My missus and I are off to look at a house, with an eye to buy, tomorrow. It'll be our first (40 years old and just getting round to it, ridiculous!) and so, whilst, we've got a fair bit of advice from friends and rellies I thought it wise to ask for the sage advice of STW…

View at a couple of different times of day, at least do a drive-by, to see what traffic/parking/noise is like. Be flexible and try to look beyond the decor but also be realistic about what you will actually change. We moved in with loads of plans but haven't actually done that much.

Pay for full survey!

I / we bought a lovely flat roofed house with rendered walls . I'm very glad i bought it but if I'd known how much I was going to spend on a new roof and re rendering the walls i'd have negotiated harder

Go round on an evening and weekend to assess the actual street noise and get a feel for the noise from neighbours . Go on a number of occasions at different times.

Realsitically test items that sell the house to you . Oh look a fitted kitchen ! try all the doors and draws Oh look they are all f##ked thats another £4k to find at some point.

Decide in advance weather you are buying to live in the house or buying to trade up later. Then you can prioritise accordingly.

View loads of houses.!

Look for black damp patches on the walls,inside

Overloaded plugs,shortage of sockets/rewire,

Dodgy guttering,

Posh neighbours next door,with a spare fridge and settee in front garden,

Space for a bike shed,

If scotland running water and an inside toilet,

Dodgy roof slates or tiles,and tv ariel

Stains on the front of gas fire or boiler, a serious danger to health,

Go with an "uninterested" friend to give you an "uninterested" opinion as you'll be too caught up in it and not notice all the horrible bits.
Take a notebook with
Floor
Walls
Ceiling
Sockets
Doors
etc
written on it as an aid to memory.

All very useful, ta. We've driven past a couple of times but this is the first proper look round.

I'd never have thought of half of what's been said. We were going to take a notebook; now we have something to write inside it lol 🙂

If you go for a second look get the sellers to put the heating on, check it works, open and close all windows esp if they are velux or sash, they are expensive to replace, look at all the leccy sockets and switches, are they they same or random, if random prob needs rewire. Oh and have a look in loft/attic, what does it smell like? Test the showers and water pressure.

I've learnt lots in retrospect!

visit a peak hours (and pub kicking out ..)
understand who own what (fences etc, walls, roofs) and likely maintenance costs/hassle (ie anything joint willmay be a pita)
understand parking vs your needs
check out neighbours who will be near enough to impact your life (rubbish in garden scrap cars etc)
if any paths/shared drives etc get absolute clarity on ownership, costs and access rights
– yeah second visit – test EVERYTHING, heating, taps, flush loos, anything built in, water, leccy, gas.. cooker, fires, extractors, …… make sure all doors open fully in all rooms and close)
pp for extensions
do your own personal local survey
noise test – if semi etc, so you know how much noise carries and if you can cope with the neighbours ……
somewhere to put ze wheelybin /rubbish etc in line with ze local regulations yahowll
look for asbestos (corrugated roofs, drain pipes ..) etc
– gas boiler placement – bedrooms are NOT good places for them

ask them straight: 'are there any problems with the house that they know of?', they are obliged by law (contract law) to tell you. They may cough and splutter, but you may find out something interesting too!

How old is it?

Ask why they are moving – if they don't give an immediate sensible answer then may be they are trying to hide something? No one moves for fun in this kind of market.

Sash windows are expensive – we've just had a quote for £650 per window to renovate and put in double glazing. To get completely new windows is over double that and we have about 15!

As above test everything works – we knew things that didn't and it didn't put us off but you need to be aware. Garage door we didn't check, nor the gate onto the back alley – both broken.

Look at the boiler – is it new or a retro classic £££ to replace. Same with the Elec consumer unit if it's old then rewriring may be on the cards.

Take a tape measure and measure up stuff.

Ask what work they have done in the way of maintenance or serious work (other than decorating) – houses are like really complicated bikes they don't just work forever unless you do maintenance. Any building work needs to be approved/safe.

Take a note pad and sketch rooms make notes. We found writing a list of ever reason we didn't want to buy the house make us more objective.

Good luck, we took 12 months and 30 houses to find the right one. Missed out on two. One we were outbid on in a sealed auction by 10%. The other we walked away from after being messed around with.

You'll not notice everything the first time so arrange a second visit if you are interested.

Pay attention to the condition of any garages / outbuildings (as cost of new roofs, pointing and rendering really add up.). Pay close attention to potential access and border issues so you can get them sorted before buying.

Even if a house suits you ask yourself the question of how easy will it be to sell again e.g. we bought a house with a small garden…didn't think it was an issue having not had any garden before…come time to sell again and most potential buyers took one look at the back garden and were never seen again despite liking the inside of the house.

oh yeh…don't believe the estate agent room measurements so double check if anything is looking tight….amazing how much the rooms in our house shrunk / expanded when we changed selling estate agents.

see a lot of houses. We didn't really understand what was important to us until after seeing a few.

Watch out for open plan kitchen / living room arrangements. My mate has one and half the time you can't hear yourself think for the dishwasher / washing machine / tumble drier…

And agree with all the above. Don't be scared into being polite – have a really good rummage when checking structural stuff.

Especially agree about driving past slowly at unscheduled times. We asked our sellers what the neighbours were like and they obviously said they were fine. They were actually total and utter b*s*a*ds – now moved on, thank God! The sellers must have paid them to go out whenever we visited pre-buying…

If you can find a builder who can have a rummage around for you – not a binding survey but as a first pass should see stuff you may not.
Echo going round at odd times and spend an hour or so haning in the neighbourhood of an evening to see what goes on. Neighbours etc etc.
All the usual stuff – don;t be sucked in by fresh paint – look for the expensive stuff to fix – electrics, plumbng, insulation, windows, boilers etc and all outside stuff. And yeah always be blunt and ask if there is anything known of issue on the property as someone said above they have an obligation to disclose it. My most exotic answer to that was yes, there is a large gang headquarters about 200m away in that house ! And right enough there was – right in front of the only r.o.w entrance – didn;t fancy getting blocked in/out by a biking gang.

Neighbours

Noiseproofing (incoming & outgoing)

Extensions and improvements – demand to see building inspector reports and wiring & gas certificates.

Does the garden get any sun?

Can you get the bins to the front without dragging them through the house?

Have a look at http://www.nethouseprices.com, enter the street name and look to see how many houses have been sold recently in the street, if a lot have been sold recently ask WHY.

Brilliant. We've a healthy list now and may well come across like CSI with the encouragement you've all given 🙂 Cheers.

Ask for either proof of obtaining planning permission, or confirmation from the local auhority that PP was not required, for any extensions, conservatory's, garages, additional dormers etc etc. Especially important if the house is in green belt.

There are glaring innacuracies and contradictions between the interpretation of the planning laws by different planning dept's across the uk, so don't just rely on the seller saying "it's been here for ages and nobodys complained….." response.

Presumably you're buying the house as a long term thing, so think about what you might be wanting from a house in 10 years time. As above, think about selling the house as well as buying it. At this risk of sounding like a hippy, you need to enjoy living there, so see if the house and surrounding areas make you happy.

Mmtm that will be covered by solicitors.

Op how does being there make you feel?

having viewed it, change clothes, put on skimpy undies, stupidly tight trousers, bra and makeup (as you can't possibly view a house without it) and walk with immense strain on the foot, you will notice that the garage appears considerably bigger than before and that the kitchen, toilets and bedrooms, which seemed fine before are in desperate need of a full and expensive makeover …….

RichPenny, cynic-al: Yep, that's our first criteria. Rural enough for me, close enough to shops for missus, enjoyable enough for the kids and 'home' enough for all of us. After managing all that electricity and running water might be a bonus 🙂

Have you checked what they paid for the house when they bought it, or what the surrounding houses might have cost? You can check them all online, which helps at least check what they paid, then work out the market fluctuations since then to check the price you might be happy to offer is right.

Also (having been burned, sometimes badly, sometimes slightly):

Electrics – check out all the fuse boxes/PCBs
Plumbing/Central Heating – current? serviced? in the last year?
Neighbours – how well do they know them? do they actually know their names?
Check for cracks, blown plaster, damp – especially behind things, as that is where it can be hidden

Best of luck

by different planning dept's across the uk, so don't just rely on the seller saying "it's been here for ages and nobodys complained….." response.

but if it has been there ages there won't be a problem – isn't it 4 years or something????

Loads of good info here…

Why are they moving?
If they were staying, what would they improve/do next?
What's the guide price the estate agent solicitor told them to hang out for?
What's the biggest downside living there?
What are the bills like, heat, power, council tax….
Receipts for boiler service etc etc..

And don't be afraid to walk away but good luck.

Just spotted gusamc's advice. Must admit I'm finding the brassiere a tad uncomfortable and my missus is giving me unusual looks; I also already have a craving for new shoes. Most unusual!

A couple more we'd not thought of too. Excellent. Hopefully we won't come across as quite as naive as we actually are 🙂

Thanks everyone.

Well that went pretty badly. First place we looked at and we really liked it. D'oh!
And the roofing tiles are asbestos tiles. Double bastard d'oh!

As above but some specifics:

Type of consumer unit will indicate how long ago it was re wired, so evidence or not of certification will help.

Same goes for gas works, boilers and fires also.

Cracks in walls, moss around drainpipes, roof tiles and condition, get into the loft and look for joist issues and evidence of insulation.

Could go on for ever I guess

And the roofing tiles are asbestos tiles. Double bastard d'oh!

is that really such a problem ? my last garage roof contained asbestos, my current garage roof contains asbestos…it's pretty common…we are not talking industrial grade stuff (I'm still not going to start licking it)….if I was really bothered I'd make an adjustment in my offer explaining that you would want to re-roof it.

is that really such a problem ?

The words, "asbestos above my children's heads," does have a bit of a worrying ring to it 😉 BUt yeah, i'm going to try and chat with them about it, the price, etc