Wallpaper in an older, early 1900s or even earlier, can be a nightmare. What I did in one room was paint over it as it was very smooth & would have been impossible to remove.

Older homes, in fact, all homes can be a money pit when one tries to reno. If you watch a credible design show like Property Brothers, he explains the problem which he has come up against. Mike Holmes shows the serious issues that are behind the walls, in the attic, under the floors even in new homes where the builder or owner has cut corners. Wallpaper could be the least of your worries....

The most important thing to determine before you make an offer is whether or not the house is well built, whether it has been surveyed legally, what the building code is & what the neighbourhood is going to evolve into as time goes on, no drainage issues on property where there is a slope.....lots to think about.

I learned so much from my husband who was a journeyman carpenter in his youth & worked on building new homes & renovations of older homes. When we found a house we were interested in, we hired a house inspector to determine whether there were any issues, and my husband was at his side, often pointing out issues which the inspector may have overlooked.

If you know an experienced builder, renovator have them with you when you are looking at a house the 2nd time. They have an eye for potential problems and can give you rough estimates of what can be renovated easily and what could be a bigger problem, especially if there are ugly surprises behind the walls.

We were looking at properties for sale in Baja in December & had a contractor we knew come over & walk thru the property with us to tell us what potential issue there could be & the cost of fixing. The owner's realtor was not pleased & complained to our realtor; however they were passing off major issues as an easy fix. We were not going into a property investment without knowing as much as possible about it.

Be as informed as you can possibly be, as I said above, wallpaper is an easy fix.