things to look out for when viewing a house

[comeondover]

Check if your phone has reception there. Turn on the taps to see what the water pressure's like. How overlooked is the garden? What else?

Have you got a list of compromises ?
What will you absolutely not budge on ?
When I bought my house ,most of us parked on street now only a couple of houses don't have OSP . There are more cars than houses and parking is a mare

Check out the neighbour’s gardens. If they look like a tip it gives you a good idea of who they are, tramps

Which way does the garden face?

If it’s got a log burner make sure it actually works and isn’t just a pretty ornament 😂

put the street name into google and see if any neighbours have been convicted in court lately or if there are any business in the street 😂

phone signal / internet

Check Both upstairs and downstairs water pressure and flushes

check the boiler

check the garden fences are secure

check the main fuse box

check you will be able to get your furniture in especially if it’s got an outside porch as often the porch door is bigger than the inside door

check the downstairs toilet have an extractor fan

make sure all the rooms have radiators in them if it’s got GCH

blown widows

Storage : how much is built in?
Also if near any amenities if any kind does that affect you
Eg school pick up, church parking, ice cream van route whatever

Check out catchment areas for schools and the schools themselves.
Try and check out the neighbours.Why are the sellers moving?
Check out local public transport.
Visit at different times of day.

Think about layout not the size of rooms.

How much of the room is useable.

We viewed a lot of houses where you effectively walk through the lounge to get to another room. This makes it a glorified corridor.

A house that is slightly smaller, but has distinct rooms which doesn't have this problem can be much more useable and actually feel bigger.

This is the downside to open plan (and I like open plan and have it - it has to be done well though)

Is it close to a church with no parking?

Why phone signal? That wouldn't bother me as no one in our village has good signal. We have amazing fttp though so it's never mattered.

I'd be checking for decent size rooms (no box bedrooms), storage spaces like a utility cupboard or larder cupboard. I'd visit the areas at different times of day to see what it's like noise and parking wise.

I'd want the garden big enough that I didn't hear every conversation the neighbours were having. Mainly though I'd just get the highest level of structural survey done, most things are easy fixes but you don't want big expensive structural issues.

I turn the WiFi off at night, so if there's some reception that means I can still make emergency calls if needed piss about on my phone in bed

What is fttp?

Fibre to the premises. It just means you have really good, reliable WiFi. I don't need signal for emergency calls though. 999 etc works on mine even without a signal.

Of course the first thing I look at is "Where will the Christmas Tree go?"

Depends on what you consider a “tip” - a lot of people working full time with other responsibilities such as children or caring aren’t going to have time, inclination or even money to perfect their garden.

I’d be looking more at things like gutters, windows, the roof and walls/fences if they’re kept up but the garden is a mess I’d not judge the owners.

Take a compass and work out where the sun goes round. See which rooms will have sun and work out at what times of day. And see if the garden will be in sun at all or constantly in shadow from the house or the neighbouring houses.

You don't want to find yourself living in a black hole.

Exactly this because I’m currently living in one because I didn’t check those things.

I’ve been told there’s a code on a gas boiler which tells you its age, you can check the code online. I was lied to about how old the boiler was in my house.
Use a compass on your phone to check how the sun travels around the windows and garden.

I would ask if they had ever been burgled and how many times.I’d look at easy ways to get in and out of the property too.

Drive round a few evenings at different times over at least a fortnight if possible particularly a Friday and Saturday night. If street parking check it out a few times around the time that you'd be coming home usually and if any music is blaring out. Check the proximity to pubs etc too as there'll be loud noise from them at closing times. Churches nearby etc have church bells going too, particularly Sunday mornings and they were all there first so there's no good moaning about it if it will upset you.

Google the neighbourhood, I think ADT has a postcode checker where you can see what the crime is like in the area.

Look at the schools if you'd be using them and work out the catchment areas and if they'd be any good.

Check public transport routes around it and shops and takeaways (including the hygiene ratings) put the postcode in just eat etc and see what serves that area.

Check you can see the stopcock and that it works and the fuse box to make sure there's no dangers (the house my parents bought when we were kids had a home added socket that had a long wire and just laid on the ground.

Ditto chimney breast knocked out. It was in the bedroom above but not the kitchen below and there was nothing in place to support it so it just came through one night 🤦🏻‍♀️el

Edit: and that Windows open too (obv not the one nearest boiler if built to old standards) as the last thing you need is to find no ventilation in a bathroom

Check if it's in a conservation area, this can dictate things like changing windows and doors. Tall trees within a certain distance of the house and flat roof can increase the cost of insurance. Proximity to churches can mean odd rules affecting ground rents and other obscure stuff you won't find out about until you get info later on in the buying process. Obviously, flooding risks.

Check if the windows have locks and if so, do they keys for each one and are they the right ones. Sounds a small thing but if I made an offer and it was accepted, I'd do a second viewing to ensure all doors and windows closed properly. The last thing you want is to open a window hanging off its hinged and then you end up replacing it.

Same with kitchen cupboards.

How many sets of keys do they have for front and back doors, patio etc. Also if there are any internal doors with locks. We have a door that has an unusual top lock and no key.

I knew about the running the taps bit, the seller looked really worried when I asked then did it

what I didn’t know I was supposed to check there was actually hot water. Bit of a shock when I moved in with a broken boiler and leaking radiators as the pipes they’d used weren’t the correct thickness

Lots of things can be fixed by cash with a house however these things I have lived next to have been bad -

a church - 24 years old hung over listening to church bells not fun
no direct car parking space - then omg - spaces on the street road are crazy and you know you should never live to the grumpy one who leaves cones outside his house
fire station - omg so many horns
school - main due to getting out of your house / kids with balls / holiday clubs / people blocking your drive.
living at the bottom of a hill - rainwater all floods down and snow / ice my car has spun out of control which was scary
living next door to dogs neighbours - pain especially when they are outside dogs and bark lots
living next to a cut through - everyone noise and drunk ness even walking home
backing onto a nursing home - so much noise and weird shouting out which is a shame in a residential area (feel sorry for the residents especially the man who always shouts “help” I’ve contacted the home separately to check he is ok.

Check if your road is a cut through - many use residential roads/ areas to jump main queues on the road. As long as you know the area where 50% of people will be driving down …..

Also, backing on the a train track. The estate agent says 1 - 2 trains a day. Omg lucky when we viewed a train came past - that house was a straight no due to the noise 🤣

So check out location and services around the house 👍

A garden with any combination of...

ramshackle tumble-down sheds
a greenhouse with broken windows
brambles like they're hiding Sleeping Beauty's castle
a million nettles
Japanese knotweed
twelve foot-tall bamboo
old trampolines
rusting barbecues
general clutter
a monster leylandii hedge

...would be enough to make me dubious about their lack of gardening enthusiasm.

All of those things are fixable.