Viewing a ‘fixer upper’

[Guineapiggiesmalls]

A house in our dream area has come up, seems affordable and well within our budget, so we’ve excitedly booked to view it later this week.

However, it’s a definite fixer upper. From the photos, it looks like the previous owner has been there since it was built around 50 years ago. All our previous houses have been move-in ready, so I want to go prepared for what we should be keeping an eye out for!

I’m expecting it to need a rewire and probably a new boiler, but anything else obvious I need to take a closer look at? I feel clueless about this!

(apologies to anyone who reads this and ends up singing Fixer Upper from Frozen for the rest of the day as I’ve been doing since the Estate Agent mentioned it…)

Asbestos, Damp, Radiators, bathroom fittings not working, drains being blocked, shoddy DIY outbuildings, old insulation, chimney stacks needing repair. Obvs this might not all apply to your situation!

Just a few of the items we knew we would have to fix.

Windows, horrible polystyrene tiles on ceilings (remove and replaster). Rewire, replumb, new kitchen and bathroom.

You will need the highest level of survey if you go for it. Even if you don't have a mortgage.

If you are clueless then you need to take someone knowledgable with you. If you have no experience of renovating a house, you won’t be able to make a reasonable assessment of the time and money you will need to bring it up to standard.

So you won’t be able to calculate how much to pay for it. And to work out if you can stay sane while living in it and renovation it.

You will most likely never see problems in a fixer upper until you start renovating so going in with a list of things to look for is useless IMO. If you choose to go down the fixer upper route, start preparing mentally. Its not for the weak but its worth it.

Crikey… lots to think about. Feeling a bit less excited now 🤣

We went into the market looking specifically for a fixer upper. For us, all we cared about was "good bones". If the house was structurally sound that was good enough for us .This can be revealed during the survey; however a survey won't fish out all problem, even after we bought the house we still found other issues that ate into our budget.

We didn't care about damp, radiators, insulation etc etc because we knew we were gonna gut out the entire house and start from scratch.

Advice for you:
-Research the ceiling sales prices in the are. Absolutely no point in putting in 80K into a reno if you can't even sell it and get a return.
-Have a contingency fund (you're gonna need it!)
-Don't be put off by an ugly house, if you saw what we bought to how it looks now, your jaws would drop.
-Don't cut corners, do it right the first time (big lesson for us)
-Brace yourself, its a roller coaster

There's a lot more I could say but don't wanna go on too much.

Don't get too put off by decor or smell of damp etc.

You'll probably have a feel for whether the house has been neglected for 50 years, well maintained for most of that time with a tail off at the end, or well maintained but needs a refresh.

Go in with eyes open and do a second visit if you can with someone who does know something.

Factor in new windows, new radiators, new pipework, new boiler, replastering, flooring, garden, rewire etc.

But it doesn't all have to be done at once.

Depends if you are just looking at ancient furniture / old fashioned decoration on photos and thinking it all needs 'fixing' or if the EA has described it as a fixer upper.
I remember going to look at one 20 odd years ago, thinking it was going to need things like bathroom and kitchen replacing over time (and assumed wiring, central heating) and there was a ruddy great hole in the roof you could literally see the sky through.......

But I'd agree with taking a builder or experienced DIY type person along if you know someone, to give you some realistic assessments - or maybe taking lots of photos to show someone ??