'Destined for rubble': This 36-year-old bought an abandoned house for $1 and turned it into her 'dream home' — how to invest in real estate (without any rats, asbestos or a leaky roof)

Selling homes for less than the price of a small coffee has become a last-ditch strategy for some towns and cities around the world fighting depopulation and decay.

The catch, as Sharples discovered, is that the homes selling for token sums are in complete disrepair, and the local authorities selling homes “once destined for rubble” pass the costs of renovation to the buyers.

“I knew I had my work cut out for me,” Sharples wrote in an article for CNBC. “The house had been abandoned for 15 years. The brickwork was crumbling, there was a leaky roof, a rat infestation, asbestos and no power or heating system.”

Hard work ‘saved me a lot of money’

To qualify for the “Homes for a Pound” program, Sharples says she had to be a first-time homeowner and be able to renovate the home — in her case, more of a crumbling shell — within a 12-month period. The local council estimated the renovations would cost around $61,400.

Sharples picked up the keys for her one-pound place in February 2020 — five years after she applied for the special program as a graduate student (with very little money saved) — and got straight to work.

“I paid an architect $1,064 to draw up the blueprints,” she said. “Many of the contractors I talked to laughed at my proposed reconfiguration of the house. The cheapest quote I got was still $37,600 over my budget, which was the entirety of my savings. But I was undeterred.”

To keep costs down — and navigate challenges caused by the pandemic — Sharples quit her job and set to work on the property herself, blogging about the renovation process every step of the way. And with the help of some friends (and a 12-month project extension due to the pandemic) she completed enough work to have the house signed over to her in May 2022.

In total, Sharples says she paid $74,000 on labor and materials.

“I’m glad I had the conviction and persistence to stick to my vision,” she said. “I learned how to lay brick, tile, install underfloor heating and refinish floors, and it saved me a lot of money.”

Managing a full renovation isn’t for everyone. Having enough money is only the first hurdle; you need the right people in order to successfully see things through.

“This house is now worth much more than what I paid in renovations. A 2-bedroom home on my street recently sold for $137,000. But if I ever decided to leave, I’d only rent it out. I’ve invested too much in this place to sell it.”