Hi Purple Property. This is a good question. Basically you just have to do it! I spent a few years working in building after high school so that taught me a lot of practical skills. I built a few houses and did quite a few renos. Then I realised that's a hard way to make a living..
If you buy a doer upper as your first home and do it up you will learn a lot. You could do it with an IP but then you have additional costs and time constraints. The first property I did was a unit in 2006/7. In the end I almost completely gutted the whole unit and redid it. It has a small outdoor area which looked like nothing when I bought it and I did some major work converting it to a flat 50sqM paved / landscaped courtyard. This was the major value add I could see when buying it. That whole process taught me a lot and the increased equity set me up to buy my next home. I'd never do it the way I did it then again now though!
Also spreadsheets are your friend. Learn to setup project timelines and financial forecasts. Then you can run all the numbers and work out the best path to take. This is probably the most important thing. Diving in without crunching the numbers could be a costly exercise.
If you buy a doer upper as your first home and do it up you will learn a lot. You could do it with an IP but then you have additional costs and time constraints. The first property I did was a unit in 2006/7. In the end I almost completely gutted the whole unit and redid it. It has a small outdoor area which looked like nothing when I bought it and I did some major work converting it to a flat 50sqM paved / landscaped courtyard. This was the major value add I could see when buying it. That whole process taught me a lot and the increased equity set me up to buy my next home. I'd never do it the way I did it then again now though!
Also spreadsheets are your friend. Learn to setup project timelines and financial forecasts. Then you can run all the numbers and work out the best path to take. This is probably the most important thing. Diving in without crunching the numbers could be a costly exercise.
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