Tips for viewing a house

[FoxandDuck]

Our dream house has just come on the market and we are in the process of arranging a viewing next week. If we buy it, it will be our forever home which should work for the teen DC’s remaining school years, give sufficient space & flexibility for them to live with us in their 20s if they needed to and be somewhere we could live into our dotage. The combination of the purchase price and stamp duty means we’ll be stretching ourselves but in a way we can afford but what we can’t afford are any surprises. Or getting
it wrong and wanting to move again in a few years time.
Back when I rented my first house after leaving Uni, I failed to notice it didn’t have central heating. That was a chilly winter! Then there was the house opposite a pedestrian crossing and the bleep, bleep, bleep every time someone crossed the road. My first property was a good purchase but that was more by luck than any skill on our part. And then where we live now is fine but there are aspects of it that we didn’t pick up on (for example that the trees in a neighbouring garden would do something so surprising as growing or that another neighbour might chop down their hedge). We just walked in and, having been looking for six months, liked the location & space and so went for it. I’d say it was a head over heart decision as it’s a ugly house in a good location but, unlike various friends I’ve spoken to in the intervening years or various threads I’ve read on here, we didn’t have a list of long negotiables.
So, what should I have on that list? And what should I look out for?

Little things that I wished I’d checked on this house include the water pressure and the mobile phone signal.

I think aspect of house and garden if it’s not in the middle of a spacious plot. Upkeep of neighborhood. Possible alteration potential. Could you alter rooms for alternative use? What rooms are light and does anywhere seem pokey and dark? Storage. It’s needed. Non negotiable - more than one bathroom. Downstairs cloakroom is a must and somewhere for a very decent kitchen and good access to garden via kitchen and possibly lounge. Usable big garage.

Just doing some viewings - we have asked chatgpt/ Claude for questions giving it the house spec. V helpful!

Is it near a flood plain.

How strong is the wifi.

What are the neighbours like.

Take a tape measure and measure the parts of the walls that are broken by doors. The plans don’t give you those and you will be using those walls to place furniture against too.
Make sure you have enough workable worktop space in the kitchen
Check which way the garden faces and where the sun will be.
Have a good look from the upstairs rooms into your neighbours gardens to see how well kept they are - an indication on whether they’ll be taking care of their homes.
Open kitchen cupboards to check how deep they are.

Speed limit of the nearby roads and whether the main road near the house is near a junction

Once lived in a "quiet" rural house that was near a bad bend in the road. Bloodied shell-shocked callers to the door in the middle of the night happened more than once due to that bend, and when it happened it felt like living in a horror movie

Also loved near a crossroads in a town and heard a fatal crash from my bedroom. I can still replay it in my mind now.

I won't ever live on a corner, junction or bend on a 60 road ever again if I can help it

Don’t they say that the first visit is with your heart, the second with your head. So the first, see whether you like the house, its location, layout, potential etc. on the second, you look around more forensically - see if there’s any damp, parking, storage, what needs replacing, decorating etc. Then visit the house at different times of the day to see how busy the road is, parking issues, noisy neighbours etc.

Def check water pressure on all taps, ny ensuite is practically redundant because the water pressure on shower is crap. Only used for midnight wees, cleaning teeth and occasional bath.

Check WiFi speed online, just assume you are doing a new deal.

Detached or terraced? Is there right of access over the property is a semi on end of terrace?

Who owns the boundaries and what state are they in, trees?? There's an app that can show you where the sun will lie.

Is the kitchen stable as in all reasonably new or have they just put new doors on? Cour difference inside should be able to tell you.

Regarding water pressure - fit a pump or get water tank in the right place!

If it’s rural, check the drainage situation: is it on main drains, or does it have a septic tank? And if it’s the latter, has it recently been serviced/will you need to replace?

i also wish we’d checked the shower in the en suite - the drop is far too shallow, and it floods constantly. Not a dealbreaker, but it’s an expensive fix we’ve been putting off grumpily for 8 years. If the owners seem to be showering in the least convenient bathroom (as our vendor was) ask yourself why!

You can look at most things by examining a listing quite thoroughly especially to check for any deal breakers. You can also look at when it was last sold and the price. Look at nearby sold prices.

We moved last year and our FTB viewed 4 times! Looked in cupboards and wardrobes asked loads of questions ( including after they’d moved in)
We were downsizing and many properties we viewed needed lots of work inside and out. We asked questions about the heating, boiler, wiring, possibility of asbestos etc.

The one we bought we fell in love with, excellent plot. It was move in condition but dated so we renovated. We failed to notice no heat source in the kitchen, no extractor fan in the bathroom or that the floor was lifting in there. All showed up on the survey though.

If you don’t really know the area it’s worth a drive past or in the neighbourhood at different times of day, evenings and weekends.

Second viewing is when you do all your measuring etc.

If there is any kind of side access/path, ask about ownership / rights of way.

If they’ve hidden their bins for viewings, where do these normally go?

Have a good look out of the upstairs windows - what do the neighbours’ places look like and are there any nearby trampolines?

Noise? What can you hear if you stand in the garden? What can you hear in the bedroom with the window shut?

When were the basic essentials installed/replaced? Boiler, double glazing etc.

Do a few drive bys at different times to see what’s going on.

My friend viewed her house in the summer . When they moved in they discovered they had no hot water as the boiler was knackered . Check out the boiler , turn on the taps , go outside and look at the guttering and roof tiles to make sure none have slipped & look at the ridge tiles , look at the wiring if the house is older .

Age of boiler

Storage

Consider how you would live in the house and stuff that would drive you nuts and is expensive to change.

my last house didn’t have room for a large enough table in the kitchen/dining area. I made sure this house was big enough to host eight for Christmas dinner (that’s important to me).

storage - when viewing I always looked at storage - where coats would be hung when you come home, shoes, place for Hoover and ironing board and mop (not utility room in last house - this one has a large utility room).

check for planning permission - look on the Nextdoor app - what are people complaining about. I found out after I moved to this house that there is early morning noise from a nearby business. Whole street has been complaining for years. Isn’t a big enough issue that would have stopped me buying - but would have liked to have known.

neighbor has huge evergreen trees that kill all evening sun for about six houses in the street. I didn’t view at the right time of year to spot this was a problem. Again - would still have bought but is very disappointing when summer rolled around

And yes to a discreet drive by later. A house on our lane is up for sale, and the vendor has bribed the neighbour with the hysterical, reactive nightmare dogs to keep them in during viewings…

I agree on check the boiler, ask for service history and also any service history of wood burning stoves. Check the age of the electrics, does the house have an up to date consumer unit. Look carefully at kitchen units, we once bought a house with new drawer fronts, but knackered carcasses.

Check neighbours back garden for goal posts, basketball nets. Check condition of neighbours external property.

Ask to look in the loft. Our seller had lived in her home for 45 years and never added a speck of insulation…. That cost us £4k off the bat because the energy bills were £190 a month and the house still ice cold.

Check both taps if there are separate hot and cold. I checked the cold tap and it had great pressure, only to find out when I moved in that the hot one didn't work! Obviously wouldn't have put me off buying, but I could have booked a plumber to come straight away. Check next door houses, particularly if attached. If they aren't maintaining things, or are encouraging "wildlife" it could be expensive for you.

Check the development plan on the council website - see if there are any site allocations nearby, and if there are any waste management sites or if the area is in flood risk. Also check for any planning applications or granted planning consent for neighbouring properties on all sides.

I wish we had noticed the lack of plug points - older house with only one double socket in each room.

When and how often are the bin collections and do you have space for the accumulated rubbish and recycling waste

Lots of great suggestions, and I'm making notes, as we are about to put our house on the market.

Aspect is very important. Ideally south-facing, but as a minimum somewhere for afternoon/evening sun...check for shady trees. And I'd hope the survey and local searches would pick up anything actually wrong with the house.

I would add a few smaller ones:

Somewhere to dry/hang laundry. Space in utility room for a rack, airing cupboard etc. I have a hatred of wet clothing strewn around the house.

Somewhere for coats and shoes when you come into the house. Pet peeve of current house is small, narrow hallway with nowhere to put stuff.

Working fireplace? Or somewhere to put a wood burner....

We’d be quite lucky with this place as we currently drive past it at least twice a week and, as it is only a couple of miles from where we live, I’m relatively aware of the various risks in the area in terms of flooding, developments & all of those sorts of things. We also know where traffic build ups are an issue, at what time of day etc.
I think storage is such an important one. This one has had a loft conversion which obviously reduces the amount of storage as well as potentially causing heat issues in those rooms. As well as things like the hoover and washing, I had sports equipment as something to think about. It is something I have never cracked in this house. Each season I hope DS will stop playing cricket simply because his bag is so big!