We bought our five-bed house new 13 years ago and plan to downsize next
year. The interior is in need of an update, but my husband thinks we should
leave it as it is, looking a bit tired, and sell at a lower price. Would
there be any financial advantage in revamping it, or should we just freshen
it up?
Mrs M Wright, via e-mail
I agree with your husband. Assuming that someone can move into the house and
it is not shocking or peculiar inside, you would be unlikely to do more than
cover the cost of the work. At the moment, though, it is a sellers’ market
in most areas, meaning that there are more buyers than properties to buy.
Given that you don’t want to move for a year, you should watch the market
closely and, if it changes, consider some improvements.
Q I have been a part-time property developer for a few years, working
mainly on small semis in the West Midlands. I want to go full-time, but it
seems to be getting much harder to make money – four years ago in
Kidderminster, you could make 15%-20% profit by renovation (without taking
inflation into account), but now it is more like 5%. I wonder if the only
way to make a decent profit is to start going to auctions, but I am
unfamiliar with this method of buying. I have about £120,000 in cash and am
not keen on mortgages.
I am also hoping to move down to the West Country, but estate agents keep
saying it is getting harder to find run-down houses there, so I have even
thought about starting to develop in northern France. What do you think of
buying at auction, and can you offer any advice?
JB, Kidderminster, Worcs
The market is indeed tough. Given the speed at which house prices are rising,
it is difficult for first-time buyers to get on the ladder, so they are
often forced into buying cheaper unmodernised properties, which cuts down
the number available to people trying to make a living from property
development.
If you really want to keep on with it, you can, but the margins tend to be
small and the risks much greater. Houses sold at auction often have problems
that are not always apparent, which may be why the sellers want a quick
sale. It is your responsibility to identify these, as you can easily come
unstuck. If you are prepared to take on such a project and sort it out, the
returns may be greater. Another point to bear in mind with an auction is
that the guide prices often bear little relation to what properties actually
go for, and you can waste a lot of time and money researching places that
quickly become out of reach in the auction room.
I would suggest developing in France only if you live there and understand the
market and the nuances of French property law and taxes; its market is not
nearly as buoyant as that in the UK right now.
If you really, really want to keep developing, you need to hunt hard, be
prepared to take bigger risks, be happy to move and accept that the returns
are much closer to 10% than the 20% that they used to be.
Q We have bought a house in Exmoor national park, which we intend to
refurbish to a high standard, possibly building a small kitchen extension,
as we would like to run it as a holiday let for larger groups. We read your
previous advice to find someone to project-manage the work for us, as we
don’t live nearby.
Given that it is a £100,000 project, we have been amazed by how little
interest there is. We have approached nearly all the architects, building
surveyors and architectural technicians in the area that offer a
project-design and management/contract-administration service, and virtually
none of them is interested. Preliminary inquiries with building contractors
have produced a similar response.
Admittedly, the property is reasonably far from large population centres
such as Taunton and Bridgewater, but it is not far from the A39 and other
properties in the area are being renovated.
Do you have a source of specialists we can tap into, or can you tell us
where we’re going wrong?
KG, via e-mail
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the probability is that there is no
money in it for the firms you have approached, as your budget is too small.
Allowing £100,000 for the full refurbishment of a large detached house in
the countryside does sound a little tight. If this is the figure that you
have estimated you would like to spend on the work involved, rather than one
supplied by a reliable builder, perhaps that is the problem.
If, on the other hand, the budget is realistic, and this is the figure
contractors have put on the work, then it might be worth approaching the
Federation of Master Builders. Search on its website, www.findabuilder.co.uk,
for professionals in your area. Even better, pop round to any of the local
properties that you have seen being renovated and ask who they are using –
they might be able to suggest someone who can help.
Q We own a 200-year-old cottage that has three bedrooms. Access to the
third of these is via the main bedroom. We want to turn this room into a
shower room, and wonder if it will add value to our home.
If it will, we would like to go ahead with the work. We do have one worry,
though: drainage. The room in question is on the opposite side of the house
to the existing (downstairs) bathroom, so the waste pipes will need to run
either across our front garden into the main drain, which is in our
next-door neighbours’ garden (they will allow us access to this), or out to
the lane, to pick up the main drainage pipes in the road.
Who should we contact to get approval? Neither the local water board nor
the council has exact drawings of where the pipes are in the road.
AP, via e-mail
It is difficult to say whether or not this change will add value without
knowing specifics about the size of your property and its location, but if I
had to take a chance, I would say, yes, it will.
To be honest, if it is your long-term home and you would prefer to convert the
third bedroom into a shower room, then that is reason enough to do the work.
I doubt very much that such a change would reduce the value of your property.
If you want to run traditional drainage, you will find that such records tend
to be pretty sketchy. If your neighbours are happy for you to run into their
drain, then that sounds like the best option, but check with your local
building inspector.
Have you considered using a macerator? This enables waste to be pumped from
one location to another without needing either the size of pipe or the fall
that you would traditionally require in such a job. Macerators used to be
noisy and prone to blockages, but they have been vastly improved in the past
few years.
Q I have just bought a flat with original fireplaces in the bedrooms. I am
toying with the idea of restoring them, and have removed layers of paint in
a small area to uncover the metal base. How do I determine whether or not
the fire surround is made of lead or cast iron? I know lead can be
detrimental to my health if I start cleaning it with chemicals.
Also, would you advise me to keep the fireplaces? I know they add
character, but removing them would create more space. I am in the early
stages of refurbishing my home, so I do not wish to make costly mistakes.
AC, via e-mail
Lead is a soft metal that melts at a low temperature, so it is extremely
unlikely that a fireplace would have been made of it. (Remember how children
used to melt down their lead soldiers over a fire?) However, the paint is
likely to be old, and therefore almost certainly lead-based, so it would be
best to use breathing apparatus when you are removing it. Bear in mind that
the paint remover you need for a job like this is also pretty nasty stuff,
so only ever use it in a well-ventilated room.
I think you should keep the fireplaces if you can, as they are a feature most
people love. However, if doing so really limits the available space –
and this is often the case in a bedroom – it can be advisable to remove
them. If in doubt, though, I would leave well alone.
Have you got a question for Sarah Beeny? Send your queries to sarah.beeny@sunday-times.co.uk
or write to her c/o Home, The Sunday Times, 1 Pennington Street,
London E98 1ST
