A home buyers guide Part 2
A guide to property buying…
Part Two
Home buying tips - Our Principal Matthew Harris continues with his top tips on how to assess a property you’re looking to buy.
Looking at purchasing a property? Here is part 2 of Matt’s top home buying tips to avoid some common pitfalls when buying a home. See Part 1 here.
Our team has a wide range of knowledge and experience around mortgages, the housing market, buying & selling, home ownership, home renovations and Buy-To-Let portfolios. With 3Sixty you won’t just get good fair mortgage advice, you’ll also benefit from our experience and our highly rated customer service. We do not charge for our mortgage appointments, and a fee is only payable upon submission of an application for a purchase. We do not charge for remortgages.
This part of the guide takes a walk through the inside of the property, helps you identify some tell tale signs of potential issues and what things to be looking for as well as which questions you should ask.
6. Look for signs of damp inside
Damp within a property can come in many forms. Condensation can form on windows if ventilation is not great or if the current occupant does a lot of cooking and drying of clothes. If not properly ventilated mould can form on walls, wall paper and window sills. Penetrative damp can occur at any height if there are faults with the roof, guttering or brickwork, most often these can be resolved by identifying and remedying the cause. Damp or mould on lower sections of walls and skirting boards may indicate rising damp and/or a DPC failure. Always consult an expert before discounting a property or pressing ahead when you have concerns over damp. See Video at 04:28 for more details
7. Assess plasterwork and wall coverings
It can be hard to tell the condition of plaster if there are wall coverings such as wall paper but there are things that may give you an indication. If the age or style of the wallpaper suggests it may have been there sometime, or if different parts of the walls or ceiling are showing movement or cracking it may be a sign that the condition of the plaster is sub-optimal. Simply asking the vendor or the estate agent if they know when the walls were last plastered will also help. If it’s been done recently they will be able to tell you, if it hasn’t been done for sometime then that likely won’t be the case. Knowing the extent of plasterwork required will help you budget or refine your offer. See Video at 05:14 for more details
8. Check and test the Central heating system
A spring/summer viewing will likely mean that the house is warm and the central heating system (Boiler, radiators & hot water) is therefore not on. It’s worthwhile to ask to see the central heating system fired up, to check that radiators get warm and also check to see that hot water runs from the taps. Asking when the boiler was installed and last serviced is also an indication of the age and condition of the boiler. Whilst replacing a boiler or changing radiators is not a massively disruptive process it can be expensive. Check that all rooms have radiators, if additional radiators and pipework are needed, this can be much more costly and disruptive, as a plumber will have to lift floor coverings and open up floorboards. See Video at 05:50 for more details
9. Assess the age and supply of Electrics
The electricity in a home is controlled via a fuse board more commonly known these days as an RCD Consumer Unit, this is where the mains power supply enters the property. Older versions of these will have visible fuses that can be removed. Modern versions will have a number of trip switches that will trip when there’s a problem with the system. As a general rule, the more of these trip switches there are, the more modern the unit is. The unit will likely have a sticker saying when the system was installed and/or when it was last serviced. It’s also a good idea to ask the vendor or estate agent these questions too. Most changes to an electrical system will require the consumer unit to be updated to the latest standards, so this too will give you an indication of when the wiring or at least a portion of it was updated, this does not mean however that the wiring throughout the entire property has been upgraded. An indication of where the wiring is relatively new, will be the number and position of sockets. See Video at 06:28 for more details
10. Joists and floorboards
If you hear any creaking in the floorboards this ‘may’ just mean that they need securing by screwing down. Any ‘bounce’ or ‘springiness’ in the floorboards on either the ground floor or upper floors ‘may’ indicate that there is a weakness or failure of the floor joists and this ‘can’ be a disruptive and costly process to replace. See Video at 07:50 for more details
11. Alterations
If you believe there have been any significant cosmetic or structural alterations to the property such as the installation of a log burner, a removed wall, a loft conversion or an extension, then you’ll want to ask if the correct building regulations have been applied for and certifications received. These things will usually show up on a survey. See Video at 08:32 for more details
*This article is not meant to replace a survey and we do recommend instructing a surveyor to inspect the property before completing the purchase.
12. Gardens and landscaping
In many cases the garden may not be too much of a consideration, however, if there are things you’d like to change or if the garden is particular overgrown, it’s worth understanding that landscaping costs can vary greatly depending on what it is you want to achieve. Trees growing too close to the property or the presence of Japanese knotweed should be a concern and will most likely be something that will appear on an instructed survey. See Video at 09:26 for more details
View Part 1 of this Blog or view Matt’s video by clicking here