"You want to be methodical and do a lot of pre-planning up front.
"You are likely to be spending a lot of money, and borrowing money, and will be financially exposed. The last thing you want to do is get half way through a project and feel you are in far too deep and realise you forgot to allow for [something]."
There is a difference between a do-up and a total do-up, says real estate agent Paul Foster of Iron Bridge Real Estate.
"A total do-up will tend to fetch a lesser price than a dated property mainly because the latter is deemed to be liveable and therefore chipped away at while living there," he says.
"If your plan is to renovate for profit or renovate before you move in, then you would be best to go for the total do-up and pick it up at a better price."
Andrew and his partner, Cath Heppelthwaite, managed to buy the Copeland St property at a cheap price because one-bedroom homes weren't popular in Eden Terrace where families are looking for three-plus bedrooms, and the foundations were in poor shape.
While that deterred other buyers, the couple planned to extend the property, which meant putting new foundations in anyway.
The house was probably of a lower standard than most Kiwis would want to live in, but tenants jumped at the chance of low rent while the pair prepared for the renovation.
The house was rented while they carried out the feasibility study, did surveys and applied for resource consents.
Cath runs her own town planning business, so was able to organise the resource consent herself, which reduced costs. Even so, engineering and survey plans were needed and all took time to get the building consent.
The final hurdle before they started work on the renovation of the existing property and extension was that the tenants left it infested with fleas and vermin, and the builders refused to lift a hammer until the issue was sorted.
The difference between a do-up and a total do-up is an important distinction, says real estate agent Paul Lochore of Lochore's.
Today planning laws make it more difficult to get council to sign off on work, which means the total do-up that requires considerable remodelling may be too expensive.
"If it is refurbishing [only] there are a lot of talented Kiwis who can do that. If the work involves carpentry, plumbing or electrical, you need a different breed of person," Paul says.
Buyers are often tradies who can chip away at the work in their spare time and don't have to pay for labour, says Paul.
"Someone who knows what they are doing."
Many of the jobs Kiwis would do themselves in the past must by law be carried out by professionals.
These jobs are related to the primary structure of a building, anything on the outside of the building which has an influence on weather tightness, the design of fire safety systems and a number of other jobs. Such jobs are classified as Restricted Building Work.
The types of trades that need to be licensed include designers, carpenters, brick and block layers, roofers, external plasterers, site and foundations specialists, who all need to be licensed building practitioners (LBPs). It becomes expensive, says Paul, if you have to contract others to do all the work.
Too often, complete do-up renovation projects end up back on the market because the buyer has bitten off more than they can chew.
Andrew says that total do-ups can come with many surprises and invariably take far more time than buyers expect.
Even so, he says it's an exciting thing to do. "There is a real sense of achievement when it is finished."
