How many times did you view your house and what did you check?

[HeartOrHeadDecision]

Just that really. It feels awkward to check all the little things or not so little like windows/cupboards during the first viewing. At the second you might already get a slightly better idea of what the place really looks like.
Did you take any measurements? Or requested a viewing at some particular time? Any tips?

I try to keep it to a minimun as it takes so long for the vendor to get the house ready for each viewing. Nothing worse than first time buyers who want to visit with each member of their family separately so they can all flush a toilet.

Usually twice, once before offer and once after it has been accepted. Second visit I measure very thoroughly myself, a lot of agents ‘ plans are surprisingly inaccurate and difficult to scale up. I measure things like doors and stairs so that moving in is as easy as possible. I note what cupboard fixtures are in the kitchen, drawers or cupboards, bin space etc.. window width and drop to calculate curtaining, note if poles etc are in place and if they are robust. Most vendors don’t seem to mind, I think it shows we are serious ( we are nearly always cash buyers too so no chain, don’t haggle much either).

We also have a pre completion inspection to make sure there have been no changes ( once found vendor busily removing the door handles) . If the vendors kick up about this, I just threaten a retention of £k until we have keys and have inspected, it’s perfectly legal. The agent has sometimes done this inspection if it was inconvenient for us. Pre completion inspection is standard in France where we have bought and sold houses.

We viewed twice. Ours was an ex rental that hadn't been cared for at all so we were expecting lots of issues so we weren't too bothered

Once.

Yes, some minor issues will almost certainly exist when you move in (broken drawers for example) but they’re not going to be deal breakers. If the house is good in the right location, those details don’t need to be known about before purchase IMO.

Oh some funny comments here 😅
Thank you for sharing! Very helpful. We have viewed twice so just checking what else we might potentially check if and when we visit it again.

We moved earlier this year after putting an offer in last summer. We had a 30 min viewing and put offer in same day. There were several offers on the table so we had to move fast . We’d viewed another property on the same street - slightly different layout but essentially same house a couple of months before so we’re fairly certain it ticked all the boxes.
this was our one and only viewing and same for the FTB who bought our previous house.

I do wish we had gone back before exchange just to measure up etc but the vendors hadn’t been the easiest to deal with. I also wish we’d checked the boiler and insisted on a service before we moved - we asked for it to be done but somehow this got missed before exchange - we’d seen the boiler and knew we wanted to upgrade it but ended up having to do it sooner than initially planned

I do feel I like my heart rule when I bought this house but fortunately I still love it just as much as when I first saw it so all
worked out well