Giving serious thought to jacking it all in and doing up houses - although realistically it'll be a few years away when current debts are lowered and hopefully house prices will have dropped.

Anyone got any advice?

I think you have missed the boat on that one.

People only really made money by the rise in the house market and the decline of interest rates. I bought a 3 bedroomed property 2 years ago in need of total refurbishment/renovation and paid £69.5k for it. I have spent about 20K on it and everything is now brand new with certificates and warrenties. Had the house valued recently at £150K average from 3 estate agents, and although on paper I have made 60K, the problem still lies with the gap in price between the next type of house I want to purchase.

One thing, if you do decide to go down this route, and the property is not your main residence, you are liable to pay 40% property tax on the profit you make. i.e £10K profit for 6 months work will result in 6k take home. For £1K per month for hard work it isnt worth it for my liking. To my mind it is only worth renovating houses in order to allow yourself to upgrade quicker.

Regards,

Roger

Giving serious thought to jacking it all in and doing up houses - although realistically it'll be a few years away when current debts are lowered and hopefully house prices will have dropped.

Anyone got any advice?

bad time to be looking into this.

18 months ago the "sarah beany" effect has made sure that potential properties were snapped up pretty quickly. since then the fear over interest rates has pretty much slowed the market - which slashes profits - and also gives the much greater potential of your renovated property sitting in the agents window with little hope of selling.

with fears of 30% price reduction (not my opinion tho) you would need big cahoonas to buy a property to develope now.

added to capital gains tax of 40% on profit (if not main residency) and it is not hard to see why this is not very viable at the moment.

the boats set sail ;)

the money you make at prop dev now is "real mony" as opposed to the situation last year.

morons on prop ladder TV shows where only making big bucks on the inflation in prices. Do it now and you will make a reasonable living for someone who does up houses.........you wouldnt jack in a good job to do it though......cause its ****e work- unless youlike DIY (sicko)

My thoughts have been always going on my own - I'm an Architectural Technician, and doing house plans on the side is a nice little earner, particularly in the current market - but what I've fancied doing is buying a place to do up, then move into it and sell the existing house, am I right in thinking you have live there for 12 months before the tax man can't get anything? Moving once a year isn't ideal but if there's a decent profit to be had then why not? I'd keep doing the house plans to my bank balance ticking over anyway...

A good property developer will make money. Buy cheap, sell expensive, you don't need a rising market to make money. As with anything of course.

As Tiggs said, simply put if these people did nothing they would have still made money. In most cases they over spent and only made money as the market rose and would have been better off not doing anything.

I've watched Sarah Beeny a few times and it always seems like the only profit made is that generated from the rise in house prices. Having said that - the programme seems full of lazy barstewards who seem to act as a site foreman rather than doing as much as they can themselves.

My thoughts have been always going on my own - I'm an Architectural Technician, and doing house plans on the side is a nice little earner, particularly in the current market - but what I've fancied doing is buying a place to do up, then move into it and sell the existing house, am I right in thinking you have live there for 12 months before the tax man can't get anything? Moving once a year isn't ideal but if there's a decent profit to be had then why not? I'd keep doing the house plans to my bank balance ticking over anyway...

As I understand it if it is your main residence you can move as often as you like.

Regards,

Roger

It wouldn't bother me moving often but I think the GF would get sick pretty quick.

do what i do.. buy cheap.... then spend abit on it... ten get it valued.. see what you've made...

heres my ikkle flat... got it rent out two weeks ago.. and asked £25 more a month than i was expecting.. and got it!!!
http://www.salsa-king.fotopic.net/c28865.html

took me 12month from start to finish... just didn't have time.
fully complete..
http://www.salsa-king.fotopic.net/c202384.html

You don't need a rising market, you just need to buy well. The slow down will be a good thing in many ways coz it'll level the playing field and keep the idiots (that pay way over the odds) away from the auctions. When all the Dealers and Developers pull out of the bidding and you still have two couples carried away in a frenzy it makes you wince!
For the past year the auctions have become a big no no for me (for purchases), around here at one point it was possible to buy cheap from the Estate Agents and sell on at a profit at the auctions without touching the property.....madness!
I can't beleive how little profit most of those featured on Ms Beenys program make even in a rising market.

D.

dave
only cus they go mad spending.

check my pix out above... bathroom.. £299 Kitchen £700 with applicances!.. thanks to Whicks lol

looks fine.. to rent out or live there yourself

auctions have been poor for the past couple of years. best to have a few friends in the estate agents ;)

You do not pay 40% tax on any profit!!

Have you heard of a capital gains tax allowance?? First £7K profit in any tax year is tax free

Just seen the pics Salsa - looks like a nice job. Are you selling or renting it?
For Bathroom suites (and showers £60) Screwfix are pretty difficult to beat at £199 delivered to the door and Wickes do one around £170 but im not sure it comes with all the fittings. I also use a company that sells slight (ever so slight) seconds.
Floors to go can be beaten if you shop around - have a look in Topps tiles next time.
Where did you go for your appliances?

Just noticed you're in Notts... so am i, must be something in the water that makes us tight!
Seriously though half the fun is in shopping around don't you think?

D.

Lots of good points made here.
As a "Real property developer" i look on the recent down turn as a god send and i hope it will lead to slower more stable growth.
The rental market is overflooded with nest egg pension properties.
and now hopefully all the wannabes will **** themselves as the interest rates rise

This being said there is still a huge discrepancy between supply and demand and there is a gap of around 100,000 new homes still required per annum compared to those being built.

local government is in turmoil trying to please all the nimby and as a result planning applications are taking far too long.

there is still money to be made you just have to be a damnned site more cautious about where when and what you buy (ie work abit harder)

At the moment we are concentrating on acquiring new factory units and if we can make between 8-12% return on our capital outlay (ignoring any accrued property values) we are more than happy as you can't do this on the stock market at the moment with any certainty.

we also play the long game and we have large tracts of land in places where we know expansion will have to take place in the next 10-15 years.

By the way I can confirm that 40% tax is utter bollox you have to show huge profits to incurr this and practically wave the cash in the face of your local tax inspector while showing him your bare arse.
All our profits go into "creative" accounting schemes and our own personal pension funds nothing remotley illegal mind you

Agree totally with what you say there Mattstant although 12% seems low to me i have an idea that your outlay and therefore your profit are much greater than mine.
Sounds like you are at the stage where i want to be in a few years time.
Currently i concentrate on traditional (3 bed semi) residential properties (1 at a time) so you can imagine my total outlay is quite low - however my current project is around 5 - 6 weeks from going back on the market and i'm very confident of getting 30%.
Biggest problem for me at the moment is finding them. I could have bought any number of properties that would have made 10 -15K but it takes a while longer - not to mention dozens of viewings to find the real earners.
D.

Dont forget Dave that is 8-12% excluding any accrued values and yes these are acqusitions running into millions.
Industrial tends to be much easier tenant wise also brand new units require no building maintenance for a good 5 years,
and of course you have a nice asset to wave under the bank managers nose if bigger propositions come along and you need the banks assistance.
We dont do renovations we mainly do New build residential and industrial lettings /conversions

we cover Derby-Notts mostly Long Eaton area.
i was at mikeys big one and i have bought a couple of stickers off Salsa king while i was there

Dont forget Dave that is 8-12% excluding any accrued values and yes these are acqusitions running into millions.
Industrial tends to be much easier tenant wise also brand new units require no building maintenance for a good 5 years,
and of course you have a nice asset to wave under the bank managers nose if bigger propositions come along and you need the banks assistance.
We dont do renovations we mainly do New build residential and industrial lettings /conversions

we cover Derby-Notts mostly Long Eaton area.
i was at mikeys big one and i have bought a couple of stickers off Salsa king while i was there

My company (who I work for) is glad of 1% profit.

Regards,

Roger