you can afford it.
Then prioritise what must be done to prevent further damage/ deterioration before doing one room at a time. Live in as few rooms as possible over winter to keep your bills as low as possible until you are in a position to get started on the big stuff.

Do you have kids/will you soon have them.

With small children I personally think living in a half completed building site with endless small projects on the go would be a nightmare.

Just adults would be fine.

I'd go for it, subject to a full structural survey. We've in the process of buying similar, although we do have a decent budget for works. Even if we didn't, we'd still have bought it, using the survey to work out how much we'd need to save etc. This is the house I will only be leaving in a box, so there's no rush.

Hmmm, depends on your earnings? How much would you have extra each month to put towards the renovations. If it's £1000 a month it's going to take many many years to fix the place up.

Also how handy are you both? Are you prepared to spend your weekends on the house? You can keep the cost down dramatically by getting your hands dirty and you may enjoy the process and it will be amazing at the end knowing you ran every electricity cable and put down the floorboards.

Cost each element, full structural survey and then negotiate.

I bought mine for £85k less than asking price, We've been here 10 years and when the roof is redone next April I'll have spent that £85k on renovations.

But only do it if you know you will be there long-term.

I would but I love properties that need a bit of love! It will be very hard, especially if you have or plan to have kids. The mess and dust is relentless in a project property but seeing it all take shape is so satisfying.

It would depend for me how much the work would cost and how long it would take to do.
If it’s already at the absolute ceiling of your budget presuming you are purchasing with a mortgage are you actually able to save?

I would! We've been doing a payday renovation updating things in dribs and drabs, and have recently done a new bathroom/kitchen and boiler off the back of remortgaging. However, it isn't our forever home so we aren't going super high spec on everything, and DIY almost everything (except the obvious - plumbing, electrics etc)

Yes we have children but they're both a bit older (10+) so not like having toddlers running about. They've seen the state of the place and don't seem too fussed about living in it "as is" as a compromise for the huge amount of space they'd get.

We'd have literally nothing to spend on it per month except when bonuses come in...so maybe 5k a year maximum. Which worries me. Things like painting, sanding etc we could do ourselves. But the bigger things literally would need to wait until our salaries increase further, which they will over time, or we inherit but it could be many years away. We'd be accepting that We'd be literally living in it as it is until a point we could afford to improve it purely on the vision that it could, one day, be incredible.

Tricky we took on that type of house with a 12 and 14 year old, moved in during winter ((early Feb) it was freezing and the biggest problem was the electrics, just couldn’t handle a family with computers, TVs etc, we had to go on holiday over the Easter whist we had a rewire done, it was expensive. Had to replace all the heating system as well, managed to refurb most of the old windows, but it took a while till it was a comfortable warm home and we had the money to do the work.
I’d not under estimate the cost and time involved, if you don’t have money on hand I’d say think hard about how long it will take you to do the work and if you can really live in such a house, or if it would effect your day to day enjoyment.

I'm going against previous posters and going to say 'really bad idea', single glazing and large rooms + a poor heating system are going to make it difficult and very expensive to heat, poorly heated houses quickly develop all.manner of problems. Any structural issues that develop after purchase, you're going to be unable to address. Cracked exterior plasterwork most likely has water ingress, so would need looking at immediately, could end up being a large and expensive job. Etc etc etc.

I think you may well end up regretting it.

I'm not a huge fan of maxing the budget for any house (unless absolutely necessary), but it's a bit bonkers for a large project that could incur enormous unseen expenses.

Head over heart OP!

Windows for a start are very expensive

Sounds like you can't afford it
Won't be fun living in an ancient house with no real prospect of doing any work to it
I would pass personally, even doing it full time could cost 100k and take 12 months
You would probably end up living in a cold damp dusty building site for years.
If you are really desperate then go in with a lower offer which gives you the cash to rewire, replace and replace straight away... depending on the size of house that will cost a minimum of 15k

The first thing I'm thinking of is it will need re-wiring, which can cost a small fortune and throw up some real horrors with an old building. Then there's a new heating/plumbing system - again which can throw up some horror stories.

Yes it's absolutely doable and in the long term worthwhile if you can bear to update bit by bit but don't underestimate how much it can grind you down when you have no money to do it up.

No from me. Large house with single glazing and shit heating and no money to fix them? Nope.

You might think it's livable but it gets pretty miserable when you can't actually afford to do anything and are stuck in it.

I really wouldn't, we looked into something similar a few years ago: basically plan was to do up basement flat so it was habitable, then rent it out while 'squatting' upstairs and doing work in drips and drabs. I'm so so glad we didn't. Everyone else who viewed and big on that house was apparently a builder/related to a builder. We went for a house we could afford to renovate, had enough budget for the 'big' work then did the small bits over a few years. It has been really, really hard and exhausting, though I am so happy we didn't go for a big project house. Everything you think will take a few hours, takes a day - you go to the hardware store, you make your plan, you buy/rent/borrow equipment. And then at the end of the weekend you are exhausted. Recarpeting, painting, etc etc - its a LOT of money, just for the decorative stuff, and you WILL start to notice the decorative stuff after a while. Even just kids bedrooms.

Rewiring, replumbing, replastering - you may well find you actually need 10k in the first year. You may discover its freezing in winter. You may find that an electric system that managed a plug in heater and a kettle collapses under the strain of teenager tech.

If you had more disposable income, or a plan to get it all done over 2 years say, then maybe. But the cost of work is rising, you have no wriggle room if something critical comes up... I'd be running a mile.

No I wouldn’t
Doing a house up is awful enough without the stress of having no cash.

I wouldn't, but I enjoy living now, not for the future. Obviously I saw for pensions etc, but I couldn't possibly live in a freezing cold draughty house and think "It'll be ok in 3 years once we've updated the heating and put new windows in and insulated the place", it would make me absolutely fucking miserable.
Sounds like you can't afford it, keep looking for something else.

I wouldnt. If you had some money to start the repairs that would be fine. However with nothing to start with I definitely wouldnt. New electrics cost £££, new roof, new boiler etc could easily add up to £20k plus.

Also bear in mind that some old people (thinking about DF!) do next to nothing about keeping their house in a good state of repair. God knows what isnt visible that hasnt been attended to. Damp, new boiler, new bathrooms, new kitchens, manky carpets, new plastering needed, roof repairs, new electrics, new boiler and rads. They have the money but just either become very stingy about spending it, or dont know how to do it so its easier to just leave it. It staggered me just what a state my DF house was in - and he was living in it!

No, by the time you are in a position to do it all your DCs will be heading for GCSEs and not appreciate all the disruption. Then A levels the same and a bit further down the line if they go to university that will be very expensive.

Plumbing, rewiring and the single-glazed windows sound like your big issues here, and that’s before anything else is thrown up on the survey. We bought a big, neglected early Victorian house with lovely bones in a beautiful and expensive area almost 11 months ago, knowing that the roof itself was sound and the windows replaced about 20 years ago. However, we’ve easily spent the guts of £80,000 on it already — 180 years of bodged DIY meant rewiring and replumbing throughout , which meant it all needed replastering, a chimney needed stabilising after a winter storm, as it caused a bad leak, and scaffolding a tall house was expensive. We had to move out again this summer for five weeks, and even now we’re on bare floorboards and plaster walls, and will be living with the primitive kitchen and bathrooms for some time yet!

if you can't do the windows and heating straight away don't do it. If you could guarantee within 12 months then fair enough but to not be able to do those 2 asap means the house isn't liveable long term. It would be hard going to put up with the cold year after year with no end in sight.

Do it. We did and have reaped the rewards. If we'd bought a cheaper safer option we would never have been in the position we are in now. We've just moved and were able to buy our final forever home cash with money to spare.
It won't be easy ... but so worth it in the end.

Absolutely! If its habitable then that's the most important thing. We got onto the housing ladder just over 2 years ago, nothing like a big house but our small little flat. We save and each year we have put the money towards house stuff. The first year was getting the backboiler ripped out and replacing with a combi. The second year went to getting the whole place re-wired. Now we are tackling the living room and will are living with the vintage 70's decor until we have the money to change it.
We predict that when we are ready to move house the only way we can afford to get what we want is to get another complete fixer upper.