First House Viewing, any tips?

[TheTruthAboutLove]

So, at the grand age of 35, I’m finally in a position to start looking to buy my first home.

It’ll just be me and hopefully a new puppy once I’m settled, but I’ve got my first viewing tomorrow. Does anyone have any tips of things I should ask when I’m viewing the house?

It’s in the village I grew up in, so I know the area very well, I sort of know the owner as she’s a relative of my sisters best friend. So any advice would be appreciated as I feel strangely nervous!

I always test the taps, flush the loo and try the showers. Nothing worse than moving in and finding you have bad plumbing.

How long has it been on the market for
Compare it to others in a 1 mile radius to get an idea of if it’s a good deal.
I’d be wary of anything that smelt very strongly of airfreshereners I’d think they were trying to hide the smell of damp.

If its cluttered, looking at the ceiling is a good guide to how big the floorspace will be once its empty.

Be polite about it, whatever you think but don't go over the top. I agree with checking the loos and water pressure. What's the parking like? How old is the boiler? What type of heating is there, what are the neighbours like and why are they moving ?

I agree run the taps. Especially the hot tap to see how long it takes for hot to come through (wish I`d done that!). flush the toilet...

look on windows for black mould (from condensation issues).

ask when the boiler was installed? when was it last serviced? same for a gas fire.

Don't look round any properties you can't afford, in case you fall in love with them and put yourself off everything in your price range

Try to look past the furnishings/decor that the current owners have, and be mindful of what you can change about a property once you own it.

Look out of an upstairs window into neighbours gardens for any signs they are annoying/antisocial (I looked at one house where next door had a massive dog cage in the back garden)

Look at what's on the walls. Our first house had heavy textured wall paper everywhere (including the bathroom under a layer of gloss paint!). When we finally stripped it all off, we found that the walls were completely covered in cracks and holes and the textured paper was up to disguise it.

Thank you everyone for your advice.

I didn’t realise it was true until this morning, but you really do get a feeling when you walk into the house as to if it’s suitable or not. Unfortunately this one wasn’t.

I took all of your advise, asked plenty of questions. Boiler situation was fine, the home hasn’t been lived in for two and a half years and as much as it would require a lot of work in terms of gutting it and refurbishing, it wasn’t for me.

The parking was a huge issue as there is parking at the bottom of the street and I wouldn’t be able to see my car so that rules it out. And also the proximity to neighbours is way too close, I wanted a small garden too for the puppy and would need to rip up paving stones for it.

However, it’s just the first house! There’s plenty more out there but it’s made me realise what I want a lot more. I never knew house buying would be so hard!

Yep, the more you see, the more you can narrow down exactly what you want and weed out the ones that don't match that. Good luck in your search! 😊