Would you take on a renovation now?

[kirinm]

Knowing that it would be a very long term house and that a lot of work would be done by your DP and trades he works with?

We looked at a house which is a really great size (for our area of London) but is an absolute wreck. We couldn't live in it as it is, it would need to be completely stripped and would need work in every single room. It looks as if it was used as an HMO so nearly all the interior doors are front doors, it has a commercial grade fire alarm system

It is literally full of rubbish. It was quite a traumatic viewing to see people living like that tbh.

It would be a mammoth project. And a long term one. We'd probably have enough money to gut it, put in a temp kitchen and bathroom and make rooms safe (ceilings look like the could collapse). But then we'd have no choice but to work on it as and when we could afford to.

We've done a renovation before. DP is an electrician and turned out to be pretty handy in most other areas. But there's no doubt it's a bigger job than anything we've done (in a personal capacity) before.

On the one hand, we'd never afford such a decent sized house if it didn't need work but on the other, what if it's the biggest financial mistake we ever make??

I'm really conflicted. It is not helping that our rental is awful and the housing market is so competitive so I'm conscious we might be straying into panic buying.

Nope and I have done 3.

Unless of course it was ridiculously cheap, like at least £100,000 to £150,000 under the asking price for a done up house

If you can't afford what you want any other way, sure. It was the only way we were able to get the kind of house we wanted in the area we wanted. And yes, it's absolutely been grim -- we're still living on a building site after four years, and we're so used to wearing layers of clothes indoors that other people's houses now strike us as ridiculously hot.

I suspect we'd be looking at getting it at least £2-300k under its done up value but difficult to know for sure as not many houses have sold on the road recently.

We wouldn't extend - certainly not anytime soon. We'd just try to fix it!

What’s your age? Do you have kids? Are they babies? Teenagers? Moved out? That’s all the stuff that would dictate the decision for me.

I’m in my mid 40s and I would do it, but if ten years older maybe not.

I'm mid 40s. Partner is 40. We have a 6 year old DD.

We lived on what was effectively a building site for a few years when we did our flat. This would be on a different scale in terms of size though. It is funny how quickly you get used to living in a grotty set up.

Slightly different in that we now have our 6 year old.

I would if it is £2-300k under top price for the street and given that your DH is handy.

Do a full costing and see if it makes sense financially.

I guess the important question is the "we couldn't live in it" part of your original post. How long would it be before you can live in it - even if it's a bit rough. And what would you be doing in that period - would the cost of renting for that time lose you all your savings from buying the reno project?

I mean, broadly speaking, it sounds like you are in a great position to make a reno project work, being in the trades and having friends in the trades, plus experience. You'd be going in with eyes wide open about what you are taking on, and in a position where you are just going to be paying for materials for a lot of the work.

The good thing about doing a bigger reno is that you can separate out a room or two to live in and cut off and avoid where the work is going on.

We are in a rental for 6 months - moved here two weeks ago after we sold. The estate agent said the Reno is chain feee so if we could get the sale over the line in say 3 months, we'd have 2 months left to stay in rented. We can use that time to blitz the house. We'd need to factor in the cost of renting and the cost of DP being off work to start work on the house, as part of our sales costs.

If we could gut it and install a temp kitchen and bathroom and possibly rewire some / all of it in that first few months, we'd probably be able to live in at least some of the rooms.

Difficulty is going to be trying to ascertain what its actual condition is as there's so much rubbish there. I can see that at least one of the ceilings looks like it could fall so when I say gut the place, I also mean removing some ceilings where they look dangerous. I'm not sure whether a surveyor would be able to see too much as it currently stands.

The idea of it is both exciting and slightly terrifying!

Have renovated a couple of houses but not on a DIY basis, haven't the skills. What would concern me right now is the huge rise in cost in materials since we've last done anything. We've just been charged £300-350 a day for an electrician so I'm assuming other trades have had sharp labour cost rises too.

Do you have the capital to make a short sharp dent in making at least some of it habitable quickly? So you can move in and live there while working on the side while your DH goes back to work?

Have you thought about ALL your running costs. New council tax, utilities costs for a larger house that will kick in on day 1?

One last thing? Houses seem to need planning permission to become HMO's but no idea if you need to get it to unwind it?

Then I would go for it. You and DH are still young, one child who could adapt to building work and is out of the knackering stage. I’d go for it. We had extensive renovations last year and at the time I thought wtf have I done. Now we’re out the other side and I’m so pleased. My age is same as you and kids the same age.

DP is an electrician and is sort of on it in terms of how much things cost - to a degree at least. He often works with a plumber who costs nearly £500 a day which seems insane.

Fortunately my DB is a plasterer who feels bad for not helping us with the plastering of our old place so he'd help (not for free of course) but just knowing someone decent is half the battle,

Very good point about the increase in bills which is something I hadn't really thought about.

I don't think it's an HMO now - although very hard to tell what it is. It certainly won't be complying with any health and safety regulations if it is!

Depending on how much we got the house for, I think we could hold back c£75k for immediate works.

I've no doubt that just clearing the house would cost ££££.

@Moveoverdarlin this is it. I just feel like we could live in it for decades to come. Big enough that DD can stay as long as she wants to be there, there's room for family to visit and my older DS (29) can move in to help him save.

Have you got grandparents nearby that your DD (and you) could go to for a break from building work occasionally?
Is there room anywhere for a caravan that you could use in an emergency eg. if the initial gut takes longer than expected and you have to leave your rental.

Sounds like hell and 75k doesn’t seem like a lot given the condition you describe.

Get a smaller place needing less work and spend more time with your 6 year old.

We had / have a project house. The kids grow up fast and I don't want to miss time with them doing the house up. Some can be fun, but a big project can really wear you down.

If any had come on the market over the last 6 months, we'd have done that!

I am also concerned for your DD.

If I understand correctly you hope to move to the property when your current lease is up. That will be her 3rd home in under a year, and if it doesn’t go according to plan you may be in yet another temporary accommodation.

Will she be changing schools during this time? After you move to the property, how will she host play dates? Even if all goes well, for you and DP to voluntarily undergo upheaval, discomfort and a lack of homeliness for the foreseeable is one thing. Imposing these conditions on a young child for much longer than you anticipate, because every building project I know of is experiencing supply chain disruptions, is quite another.

If you can afford to rent something nice (or housesit, etc) in the same neighbourhood as this house for the duration of the project, so that DD can have a good life with friends and continuity of schooling, that is a different matter. All the moving isn’t great but having a normal life helps a lot.

She's moved once in her life. And that was two weeks ago. We moved 5 minutes away from her last home and now live 21 steps from her school (she counted the day we moved in). The house I'm talking about is approximately 10 mins walk away from where we are now - but about 3 minutes walk to the park she goes to after school. Our search area has been about 5 streets in a part of SE London - which is the reason it's been so difficult!

I do agree about things like play dates etc. that is one of the many reasons we wanted to move in the first place. She needed more space and room for friends to be around / sleepovers etc. That is easier in the rental but not ideal as it has lots of issues we weren't aware of when viewing.

The bottom line is we are moving in 5.5 months time whether we move into a final home or another rental. We couldn't fit into our flat anymore and didn't want to lose the sale when our previous purchase fell through.

No, £75k wouldn't be enough to do the whole house. That would be used for immediate works. As I said in my first post, this would be a long term project.

The comments about how this might impact my DD are useful. We'd aim for her room to be one of the first to be finished but it still isn't the ideal place for play dates!

As you have connections with a couple of tradespeople - and your hubby is an electrician I'd definitely go for it. Providing you can get it to a decent-ish living standard within your 75k budget.

When working out your budget (and therefore any offer price) make sure you take into account the cost to clear the rubbish you mention and potentially replacing the ceilings if you think they are dodgy... include basics like new heating system and electrics if you think they'll need to be replaced - get the roof & windows checked and be really careful to search of any possible damp issues (might be covered by rubbish currently) All these things will be expensive to fix and will eat in quickly to a 75k budget.

I've renovated 3 houses in my life (so far!) and its always worked out - but you do need to do your homework so you know what you're letting yourself in for.