Renovate the house yourself

Hello everyone,

we have the opportunity to buy an old school for around 110,000 EUR. No heritage protection etc. with approximately 1000 sqm of land included.

My wife has the following ideas:,
1. Renovate the school, build 4-6 apartments inside and then rent the whole thing out. The masonry is still good, the following would need to be renovated: floors, electricity, roof, windows, repaint the facade, repaint the interior walls, install bathrooms, build 14 cm or 20 cm walls for subdivision.

I told her that at least 200,000 EUR would have to be invested. Is that enough?

2. Expand the house in an upscale style, meaning complete renovation (professionally). Entrance area with castle-like staircase, columns on the left + right, facade in Bauhaus or Gründerzeit style, possibly sandstone decorations, garden layout with garden house, water feature, etc. (just roughly) estimated costs 350,000 EUR

3. Turn it into a hotel...?? I lack experience here

We can do a lot ourselves, time planned is 2 years.
Idea as follows for both: Many building materials can be obtained partly for free, partly second choice, as surplus or well used, e.g. parquet, windows, exterior stones, humus for garden, wood, etc. (each apartment would need to be tailored to its own concept here, as it will be difficult to find the same building materials.)

What do you think? Is something like this feasible? We have to decide by next week.

Best regards, David

Hi,

if this is your hobby, you can do it entirely with your own capital, and a possible failure won't harm you: go ahead.

Otherwise: get an expert, plan it calmly, and don't rush it!

I consider your price estimates for all variants too low for a project of this scale.

I'll better say nothing about your "technical" ideas. Topic for specialists.

Best regards

Michael

Everything is possible, but do you really want that?

Basically, a building surveyor can tell you the condition of the house, then calculate the costs to renovate it as a residential building. Additionally, there is the luxury expansion.

Regarding point 3: either you are hotel professionals or you better leave it. Too many dangers lurk for career changers like: let’s just do something in gastronomy...

The building authority of course also has a say when it comes to residential construction or commercial development.

> We can do quite a bit ourselves, time is planned for 2 years.
> The idea in both cases: many building materials can be acquired partly for free, partly as second choice, as surplus stock or as well-used, e.g. parquet, windows, exterior stones, humus for the garden, wood, etc.

reminds me a bit of bargain houses from RTL2 :(

I would have now estimated at least 1,000 EUR per sqm for such extensive renovations (what about the heating?). Old school also sounds like a very large area. Whether you convert it into a multi-family house (change of use/building permit?) or aim for owner occupancy, since you (probably) have no idea about the matter, I would keep my hands off it. ... and then the idea as a hotel! ==> Hotel and gastronomy experience? Room furnishings? Operator? Booking systems? Wellness hotel, business hotel, holiday hotel, hotel garni...? License/operating permit? etc.

Alright, after the inspection there is a great story to tell:

What is a construction ruin? Exactly this property. I’ve seen a lot so far, but something like this shocks even the toughest construction veterans. Because from the outside it is a listed building and from the inside so dilapidated that the renovation – after inspection – would still generously be calculated at EUR 750,000. + purchase price 110,000 + land acquisition, since it is leased land and belongs to the church EUR 150,000, we are at EUR 1,000,000!!!!!
Accordingly, there is only a maximum rent price of 6 EUR per sqm cold.
That makes in total EUR 30,000 p.a. rental income, which makes a sensible capital investment totally useless.

Because what has to be done? Everything... Roof, basement at risk of collapse, all windows, all floors, interior insulation, simply everything...
Not even renovating covertly would be worth it here.

Thanks to the monument protection and the unfavorable location with the low rents, this property will probably rot for the next 20 years and then collapse. :-) A pity and sad, because the whole thing is beautiful, especially since under the carpet and linoleum there are some really great floorboards and parquet.

Alright. see you
David

That is why the common saying goes: Nothing is cheap for no reason!