Hi

It depends on what you are after from your investment if you want to live in it then yes the captal gains tax is cheaper but if you want to move it quickly then that may not be an option.

I have successfully renovated and sold two propertys both over doubling my money, but I did live in both and was pepared to sit it out and wait.

This time I have built on vacant land and will probally not do as well, the cost of building is much more as I just found out,
If you want to just move the property fast then make sure it is in a high demand area and you make a substantial profit from the exersise or its not worth the effort.
I did a reno kings workshop and they don't usally do anything before settlement but they do go in and workout what needs to be done and measure up, then have everybody lined up to move on settlement. 

Another thing to consider is to buy what others see as a problem and create a solution.
If you want to, you could possibly vendor finance it at a slightly inflated price than what it is worth, and create a posative cash flow from it.

But I would run that sort of thing past Steve before doing anything like that.

I hope this helps.