It's a well-known fact that some of the best renovation gems can be found under the auction hammer. Take this bungalow in Turriff - its damp and mouldy interior gave it an eery feel when it went up for auction last year, but that didn't stop SJA Property Group from seeing its potential.
Shaun, James, and Ali attended our in-room auction in January 2023 and successfully won their bid on the Aberdeenshire renovation project. After filming their 'before' shots for Homes Under the Hammer, they got to work on the incredible renovation and transformed the damp dwelling into a modern, bright and spacious home. Now one year since they bought the property at auction, we caught up with the trio to find out how they found the process:
How did you first discover the property was for sale, and what made you want to buy it?
We had been keeping an eye on a project near Turriff for a while as our director James Duguid lives there and knows the market really well. We received an email from Rightmove about a new property coming on near Turriff and when we read it, we knew we had to investigate! James actually used to go past the house on his school bus and remembered it being a beautiful and very desirable site not so long after it was built in 2000!
How did you find the process of buying at auction, and had you ever bought at auction before?
The process was very smooth, Auction House Scotland were great to deal with from communication right up to the day of completion! This was our first auction purchase within SJA, but our director Ali had previously bought a large derelict farmhouse from auction and completely developed it. Like every purchase, you must do you due diligence on any property before making an offer!
What were your intentions for the property once purchased?
We knew having viewed the property before bidding that there was a complete back to shell rip out required and we also felt there was a lot of wasted space with its original layout, particularly in the living and kitchen spaces. We love (as do most people these days) large open plan living spaces and knew we had plenty of scope to do some alterations through the help of our architect! It certainly helped being able to take the property back to a blank canvas! With James knowing the Turriff market really well our plan A was to always sell on post renovation.
How long did the renovation take, and what was the biggest challenge you faced?
In total, it took 16 working weeks with our trades guys working on the property. However in actual calendar weeks it was 32 weeks from purchase to completing the renovation. We had to wait 2 weeks after getting the keys as Homes Under The Hammer were scheduled to do initial filming, 3 weeks to clear all furniture and rip out back to the external shell then we waited around 11 weeks to allow the joints to dry out and then have fungicidal treatment works done while waiting for the building warrant to be approved before we started the fit out! The biggest challenge we faced was actually being able to determine the full extent of the damage from the burst water tank (which created the really bad mold and damp issues). There were concerns during rip out that the joints may have needed fully replaced which wasn't something we had budgeted for but thankfully they were sound!
What is your favourite part of the transformation?
Without doubt the new layout for the open plan lounge / kitchen / conservatory space which totals 67sqm! We do love the new large master bedroom which used to be where the kitchen was, it is very big with a decent size en-suite and walk in wardrobe off it.
If you’d like to follow SJA Property Group’s future renovations, you can follow them on Instagram: @sja_property_group
And watch out for them on Homes Under the Hammer!
