Please talk to me about renovation...

[belindarose]

We're relocating after Christmas. Getting less interest on our house than we'd have liked, meaning we may have less to spend at the other end than originally hoped. One of our options is to buy a house that we've seen (for a ridiculously low amount, I hope) that needs extensive renovation. We would live temporarily in rental accommodation if we did this as we have a new baby and would not be able to manage with builders etc!

So, any experiences of this sort of thing and advice to offer? It's a 70's semi with lots of space in a really nice road. Hasn't been lived in for ages, and was rented as short term lets before that. Looks like it will need totally rewiring and replastering, flooring throughout, new kitchen and bathroom, some interior walls moving/ removing (ie between loo and bathroom and kitchen/ diner). The garden will need completely starting again too.

We're not thinking that this will be a particularly cheap option, but could get us the house we want at a price we can manage. Presumably we'd be able to get some sort of loan for the renovations and our mortgage would be much lower than we have now.

Thanks for any words of wisdom/ caution!

We just had to take a 25k loan out because our mortgage company wouldn't let us remortgage (they are just not lending) so be sure you can afford/get a loan first.

If we hadn't managed to get a loan we would have had to actually move as there were some things that really needed doing.

Of course I will come and chat to you about the wonderful person

Project manager - get one, get a good one and get that perosn to oversee the work in order - there job to stress not yours.

If you can get a good one or project manage yourslef but you will need to know which order and which builders and get good builders -easier seaid than done.

What you dont want is one lot of buildres - say plubmers or electricians *ucking off so no one else can get on with their job.