Cherrydale Road, Liverpool L18

We bought this semi-detached house through an iamsold auction, the only bidder on the day, and paid the full £200,000 asking price to secure it against three separate owners and the paperwork that came with them. It was tired throughout: dated wiring needing a full rewire, and a heavy chimney breast splitting the ground floor into two cramped rooms. We removed that structural wall to open up the kitchen and dining area, extended out with black aluminium bi-fold doors, and finished the space with a quartz worktop, matte black units, and a landscaped rear garden in porcelain paving and artificial lawn. It let almost immediately at market rent, and the same family, with children and pets, has lived there since.