Signs not to ignore when buying a house!

[Leleophants]

I've so far heard:

• When you don't like the bathroom
• You don't get the connection when you visit
• You're buying as want to buy anywhere

Anyone else got hints or tips to decide? Any regrets and signs?

"you don't get the connection" is this in the wifi sense or the Love Island sense?

As in you don't feel like you love the house when you go in.

Be wary of any house if there are scented candles burning or use of air freshener gadgets. They might be trying to cover up musty/mouldy smells/potential damp problems.

Where there are any signs of an enthusiastic but unskilled DIYer. I speak from experience that undoing someone's bodge jobs is far more time consuming and costly than starting from scratch

Turn on all the lights at once, see what happens. Flush the toilet and run the tap or shower and see the effect on the water pressure. If the lights dim or flicker with the former or the pressure drops significantly, either run or get a more thorough survey.

And yy to what Aquamarine says. Ditto look in all the cupboards and wardrobes, make sure they're not hiding something (like a huge hole in the wall, damp/rot, doors that cover a wall to make a place look like it has more storage (same thing with drawer fronts)).

Fuck the 'connection' bollocks, stick to signs not to ignore that could cost you big £££.

I'd agree with not rushing into anything without checking everything properly.

Check all the drains! Run water. If they're blocked, try to find out why.

In period properties, all fresh painting can sometimes mean trying to cover up damp. Or, check all the windows, too, do they open?

Never buy off a builder. Can almost guarantee any builder will have done electrics, plumbing, or something else they don't actually know how to do properly. We bought off a carpenter who'd well and truly trashed the electrics and tiled really badly.

Look for planning notices, what building work is about to happen locally.

Bathrooms and kitchens can be replaced, no idea why the bathroom should be a dealbreaker.

Next door looks a mess. Problem neighbours very likely.

If it's a semi or terrace, look at when the adjoined neighbours moved in! If it's recent, it's a possibility that they are loud inconsiderate arseholes and you'll be moving again within 18 months....

Terraced even!

Yep. Fresh paint. Heating on when it's not that cold. Look out for houses which have been tarted up by a 'property developer' to sell. They're really good at hiding damp and all sorts of things.

I was sort of aware of this stuff, but got stung badly. In the end we have a lovely house which suits our circumstances, but our naivety cost an amount I'm embarrassed to admit to.

We are older, and I had an inheritance. If we were just starting out and strapped for cash it would have been disastrous.

Lesson: get a good survey and if something is flagged as a potential problem don't get a further report from someone who wants to do the work. Find another surveyor who is expert in the area.

Ok. I'll get over the embarrassment. Damp. Got another report which said it would cost £5k to fix,so went ahead. Got a second opinion from someone local who is respected who said it would cost £20k to fix. It was at that point that I found a surveyor who knows about old buildings. It ended up costing £100k to fix.

Listen carefully. Barking dogs, screaming children and revving engines, punchbag next door...

yes to:
flushing toilets
switching on showers
looking into built in furniture
smelling of air fresheners
measuring small rooms (have seen 'bedrooms' that are too small for standard single bed)

I would also visit the neighbourhood at different times of day to see what goes on, the parking situation, kids running wild, etc.

Yes, drive by at varying times of the day and evening/night and weekends to evaluate noise better.

a vendor getting defensive when asking reasonable questions

YY, orange, I mean, isn't their goal to sell the place and move?

I didn't feel that instant connection with my house, I had viewed other houses and knew I didn't want them but didn't fall in love with my current house straight away. It was when another couple put an offer in that I realised I had to have it.

Don't just drive by, walk round the area at different times of day and listen out for neighbours' dogs constantly barking. Keep a look out for any constraints or shortage of space that might possibly cause a parking issue. Also eye up the local trees and high hedges close to the house. Another bone of contention.

And my biggest no-no is: Don't buy a new house on a flood plain.

Look at the half-dozen houses to the left & right. If more than one of them has signs of portions of the external wall, garden wall etc having been rebuilt in the past = accident blackspot. It could be used as a rat run for joyriders, a particularly bad corner, or something else. The house I grew up in had been partially rebuilt in the 70s, after a car ended up in the living room. Next door had their front garden wall destroyed one evening, & a house a couple of doors up had similar a few years later. People continually underestimated the curve of the road. I don't know if it's possible to find out this sort of info from public records.

I felt the connection but that's just emotional. Now I live here, I wish I had thought about other things. Like location.

yeah, don't only go by feelings.
put on your rational head as well.

Check the commute to work. Eg How long will it take you to walk to the train station? (Not just how far is it as the crow flies)

Even if you dont have dcs yet/only have babies, check the school options, primary and secondary. Even if you dont think you'll be in the house that long.

Try to see past their furniture, think about the house with your stuff in it.