Other Posts by Hapless Investor

• Be careful what you wish for 'cos you just might get it
• You can't always get what you want,
• Just when you though it was safe to go back in the water...
• Drying out
• It never rains but it pours
• The hand that rocks the cradle
• Career advice for the uninitiated.
• When the going gets tough...
• Would you Adam & Eve it?
• Reality Bites
• Buy two get one fee!
• The withdrawal method
• Home coming
• A tale of two cities
• Manchester and The CPO
• The rise of the text sick note, and the email rent avoidance excuse.
• The best laid plans of Mice and Men - and slugs named Nigel
• The cost of property developing
• Mancunian madness

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The story so far

By Hapless Investor

About ten years ago I bought my first home. I'd popped into the bank to see why my account was overdrawn when I'd expected there to be at least £5.50 cowering away at the back, and hey presto they offered me a mortgage. Ahh, the good old days.

After viewing over 40 houses we finally found the one for us (I say "we": I viewed about 37 houses, he viewed 3). It had the right vibe, on the right street, in the right area and in my head this was a house we could turn into a home and stay there for at least the next 10 years.

 But I had been raised on a childhood of property viewing. Entertainment in my family was going to property auctions, and as the likes of Kirsty and Phil filled our TV screens with property porn I started to get itchy feet.

Whilst looking at an auction catalogue I found a 3 bedroom property in Manchester with a guide price of £5,000. I double checked this with the auctioneers and it wasn't a typo and it was expected to go for fairly close to the guide price. I want to make it clear. I am not rich, but a 3 bed property for £5,000? Even I could find that kind of money if I had to.

So up we went to Manchester. As I have a very honest face the London auctioneers gave me the keys with only a £5 deposit and left me to my own devices.

When we got up there we fell in love with the area. Even since the auction catalogue photo had been taken the street had been gentrified. Completely redeveloped. All the buildings had had their exteriors repainted and a new park had been opened. Kids were playing, birds were singing, and the sun was shining, and we fell in love with the property - until we opened the door.

With hindsight it was still a bargain. But the boyfriend and I are barely capable of rewiring a plug and so the fact that you could see the rafters from the kitchen was a little bit off putting, and when I tested my weight on the stairs and the whole house groaned we decided against it. Of course I have kicked myself ever since.

The thing was even though we knew that that property wasn't for us we had learnt a lot from the trip. They say there is as much to be gained from a good Bad as from a bad Good. We knew that refurbs were beyond us, having neither the ability, the contacts or the budget, but we had well and truly been bitten by the investment bug, and now that the value of my house in London had gone up, I was ready to bite back.

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