Would you buy a fixer-upper right now?

[stuntbubbles]

What with shortages of materials, prices rocketing and staying up, shortage of good tradespeople and long waiting lists – plus in a new-to-us town so wouldn’t know people for word-of-mouth recommendations?

We’ve just sold our fixer-upper and were looking for a move-in-ready house where we might change things in the long term but it would need to work for now. There aren’t any! We just viewed one yesterday with lime green gloss paint on the bedroom wall and a Star Wars carpet that smelled of dog (this room carefully not pictured on RightMove listing ). Listed all the work we’d need to do and it wasn’t worth it for the SQM or location.

But there’s a three-storey fixer-upper on a beautiful street next to the park, more than twice the SQM of our current house… At a minimum it needs:

New bathroom including knocking through to the separate loo
10 new sash windows
New radiators throughout and new boiler
French doors to garden
New carpet throughout upstairs
Floors sanded throughout ground floor
A million gas fires ripping out & replacing with period (replicas)
Redecoration throughout
Concrete garden smashing up & removing then new topsoil and turf
New shed
A couple of weird stud partition walls moving
Random bits & bobs eg some fancy tiles & period wooden decoration on the outside reinstating to match neighbouring properties

Anything that comes up on survey

We’d have £100k. And a 3.5yo and a new baby to get in the way.

In my head I’m like “I make the list, choose the fittings, hand over my money to a good builder, and simply suffer for four-six weeks”. But in reality isn’t it always worse than that and horrible? Particularly now? What’s everyone’s experiences currently with securing quotes and getting workmen in, and getting the fittings they want vs. getting what’s available?

We moved in to a fixer upper …. We knew we wanted an extension and to move a staircase, also 2 new bathrooms. 5 bedroom big semi detached.

we didn’t bargain on having to replace the pipes and radiators, all microbore and silted up. Also had to put megaflo in as tank not big enough for house.

We got it pre covid priced work before covid. With floors sanding, new carpets, extension, putting garden back (tiny garden, £18k), it’s coming in at £250k.

so minus extension and stair move, you probably can for £100k. Good builders (probably bad builders too) have 8 to 12 month lead in times where we are. Planning has ground to a halt.

supplies are better but 30% more than pre covid.

Tbh green paint and a gross smelly carpet shouldn't be too much of an issue. Can be gone simply and cheaply.

True, but there were a myriad of other issues and fixes we’d want to make, without the £100k budget as this house isn’t priced as fixer-upper and is going to best and final. So we’d have less money for work on the lime green house, and end up with 70 SQM less house at the end of it. I’m thinking of the trade-off of hassle for space!

You clearly haven't met my husband............Noooooooooooooooo

I would absolutely do it. But a house like you describe is my dream.

We can't get any builder in to quote let alone do the work. Had no problem getting electricians, carpets or windows (though had to wait for materials), and it's definitely more expensive than when we did work on our old house.

Interestingly the fixer uppers round here tend to sell and then end up back on the market after a couple of months - one down the road from us has been "sold" 2 times and is back on the market now, I'd guess that's due to lack of builder availablity.

I've noticed there isn't much difference in houses that need work & houses already done which doesn't seem to make sense when you look at the cost of work now.

To be honest I don't think 100k would do what you would Iike there. Which is madness! But I presume that sash windows- good ones- are more expesive than normal upvc, and we've just had a quote of over 2k to fit 2x 3m windows, and a smaller bedroom one. And that's with a FIL in the trade getting mates rates. Who knows what the survey will bring.

I'd still do that one though, if it's liveable.

@BadAtMaths2 Please can you tell me more about the £18k for the garden and what work that covered? It’s one of my big “wild guesstimate” areas especially as the house in question only has rear access via a pedestrian alley so I’m anticipating a balloon in price for people wheelbarrowing rubble away!

@anon2022anon We just did UPVC sash in our current house, granted not as nice as wood, so I was budgeting on the basis of similar. Some of my “need” list is “want”, really, it’s not uninhabitable. I’d sacrifice decorating and live with bare plaster for a while to get good windows – they really make a house! White paint is cheap and DP’s labour is free

Is the better house in a much cheaper area? Confused how it's much bigger, but cheaper and won't go to best and final!

It does sound lovely though. You have a good budget so I'd tempted to go for it, do the most important jobs first and hope for the best 😁

"creekycr · 04/05/2022 07:56
I've noticed there isn't much difference in houses that need work & houses already done which doesn't seem to make sense when you look at the cost of work now."

This - here in the west midlands the fixer uppers seem to go for the same amount of money as the normal houses. Which makes me conclude that the people who buy them are builders/tradesmen who can do their own work, in their own time (often do it when it's raining and they can't go to a job) and can get hold of materials at trade price.

If they are going for the same amount, even if they are builders, I can't see how this would be cost effective. The longer the house takes to do it's costing them money sitting there empty... and what would be the point of doing the work regardless of how cheap the materials are, if it's only going to sell for the same price as a similar fixer upper anyway?

I've just bought a fixer upper because I just love restoring them. It needs kitchen ripping out. I have bought a pre used good quality one from eBay with more units than I shall need. New tiles on kitchen floor. New downstairs cloakroom tiles and suite. Family bathroom tiles on floor and new bathroom suite. All carpets upstairs and on stairs ripped out and replaced. 3 bedrooms stripped of gruesome old paper, about 4 layers on each room. Walls skimmed then painting, also landing, stairs and hall. Lounge carpet ripped out. Floorboards made good, possibly the joist too. Good quality laminate laid. Same for dining room. Lounge and dining room decorated and I have bought a pre used period fireplace to replace one taken from lounge as feature. New front door and back door and all new internal doors but am hoping to find pre used period ones to replace. I shall however love getting it all done up. I have builder starting in 2 weeks. I am not planning on spending more than £25k on materials plus whatever labour is. It is a grand but old house and I am a sucker for corbels.

Not with a baby and toddler. Their childhood life is going to revolve around the demands of the renovation - time and money. I'd recommend having 5 or 10 years in a house that isn't a millstone tbh.

I don't think that money will go far unless you're willing to get your hands dirty and do a lot of it yourself. I wouldn't do a fixer upper with children of those ages.

On our buy, DH and I will some bits ourselves. I will do ripping off old paper and restoring fireplace. DH will fit kitchen, some tiling, fitting carpets and painting depending on his time. We just really enjoy doing the work in spare time. I have done several houses now. I use the same tradesmen each time and have access to electrician, gas engineer, carpenter, plasterer/ small building jobs and painter and decorator.

I use the same tradesmen each time and have access to electrician, gas engineer, carpenter, plasterer/ small building jobs and painter and decorator.

But OP has none of that. Good tradesmen are generally just looking after their own long standing customers at the moment - they don't have the time for new customers too! If you don't have established relationships then you're in "wild west" territory of randomly contacting people from Google searches, leaflets, etc which is where the cowboys and incompetents operate. The good/reliable ones are so busy, they don't need to advertise and don't have time to do leaflet drops!

No I honestly don't think I would now. It always costs more than you think but with prices rocketing it wld really make me think twice. Unless I had a massive budget to do it up or had a big income I cld quickly save from to do it up.

I recently got a quote for our little downstairs toilet which is like cupboard size. Just to replace the toilet and sink, small area of tiled splashback & flooring with 2 down lights was £3K. That's just outside Glasgow.

Oh and then there's the kids aspect! You don't want to be doing loads of work with little ones in tow. It's difficult I've done quite a few things in the house and it's always a nightmare either have to confine them upstairs or take them out for most of the day for weeks on end sometimes. Eating dinner in bedrooms from takeaways places as work still being finished etc. Hardwork!

Even simple garden work is stupidly expensive now with long waiting lists. We needed a concrete fence post replaced and the cheapest quote was £500 with a 3 month waiting list. The job itself took two blokes about an hour!

I wouldn't do it with a toddler. We bought a house that needed a bit of work. Nothing major (new tiles and kitchen cupboards, new floor on 1st and 2nd floor) but it cost much more than anticipated and lasted about 2-3 weeks longer than planned. I didn't have too much trouble finding a builder but they ended up not being very good. (I'm still fixing some of the things they didn't do properly or which they broke, like cracked door frames 😡).
but the main thing: having the work done while working full time and with a toddler in the house was AWFUL. Despite the fact that toddler attended nursery every day ... the dirt, the dust, the open doors all the time so freezing cold ... arrrgghh... I was really glad when it all ended... to say the least. We had more plans but parked them for now (not least for the fact that we ran out money Lol...).

How big is the house and the garden. £100k won’t touch the sides, that’s for sure.

We’ve done multiple fixer uppers but right now, no. absolutely no way.

@Badbadbunny This is my fear: being at the mercy of the Rated People/Check a Trade/My Builder cowboys. It’s different if you have a little black book of reliable tradespeople.

@TheTeddyBears Aaargh, you’ve just reminded me of wedging DD’s high chair along the boxes in our bedroom in this house when the builders had taken over the kitchen… and the sitting room… and the stairs… and all our stuff was displaced into the bedroom. Nowhere to even walk! This house actually has a decent kitchen for some reason (like, a semi-fixer-upper) and is bigger so at least we’d have the staging room for all the displaced stuff. Hmmm.

@sst1234 200 SQM house. Small garden. It’s not a back-to-brick gut renovation and I don’t have high-end tastes or needs – no Crittal bifolds or marble counters. Happy with reclaimed fireplaces and sanded original floors, not fancy engineered wood. We’re not touching the top floor, as we’ll wfh up there so can live with the ancient carpets and grotty walls!

thanks everyone for insight and opinions – still mulling it over. With so little on the market it feels like the only option. And much as I hate the dust and disruption I do like the chance to make a house how I want it…

OP, 200 sq m is a nice sized property. In fact in the larger side compared to average sized house in this country. If it’s a desirable location, you could have a very nice long term home that grows in value. However, it will cost a lot more than £100k. Be realistic, that’s all.