[Closed] Approx Budget for gutting a 3 bed semi?

£145.37p

Discount for cash?👿

If you’re getting other people to do the work it’ll be a lot more than that.

I think you’re 20k light if you’re paying someone else to manage it all for you.
It depends on a great deal of factors though.

Not answering you question in anyway... why is it being auctioned? Ideally it will be a probate or repossession sale, but failing that it can be that there is something more concerning and expensive.

Assuming the walls, floors and roof are ok,

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Seriously, do not assume this. Do your homework before bidding.

If they are OK, I reckon 70k would do the rest if you don't go crazy on finish. But do you really need a project manager? If you are on a budget you need to get your hands dirty on some jobs though - like the decorating.

And bathroom/shower room. You could do these for a lot less than 13k.

I'd say 80k if you are in the north west. Expect a year or so of living in a building site.

More if in the south.

Might seem a lot but remember everything will be new and to your taste.

Are you up to speed with property auctions? The guide price is usually very low and the hammer price will likely be much higher. If you do win you'll have quite a short time to complete. Getting a mortgage can be tricky assuming it is mortgageable. It can be a good place to buy but you do need to do your homework

Are you up to speed with property auctions?

I went to a couple and this always got me. I felt like what was the point in the estimate?

The one that got me was garages. Blocks of crap garages always did well. Can only guess they had a good chance of planning permission for a house or two.

FWIW, I bid on a property at auction (reserve of £140k for a 4 bed detached). I had a builder (my uncle) look at it so I knew what would be involved. I bid up to £220k but it went for £280k. The people that bought it admitted that they paid too much (I was pushing it at £220k but it is next door to my in-laws and we’d have had many more advantages of being there.

So what am I saying? Be VERY realistic about how much it will cost and don’t get carried away with your heart.

From what you’ve said and without seeing more detail, I think you are way off with your estimated budgets (unless you are doing it all yourself but of course it depends on what standard you want to be updating to).

I'm assuming that the project manager thing is in jest?!

70k is a fairly reasonable 'best case scenario' figure time....if nothing goes wrong then you could do a really decent job for that.

Something will go wrong though!! How much budget flexibility you have can then play a part. 15k for a kitchen is a fairly healthy budget if you know where to shop. Ditto 8k on a bathroom.

You've not mentioned the roof though! That was the thing that wiped out a chunk of profit on the house that I'm currently renovating.

On the auction thing, a cottage near us which had not had any work done on it for probably fifty years had a guide price of something like £240k. My partner spoke to the estate agent whilst he was waiting outside for some people. He said that they had had 50+ viewings at that price, many of whom were people new to the renovation game who were really excited about the prospect..... he said to her he thought he might have misjudged the valuation(!)
It sold for £420k and since then has been gutted, new roof, windows, electrics, etc. Etc, so who knows how much more they have put into it. Very unlikely that they will recoup the costs in the short term, but the buyers really wanted it as part of the property was the private drive that also served their house. I suppose my point is that a great many people were disappointed because one person was prepared to pay whatever it took. it’s going to be an Airb&b

My gut feeling is the £70 000 is a bit low but perhaps doable if everything goes well but will take a really good eye for a bargain to have it done to a good standard.

I always like to use pessimistic calculations when doing this sort of thing

For example I am looking into buying a flat to do up and sell on. its a 2/3 bed flat that needs a full refit. I am thinking in terms of £50 000 plus for that but it will need 3 heritage standard sash and case windows which will be £10 000

You can easily spend 100k on a semi without going ott. If it's liveable you don't need to commit to that up front. It's the less obvious stuff that surprises you, electrics, plumbing.

're auctions you only need 2 people who want it to bid, some of the recent prices are crazy.

On my road, albeit detached bungalows, its pretty marginal whether the house is knocked down and rebuilt, or completely refurbed. No idea what it costs to build a new house but at a 100k refurb it may be cheaper to start from scratch.

How handy are you?

What standard of finish

Things can be done cheaper and done better later on like Doors and fixtures, carpets etc.
You can even put expensive kitchen units in and cheap doors etc...

If you've to come on here and ask, then you shouldn't be doing it IMO - but it's your money.

I would say it’ll depend on whether you want to keep it or flip it? How good you want the finish to be will impact the cost hugely. After doing our kitchen extension I’d say think of a figure then double it.

My 3 bed semi has cost me £25k and that was half house new windows, new composite doors, removed structural wall, remove and refinish fireplaces, new kitchen, new plumbing, new electrics, new bathroom, gutting kitchen back to brick and replastering, redecorating, all fixtures fitting and floor coverings.

Why so cheap? Every last thing done myself if I could do it. It’s been very hard graft but I simply couldn’t afford to pay other people and I do have a lot of DIY experience.

If you want to save money you have to do it at every stage, every thing you do you have to assess what you can do yourself. So for example I had to pay for a structural survey for the dining room wall to come out and pay for inspection. I had to pay a builder to knock out the wall and put the steel in but I did everything else. I took all the plaster off, removed the electrics and plumbing from the wall, I took 3 days off while he was at the house and laboured for him, removing bricks to the skip, cleaning, helping lug stuff about etc. So his services cost me £500 instead of the maybe £2k if I had needed a plumber/electrician and he had to get a labourer or work extra days.
Same with electrics. I channeled out about 12 extra sockets from solid brick/stone myself, tacked all the cable in then installed all the sockets. My electrician did the consumer unit and installed all the wiring loops and inspected my work, saved me about £1k according to him, only cost me £500 inc materials.
Flooring - got solid oak off eBay for £100 for 2 rooms. Kitchen diner had LVT fitted by a pro but I did all the plywood lining (10 sheets of ply and about a thousand screws!). Light fittings, kept searching for ebay for all sorts of end of line stuff, quirky stuff etc.
I took out the old gas fireplaces (were already disconnects) and spent days dragging huge concrete precast 70’s surrounds out and the spoil behind them into a skip, then I did the hard i backer board, slate or tile bases myself. Cost about £100 per fireplace.
There’s a couple of places where I wish I hadn’t saved money but it’s only been a few hundred here and there.
You have to be realistic about what you can do yourself and get a pro in when it matters or where their speed and cost make it a no brainer.
One thing I would say is that working out in which order everything had to be done was the hardest and I spent a long time writing things out so I didn’t forget that X had to be done before Y but before W or Y would have to done twice etc. It’s quite confusing as a novice but essential so costs don’t go crazy and you aren’t getting trades in multiple times to redo stuff.

That’s where a project manager comes in very very useful and probably pays for themselves if you just can’t do it.

One thing I did invest in was some pro level tools and PPE. My Dewalt kit has paid for itself many times over in its ease of use and longevity compared to the cheaper stuff I got and had to re buy later.

I’ve calculated I’ve added about £70k in value to the house since we bought it. But it probably would have cost me that much to get other people in. So a big renovation is probably worth it if you want to flip it if you can do a lot yourself or have good trade connections OR if you want to live in it it’s ok to get someone to do everything for you but it’s easy to let costs run away with you if you’re always speccing the fancy shiny stuff.

Oh and don’t paint everything grey, that’ll be out of fashion soon!

Depends on the finish you are after, some of your estimates look a little over to me though unless you are after a real high end job, I've done 3 terraced properties, complete strip & refit, most have had steel work & some degree of structural and roof repairs, I do all the donkey work.

I usually reckon on £35k +/- 10% add a bit more if you need full window refit

Its ball aching but try & price everything up properly rather than guessing, my plumber charged me 4k for boiler and complete CH & hot water in a 5 bed HMO with 2 shower rooms

If Building Regs come anywhere near it, depending on how much you gut (back to bare walls) you may need to add modern levels of insulation to external walls. This will increase the cost significantly.

Our next door neighbours spent ~£100k on a full refurb including rearranging room layouts and a new roof. They could have bought something similar for less as our house cost £30k less than their total, plus they lived elsewhere for 6 months, but they ended up with exactly what they wanted rather than the slow process of changing a house you live in.