These two ambitious millennials loved adventuring around together, and when it came down to picking their next voyage, they decided it was time to take on a creative project. In the heat of the moment, they accidentally ended up buying a run-down 120-year-old Victorian villa in a small village.

This minor error had soon caused a major ripple in their life plans. Would they take on this quest to restore the mansion or would they figure out a way out?

 

Keep on reading to find out they mystery of their mansion!

What kind of mysterious story would be complete without an amazing love story intertwined within it?

Meet Cal Hunter and Claire Segeren – two ambitious people from different parts of the world that are the true definition of relationship goals.

The young, happy couple first met while skiing in the French Alps during ski season. From there, they’re adventure of life together began.

They spent the next two years exploring Europe through camping and road-tripping. And, of course, skiing down the most breathtaking mountains they had ever experienced. They followed the summer with living in Canada, canoeing and camping around the beautiful country.

 

What would be next on their exciting quest? 

We’re living in such a transforming time, with adventure revving up our engines and new experiences right at the tips of our fingers.

From working from home, to traveling around the world, to online shopping, to trying out new extreme sports, to having an app for almost everything, to inventing new blended cuisines - opportunity literally lies in every corner.

Cal and Claire decided to take on a new, daring, and risky venture. They were ready to buy some UK property at an auction.

 

But why, though? 

While they were deciding what to do on their journey called life, Claire was approached with an interesting offer. 

The 24-year-old student from Canada was offered to be part of the Glasgow Medical School in Scotland for the Fall 2018 semester. However, she decided to decline and take some time to be Cal’s apprentice.

Cal was a 27-year-old Englishman, working as a carpenter.

 

With the world at their hands and being so young, they decided to jump on the opportunity to chase a new project – flipping an apartment and selling it.

The concept of flipping houses actually dates back to the ‘80s, but it has become a lot more popular in recent years.

Flipping a house (or property), means that you buy a home (usually foreclosed or abandoned), renovate it and then resell it. There are tons of shows about renovating homes that have emerged in the past decade like Flip or Flop, Love It or List It, and Property Brothers to name a few.

In the US, the average profit is about $65,500, and with Cal’s carpentry experience, the couple were sure it would be a great way to make some extra cash to take on a project like this.

 

They had no idea that one small mistake was going to lead to a big surprise though.

There are many ways to find properties to flip. You can contact and use a real estate agent, surf the Internet, or go to an auction.

Using an agent might be a safer bet, but at auctions you can really find some hidden gems. Auctions typically have more unique properties, too, which are a cool factor to the house hunt. Whether you are going after a house independently, through an agent, or buying one via an auction, it’s crucial for you to do research beforehand to make sure you’re getting the best bang for your buck and abiding by all the laws.

 

And after doing some research on the web, Cal and Claire had made a decision.

Cal and Claire were getting excited about buying a property together. They sat down and researched ways to go about how to get exactly what they wanted. They figured that they wanted to buy a two-bedroom property and finally decided that their best option to do so would be to go to an auction!

They went to an auction with their target in mind (a two-bedroom apartment in Glasgow), a budget of about $36,500 (£30,000), and excitement rushing through their veins!

 

However, amidst the rush of the bidding war, Cal seemed to have made a rookie mistake.

Unfortunately, this was Cal’s first rodeo when it came to buying property via auction.

Even though the two had done tons of research ahead of time, including a site visit to the property they wanted to bid on, Cal made the mistake of bidding on the wrong property.

The property that was being auctioned off directly before their desired apartment, was being sold in three separate lots – meaning it was being sold as three different properties in a row for three separate prices. So instead of bidding on his apartment, he bid on one of the lots of the other property.

Oops!

 

What did this mean?

Considering the fact that the auction house enforces its “all sales are final” policy, Cal and Claire had nothing to do except make the best of the situation. They had already invested and decided that no matter what, they weren’t going to give up on this new challenge.

So the couple quickly put on their research hats, again, and got to digging.

It turns out that they actually ended up buying a 120-year-old Victorian mansion: Jameswood Villa. Where exactly was that though? The original apartment they wanted was going to be in Glasgow, but it turns out this one was in Sandbank, Dunoon.

 

Where exactly is that?

For those of you who are worried about your international geography, don’t worry, we’re here to help!

To give you a bit of geographical perspective of Scotland and the UK, Glasgow is towards the north-west of the UK. Sandbank is about 35 miles northwest of Glasgow. The two cities are also separated by a body of water, and the driving can take about two hours total one-way.

This was a little inconvenient for the couple, considering they were looking for a home in Glasgow, but it was still close enough for when Claire starts attending med school at Glasgow University.

 

In all honesty, they had just purchased an incredible piece of historic structure, and distance was about to be the least of their problems.

As Cal and Claire did some more digging on the Jameswood Villa, they discovered that it was actually a building structure divided into four apartment units. That meant, that in order to continue with their project of renovating, they were going to need the cooperation from all owners in order to proceed.

Remember how this original property was sold in sections of three? Well, it turns out that during the auction, someone had bought the first section, Cal and Claire had bought the second section, and the third section was still up for grabs. Meaning the final unit was already owned.

 

So, what was going to happen with the third apartment?

Before even considering buying another unit, the couple had to check on what exactly they were working with. They quickly looked up the property description on Auction House Scotland, one of the top auctioneers in Scotland. It described the property as being in need of “full upgrading throughout”. That seemed reasonable enough for their budget. And now that they knew the property was divided into four units, hopefully they would be able to get the owners to cooperate and join in on the project.

Later that day, the Auction House had actually contacted Claire and Cal about purchasing the third unit for a discounted auction price.

 

Was it in the budget, though?

Before Cal even attended the auction, the two had made sure to do a site visit of their desired Glasgow apartment to make sure it was exactly what they were looking for. It’s important to be able to get an in-person visual of a place before you purchase (or rent) in order to help you envision and confirm that this space is truly what you want.

It’s also important to make sure that the description of the property is correct and equivalent to what’s going on in real life.

 

However, since they purchased the Jameswood Villa without doing a site visit, they figured the least they could do would be to own half of it. That way, there would be one less person to convince or battle during the renovations.

Cal and Claire had said yes to the auction house, and were now the proud owners of a half of the 120-year-old Sandbank mansion! It was time to actually go check out and do a site visit to access exactly what their next steps would be.

The two lovebirds were in shock when they first saw the building. Claire wrote in her blog, “It was definitely more than the ‘upgrades throughout’ that we were expecting from the auction description.”

It was clear the mansion had been vacant for years. After being abandoned for two decades, the roof obtained cavernous holes, the wood was rotten, and the 20 years of Scotland weather had certainly contributed heavily to drainage and structural issues.

 

Was this a dead-end to their adventure?

At first, Cal started to panic a bit about the house – he was the first one to check it out. They were trying to make lemonade with the lemons that life had given them, but it seemed like all of these repairs and renovations would be far beyond what they could handle.

Thankfully, Cal brought along some of his expert building friends, and they were there to calm his nerves.

The inner structure and bones of the building seemed to be in good enough shape, meaning that overall, it seemed like things would be okay. Upon surveying the rest of the structure, they noted all the other issues they needed to work on and Cal started to feel good again about taking on this project.

 

And, another interesting opportunity was just about to pop up!

As we’ve mentioned before, Cal and Claire had bought the second unit of the building since it would be more convenient to have one less owner to haggle with during their restoration process. It was clear to them now that they had seen the mansion, that it probably wasn’t restored or repaired properly due to a lack of agreement by the owners. 

Although Cal was a bit nervous at first, the two weren’t going to give up on this project. And it seemed that the other auction buyer, who now owned the first unit, wasn't going to stand in their way.

 

He actually called up Cal and Claire after his first visit to offer them his unit.