Depending on where you are with the purchase decision, get a book on home inspections, which will list all potential issues and how you can spot possible problems. Bring along a friend or family member with experience. Once you've decided to buy, get a good inspector and spring for any extras he recommends. (We were recommended to get someone to send video up the chimneys, which turned out to be unlined and not particularly safe). We bought a house in good shape, but thanks to our inspection report, negotiated down the price based on a number of items that needed to be fixed that we didn't see, but our inspector did. For stuff like the chimneys, which didn't get negotiated down, we had an estimate. Many things will be clues as to how well the house has been maintained and upgraded over the years. Have the electrics been redone? When? What about the heating? Or the roof? The house looks pristine, but you want to know if the house has been care fully and lovingly maintained over the years, or just recently painted for resale. The bath shower arrangement, for example, is strange. What happened to the shower curtain rod? Was there a miserable moldy -- or worse yet, rotting --- bathroom that got fixed up and they didn't put the curtain rod back because a quick sale was more important than doing a good job. It's great if someone else took care of headaches so you don't have to, but make sure they did a good job. Ask questions about the history of the house and its updates. Unless there's another serious buyer who sounds like he'll buy at the asking price now, honest sellers will be happy to answer questions.

We have that exact sink! And a very small powder room stuck in the 80s. Only difference is our door is on a side wall, and there is no window. We're no where near finished, but just ripping down the pink floral and stripey wall paper has made a huge difference (including revealing the toilet is in fact white, not pale pink). We're going to replace the rather unappealing plastic sink with a tiny ceramic one with new taps, and the old plastic cistern with a new colonial style ceramic one, and new seat (keeping the toilet base as it is in good condition, and classic style). Then new paint, and a good clean and regrout to the floor, new light shade, toilet roll holder, storage in one corner and art.

Hi, I would like to convert our existing garage and carport space to a second dwelling (2 bedroom+ toilet+kitchen). I am not sure if it can be called a granny flat. We use our garage only for storage and believe if we convert it to rental space, it will benefit us in many ways. And ofcourse, I want to do it with proper consents, but we have a small budget for it. I have checked with Auckland council and our house is situated in a mixed Housing Suburban Zone, so there are no restrictions for building this. I need to get a bank loan to do this conversion. We bought the property this year, so the CV hasn't changed much. All banks wants me to draw a plan for this conversion and have it evaluated it by them. If their evaluated value supports the loan+20% equity, then I will get the loan to proceed. The cost of drawing the plan seems to be around 10K (based on my initial research) and this is a huge amount to take a risk. I am really new to this world of construction/renovation. And any kind of guidance, advice or recommendations will help me heaps. Thanks

Hi, I would like to convert our existing garage and carport space to a second dwelling (2 bedroom+ toilet+kitchen). I am not sure if it can be called a granny flat. We use our garage only for storage and believe if we convert it to rental space, it will benefit us in many ways. And ofcourse, I want to do it with proper consents, but we have a small budget for it. I have checked with Auckland council and our house is situated in a mixed Housing Suburban Zone, so there are no restrictions for building this. I need to get a bank loan to do this conversion. We bought the property this year, so the CV hasn't changed much. All banks wants me to draw a plan for this conversion and have it evaluated it by them. If their evaluated value supports the loan+20% equity, then I will get the loan to proceed. The cost of drawing the plan seems to be around 10K (based on my initial research) and this is a huge amount to take a risk. I am really new to this world of construction/renovation. And any kind of guidance, advice or recommendations will help me heaps. Thanks