Helena, 26, couldn’t believe her luck after snapping up a bargain two-bed property for just £120,000 in 2022 – and just over a year later she has turned it into a gorgeous family home
House prices have been rising considerably over the last few years and although there are signs the market could be improving, it’s unlikely you’ll snap up a bargain.
That is unless you manage to bag a cheap house at an auction, where properties usually get sold for under traditional market value. This is what 26-year-old Helena did after snapping up a bargain two-bed home in Bolton for just £120,000 at the end of 2022, and in just over a year she and her fiancé managed to transform it into a gorgeous family home – making it look almost unrecognisable.
Helena, from Hindley Green in Greater Manchester, and her partner Andy first got on the property ladder in 2020 when they purchased their first home, right before the pandemic. The couple managed to snap up a three-bed end-terraced house in Westhoughton, where Andy grew up, for £116,000.
But in 2022 the couple, who were searching for a new home, found that properties were so much more expensive than when they first started looking. Speaking to Manchester Evening News, as part of their Where I Live series, where they speak to different homeowners and hear about their journey, Helena explained: “We knew with our budget we wouldn’t be able to get what we wanted because properties had shot up in price.
“We just wanted somewhere we could make our own within a reasonable budget. We wanted another character property as new builds aren’t really for us. We viewed a lot of houses and we put an offer in on one, but we ended up in a bit of a bidding war with another couple. They were first-time buyers and the sellers chose them over us because there was no chain.”
Despite missing out on the property they wanted, it all worked out for the best because they ended up spotting a property that was set to go on auction after trawling through the property website Rightmove. Helena explained: “I’m always looking on Rightmove and usually just see the same houses in our area, but one day this two-bed mid-terrace house popped up and I was a little sceptical at first because it was being sold at an auction, but £120,000 was an absolute steal. We ended up going to view it and it wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but we could see the potential in it. It was quite rundown but for the price, and for what we were selling our house for, we knew we’d have the equity to do it up.”
With the help of a friend who was a mortgage advisor, Helena and her fiancé realised they needed to pay an upfront payment of £6,000 to cover auction fees, and although they were slightly sceptical about “paying money into nothing”, they “ended up with a £120,000 house which you cannot get on the market today,” Helena explained. The property was up for auction because the previous buyers had pulled out, and the owners needed to sell it quickly. After seven days, the property was theirs for the guide price of £120,000 – because there were no other bidders.
Helena explained that the process of buying was “exactly the same” as a normal house, and the only difference was that they paid the auction company – but it still went through an estate agent and a mortgage process. Helena added: “I’m glad we took a chance on it. I’d definitely recommend buying at an auction.”
Helena and her fiancé sold their first home for £136,000, and got the keys to their new house in November 2022. Before moving in they did a few touch-ups – but in March 2023 they began renovating fully – including an extension. “We knew when we bought it that it needed a lot of renovating,” said Helena. “We lived in it until March and then when we started the extension, we moved into Andy’s parents in the meantime until it became liveable again.”
She continued: “We pretty much knew exactly what we wanted to do with it from the get-go. We knew we wanted a porch because we didn’t want to open the front door and walk straight into the front room. Then the current layout was like an L shape with a separate kitchen and two living areas, so we knew we could make it one big open plan space.”
In addition to the extension, the roof was raised at the back of the property, and skylight windows were installed. The couple also painted each room and added new carpets and general tweaks. They didn’t have a set budget, but because they got £24,000 in equity from the first property, it was a decent amount to get started. Helena added: “We managed to cut costs along the way. We initially got quoted around £50,000 for the porch and the extension, but that ended up being around £29,000 because of the builders we went with.
“Obviously on top of that, we had our kitchen which was about £5,000. We could have got that done bespoke but we were happy with picking a kitchen that already existed and then putting our own stamp on it.” The couple were able to completely transform the home into their preferred “modern with our style” but with “different elements of quirkiness”. Explaining their home, Helena added: “Our home is quite minimalistic in its shell but we like adding colour through accessories and prints. We’ve got quite a modern kitchen but it’s still a little bit different.”