Flipping houses is one proven, successful way to work your way up the property ladder. The notion of buying a rundown home, renovating it to a sellable standard and putting it back on the market can not only make you a quick profit, but it can be extremely rewarding too.
But as with most things that can make you money, there are several risks involved - from unprecedented problems and hidden costs, to accidentally falling in love with the property that you intended to fix and flip. For couple Jo Lemos, 36, and Chris Gilheaney, 33, the latter was the case, after buying an 'ugly house' in Prestwich, Greater Manchester, with the aim to renovate and make a swift sale.
The pair spoke to us as part of our Where I Live series, where each week we hear from different homeowners across the north west to find out about their home buying journey, the costs involved and take a look at how they've made their house a home.
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Jo, from Norwich, and Chris, from Northern Ireland, met on a dating site seven years ago after both moving to Manchester.
Chris bought his first home in Salford when he was 27 but after meeting Jo, the pair then bought a property together in Prestwich.
After doing it up and selling it on, the couple then planned to purchase their next house to flip.
"We've always wanted to work our way up the property ladder but our aim ultimately is to try and become mortgage free, so that's why we've had a few properties that we’ve bought, improved and sold on," Chris told the Manchester Evening News.
"For our next house we wanted to stay in Prestwich because it’s an up and coming area, it's really leafy and green, you’ve got the big parks around but you're still only less than 15 minutes to the city centre. It’s kind of got that village feel which we love with nice bars, restaurants and cafes.
“We’ve also got two dogs now so a garden was really important for us in our next house. We were also interested in getting a freehold and also wanted a semi-detached."
Jo and Chris began house-hunting in 2019 but found the market to be extremely competitive at the time.
"It was horrific trying to buy a house at the time. It was really competitive in Prestwich," said Chris.
"We ended up going for the house that no one else wanted, the worst house on the street, and it needed a fair amount of work doing to it."
Jo added: “We were the only people to put an offer in on this house and we were in a four property chain. It was quite stressful and it took about six months to go through.”
The pair eventually bought the three-bed semi-detached for £244,000 in November 2019 - but say the 1930s property 'probably wasn't worth' that at the time.
“We paid that price for the area but for the house itself as we bought it, it probably wouldn’t have been worth that price. It really was the worst house on the street and I think it has always been the worst house on the street," said Jo.
"A lot of effort went into bringing it back to some sort of liveable standard - let alone looking nice."
The couple began working on renovating their home almost straight away, but soon enough the coronavirus pandemic hit.
"We moved in and we were just getting settled. We began renovating downstairs and then the pandemic hit in the middle of our renovation," Chris said.
"We couldn’t get plaster or materials for a long time so we ended up living in a building site for a while because of those issues."
Once business began to resume, Jo and Chris used their time to focus on patching up their home, doing the majority of the renovation work themselves.
“I’d say we probably did about 80 to 90 percent of the renovation work ourselves," said Chris. "We’re big DIYers and it filled a lot of our time during the pandemic. Even when things were going a bit more back to normal we didn't really going out, we just concentrated on the house."
Since then the couple have completely transformed their home into a stunning Scandinavian-style space, which they managed to do on a budget.
“We’ve basically changed every single room but some of the bigger stuff that we did was we moved the kitchen into the middle reception room and then turned the old kitchen into a utility room and a downstairs toilet," Chris explained.
"The middle room was a much bigger space for a kitchen. We put the kitchen in ourselves and added an island in, it's now just a much more user friendly space.
“The renovation is more or less finished now. It’s really liveable, it’s really comfortable and every room is done to a good standard, it’s just more tweaks that we are making now."
Jo added: “Our interior style is a Scandinavian eclectic vibe. We like our house to be a bit toned and a bit more muted. It’s sort of mid-century meets Scandi style.
“I think we’ve spent around £30,000 renovating it. We spent a fair bit on the garden because it was so overgrown. We cut down 14 trees because they were just so big."
The couple say they managed to keep costs down by learning the skills needed. “We did a bit of DIY on our previous homes but anything we hadn’t done we just learnt off YouTube," said Chris.
"It was just about not being afraid to give things a try. We’re both quite handy and we just cracked on with it. Doing it ourselves massively helped us to cut costs. We wouldn’t have been able to do what we’ve done for that cost if we had got people in to do it."
During the renovation, and due to how long it took because of the pandemic, Jo and Chris had a change of heart about flipping their home.
Jo explained: “We initially bought this as a doer-upper to sell on, but the house took longer to renovate because of the pandemic. The longer we stayed, the more we fell in love with it.
"Is it what we set out to do? Possibly not, but the outcome is great. If we knew we were staying here we might have done certain things slightly differently, but as a whole we love what we've done.
"The more we add to it, the more we're adding ourselves to it. It's not just a flip, it's home now."
Talking us through the layout of their home, Chris explained: “When you first enter we’ve got a hallway which branches off into the reception rooms. First we've got what we call our formal living room which is our entertaining space, we've got a fire in there and it's just a nice, cosy space.
"That then goes into the kitchen area which we have been calling a broken plan - it's not fully open, but it’s not all closed. There’s no doors in between all these rooms, just large openings.
“At the back there's quite a large conservatory and that’s become an everyday room for us. It’s got an insulated roof on it so it’s a relatively pleasant temperature most of the year. We put some new skylights on that which just gives it a bit more light. What was the old kitchen is now our utility room and then we have a downstairs toilet as well."
Chris continued: “Upstairs we have three bedrooms, our main bedroom, the spare bedroom and the box room which we turned into a dressing room, then the bathroom.
"We have a large garden and we’ve also built a really lovely summer house at the back and we have a pond that we have made bigger."
The couple set up their home Instagram account @two.men.and.a.semi to document their renovation journey - which has now amassed 18,000 followers.
“Starting the account was almost accidental to be honest. We were putting a new kitchen in our old house and we started taking photos and putting them up," Jo explained.
"We realised that people were enjoying it and it went from there. It was my personal Instagram account and I changed it to @two.men.and.a.semi when we moved into our semi-detached.
"We just started out sharing photos between friends and family and then it grew from there.”
Chris said: “We started getting a lot more involved with the interiors community and then you get a bit more hooked on it, then we started working with brands.
"There’s a lot of work that goes into it. There’s definitely things that we've done over the last four years that have been more for Instagram rather than ourselves. It's not as simple as just taking a photo, you have to fully renovate a room, document it the whole way through and if you're working with a brand you need to get their approval and sign off on things.
"One Instagram post can often be weeks and weeks of planning and negotiation."
Jo added: “We used to look at other home Instagram accounts for inspiration so it’s nice that people now come to our page for the same thing. Instagram was definitely how it started for us.”
Talking about their plans for the future, the couple saY this isn't their forever home.
"We got our house valued in the summer because we wanted to decide what was best for us to do. We bought the house for about £244,000 and it’s been valued between £350,000 and £375,000," said Chris.
“We will probably stay here for around three to five years. I’m originally from Northern Ireland so we’ve talked about maybe moving there to a much more rural community. Jo is Portuguese so we’ve often talked about moving there too.
"I think that's probably the next move - go to either Northern Ireland or Portugal.”
Giving advice to those wanting to work their way up the property ladder, Chris said: "It's hard work but you need to persevere because it is worth it.
"There will always be unforeseen or unplanned events when renovating. We thought we'd fly through it but actually there have been a lot of problems whether that's with electrics or plumbing.
"Our house was built in 1931 so it's had so many lives and generations of people going through it who have all made changes to it themselves and errors along the way. But once it's finished you forget all the pain and just enjoy it."
Asked whether buying a rundown house is the best route, Jo said: “It depends on the person and what they want. If you want an easy life then go for a new build and if you really love building something and putting your own stamp on it then I would recommend the route we did. It’s harder but I think it’s much more satisfying in the end. We’re very proud of our home.”
Want to get involved in Where I Live? If you are interested in featuring in our weekly series, please email your name and details to phoebe.jobling@reachplc.com.
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