Seeing a doer-upper house on Tuesday we're likely to make an offer on. What to look out for/what questions to ask?

[Alohomora]

We' seen a brilliant house, a relative new build (less than 5 years old) - it is an end of terrace with 4 beds and a garage and costs less than half our budget, so plenty of money left to do it up the way we want it. The pervious owner has taken out the floors in at least the kitchen and living room, removed the kitchen and also the main bathroom. There are no plug sockets installed, just the wires. It does have oil heating and an excellent energy rating.

We are viewing on Tuesday and if we like it might put in an offer there and then. We are mad keen, it has oodles of space for us, but we've never done this before, so: that questions should we ask? We are definitely going to get a survey done if this goes ahead, but is there anything else to look out for given the condition the house is in?

We're chain-free first time cash buyers, so don't have to worry about what the bank thinks, btw.

Don't know too much about it, however new build houses usually have a 10 year guarantee like this one

It is usually a great fat file of guarantees, so i would definitely want to be seeing that although not quite sure what you would do with it

Make an offer. Get builders electricians plumbers round for quotes. Readjust asking price accordingly.

Why has the owner done this? Is it a repo and they haveremoved all personal effects to make life ddifficult for the bank? If not, I'd wonder what had happened. Google estate/development to see if there are any problems.

I am thinking it might be a repo - the estate seems ok, the developer is currently working on two other estates nearby that are both very successful.

I've priced floors/fittings and had a look on mybuilder.com, we have about £25 000 for improvements. It's on at half of its rateable value.

We're currently living in a rented house that has damp problems so this is what we are most paranoid about, so of course we are getting a survey done for ourself. We have a solicitor and a good surveyor lined up as a colleague has recently helped her son buy a house (about to exchange contracts) and had good experiences with them.

If it is uninhabitable - no loo and no kitchen sink - you may struggle to get a mortgage.

OP is a cash buyer.
I would say go for it, but get a thorough survey done

I did similar and it worked out well but I was a bit bitten by the boiler. I assumed it would be ok as it was fairly new. Should have had it tested as it didn't work and had to be replaced at a cost of £4k by the time all the new flue work had been done. It is a fancy pants hot water system but still a big cost I hadn't accounted for.

You sound like me re the boiler so my advice would be to look into that in a bit more depth.

Thank you so much for your advise, we're viewing it tomorrow so we're getting a bit nervous now as we really hope this works out for us. I have a very anal checklist.

I've heard that the Homebuyers Survey isn't worth the paper it is written on, would that be true for a relatively recent built, too? I'm not that worried about structural issues.

Thanks again, I really appreciate it!