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We are viewing a house again this afternoon, it ticks every box for us. What specifics should we be looking at? Anything you wish you had looked at when you bought? Only ever bought 1 house before and that was a wreck/project/shit tip!
Neighbours. Everything else can be fixed! ;-)
Do you know any tame/reliable builders?
If you can get them to come along they are way more useful than a formal survey. They should be able to spot any potential issues.
boiler. A friend sold their home with a leaking boiler. They artfuly placed a cookbook to hide the bowl that was catching all the water that was leaking out of it. Couple of days after the buyer found out, lost their shit and attempted to go legal on my pal. Didn't go anywhere cos Caveat Emptor lolz but they were livid and sent plenty of nasty emails to the solicitor ?
I always try and look past things like decor and bathroom suite, and look at what will really cost money and time, such as the state of the electrics, plumbing etc, and then those things that we know will bug us further down the line, mobile reception, schools (if you have kids)
Boiler is on my list, looks original at our first visit so will be paying more attention.
We know one neighbour, my daughter's friend, another neighbour we met at first viewing (octogenarian neighbourhood watch type as he came straight out to chat, but appears nice)
Decor is dated and some minor work needed, which is why we think the house hasn't sold yet compared to others close by
Apart from the usual building type things already mentioned...... parking in the area (outside of weekday work times when people are at work). Schools.... and related peak time parking which is usually total chaos.
Roof, verges, rainwater goods - do they look ok?
General state and age of things like fusebox & electrics, boiler and rads etc
Bathroom & kitchen age and state - are they nearing end of life.
Condition of carpets, as they can add up.
Are the owners people who are caring? practical? not caring? dodgy DIY'ers or 'no idea it just works' folk? You are looking at owner as well as building.
How many people in your household? Are two of you viewing? Knock on walls, stomp around and make some noise - how far does it carry?
Flush every toilet, run every tap and shower, check the drains. How long does water take to get hot?
Where is the light coming from and do you get your evening sun trap to make the most out of the evenings?
Cost of a new boiler in comparison to the house is tiny. I would look for any clues that the owner takes a bash at DIY electrics instead.
I can only echo what others have said. Neighbours 100%. I arrived early and had a cup of tea with my prospective neighbours before the second viewing. The houses are usually about the same age so a discussion about the issues they might have had with their house will be useful. Also a quick look at the cars for any with giant exhausts and a listen out for barking dogs.
Parish council meeting minutes worth a read too, they tend to highlight antisocial behaviour issues in the area.
Boilers can be replaced in a day and aren't a huge cost compared to some things.
Whenever i check a house it's external that counts a bit, check the roof for any issues (bowing, loose ridge tiles, etc), check the brickword round the house for damp proofing issues, signs of water damage/erosion of bricks, etc.
Inside it's just the usual stuff, remember you'll get a report on the house anyway if you want it, so they'll do the hard work, it's just the little secrets you can't see and won't know that'll be a problem later, i moved into my current property 5 years ago, no issues, turned the water on, 2 days later the kitchen ceiling came down (3 days before Xmas!), some clever chap had the bright idea of securing loose floorboards before sale by ramming nails everywhere, i have also just replaced all those floorboards due to the damage he/she caused doing that!
Pic of our houses Xmas present to us ;o)
water pressure
mold / damp /cold walls
electrics
plumbing
roof
neighbors
parking
Windows and door seals and fit. £££££
Garage door movement and operation - can be easily £1500-£2500
Boiler - get it running and listen and smell (if it's oil). £1500-£6000
Oil tank (again if oil) How old? Is it on a proper base? Are the stops working? These are all quite expensive to fix and can leave you cut off until you do. £££>££££
Gutters, soffits and loft. poke around, look on the ground for obvious leaks. On a detached property especially, these can run well into the ££££.
argeeFull Member
Boilers can be replaced in a day and aren’t a huge cost compared to some things.
Unless it's oil combi, in which case you'll be looking at £5k-£6k.
Definitely the roof for me. Very spendy mistake on our part with our current house, the owner (who is an estate agent so should have immediately not trusted him) said it had been redone a few years back. Turned out they’d just tiled the front, but not insulated it and just cleaned the back tiles. Cost me £25k to fix.
Didn’t go anywhere cos Caveat Emptor lolz
That happened to me as a buyer, it was absolutely hilarious I can tell you.
Roof - any signs of water ingress? How old is the roofing? Any crumbling plaster? Modern consumer board for electrics? Power sockets in skirting board or wall? Any signs of leaky guttering or drain pipes? Any blown dg units?
One of our mob has just bought a 'doer upper'/ house that Jack built. We've to sort out dpc, new soil pipe, floorboards, carpet top to bottom, new kitchen, replace one or two rads, decorate top to bottom including priming out coloured walls, patch of garden is a garden is a jungle. So all up thousands of £s, much time and hassle. As above, people have a way of concealing nightmares, all well and good so long as it is reflected in the price and you know what you're taking on.
Regarding the garden. I would worry if it contained Japanese knotweed or bamboo. Both non-native invasive plants and can cause structural damage if not contained or destroyed properly.
Asbestos is bad and would have to be removed by professionals.
Hope it all goes well.
A friend sold their home with a leaking boiler. They artfuly placed a cookbook to hide the bowl that was catching all the water that was leaking out of it. Couple of days after the buyer found out, lost their shit and attempted to go legal on my pal. Didn’t go anywhere cos Caveat Emptor
In Scotland you can come back on certain things within 5 working days of the sale, the heating system being one of them. Seems to be a standard clause here.
Unless it’s oil combi, in which case you’ll be looking at £5k-£6k.
LOL, mine in the current house was about £12k including installation. 20+ years ago. Going to be nearer 20 to replace if/when it fails (GSHP). Thankfully the really expensive bit can be reused (the in ground stuff cost about 25-30k to be drilled where i am and about the same again for the actual hardware/installation.)
Check the taps, pipes for clonking/water hammer, see if you can hear the heating cycling on and off (cleanly) while you're there. Have a look under the sinks for corrosion or leaks.
Have a drive by before 7:30/after 5:30 see how the neighbourhood looks when everyone is around, had a drug rehab place opposite my first house that i found out about 3 or 4 days after i moved in. And a massive parking issue (thankfully mine was one of the few with a drive).
See if windows all work. Front window at my place fell out the first time i tried to use it. The long nails and filler i used as a temporary bodge appear to still be in use (the same window is still installed).
Unless it’s oil combi, in which case you’ll be looking at £5k-£6k.
Yeah, never thought of that, to be fair i thought he was after a house in or near civilisation ;o)
Don't get an oil combi.
Just get a standard oil boiler. They are pretty much bomb proof and repairable.
Our second viewing was really just to double-check we still liked it and it still felt right. And that the room layouts worked for us.
But do your research on parking and neighbours as others have said. But that's for another time, just visit the area at various times of day.
Do some searches of local planning applications too (say 5 mile radius), to see if anything big is proposed.
If you don't know what you're looking at take someone with you who does.
Road.
What is the road, where does it go, is it a rat run, what will it be like in rish hour/sumner season etc.
Pic of our houses Xmas present to us ;o)
Is that Santa? Jolly enough, but must say he's younger than I expected.
Do some searches of local planning applications too (say 5 mile radius), to see if anything big is proposed.
This^, also are there any local pubs with a shit landlord who ignores the conditions placed on the building that might have live music nights?
Are there any flag shaggers on the street?
Signs of water damage on the ceiling below the bathroom.
Damp on walls / peeling wall paper around chimneys.
Damp above skirting, especially in areas where the air flow isn’t great – behind doors and furniture downstairs. This one cost us dearly as the damp proof was shot and it didn’t show on the survey because the surveyor couldn’t be arsed closing a door or moving a bin.
Is that Santa? Jolly enough, but must say he’s younger than I expected.
That was my daughter telling me to wait a minute before taking pictures of the damage, then she ran up stairs and did that!
Join the local facebook group and do some searching for past antisociual behavior.
Imagine coming home from work / commuting by bike / a mountain bike ride, does the layout work for you or can it be made to work.
What are the compromises and will they piss you off after a few months?
My next house will not:
Be within earshot of the Park-and-Ride, and by earshot I mean the 125db straight piped MX5 / Golf / Fiesta earshot when they congregate there after closing time.
Have carpeted floors anywhere between the back door and a shower.
Have a single width garage door. It's 2+ cars long, which is great but is impossible to sensibly store both a car and a motorbike without playing Tetris every time I want to get the other one out.
If you are going back for a second viewing you are already invested and probably looking for reasons to buy it, rather than for reasons not to. So try and take a parent / friend / colleague who can be impartial and point out things that you may not want to see
Look out for people flying a national flag in their garden
If it is terraced or semi detached, try and suss out sound insulation with neighbours, do you want to hear them arguing, watching TV, shagging?
Check broadband speed, an essential check nowadays
Look at orientation of the house for sunlight. Any seller who knows their stuff will have every lamp and light turned on but how much natural light do you get and are you okay with it
If is a rural area check any local development plans, is that nice field behind the back garden going to become a massive housing estate?
If you have kids, or are planning on having kids, check out the local schools. For me this is the most important thing.
Every house purchase comes with one compromise, usually size of house versus area. You just need to be clear baout which compromise you are happy with.
And that the room layouts worked for us.
Also have a think about what you might want to do with it – if you want to redesign the layout, check which internal walls are stud and which (if any) are load-bearing – the difference in cost / difficulty will be quite substantial.
If there's any pubs or anything nearby go and walk passed at chucking out time, see what it's like
Don’t get an oil combi.
Just get a standard oil boiler. They are pretty much bomb proof and repairable.
There's little difference in repairing a combi vs a normal oil boiler (I know this as I have one and I'm the one that has repaired it numerous times...it's 31y old) and only around £1000 difference in price, but if you replace a combi with something else, you're going to need to upsize the boiler in the high likelihood that it doesn't have a water tank.. This will cost you...yup, around £500>£1000 + the additional costs of running it.
My point was that facing a £4k-£6k bill not long after moving in is what no-one wants, especially if it forces a choice of boiler now for a short time to ASHP later. You want it to last a while a make that decision in your own time. I know there's plenty of people saying that £6k is nothing compared to the price of the house, but £6k cash vs the mortgage and the other fees is sometimes hard to come up with at short notice.
List of defects on mine that with the benefit of hindsight could have been picked up:
More rotten sash windows than I thought.
Inaccurate information about layout of drains in relation to neighbour - would consider a drain survey in future depending on house age and/or location.
Small cracks in render - actually let in quite a bit of water over time. Surprising amount of damage revealed when you remove failed render.
Naively we didn’t check the owner of a nearby retaining wall that has now collapsed. It is ownerless…
Bathroom extractor fans that aren’t actually connected to a vent, hard to check.
Ive found many horrors through our renovations, but tbh very few could have been picked up before purchase. Stuff like old rusty steel and lead pipes in use under the boards, nice new plastic in all visible areas. Why replace a kitchen and bathroom and not renew the pipes.... who does that??!
Anyway, other thing to do is check the planning portal / building control see if there is anything relating to the property on there.
We have a second floor extension that judging by its age appeared in the 50s sometime, with no permissions. And as it turns out very little in the form of foundations either....fixed now at expense
Recently found cracked lintels when redoing the hallway windows so thats another horror to go on the list to get repair
Joys of home ownership.
For a viewing you're not going to be able to pull the place a part, unless you forewarn them that you're bringing a sparky/plumber/builder.
I'd look at the edge cases and see if you can guess the mentality of the vendor. What state are the owner's other things in? Rusty chains on bikes, kerbed wheels on the cars, kid's swings fixed with bailer twine, fences patched with osb. Kitchen professionally fitted or a wonky homebase faith-dependant heap? Is the tool shed filled with good tools or gaffer tape and abused middle of lidl junk? In short, are they an absolute bodge merchant? If I'd done that here I think we would be in a different position. Possibly the same house but with more of a discount.
Fresh paint. What’s it covering up?
Never mind paint!
Fresh patio. What's it covering up?
As above, visit on a Sunday afternoon when all the neighbours are at home, cars are parked, kids are playing, etc. and see if you still like it.
There are loads of guides online. At this point you want to be going with your head not your heart.
We got a survey, it was an old house now coming up to 130 years old. It has plenty of character (flaws) some of which we saw in the second viewing and quite a few things we didn't.
There will be problems, its a question of how much will they cost to fix and/or can you live with them. So I'd be thinking about big jobs that might be disruptive - Kitchens, Bathrooms, Heating etc. as others have suggested.
That said, some of the rooms we thought we would be able to just move into, we really couldn't. Carpets and walls looked a lot worse once the furniture was out.
We had little to no furniture/stuff at the point we moved in. But now, we have everything so I'd be taking a tape measure to understand what could be moved from our current place and what would need to be replaced (tables, wardrobes, beds and other big stuff).
Also be prepared that, even if you spot flaws you didn't see first time around, the vendor may not be willing to move much on price and there may be other potential buyers so weigh up whether or not getting a bit knocked off the asking price because the boiler is a bit old is worth losing the house over if it is otherwise ideal for your needs.
Ask to see their survey, land registry copies, searches, etc and see if the jobs were done, do the visible boundaries match, etc
Look for stickers on the boiler (additive date, serial numbers that indicate age, etc), consumer unit and dates on uPVC inside the opening lights. Ask for any service records
Do a local authority building regs and planning permission check. Free and available online, shows FENSA, electricity and boiler installations if reasonably modern
Swap phone numbers. Saves messing around with estate agents to answer simple questions