We’re based just outside Stoke where property is comparatively cheap, even though in the last few years prices have shot up. The city isn’t the prettiest but has plenty of potential for regeneration and development in the future so there seems to be a lot of buy-to-let going on. There are also two universities in the area so plenty of students to rent to. However, we’re looking to make a quick profit rather than a long-term investment.
To begin with, we searched on the web and talked to our friends. We found a number of really useful websites. These included www.renovatealerts.com which we signed up to for £20 a month – you get email updates every four days of properties needing development in your area listed by price, and they link through to the estate agents websites. This means that you quickly get to know who the main local estate agents are in the area, particularly for renovation properties. It was a useful starting point as it can take hours to search through the various estate agents’ websites. There are more general websites where you can do property searches as well, but again you have to sift through them to look for the ones that need renovating.
To be honest, though if we were actually based in Stoke, and not outside it, I would go directly to the estate agents in person as you can’t be sure how quickly they update their websites compared with their shop windows and development properties can go really quickly. Also, you can get talking to the agents and tell them what you’re looking for – some of them will then give you a call whenever anything new comes on the market. I did this when setting up viewings over the phone.
If you’ve got a bit more cash to play with and don’t mind taking a risk, you could try an auction. They’re on about every month in Stoke and most auction properties in this area go through one of two main estate agents. We decided against it for our first property because you have to pay 10% deposit then and there at the auction, and due to all the mining in this area there’s a good chance that the auction properties might be at risk of subsidence or other structural issues which might mean that we couldn’t get a mortgage and would lose our 10%. However, if we had more cash, we would definitely consider it. Guide prices for auction properties around here start at around £40,000+. We don’t have £40k in cash sitting about but if you can buy with cash, you avoid that worry around the mortgage and deposit. The best thing in that scenario would be to take a builder along to the viewing to see what needs doing. Depending on how much work needs doing to the property, I would recommend this anyway. We haven’t taken a builder along because we’re not looking to do a big project for our initial property.
The only way you’re going to get a real feel for what’s about is to get out there and view properties around the area. You’ve got to think about the types of people who live in different areas too and your target market. If you have in mind that you’re looking to do a renovation to a high standard, then you need to look in areas where people have more money. We have been quite open-minded about our search, looking in various places, as people still have to live in bad areas, but buying a house in a bad area would mean looking more at security issues and keeping the renovation to a basic standard so you don’t make the house unaffordable, or more likely over-spend so you don’t get any profit. There is always a ceiling price on an area.
Having an A-Z is useful to see what is in the area in terms of schools, universities, hospitals, etc so you get a better feel for which are better areas. We also have a 30 year old A-Z of the area which is very useful for Stoke because it shows up where all the old collieries were, and therefore areas which might be prone to subsidence because of all the mining underground.
An incredibly useful website is www.upmystreet.com. If you’re having a general look at an area, you can type in the name of the town/city and get info on anything and everything in the area from schools’ exam results to crime statistics to property prices. If you type in the postcode of a particular property you’re looking at, you can see where the nearest schools /transport links /pubs /restaurants /doctors are, and even the type of people who live in that postcode under ‘neighbourhood profile’. It also has a specific ‘Find my nearest’ section so you can look up local tradesmen if you’re going to need them for the renovation.
Em
