End of week 3...

So week 3 is over - and to be honest I was glad to get back to work!

Most of the work this week has been invisible work - further chasing of the electrics and moving some of the pipe work for the central heating. The previous owners had pipes all over the place and they looked terrible. I want a good finish and so they are being chased into the walls before the plasters come in June.

So here is goodbye to April and hello to May (and hopefully some good weather).

End of week 2...

This property developing is hard work! Not being technically skilled I have functioned this week as carrier, tea lady, sandwich fetcher and painter stripper. Who would have though that a house without skirting boards or doors (the previous owners never used them!!) had so much blooming paint to strip! I am covered in blisters from molten paint droplets, and after a woozy moment on Tuesday we reached the conclusion that the door frame in the second bedroom may have been painted with leaded paint. In future all painting stripping is to be undertaken in a well ventilated area!

But the way I see it, every hour it takes me to do these dull tasks is one hour less I have to pay someone else to do it. And I actually enjoyed ut. I dont get to get really mucky in my day job - and the dust and crap floating around this house means that by the end of the week my clothes could stand up by themselves! It was also important to be on site to be able to answer those questions that only I could make a decision on. And obviously to pay for supplies - I now know what a 22mm yorkshire fitting looks like even if the guy in Focus doesn't!

End of week 1...

Well this is the end of week one and the place looks worse than it did when I started (and that is saying something). What remained of the kitchen has come out and floorboards ripped up.

The electrics are shot so Dad has started chasing out sockets etc for the 'competent person' to come along and rewire. This should save me a pound or two.

I am on holiday next week so the intention is that I will turn handyman helper for the week - again using my labouring skills to save a few pennies.

What have I done?

Now I am scared!

My Dad came to the first project meeting and being quite handy himself he has pointed out areas that I hadn't considered or budgeted for. The electrics looks shot! The floorboards throughout the house look like they need replacing and the plaster has to be pulled off the walls and re plastered. All expensive jobs on my meagre budget. Fortunately Dad knows 'people' so the quotes are gonna come in thick and fast. Being the world's best Dad, he is going to work alongside my brother on this projects - and unlike Tim I won't have to pay Dad. The difference being that paying Tim means I can have greater demand on his time than I can on Dad's who still has to earn his crust.

But we have made a schedule of works and pinned it to the wall in the dinning room so Tim knows where to start. I have amended my woefully inadequate time guesstimate from 8 weeks to a more realistic 12 weeks so we shall see how we go.

Excitement upon excitement

So I have been to my new house today and I am still buzzing with excitement!

They have taken all their belongings but left the smell behind. I am sure it will fade eventually. With the place empty it is possible to see the real potential of the place. The two reception rooms are spacious bright and the kitchen is a fair size. There is no kitchen as such at the moment - it is still in it's box under the stairs. The previous owners never got around to fitting it. We took some of the boxes out and it appears to be buttermilk in colour and quick possibly useable - anything that helps keep the budget under control will help. We also found the bathroom sink under the stairs - still in its original wrapping.

My brother Tim is doing most of the work at the house and we are meeting with him on Sunday to go through what needs to be done.

First step is to gut the place!

Renovating show

The House Building show was cracking!

If you get the chance to go you definately should. It was full of suppliers of everything you could possibly imagine, with free seminars covering all sorts of useful topics including property developing as a career. I picked up some leaflets and some discount vouchers for Wickes which I am sure will come in handy.

Now my feet are killing me and I am off for a cuppa and a sit down after all that walking.

Well here we go!

Well here we are. I have the budget, I have the finances and now I have the keys! At long last my career as a property developer is about to begin.

I am off to the shops now to get some keys cut and then heading over to the house tomorrow. I am going to the House Builders and Renovation show today to hopefully get some ideas on where to go next!

Credit Crunch

Trust me to have such impeccable timing! Just as I buy my first property there is a downturn in the housing market as mortgage companies tighten their belts and reduce their lending. This hasn't affected me personally that much - I still had plenty of mortgages to choose from, the problem has been that my lender is still lending. As other lenders withdraw mortgages, my bank (NatWest) are being swamped by applications and mine is getting lost in the system.

The people that I am buying from are in a hurry because I am holding a whole chain on my sensitive little shoulders, and they are getting twitchy! Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about except make calls and try to hurry them along.

I finally got the offer yesterday but the bank had put the wrong conveyancer on the paper work and it had to go back again .

We will get there in the end!

A good place to start

Well the new blog for Propertyforbeginners.co.uk is online now and just in time too - I am just about to exchange on my first property.

The first house is in Rushden in Northants - a three bed Victorian terrace in deperate need of a bit ot TLC. I didn't think that I would be able to stetch my budget to a three bed - a one or two bed house was as good as I thought I would get - I even viewed a couple of flats in Peterborough. So when an estate agent in Rushden told me about this place I had to take a look. And it was definately special! I think the word would be mingin! I didnt think people lived in such squalor! The place is in such a mess and the smell is something else! There is no proper inside bathroom (there is a bath upstairs but it is not fixed in properly) and the toilet is in the outside shed which someone has thoughtfully smashed a hole through into the kitchen to allow access to the loo! That's gonna be a job and a half!

The people who live there have pet rats, a dog and a 4 year old boy still in nappies - the smell was so bad that I could still smell it on my clothes an hour after I had left. But it the fact is that if the place was clean and tidy I wouldn't have got it for the price I did. So mid Jan I put in an offer £4K below the asking price and it was accepted.

I have invested in a full building survey - which avoided me making a costly mistake on another possible investment - and that came back without any real surprises.

So fingers crossed we should be there soon.