Worried about not being able to buy a house

Verity said:

I have thought about writing to him and asking if he would be interested in selling it to me.

Hello Verity, I thought I would add something here as this is an area I personally have a lot of experience with so I wanted to let you know what the reality of what you are thinking is likely to be - it will be hugely expensive in areas you probably won't expect, will require a lot of professionals (even if you think you could do some of the jobs yourself as there are regulations that demand qualified specialists certify the work is safe) and will take much longer than you ever expect.

First of all is the buying - the farmer will want at least fair market value for the land (fairly easy to get an estate agent to give you a price for it) but you will have to pay fees to buy it, have the deeds changed as it is splitting off a larger property and will have solicitors to pay plus taxes to pay to the government.

There is a simple guide to it here: https://www.zoopla.co.uk/discover/buying/buying-costs/

Once you have worked out how much the fees are (the solicitor can advise about the deeds change costs - probably a few £k) then you need to source the money to buy it. Since you have no real income then getting a mortgage will be out of the question so you need someone to either give you the money (parents possibly) or someone to loan you the money - if you get a loan then you need a cast iron plan to repay them plus interest which is typically the stumbling block.

Assuming all this comes together then the real work begins - you will need to make the property safe first, watertight second and habitable third.

Making it safe - you will probably need a structural surveyor to give the building a once-over and tell you if it can be salvaged. Ideally do this before you commit to buying otherwise you have to pay to demolish it, then build it back up from scratch, What makes this extra hard is the fact that you need planning permission for pretty much anything you do to it at this stage so you will have to pay fees to have plans drawn up, reports submitted to planning control in the council and wait months while they decide to accept or not.

Assuming you get the go ahead then you really need builders in to do the making safe part - this is not something for amateurs to do as it often needs teams, specialist equipment and specialist knowledge. Expect this step to cost £10-20k.

Now the building isn't going to fall down you can address issues with the roof, walls and foundations to repair any structural level issues that are not safety related. A roof will cost £20-50k to strip and replace in most smallish buildings (assuming a conventional gable roof configuration) and take about 2-3 months depending on the weather.

You will probably have to do a lot of repairs in the walls, flooring and windows once the roof is on - no point doing much before as water coming in from a damaged roof will undo most of your work.

This stage tends not to be as expensive but requires a lot of patience, hard work (especially clearing the debris and bringing in sand / cement / bricks etc) all of which require the floors to be done first - you learn a lot about project planning and dependencies about now.

Also make sure you get building control inspectors out at this stage so they can see everything has been done to code as once it is covered they may make you strip it off so they can see it was done right.

Now, in theory, after probably 6 to 9 months you have a very rough property that is safe, watertight and has structural integrity.

The next job is getting electrics and plumbing sorted and this needs the professionals. They will cut a lot of the floors and walls to run in cables and pipes, need a lot of very expensive materials and probably end up costing £30k incuding materials, but you will have a heating system, lights, power, toilets and bathrooms at first fix level. This will take about a month if you are lucky.

Now you need to start on the walls and ceilings - they will need to have the old plaster removed and new wall coverings put in place. You have a great chance to insulate the walls at this point and make the building energy efficient. Take lots of videos of the insulation installation as they people who give energy efficiency certificates at the end can use this to see that there is insulation behind the plaster.

I found it was easy to plasterboard stud walls but not brick walls - I would use batons to create a cavity that could be insulated and put the plasterboard on this - it worked well for exterior walls.

Once the walls and ceilings are plastered (expect £5-10k for a cheaper plasterer) then you need to start the decorating process when it has dried - this takes more skill than you may expect but it is easy to learn thankfully (use YouTube). Remember to do all this before doing the flooring as carpets or hard flooring will only get messed up otherwise.

Once the decorating is done, get the second fix of the electrics, put the radiators in place and get the bathrooms tiled, shower/bath/sink installed etc - tiling is an bit of a skill but learn it on YouTube and you will be fine if you are patient.

There will be things like doors, door frames, architrave (the decorative mouldings round the doors), door handles & locks, skirting, cornicing and a hundred other jobs you probably didn't think about plus all the materials. The kitchen especially can be £5k if you get an Ikea one and do it yourself but then you need another few £k for appliances.

From the description of the property I would think a minimum of £100k for the renovation will be needed for a one bed sized place and about £20k extra for each extra bedroom since this also typically means bigger other rooms.

This, along with the purchase costs will all be sunk into the property and will give no return other than any growth in the value of the property, but hopefully you will have added £50k in equity by doing what you have done.

I've bought wrecks and brought them back to a great finish 8 times now plus a few others that were done to an OK standard and given at cost to affordable housing projects here.

It isn't easy but if you are intelligent you can work out how to do most things. Buying the tools isn't that big an expenditure and a £1k budget should get most things you need - and you can rent the more expensive stuff (floor sanders) easily.

You probably need an experienced builder to cast an eye over things from time to time so it helps to be friendly with one and use their services from time to time.

Some jobs do need 2 people (plasterboarding ceilings for example) so hopefully you have someone you can ask when needed.

That about wraps up this novel - yes it is hard work, expect things to sometimes break, leak or fall down sometimes and don't let it get to you. It really is a long game so if you get it all done within 12 months then you deserve a huge pat on the back. 18 months is realistic so you can forget any sort of life outside of the building site for all this time.

You know what it involves now - look at the numbers, think of your own limits of patience, stamina and strength and whether the frustrations will be too much then decide if you want to undertake what can be one of lifes great adventures.

Verity said:

I have thought about writing to him and asking if he would be interested in selling it to me.

Hello Verity, I thought I would add something here as this is an area I personally have a lot of experience with so I wanted to let you know what the reality of what you are thinking is likely to be - it will be hugely expensive in areas you probably won't expect, will require a lot of professionals (even if you think you could do some of the jobs yourself as there are regulations that demand qualified specialists certify the work is safe) and will take much longer than you ever expect.

First of all is the buying - the farmer will want at least fair market value for the land (fairly easy to get an estate agent to give you a price for it) but you will have to pay fees to buy it, have the deeds changed as it is splitting off a larger property and will have solicitors to pay plus taxes to pay to the government.

There is a simple guide to it here: https://www.zoopla.co.uk/discover/buying/buying-costs/

Once you have worked out how much the fees are (the solicitor can advise about the deeds change costs - probably a few £k) then you need to source the money to buy it. Since you have no real income then getting a mortgage will be out of the question so you need someone to either give you the money (parents possibly) or someone to loan you the money - if you get a loan then you need a cast iron plan to repay them plus interest which is typically the stumbling block.

Assuming all this comes together then the real work begins - you will need to make the property safe first, watertight second and habitable third.

Making it safe - you will probably need a structural surveyor to give the building a once-over and tell you if it can be salvaged. Ideally do this before you commit to buying otherwise you have to pay to demolish it, then build it back up from scratch, What makes this extra hard is the fact that you need planning permission for pretty much anything you do to it at this stage so you will have to pay fees to have plans drawn up, reports submitted to planning control in the council and wait months while they decide to accept or not.

Assuming you get the go ahead then you really need builders in to do the making safe part - this is not something for amateurs to do as it often needs teams, specialist equipment and specialist knowledge. Expect this step to cost £10-20k.

Now the building isn't going to fall down you can address issues with the roof, walls and foundations to repair any structural level issues that are not safety related. A roof will cost £20-50k to strip and replace in most smallish buildings (assuming a conventional gable roof configuration) and take about 2-3 months depending on the weather.

You will probably have to do a lot of repairs in the walls, flooring and windows once the roof is on - no point doing much before as water coming in from a damaged roof will undo most of your work.

This stage tends not to be as expensive but requires a lot of patience, hard work (especially clearing the debris and bringing in sand / cement / bricks etc) all of which require the floors to be done first - you learn a lot about project planning and dependencies about now.

Also make sure you get building control inspectors out at this stage so they can see everything has been done to code as once it is covered they may make you strip it off so they can see it was done right.

Now, in theory, after probably 6 to 9 months you have a very rough property that is safe, watertight and has structural integrity.

The next job is getting electrics and plumbing sorted and this needs the professionals. They will cut a lot of the floors and walls to run in cables and pipes, need a lot of very expensive materials and probably end up costing £30k incuding materials, but you will have a heating system, lights, power, toilets and bathrooms at first fix level. This will take about a month if you are lucky.

Now you need to start on the walls and ceilings - they will need to have the old plaster removed and new wall coverings put in place. You have a great chance to insulate the walls at this point and make the building energy efficient. Take lots of videos of the insulation installation as they people who give energy efficiency certificates at the end can use this to see that there is insulation behind the plaster.

I found it was easy to plasterboard stud walls but not brick walls - I would use batons to create a cavity that could be insulated and put the plasterboard on this - it worked well for exterior walls.

Once the walls and ceilings are plastered (expect £5-10k for a cheaper plasterer) then you need to start the decorating process when it has dried - this takes more skill than you may expect but it is easy to learn thankfully (use YouTube). Remember to do all this before doing the flooring as carpets or hard flooring will only get messed up otherwise.

Once the decorating is done, get the second fix of the electrics, put the radiators in place and get the bathrooms tiled, shower/bath/sink installed etc - tiling is an bit of a skill but learn it on YouTube and you will be fine if you are patient.

There will be things like doors, door frames, architrave (the decorative mouldings round the doors), door handles & locks, skirting, cornicing and a hundred other jobs you probably didn't think about plus all the materials. The kitchen especially can be £5k if you get an Ikea one and do it yourself but then you need another few £k for appliances.

From the description of the property I would think a minimum of £100k for the renovation will be needed for a one bed sized place and about £20k extra for each extra bedroom since this also typically means bigger other rooms.

This, along with the purchase costs will all be sunk into the property and will give no return other than any growth in the value of the property, but hopefully you will have added £50k in equity by doing what you have done.

I've bought wrecks and brought them back to a great finish 8 times now plus a few others that were done to an OK standard and given at cost to affordable housing projects here.

It isn't easy but if you are intelligent you can work out how to do most things. Buying the tools isn't that big an expenditure and a £1k budget should get most things you need - and you can rent the more expensive stuff (floor sanders) easily.

You probably need an experienced builder to cast an eye over things from time to time so it helps to be friendly with one and use their services from time to time.

Some jobs do need 2 people (plasterboarding ceilings for example) so hopefully you have someone you can ask when needed.

That about wraps up this novel - yes it is hard work, expect things to sometimes break, leak or fall down sometimes and don't let it get to you. It really is a long game so if you get it all done within 12 months then you deserve a huge pat on the back. 18 months is realistic so you can forget any sort of life outside of the building site for all this time.

You know what it involves now - look at the numbers, think of your own limits of patience, stamina and strength and whether the frustrations will be too much then decide if you want to undertake what can be one of lifes great adventures.