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3 ways to do it. 1: Fast and good? ( not cheap ) 2: Fast and Cheap? ( not good) 3: Good and Cheep? ( not fast) . I chose 3. I'm still fixing up my place and I'll have been here 10 years in June. I spent last summer finally getting around to deep cleaning and painting the outside of the house. I could have gotten trade people in and had everything "done" the first year I moved in but id say all the stuff I did myself, labour and materials for the garden, bathroom, tiling, flooring, fitting extra plug sockets,switches,lights, building a shed, greenhouse, attic insulation, internal paint and carpet stripping ,repainting, old carpet removal, fixing leaks, unclogging sewage line, would have set me back in the tens of thousands. And id never have been able to save. This way my overpayments to the bank will have me mortgage free in a few months. ( I'll get around to renovating the kitchen this summer then its all "finished") . Sure what else would you be doing? Ha. "Turn key" houses are boring anyway!

We lived in a 100+ year old house for two years and did a small extension and reno in the main house. We would have saved a lot of money if we bought a house that was already modernised. We spent approx 50% of the value of the house doing it up... We would only get about 50/60% of that back if we sold the house right away. That is just the mad reality of the cost of building. So in the long run, if it is possible, it is better value to buy a done up house than a fixer upper. If not possible then that is another thing. 

I bought a doer upper in Dublin 8. I’d say the condition was reasonably good , but it does need some updating . I’m quite handy and can do tiling , floors , plaster boarding a lot myself and have some trades in the family .

The most eye opening thing for me was just how hard (and expensive) it is to get trades people . Ye , I’d heard it was hard but nothing prepared me for the reality of dealing with and trying to find trades people . Very few tradies want small jobs . They want the big job so trying to find people for small bits is tough and usually comes with a premium . I wanted an attic conversion and gave up most weren’t interested or gave me their “fu** off “ price .

Whatever you think the renovation will cost - double it .

We bought a house in need of massive work in Dublin as our first home. We did the essential work first: re-wire, plumbing, insulation, windows and doors.

From then on we took it room by room and saving in between. It’s hard, we were stuck with a crappy kitchen and old bathroom for nearly 2 years but it’s been worth it.

Anyone I know that has done it vastly underestimatesd the cost to refurbish/extend. It's always cheaper to buy a house where this work has already been done.

If you can't afford the house you want, maybe consider buying a smaller house with a view to upgrading in a few years

Sounds like a solid idea but dealing with tradespeople is an absolute nightmare. Even well established companies can be a nightmare to deal with. Also neighbours seem to just get pissed off as soon as they see a skip on a drive 😂

Did, nightmare, but price makes it worth it. Do be ready for 6 months to 1 year of pain

This is likely the most expensive way to get on the ladder. 

The cheapest way is to buy a doer-upper and do all the work yourself. Although even this would be tight, money wise.

There are no magic shortcuts, especially in Dublin.

Be prepared to spend the rest of your young life pouring your savings into this doer upper! Don’t get me wrong, we love it, I bought one 7 years ago and have not been able to keep savings. We moved in, lived in it for a year to get a feel for what we wanted. Spent 60k doing up the main areas (kitchen, sitting room). Then we spent a buttload on windows. Then we spent a shit ton on new floors and warm boarding. You see where I’m going with this! We’re doing the house bit by bit, which is great because we feel really at home and have made it ours. But by the time we will have all the rooms done, we’ll need to start again! Just be ready to have to live with something you’re not happy with for a while at a time.

If you do this, definitely get your house rewired (if needed) before you move in. I didn't and deeply regret it .

We did this a few years back. Twice. We used builders and moved out. But yes. If you think you can plan and phase it right, and put up with the inconvenience. Then it would all be worth it in the end!

Yep. Currently mid reno so not through the trials yet. Some thoughts as someone who works in the industry.

Pros: Allows you to buy in an area you actually want to live. (Assuming you are getting a place decently below market value, 'you make your money on the purchase' and all that. Pros: You can make it your own Pros: Lower mortgage payments - if you move into the house and live with it for a few months (we did 18 months) it alows you to save for the renovation works and phase them as your budget allows.

Cons: Cost! Building work in Dublin can be very expensive - or should I say finding a reasonably priced (decent!)builder is very difficult. Work off recommendations and be ready to compromise on your scope. Cons: Finding somewhere to live if you need to move out. Living with friends or family is hugely helpful from a cost and programme perspective.

Given the above I absolutely think it's worth doing, but doing a bigger job is not for the faith hearted and does become all consuming during the build.

A lot of people talk about the building cost not being fully reflected in the value of the completed renovation. While in Dublin this is often the case given high purchase prices and construction costs I do think it's possible for the renovation to stack up financially. But it requires finding good value ('buying the place that nonone else wants to buy') and really watching the scope and spec of your renovation - living with the place for a while will show you there is more you can live it than you thought.

Best of luck!

Watch a few episodes of room to improve before you buy a fixer upper …

You either spend time or money, and if you're not familiar with diy you're going to spend a lot of time.

Whatever estimate you have on a work schedule - double it. Tradesmen will cancel on you or not turn up for days , also add 10% to every quote youre give for the eventual “ahh see i didnt think this part would be rotten but it is so we need more money to fix that part”

We live in a 100 year old house, that has had nothing done to it since the 70s. Moved in 2 years ago. Couldn't afford to do much other than SEAI stuff. Ended up having a baby fairly quick. Every night I go to sleep having nightmares about when she starts walking and is pulling dodgy electrical fittings. I just hate myself for making bad choices earlier in life to not be able to afford to give my child a safe and nice childhood. So if you plan on having kids in the next 3-5 years, make sure you can afford to get rewiring and replumbing done asap. 😩

We did it, we're here six years now and I'm still doing jobs and there's still stuff to be done. I don't mind it and don't regret it. But, DIY has taken over my other, now very neglected hobbies.

Yes, I bought my first house.

I lived in it for years doing it up bit by bit but as they had no cavity to pump I ended up stripping it back to walls and putting insulated slabs on etc and a full reside which was required

Account for 3000 per square metre. You can maybe save some if you do it yourself but better to be realistic. New windows and doors alone are incredibly expensive and unlikely you’d be doing any of that yourself. Electricians cost a fortune. You can save money by painting yourself etc but otherwise we found that buying a house to do up was going to end up costing a lot more

Not worth it unless you can do the work yourself 

I bought a 1950s house that was in desperate need of renovation, stripped it down to the bones and renovated it fully before moving in(took about 11 months due to supply issues at the time). Based on what i have seen as long as you are happy with the interior and can get any work that will require you to move out done as a priority than it might be worth it.

Things to watch out for: 1. Costs will always be more that you budget for; 2. Contractors and builders are almost always over optomistic with their timelines; 3. See if there are any grants you can avail of; and 4. Dont skimp on works that you need to last a long time such as rewiring or plumbing, sometimes it will be cheaper in the long run to do certain things at the same time.

If you’re not in the industry, one of you needs to love DIY and have a very solid understanding of what goes into renovating a house so that you can do as much as possible yourself and keep and eye on what the builder is doing. If you don’t have a genuine interest in the nuts and bolts of renovations, to the point where you can immerse yourself in it for a year plus, it’s going to break your heart and your wallet and you are better off just buying the finished article.

The shocking part is you won't pay so much less than a house that is in good condition. From my experience, sellers are looking for delusional prices for houses are completely run down and need all work done and yes they get bidding wars too. Mind bogging.  I remember a house like this where me offering asking price of 595,000 was laughed at in my face by the agent. Yes he got 700k in the end and trust me the house needed everything done to it. I don't think whoever offered 100k more had a clue what needs to be done. 

If you can do the work yourself then it's feasible but if you have to pay someone to the work then it could become very expensive.

I'm on the tail end of it now. Bought 4 years ago, and a few bits still need to be done, but it's perfectly liveable. We had to rewire and replaster while living in the house, which was particularly miserable. My main advice is to try and get those big disruptive jobs done before you move in, or stay with friends/family for a few weeks. Secondly, just be smart with how you spend your money. Try and do whatever jobs you can yourself, and save the tradespeople for anything that needs to be done quickly (bathrooms, plumbing etc)

Assume your doer upper budget will be 50% more expensive than what you envisage now.

We are in the process of buying our first home and are sale agreed and close to closing on one. We viewed a good few houses that ranged from walk in to full doer uppers. We were tempted by the doer uppers a lot but ultimately they were right at our budget so it wouldn't have made sense. 

We bought a technically turn key house. Built in 2002, was a rental property before that was taken good care of. There's a few landlord special fixes but nothing major. We're slowly finding out that the cost really builds very quickly though and becoming very glad we didn't buy a renovation project.  Even to get started we need resealed windows, good few plugs need to be replaced and an electrician review the house, water cylinder needs to be replaced and a few other odd jobs. We're estimating maybe 6-8k for the small stuff. Then there's furniture. Then new kitchen, new bathrooms, heating should be updated eventually etc. 

Even on a turnkey house the updates are endless. We have 20k after our deposit and all fees are paid which should cover the small updates and some basic enough furniture. Then will be saving for a new kitchen, then new bathrooms, then fitted units etc. 

As someone who went into this with absolutely no trade, construction or even diy knowledge my only advice would be to try figure out the average cost of what's needed to be done, and triple it. If it was a full renovation you'd be talking a few 100k. Pulling out things from an old house will normally expose more issues that need to be fixed too. 

I have a mate who works in construction, is doing a lot himself and bought a house about 18 months ago expecting them to be moving in within 4 months after getting the keys. The house is still a construction site with no end in sight. That suits him since it's his family forever home and he has the skills and contacts to chip away at it slowly with minimal cost, they also have a family member they can live with while that's happening. If you don't have the luxury of somewhere to stay close to the house it would be very difficult to stay in the house if things like wiring needs to be replaced or the entire heating system needs replacing. 

I think this is only realistic if (1) the place is in good enough shape to live in whilst renovating and (2) you are willing to get stuck in and do a lot of it yourself.

Obviously anything involving electrics or plumbing needs a trade, but a lot of other things, people who are good at DIY can do themselves. If you can't even do small jobs yourself like painting, laying down floorboards, timing etc, you would be in for a wold of pain and expense trying to do it in phases.

Yes. We've made a spreadsheet of things we want to do to the place and how we individually prioritize the things to be done (and then the formula told us the order in which we should do things). And then we put in a funding option tab (loan, diy, rates matea gifts etc).

We didn't want a new build because aesthetically they aren't our style, usually in a not great location, parking issues and lack of a garden. Because of htb they are overpriced and when you move in you have to buy a floor anyway (can cost about 10k etc).

By going for a doer upper we've bought in an established and convenient area and we get to personalise the house. When you buy a new build it can feel wasteful to then have to pay to get something changed or redone because after all it's new.

We are taking it by level. We sorted smaller jobs first - painting, new floors upstairs etc.

We're on track for new bathrooms this year (we kept saving as if we didn't have AIP when we went sale agreed and there was a delay so we've got cash for this).

We have an architect in the family so we'll look at plans for a kitchen renovation ) extension in 2027. Well prob go the credit union route for that one.