r/HousingUK

​Hi everyone,

​My dad is looking at buying a 3-bedroom rundown house at an upcoming auction in Birmingham. We have no prior experience with property auctions or major renovations, so I want to make sure we don't get in over our heads.

​Property details:

​Location: Birmingham

​Type: 3-bedroom house

​Guide Price: £40,000

​Link: https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/74403764

​A few questions for experienced buyers and renovators:

What are the ​final Price Expectations: Knowing how low guide prices are usually set, what do 3-bed houses listed at auction end up selling for in Birmingham?

​Renovation Costs: what is a realistic ballpark figure for renovating a house like this in today’s market?

​Hidden Red Flags: What specific things should we check in the legal pack or during a viewing before considering a bid?

​Any advice or warnings would be greatly appreciated​

We went to see a house yesterday.
This was arranged via an EA, the impression was that the owner will do the viewing.

All arranged, confirmed etc etc
We arrive. No answer. We wait 5 min. Do the usual calling emailing to see if an EA will pick up.

Nope

More knocking on the door etc. just stood outside examining the front of the property with great intent at this stage. Frustration and confusion mount.

15 min pass, we go to leave, as I turn round for one final view, I see the shutters close! So someone is clearly in the house just ignoring us.

We give it another try. Nope not today. So werid and a waste of time.

Or a ghost - maybe it’s a ghost

So what’s your story?

Hi guys, about to offer on a home with open cell spray foam insulation. We are offering on the condition that a surevy deems the conditions of the roof/rafters are okay and the spray foam is professionally removed so we can get a morgtage from a lender. The spray foam has only been installed for 3years.

Is there anything I should be worried about now or in the future if we try and sell the house?

Any advice would be great, thanks

Edit: buying in England

I see a house has gone up for sale near where I am currently in the process of buying from. I want to know the exact door number but they are the same estate agents that I am currently dealing with. To be honest, I don’t want them to know that I am interested in finding out the details of it. Is there a way to find the door number (without driving past as it’s not local)? I just want to see the previous sale price under that property and the year it was sold. Thanks

Hi everyone,

First-time buyer completing shortly on an empty 3-bed semi (recent new-build). I currently own zero furniture and need to source everything from scratch, excluding major white goods.

I’ve costed out a provisional budget of £4,000–£5,000 to get the essentials in place. This is aimed strictly at making the core rooms livable

Financially, this money is already ring-fenced in a cash ISA earmarked specifically for setup costs, so spending it will not require taking on debt, this is entirely separate from my emergency fund. I earn £40k, so ongoing cashflow can cover minor top-ups down the line once my baseline mortgage and bills settle.

My plan is to buy the mattress and maybe sofa new, but actively hunt for solid second-hand pieces (Facebook Marketplace, British Heart Foundation, Gumtree) for wardrobes, tables, and frames to keep costs rational. Same goes for any other items like my vacuum, coffee table, TV stand etc. whatever I can reclaim buy or trade I’ll try my best to attempt.

For those who have set up a house from scratch recently: is £4k–£5k a sensible baseline, or am I underestimating the stealth costs like window coverings, appliance connections, and basic household tooling?

We are planning a move to another county in the UK, our house is up for sale for £489k. We’ve seen the perfect house for 410,000. Our offer has been accepted pending the sale of our house. We’ve had half a dozen viewing so far and three offers. one fell through - they pulled out after a few days, one of them was 40k below asking price and the third we accepted – 10 K above asking but we’re waiting for them to sell their property. We’ve been on the market for three months.

We have a rental property that brings in a grand per month and we are now considering taking out a mortgage to be able to fund the new house.

We are very unsure about this because at the moment we are mortgage free on both properties so we do understand what a fantastic position we’re in.

Spoke to a Mortgage Advisor today who suggested we take out two buy to let mortgages so we end up renting out two properties. This will allow us to buy the property that we love and move sooner rather than later, the longer we leave things the more likely the property we love will get snapped up by someone else.

My husband is 62 and I’m not too far behind, renting out one property is enough admin for me - as well as putting through the tax returns et cetera. I’m not sure I want the hassle of renting out the property that we’re currently in because it’s over 100 years old and will need maintaining.

I crunched some figures into ChatGPT and it seems to think I SHOULD rent out the two properties, take out the two mortgages and I’ll be quids in after 10 years or so. The thing is we’re not greedy. We’re know we’re a very very good position already having one rental property and no mortgage. I don’t want the next decision we make to be out of fear but I also don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to better ourselves just because we want an easier stress free life.

Both ChatGPT and the Mortgage Advisor are looking at this as a long-term investment. Have I got the wrong mindset? We want an easy ride now into retirement I don’t really want the hassle of more renting and having two mortgages.

Deciding whether to move out of Luton so our young children will get into better schools. However, we love our home, wonderful garden space and great amount of parking that we currently have. Our current area and road is peaceful, although the local schools are not good. Anyone experienced moving out and regretting being less connected and not having services as accessible?

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