Revisiting a Lot - Homes under the Hammer

Here at Clive Emson we have fostered excellent relations with local estate agents and property professionals who introduce properties to us on behalf of their clients to sell by auction. As Auctioneers our Joint Agents are safe in the knowledge that there is no conflict of interest and see us as an additional service to offer their clients.

After selling a property for refurbishment at auction we rarely get an opportunity to inspect the finished article, so I was delighted to receive a call from a Joint Auctioneer in Worthing to advise a Seller (who had bought a property from us for £186,000 three years earlier) was looking to sell again via auction. In the photo below you can see the building has scaffolding erected on the upper floors as it was severely fire damaged and had no roof!



The Seller was looking to refurbish, and convert, the property into an HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) on the upper floors and a retail unit on the ground floor. The building required substantial refurbishment works as well as a new roof and, for various reasons, they had decided to sell the property with 40% of the work requiring completion. We offered the property in our December auction at a guide of £470,000 - £480,000 to reflect the significant works that had already been undertaken.



The property sold prior to auction to a local developer and investor who had converted a similar property in the same road and knew exactly how to bring it to completion.

I assumed that was the end of the matter until we were contacted by a production company on behalf of the TV property show ‘Homes under the Hammer’ who invited us to be involved in the ‘before’ and ‘after’ process which forms the basis of the show. We then met the company on site and filmed the property in its original condition on a very rainy Tuesday morning in March.

We were then asked back two months later following completion of the works to finish the filming and I finally was able to see one of the properties I had sold in its finished condition. I was delighted to inform the TV audience AND more importantly the buyer, that they had significantly enhanced the value of the building and they are already looking for their next project at an upcoming Clive Emson Auction.

If you’re looking for a property for refurbishment, or even something that is ready to let or move into, have a look at our upcoming Lots here.

Richard Payne

Senior Auction Appraiser & Auctioneer