Leaderboard

Hahahaha! Nah, 3 hours 20 mins! I'll leave the typo in - it's quite funny!

OK, time for another update on progress. We had reasons for holding off on getting the photos taken for the sale advert (like me panicking to get the drive refurbished, clearing out junk, making things look half way presentable, etc) and that happened to coincide with our Purple Bricks chap having a few days off, so the timing, from our point of view, worked perfectly. We had the joke EPC done, the floor plan done and then yesterday morning the Purple Bricks chap came around to take some photos and double check the descriptions etc. Given how much of a mess things were in the photos haven't come out too badly (I just love the magic "Estate Agent" camera that makes rooms look massive...). So, around lunchtime today we received the advert details for approval, with the option for us to edit any of the text, add some of our own photos if we wished, etc. As it happens all looked fine to me, no exaggeration, just accurate descriptive text, so I clicked the "submit" button on our Purple Bricks control panel page. Within seconds the advert was up on Purple Bricks, Zoopla and RightMove. Within the first hour of the advert going live the control panel was telling me that our ad had been viewed 20 times. Three hours after the ad going live we had our first viewing request, for Tuesday lunchtime (they wanted to view tomorrow, but I'm getting some fencing put up at the new place), from a potential cash buyer (no mortgage required). The info that you are fed from the Purple Bricks system is pretty useful, as it tells you a fair bit about the identity and buying status of the potential purchaser, so you can, if you wish, choose to filter out people you think may be time wasters, or that haven't yet put their own house on the market, so are a long way away from being in a position to make an offer. Whilst typing this another viewing request email has just arrived, so it looks as if I may have to do another update later. My initial view is that this method of selling a house is a heck of a lot easier than using a conventional estate agent, with the proviso that you need some time to get to grips with the way the online booking and availability system works (I've already made an error by not having filled in our viewing availability diary - I hadn't realised how important that is to the way the system works. I'll try and keep this thread updated with progress, in the hope that it might shed some light on how selling via an online agency works that might be helpful for others.

Thats what I did, got a stunning location / perfect plot and and 3 semi derelict buildings all needing a whole heap of work.... love to keep myself busy.....

Thanks, seems to be working. Third viewing just booked and the advert only went live around midday today. FWIW, Purple Bricks give you a pretty good breakdown of stats from Zoopla, Purple Bricks and RightMove. They give you the number of unique page views from each of the three sites, the number of individuals who have looked at/downloaded the online brochure (so one layer deeper than just a page view) and the number of emailed individuals to whom the details have been sent because they match the house types/area/price range they are looking at. The control panel allows me to change the order of photos any time I like, so I may well try switching them around every week or so. So far, all three viewings have come via RightMove and RightMove is also far and away the most popular site. The least popular at the moment seems to be Zoopla.

I have said it many times before, and I am obviously not your average buyer. For me it's all about the right location, the right plot, enough parking space, garage space etc. The house is the last thing I look at. If the plot is wrong, then a perfect house would be no good. If the plot is right then a crap house can be upgraded.

A brief update on this. My order of cellulase arrived last week and so I put my 3 metres of linen fabric onto a 70C wash with soak, total wash cycle time approx 30 hours 20 mins, with 50g of cellulase. It's done a great job of softening the linen up, but not entirely beating the crap out of it. This sort of linen comes in at around £8 per metre, but if I were to buy enzyme softened linen it costs anything between £20 and £26 per metre, the last time I looked, so it's well worth the effort.

It will be about year 3 before you have a very significant proportion being repeats, if it is gooD enough and good enough value that they keep wanting to come back. Even after that, reckon on needing to recruit perhaps 30% or 50% new each year, though if you get customers with ties eg people visiting married children then you may do well on this front. Finding a good management service is important, even as a backup. Have a good look at my links above. Aberdeen should be a good location, however. But ca; it give a decent return on a 500k investment. F

relatives did this, both worked and then on a saturday had to strip and clean 2 houses. as new holiday houses it took a while to get regular income. be aware of the potential income difficulties, cleaning costs if you don't do it and that you may not be able to let as anything else as a holiday rent so the winter cannot be a 6 month rental to get you through it. they sold up after a few years of hard work. it's a decision not to be taken lightly.

With regards to flow type screed make sure you do your research here as some need a lot of work afterwards to get tiles etc to stick to them. They do heat up quicker than sand cement but they will also cool down quicker as they aren't as thick. My sand cement screed is 75mm thick and takes around 90 mins before you can feel heat on your feet but it will stay warm for maybe 2 hrs after the stats have stopped calling for heat. Plus being sand cement there aren't any issues getting tile or wooden flooring to stick to it.

I have an Isoquick insulated raft foundation with 300mm insulation under the raft and 200mm thick upstand. The raft is constant 200mm thick RC35 reinforced with two layers of A393. The maximum GBP is 50 kN/m2. There is 200mm of type 1 compacted in 50mm layers and 50mm granite fines under the insulation extending out 700mm beyond the edge of the insulation. I could PM you a copy of my structural calculations if that would help.

That’s what coring holes are for. Leave out every 4th brick on Dpc & loop some hessian from one coring hole to the next. Every morning,you simply turn the hessian loop,bringing any mortar droppings from inside the cavity to the outside. Anywhere you have a door opening can be cleaned with a batten,rodding any droppings to your coring holes but you need to take care not to get too vigorous & make a tear in the tray.

I think you are into the various options for BTL funding. Holiday let’s are more specialised than usual BTL, possibly with lower LTV. And I think you may want a specialist broker especially if you want to build it as well, or bridge + remortgage, or fund via a main residence mortgage. Holiday let’s have not been as heavily clobbered by tax as btl, but who knows what will happen, and Scotland will do its own thing. Useful links: https://www.propertytribes.com/holiday-let-every-portfolio-should-have-one-t-127628186.html https://www.propertytribes.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=25&action=latest_posts https://www.primelocation.com/discover/property-news/the-most-profitable-places-to-own-a-holiday-home-in-the-uk/ Ferdinand

I think I said it was to release funds to finance a second home, never mentioned self build. They may be more cautious these days I guess since the banking crisis as it was a while ago. I remortgaged in 2009 with C&G. I wanted 80% LTV and they would only give me 75%. That was based on the reason for the loan not affordability. I had no mortgage on the property so had 100% equity. In the event I could have got away with not remortgaging as the house sold before my savings ran out but it was close and I didn’t want to be in the position where I couldn’t afford to continue as I had run out of funds. If you can’t find a lender who will do this for you maybe go via a broker but don’t apply and then get rejected as it will then affect your credit score.

Thanks very much. Re and re-read time.

@JSHarris our resident chemist will tell you how to get some, or make some and if your lucky how to not make an explosion while making some.