Fancy a challenge?

[northepaul]

My house, which I live in now was in a similar state to that one...perhaps not quite as neglected. (It was the only house we could afford to buy even with a large deposit.)

However its been a labour of love doing it up, and, even though spme rooms (the bathroom! ) and areas still need a lot of work, its just nice to be able to have control over simple things like what colour wall or carpet we have.

[Marthaclematis]

I'm going to have a look at Dorset now Bren. I think we went through it on the train to Cornwall, there was some lovely scenery. I'm glad we don't have children to worry about. The average first time buyer here is about 35yrs old and heading upwards!

[Marthaclematis]

Beaminster.... I like the look of Beaminster.

[Two_Sheds]

properties in Great Yarmouth equal to the value of my (terraced, four bed house,... it came up with a seventeen bedroomed hotel !.... Salaries in London no way make up for that.

Our average annual wage is £21k

Gt Yarmouth is a very run-down area (really, the whole of the east coast is, apart from Southwold aka London-on-Sea).
We have a high percentage of elderly (retired, not working) and only 58% are of working age. We have a higher proportion of part-time jobs than the rest of the UK; we have a higher-than-average number of Incapacity Benefit claimants; 85% of jobs are in the "service sector" ie hotels. Our unemployment rate is often double the rest of the UK; we're the 58th (out of 354) most deprived section of Britain.

We're 97% white, but with a significant amount of Portuguese (brought in as cheap labour to work on local farms).

Large houses/hotels are cheap, because the tourist industry died when it became cheaper to fly to Spain. The thousands of hotels and guest houses we have now house the homeless and immigrant workers (on Housing Benefit).

Wages are low, industry is almost non-existent, despite being the 2nd most important area for North Sea Oil & Gas (after Aberdeen).

More and more poor are predicted to move here due to the cap on housing benefit in the cities (because rents are cheaper). Housing may be cheap, but locals still can't earn enough to cover the rent.

[Marthaclematis]

Maybe it will become popular again with the new trend for us to take holidays at home... am I right in thinking the climate is somewhat tropical ?

[jackie j]

We did use an agent to find a tennant thats what was so anoying when the last tennant caused so many problems.
Its expensive round here too. Add on the high council tax and very high water rates. But oh so beautiful, half hour drive to moors and sea in opposite directions.

[jackie j]

now try this area especially Teignmouth, Shaldon and Torquay

[trish60]

Let out our house 2 years ago as it was not a sensible time to sell.
Tenant had good references, had just sold a bungalow for £500,000+ & paid 6 months rent in advance.
Unfortunately during that time he obviously struck hard times & paid no more rent.
He kept in touch & gave us plausible excuses why his money was "tied up".
After 4 months we relunctantly started procedures to evict the tenants when we found out how difficult this is ,even when they have paid no rent.
Luckily they left 2 months later so we did not need to pay to get a court order but it took 3 weeks to repair the damage done to the property & garden.
We then discovered they had been paid housing benefit for the last 6 months which we. as landlords, saw nothing of & did not know they were receiving as they did not need it when they started the tenancy.
The strange thing was they built(against the tenancy agreement) a 6m x 4m cabin(worth £2000) in the garden with power as he was a DJ who mixed records & also left a stainless steel AEG double door fridge freezer so we did get some money back although it is a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom property so we still lost out greatly.
We now do the garden so that we can keep an eye on the property but the present tenants (2 couples,one who has just had a baby ) seem fine & have just renewed for another year so hopefully we can pay the bills this year!!!
We are reluctant landlords & would much prefer to sell the house but it is still not a good time.

[chris]

I thought that too. This is what you'd get round here for the same price

and another bedroom if you went 3 miles north of us, which is a bit grottier

Plus you would need to add on the cost of doing a quite considerable amount of work to it.

Indeed! Even doing most of the work yourself, it's going to be expensive ! That's a lovely house (your first link TS).

I'm kind of glad I got the short straw and we moved to Wales (where my wife is from) - the propery here is rediculously cheap compared to where I'm from (Derby) - and obviously, London where I wanted to move as I was running a business there at the time we were deciding where to go after Uni and living in Exeter for a year.

We moved from Cardiff 15mins out, to Caerphilly - smaller town.. and saved 70k on a larger house, equivilant to what we were looking at in Cardiff - it's unreal. Added another 30k onto that for the same house style/size where I'm from in Derby - it's absolutely shocking!!!

I've always loved the idea of if we had a semi, buying next door and knocking through into one large house, combing the drive way, garden, etc. I'd love to do a house up one day, but in the two times we've moved my wife has insisted we move into a 'ready to live in' house.

[chris]

Let out our house 2 years ago as it was not a sensible time to sell.
Tenant had good references, had just sold a bungalow for £500,000+ & paid 6 months rent in advance.
Unfortunately during that time he obviously struck hard times & paid no more rent.
He kept in touch & gave us plausible excuses why his money was "tied up".
After 4 months we relunctantly started procedures to evict the tenants when we found out how difficult this is ,even when they have paid no rent.
Luckily they left 2 months later so we did not need to pay to get a court order but it took 3 weeks to repair the damage done to the property & garden.
We then discovered they had been paid housing benefit for the last 6 months which we. as landlords, saw nothing of & did not know they were receiving as they did not need it when they started the tenancy.
The strange thing was they built(against the tenancy agreement) a 6m x 4m cabin(worth £2000) in the garden with power as he was a DJ who mixed records & also left a stainless steel AEG double door fridge freezer so we did get some money back although it is a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom property so we still lost out greatly.
We now do the garden so that we can keep an eye on the property but the present tenants (2 couples,one who has just had a baby ) seem fine & have just renewed for another year so hopefully we can pay the bills this year!!!
We are reluctant landlords & would much prefer to sell the house but it is still not a good time.

Yup - probably one of the better clients to have (new family) - my mother in law has awful tennents in at the mo, trying to take them to court over silly little things, etc. I'd like to doa house up - as above - renting would be ace too.... but the hassle of doing it puts me off a bit. Even the 'we pay your rent if the house is empty/tennant doesn't pay' deals that estate agents do seem to backfire (mate renting his out took 3 months to get the process started, and the first month it was only 50% of the rental value... crazy!

[Nicos]

French laws on eviction are interesting

from something like October to March no-one can be evicted!! ( not sure of exact dates)...but it's to prevent the tenants from being homeless during the cold winter months!
I think normally the minimum rental period is 3 years unless mutually agreed to end the contract!!

[OverWyreGrower]

See, 'oop norf' you can get a fairly decent house for £120k... as long as you don't mind bungalows or 'park homes'....

Properties within a mile (link)

[Hilary B]

The complexities of being a landlord are a major reason why a house might remain empty when selling is not a viable option. A rented property is supposed to be maintained to a certain standard, and sometimes, if you get a difficult tenant, that can cost so much that the advantage over leaving it empty is just not worth the hassle.
Very few people would leave a house empty just in the hope of getting a good price for it next year, mostly it is 'once bit twice shy' with problem tenants.
My son has just got a tenancy on a house that the owner-occupier moved out (presumably having another property) and didn't want to sell at present (if there was anyone buying). It seems likely to be a good deal for both parties, but there are so many things can go wrong...

[HeyWayne]

Wow that's expensive

Not really - not round here. When you consider it's a 4 minute walk to the train station that is only 35 mins from London, and also 5 minutes drive from the M1 motorway, which again means London is only 45 mins away.

Lots of London commuting here - including, until recently, LadyWayne.

Now this is expensive: 4 bedroom detached house for sale in Plot 4 - The Ash, Harlington, LU5

Expensive by definition is considered to be more than people would pay for the same item - given that by the looks of it the 'run down' house is already under offer, I'd suggest that someone has considered it a bargain.

The new development however is expensive because those houses have been on the market for some time, and when we recently went to have a look round the lady suggested that the developers are open to 'sensible offers'.

[HeyWayne]

Walked past this house last night on the way back from a meeting.

O.

M.

G.

They've levelled the garden, ripped own the fences and exposed the task at hand. I reckon you need a JCB to get all the roots and stumps out. It looks like a woodland floor to a certain extent, nothing but brown at ground level.

Good luck to 'em, whoever has taken this project on.