In the difficult task of finding a second-hand home in perfect condition, users often find themselves immersed in a labyrinth of challenges, especially when their knowledge of the real estate market is limited.
Edu Saz, an architect who covers topics like real estate investment, renovations, personal finance, entrepreneurship, and personal development on his YouTube channel, revealed a guide outlining the three types of homes he advises against buying with the intention of renovating, shedding light on the crucial decisions to be made on this exciting, though sometimes complicated, journey to the perfect home.
In the video, which has accumulated more than 195,000 views, the architect began by highlighting "the three types of housing that I absolutely do not recommend anyone buy second-hand if what they are considering is renovating the house.".
The architect shared the advice he gives his clients "when choosing or ruling out certain second-hand homes." Using several examples from Idealista, the content creator explained "why those types of homes aren't the ones I recommend to people interested in renovating.".
Homes you access from a corner
“The first type of housing I want to talk about is homes accessed from a corner, especially if they are quite long,” the content creator began, adding, “What’s the problem here? On one hand, we have this entire party wall, probably with another house or building, so we only have windows on one side. This is already a bit problematic, but in addition to accessing the house from a corner, we also have to have a long hallway to get to the other side. In that case, to solve this problem,” he explained, “what we’re going to do is move the daytime area to the front of the house. We would move the living-dining room and even the kitchen, along with the bathroom, to the entrance area, leaving only a hallway to access the nighttime area.”.
He added that, however, "sometimes this type of housing is found in very old buildings," with the interior courtyard area at the front of the house and the exterior area, facing the street, at the back. "That's the worst-case scenario," he said, "because then we'll definitely have to put the bedrooms at the front, and therefore we'll need a hallway that leads to the back of the house, which is where the living area will be.".
Reduced dimensions and load-bearing wall
“The second type of property that Edu Saz doesn’t recommend when buying a home” are those with small dimensions and “a large load-bearing wall in the center.” In this regard, the architect reveals that, because of this load-bearing wall, the layout of the apartment cannot be modified, so “it will always be limited by those small dimensions.”.
However, the architect reveals that "there are exceptions," stating that if it has "much larger dimensions," this problem could be solved by "tearing down part of the load-bearing wall and making a loading platform," although he warns that this type of project "will take longer to approve and the work will become considerably more expensive.".
"Tube-type" housing
Next, the architect reveals the third type of housing he does not recommend, known as 'tube-type' houses, which are those that "have a rather elongated or rather strange shape, as in this case which is boot-shaped" and in which, upon entering, "we find ourselves between two party walls or between two subdivisions.".
The problem with this type of housing, according to the architect, is that they are usually apartments located between other apartments or buildings, which means that there are no windows in most of the living space. "As I said, it's a rather narrow, tube-like space where we're going to be forced to put in a kitchen that opens onto an interior courtyard and a windowless bathroom.".
The content creator also reveals that, having "a very long hallway with a rather strange shape", this layout "would work quite against us if what we want is to renovate it and leave a more modern apartment", adding that: "Just the fact of having to go against the main structure of the house is going to make the renovation more expensive, logically".
With information from https://www.abc.es/.
