I've been taking a look at what has become a growing Spring property market in Spennymoor. There are several auction entries this week, but it's this property below that's caught my eye as an investor-
St. Andrews Road, Spennymoor
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34358373.html
It's a 3 bed terraced house on St. Andrews Road Spennymoor with an asking price of Offers In the Region Of £69,950. It's on the market with Harringtons and they've got into this habit recently of listing property on Rightmove and using a photo of the interior as their lead photo. I would say that approximately 99% of properties on the property portals have a photo of the exterior as their lead photo - and for good reason. Being able to see the outside of a property gives the potential buyer a good idea of the size of the property, the parking and garden space and whether they perceive it to have kerb appeal. Photos really do paint 1000 words and I think that Harringtons have really missed a trick here. Especially with this property, as the interior is in need of some work and the room they have chosen is small, devoid of furniture and badly presented.
The agent describes it as-
"An ideal first time buyer purchase offering spacious living accommodation and in need of some cosmetic modernisation."
I see it as a property with much potential. From reading the description and looking at photos, the work needed here looks like redecoration rather than structural. It looks to have a big enough kitchen to fit a dining table in, which is a big bonus in today's market. People are seeing the kitchen as becoming more and more the most important room in the house. The house builders have tapped into this and now pretty much provide it as standard in new builds.
So, there's potential if you can spend a little money on it to bring it up to scratch. I see a monthly rental of somewhere between £395 and £475 for this property, after looking at what else is on the market. This equates to a gross annual rental of between 6.7% and 8.1%, based on the asking price of £69,959.
Even this level of refurbishment may put off some residential buyers, so there can be potential in this for the investor.