Renovating a Ruin Over Time

[JRdeVries]

Hello,

Is it a realistic option to purchase a ruin and see it renovated over a number of years while you live out of country? Is it too risky? Would I need to hire a Property Manager?

Thanks.

[andyh4]

It can be done. I did it. Do not however do this if your intention is to make a financial gain. In most cases your expenditure will outweigh any increase in the property value.

Do it if you love the property.

Do it if you have specific requirements that you can plan into the renovation. In my case I needed a very large hobby area/studio and this was most easily achieved by renovating an outbuilding.

But as said, do not do this if you want to make a financial profit.

Do you need a manager? That depends on whether you speak good French (I know you are in Canada, but so are geese and they speak no French at all - lol). If you will be on site full time and can communicate with your work team why do you need a manager? But given your question suggests you will be away from the property, then I would appoint a manager. Probably not a good way to do things because decisions that need to be taken will be done in your absence and what you get may not be what you really wanted.

You will probably need an architect - definitely if the designated living space is going to be above 170 sq. metres. This is a legal requirement when the plans are submitted.

[EuroTrash]

Someone else will know the details but I believe there can also be issues over having a temporary electricity supply to a project, not sure how long they will supply a "temporary" supply for these days and you can't get a permanent supply until the electrical installation has been completed to normes and signed off.

[lindal1000]

The electric supply is only a problem if it's a new build. If the house already has electricity to it they will just switch the supply back. We are currently doing up a small house. The existence electricity supply is completely unsafe but they were happy to reconnect it.

[alittlebitfrench]

In short, the answer is no.

You only do this for pleasure. There is no financial gain to be made in buying a ruin and renovating it. You WILL spend more money than the property is worth. Employing the services of an architect is only going to make things worse. Renovation in France is a rich mans sport....and you need to have big bucks.

There is a case for doing this in a large prosperous (and I mean very prosperous) town or city but you really need to know what you are doing and finding the right property can take years.

We are looking for a renovation in Paris and even then you have to be very careful.

Personally, I would only buy a 'rural' ruin with land to build a new house. I would then renovate the ruin as a hobby or just for the pleasure.

[woolybanana]

Of course it is doable, but not as a means of making money. But then, not everything should be seen as a source of profit.

albf is being unnecessarily pessimistic, but then he has his own agenda.

[EuroTrash]

Quite. It all depends by what the OP means by "realistic" and "risky".

Realistic - well we don't know what your expectations are so we don't know if it's likely to live up to them or not.

Risky - well it's unlikely to pose a risk to life or limb, but if you mean "risky" in financial terms, as said, making a financial loss is pretty much a certainty rather than a risk.

[alittlebitfrench]

If you read my post again 'Wally' I did actually say that taking on a complete renovation is for pleasure not for profit.

I personally would not recommend doing it from another country and certainly not one on the other side of the world. I would also not do it unless you have complete fluency in French.

What is my agenda Wooly ?

[woolybanana]

Your agenda? Putting the dark side of the expat world in France.

[alittlebitfrench]

I don't know what the 'dark side' of expat world is in France. What are you talking about ? I only know France. It does not matter what nationality you are. France is France.

I have only met a handful of expats in France and they all seem pretty normal to me.

Admittedly, I have never met anyone who sells fish and chips from the back of a transit van in the Creuse ? Is that the 'dark side' you are referring to ?

[Chancer]

It may not bhave been his agenda but he has breathed life back into a forum that should have been put out of its misery so for that we owe him a thankyou.

[woolybanana]

We must beg to difffer on this one, Chance.

[Chancer]

no problem but differ on what?

 

That his personage is a desirable asset to the forum? which I was not suggesting.

 

Or that he has/hasn't livened up a forum which would otherwise to all intents and purposes be dead?

 

Silly me, you meant to disagree over "owe him thanks" Maybe it would have been better to be cruel to be kind!

[alittlebitfrench]

I like being talked about.

[EuroTrash]

Funnily enough, we'd guessed ;-)

[Patf]

[:D]

Never mind ALBF - I'm sure you're a lovely man - your wife and children must love you!

But some of us find you very irritating, which you already know, and play on it. [blink]

[Hoddy]

Meanwhile back to the original question ...........

I think it would be very difficult. We have had great difficulty in getting work done and our house wasn't a ruin. A builder would come and be apparently enthusiastic about our ideas, swear that he would have an estimate with us in no time at all, only to disappear.

I know many other people have had similar experiences.

[alittlebitfrench]

Irritating for being right PATF ? I know, is a hard one to stomach.

Imagine if I had discovered French forums in their heyday in 2003-2007 ish. Eymet would still be a quaint little French village worth going to and Dordognshire would not be in the Dordogne. Ryanair would have gone out of business and many broken dreams would not have been broken.

Am I right ?

BTW, how is your neighbour ?

[mint]

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]If you read my post again 'Wally' I did actually say that taking on a complete renovation is for pleasure not for profit.

I personally would not recommend doing it from another country and certainly not one on the other side of the world. I would also not do it unless you have complete fluency in French.

What is my agenda Wooly ?[/quote]

Edit:  the original quote stops here and my offering is below this line.  Nick P, if you are reading, you can see I am still having the quote problem!

No need to name-call.  It's not conducive to discussion and is disrespectful to Wooly.

Playground practices have no place in a forum ostensibly for adults.  By all means, attack his posts all you want but I for one find this sort of name-calling not only childish but puts me off the subject altogether.

As for Chancer's point, I, too, do not agree with it.  You might call it enlivening the forum but I call it bringing it down to the level of the inconsequential and ridiculous.  As for the forum being "dead", or whatever word you use, NO, it was and is NOT dead.  Many of us use it frequently......to ask questions, to share an anecdote, to give advice when appropriate and some of us even use it as a sort of virtual village square where we meet and have social exchanges.

I don't think the forum owes very much, if anything at all, to ALBF.

To the OP, it IS doable but, as others have said, could be unreliable, could cost a lot and the result could well be disappointing in the sense of the renovation not being what you envisaged.

[alittlebitfrench]

Well I will leave it that then MINT.

Brits in France. Not my type of Brits.

Goodbye.

[woolybanana]

Promise, cross your heart, hope to die?

[alittlebitfrench]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Promise, cross your heart, hope to die?[/quote]

Nooo

Getting under your skin makes my day.

[richard51]

Some moderator should be ashamed. Personally attacking a members is against the forum rules and there have been 3? unwarranted attacks on this thread alone. Re-reading the thread and it will be plain that albf made a reasonable comment, yet was attacked unnecessarily. Probably in frustration he responded and changed a vowel (or two). This should have been corrected a long time ago. Other people should go.

[Gluestick]

This thread could be re-titled, "Flame Wars R Us"!

All of us engage in differences of opinion. This is the essential lifeblood of fora.

However, Ad Hominem attacks are not necessary, unpleasant and not wanted.

Renovating a ruin.

Perhaps, for me, the very best Grand Designs edition ever, was about a man and woman who fell in love with an old Maison de Mâitre, which had been burned out by Germans in WWII; and left thereafter.

See Here:

And Here:

 If you want it? Then go for it!

BUT: work out the numbers, firstly and VERY carefully!

Then add at least a 30% contingency...

[Cendrillon]

If the OP has not got bored with the bickering and is still following this I'll add my comment.

We didn't buy a ruin but have had plenty of work done on our house on France. We also had a small barn made into a little gite so I suppose that was a "renovation from ruin " job.

Fortunately over the years we have have got to know a good bunch of artisans, all French and very local. They work well together and have carried out major work while we have been back in the U.K. They have our trust and we've always been impressed and very pleased with their work. We discuss the upcoming work with them and sometimes they send an email or two. I phone occasionally and ask if I need to know about progress or have questions. Speaking reasonable French definitely helps.