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Choosing a house is one of the biggest decisions that you’re ever going to make. After spending years saving up, you’ve finally got your deposit together and you’re ready to start looking. When the estate agent is showing you around properties, they’re naturally going to tell them that they’re wonderful regardless of the state of the house. So, you can’t always trust their judgment and you’ll have to look for any danger areas on your own. The problem is, you can’t spot potential issues if you don’t have a clue what you’re looking for. When you’re going to view a new place, this is what you should be looking for.
Bad Drainage
If a house and the surrounding area has drainage issues it can cause you a lot of problems. Firstly, it’ll play havoc in the garden if it rains heavily but that’s the least of your worries. Poor drainage can cause serious structural damage to the house. Even if it’s a dry day you’ll be able to see the evidence of bad drainage and structural damage by looking for cracks in the walls. If you do notice any cracks in the walls that spells trouble and you should steer well clear.
Peeling Paint
Peeling paint on the outside or the inside walls is another warning sign. In the best case scenario, it just means that the place hasn’t been decorated in years. However, more often than not it’s a sign that there is a damp problem in the house. If you buy a place that has a serious damp issue, it can be bad for your health and very expensive to fix. In some cases, the problem will just keep coming back and you’ll end up sinking loads of money into the house.
Check The Bills
It isn’t something that people often think about when they go on an initial house viewing but it’s perfectly reasonable for you to ask to see some of the seller recent utility bills to get an idea of whether the bills are above average or not. If they’ve got a huge energy bill then you should probably steer clear. Remember though, it might just be that they use a lot more electricity than you would so make sure to take note of how many appliances they’ve got around the house. If they’ve got 5 people living in the house with a laptop each and TV’s in their room, that’s probably the reason for the high energy bill rather than the house being inefficient.
Hot Water
It’s a good idea to check the plumbing while you’re looking around a house and one of the easiest ways to do it is to run the hot water tap and see how long it takes to come through. If you’re standing there for ages waiting for it to heat up, just remember that you’ll have to do that every morning when you shower. It’s also a possible sign that the boiler is outdated or broken.
These small details are easily overlooked but they can be the difference between the perfect house and a terrible one so always be on the lookout for them.
Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash
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