Hi,
I researched this question very carefully, and found that you are better of paying more for a renovated property than one that is cheap but needs a lot of work, unless of course you are a builder and can do the work yourself, reliable people are hard to find to do the work are notoriously unreliable and any estimate that you have in your mind for work needed can be doubled in reality. If you have more questions e-mail huffsinfrance@wanadoo.fr