PROJECT UPDATE: Throstle Lane

PROJECT UPDATE: Throstle Lane.

It’s been a few weeks since I posted, because I’ve been busy entertaining myself with the latest refurbishment project in Leeds.

This is a residential house in my area, an 8 minute drive from my front door, and a prime property for a family, a large, roomy ex-council end terrace with front and rear gardens.

The house was very dated, seemingly not having been touched for at least thirty years, due to the deterioration of inside and the décor – which included an old 70s/80s style stone feature fireplace and a 60s style kitchen cabinet!

There were two bedrooms initially, but with clever use of an insulated stud wall, and making good use of the large bedroom with two windows facing each other, this house now has three bedrooms. The new rooms are still decent sizes; and the interior structure of the floor plan has worked out way better in real life than I visualised it in my head, so I am very pleased with the way it has turned out.

As we’re patching the house back up, we’re finding that due to the age of it, more ‘contingency’ work is cropping up – but this is usual in such a dated property, and nothing to panic about.

These unexpected items include a lot of rebuilding of interior walls, as much of the old blown plaster was just coming off in chunks, so we’ve had to go back to brick in lots of areas. The roof also took an unexpected bashing in the recent storms, and many slates have had to be replaced, but that is patching up nicely to become watertight again.

My biggest concern though is the living room window. On looking at every other house surrounding my property, it is clear that when the council replaced everybody’s old wooden windows with new PVC ones, none of the houses had a supportive lintel put in. So my property, along with everybody else’s external brickwork above the window, has dropped, and that is what needs fixing.

The structural engineer has been out to survey what needs doing, the builder has been informed and booked in, so that’s the only major job I’m concerned about – fingers crossed!

On the whole though, the project is going well. First fix electrics have been done, and the rooms are starting to come together and emerge as liveable spaces!

As for the figures for this project, here’s they are:

Asking price on open market: £77,000

Purchase Price: £60,000.

Refurbishment budget: contingency having to be kicked in, so I’ll let you know in due course! But hopefully no more than £12,000, which includes the structural work, roof repairs, full rewire, complete new central heating system and boiler, loads of bonding and replastering, new kitchen, new bathroom, décor and flooring throughout, waste management (including some fly tipped rubbish and cannabis farm which somebody else kindly donated to my drive!) and then finally sort out that jungle of a garden!

Estimation revaluation: £105,000.

I own a near-identical property same street around the corner, 22 doors down, which revalued up at this figure – plus another round the corner sold recently for the same price, so I am confident it will achieve the new value after refurbishment.

This project has been purchased with the assistance of private investor funding.

They are helping me bring the property back into use for a local tenant family to rent out as their long-term home.

In return, the investor is getting a great fixed return on their investment, returned within twelve months – as soon as the property has been refinanced for the uplifted equity value.

If you would also like to invest in a property project for a hands-free passive income – and you love the idea of socially responsible investment in developing homes to enhance the socio-economic welfare of low income families – then do get in contact with me to discuss future projects which need investment.

All my contact details can be found on my website www.kellyannmartin.co.uk

Meanwhile, if you want to have a look at the progress of this latest refurbishment, then the album for it is on my Facebook page here:

https://m.facebook.com/kellyann.martin.10/albums/947238585671044/?ref=content_filter

Thanks for reading, and do make sure you have a great day!

PS – want a VIP tour of this project to see a real life ‘Homes Under the Hammer’ refurb, and to meet me in person?!
Just give me a shout!