"Nicknoxx" wrote in message
...
Mark wrote:


Without knowing FA about building regualtions (sic)
Why is it that so many people seem to think that property development is
a
licence to print money.


Nobody said it was licence to print money. I've had several major
career changes over the last 20 years, and haven't regretted any of
them. After graduating in Mechanical Engineering I moved into
Interactive TV production in the early eighties and then onto Video
editing and eventually Digital Effects.

I've learnt a great deal over the last few years about house renovation
and find that my current career isn't very challenging any more. It's
clear from the Property Ladder type programmes that complete numpties
can made money doing up houses and I thought it was time to have a go.

What's so wrong with that?

Those numpties actually lost money. They only made money because the market
was rising. They would have made more by leaving the houses a year or so.
How many don't make money? How many do make a decent profit, when all the
time and effort and legal fees , etc are taken into account? Most would
make more as bus drives doing overtime.

I recon that if my wife and I do all the work ourselves we should be
able to make a living out of it even if the housing market remains
fairly static.

3 bed semis in our area go for about £150k to £200k depending mainly on
condition and we estimate it would take about £30k to bring one up to
standard (£15k in materials and £15k in our time) which still leaves
room for a healthy margin

Helpful advice gratefully received

Know the market and the ceiling in the area. You could have solid gold taps
and yet, if the ceiling is 170,000, then that is all you get.