What do you look at when inspecting a house?

[Citydude]

I remodel and repair homes for a living. I've also bought and flipped a dozen houses and built and sold another dozen spec homes. When looking to buy a house, the most important thing for me is to know what the comps are in the area. Is the asking price a deal or will it be a money pit? How long has it been on the market? Are they still living there or have they already moved out?

Then it starts with the neighborhood. Do I like the drive to get there? What do the houses look like in the neighborhood? Are they kept up? Trashy?

I carry a notepad and a flashlight. I do this for homes I'm looking at for myself, but also with clients looking at their houses.

Curb appeal is huge. It doesn't have to have it for me to buy it, but it has to have the potential to have it. Some houses are just too ugly to mess with, others just need a few changes to look nice.

Before walking into a house, I'm looking at the roof to make sure it's flat. Does it have valleys full of leaves? Flashing where it's supposed to? Condition of the shingles and rot on the fascia. Trees over the roof? Then I look around the windows and foundation for cracks in the brick. If its covered in vinyl, I'm suspicious of what they are hiding. Is it freshly painted and if so, what are they hiding?

Once inside, I take a deep breath and hope it smells good. Lots of homes stink. Pets, smoking and dust are pretty common. Mold, mildew and funk are huge warning signs that I come across that home owners somehow don't seem to notice.

Walk every room, make sure the floors are flat and level, look for cracks in the walls, or repair jobs to hide the cracks. Look at the bottoms of the window sills for staining and leaks. Do the doors open and close properly and are they aligned with the trim?

Look under the sinks for leaks and armature plumbing repairs. Look all around the toilet for leaks. Funny how many toilets are not even bolted down and there is "stuff" behind them.

What does the electrical panel look like? Any modifications?

Poke your head into the attic and shine a flashlight all around. Look cracks in any of the lumber up there. Look for support beams that have been cut to get plumbing or AC ducts to fit. Look for staining on the decking. Make sure there is decking and note it's condition. I hate plywood decking because it tears apart so quickly from being nailed, but in older homes its usually a variety of 1x wood that has gaps. Sometimes those gaps are huge!!! Smell for animal droppings, look for vents and make sure the soffit vents are open. Is the HVAC unit up there? Has it been maintained? Is there water in the pan? How much insulation is up there? The new standard is 24 inches, but most attics will be lucky to have enough to cover the 2x6 joists.

If all is well, then I start to run the numbers on what it will take to remodel and update the house. Does it need remodeling or is it just like how you want it? Can you live with it for awhile? Some things like new flooring and paint can be negotiated into the contract when buying it. Find everything you can wrong with the house and write it all down with a value on what it will cost to fix or change it. A lot of the time they will take that amount of the asking price.

Most importantly, do not fall in love with it and go into it not expecting to buy it. I look for reasons not to buy a property. There will always be another out there, and in every case that I've come across a person who hates their house, it's because they bought too quickly. The longer you take to find the right house, the more you can save up for your down payment, or to have available for improvements.

If you find the house you want, take the advice that just about everyone has given and hire a professional home inspector. While most are pretty good, be careful of the one the realtor recommends or uses all the time. Every now and then one of them turns out to be a rubber stamp and does what it takes to get the house sold so they can continue to get jobs from that realtor instead of looking out for you.

NEVER TRUST YOUR REALTOR!!!! While most are great people, it's very rare for one to admit that they don't know something or they can tell you what's' wrong with the house. Worse is when they give advice on what it's worth or what it will take to fix it up. Repeatedly I've been told by clients that their realtor said the problem with the house was a simple fix, or something easy for a pro to take care of that wont cost very much. If you find something wrong that needs to be fixed, get several bids on it and know exactly what it will take to fix it from somebody who does that for a living.!!!

Good luck,
Eddie

^^^ all of the above :thumbsup:

 

[CurlyDave]

The number of houses I have bought & sold isn't as many as Eddie, but I have a few other things I have found over the years.

Instead of not trusting a realtor, in many instances I have found that not having a realtor at all is the best path. It is perfectly ethical for one real estate agent toy represent both sides in a transaction, and if I know what I want, I will find a house and ask the listing agent if they would like to do both sides of the deal. The custom throughout most of the US if for a 6% commission split evenly between the listing agent and the selling agent. If one agent does both sides of the deal 4% is a reasonable commission, and if you negotiate this properly, 2% of the sales price just went right into your pocket.

Knowing what to look for in terms of wet basements, etc. is something every house buyer should learn before he even starts looking. I inspect for all these things on my own before a house ever gets onto my short list, but then then always get a professional inspector to do an inspection before the final prices is set. A seller will almost always make a price concession if an inspector calls out a problem, whereas if I tell the seller, there will be no concession at all--just human nature. Be there while the inspector is there, and point out all of the things you have found wrong already to be sure they get into the report.

How do I find houses? Many agents have websites where they will show all of the houses listed in an area. The formats vary widely, so find one with a format you like and look daily or weekly if you are in the market. For instance, the last rental house I bought in CA before moving to Oregon was in a city near me, and before DW and I even got in the car to go look at it, I knew the size, the price, and from looking at the map that the house was across the street from a city park, and an elementary school. A high school was 1/2 mile away, and the middle school was less than one mile. Days on market was very high and it turned out that bushes in front of the house were vastly overgrown and the shake roof looked awful, which caused the price to be very low for that area.

I drove over a few hours early to be certain that young entrepreneurs hadn't set up a drug emporium in the park. Met the agent at an open house he had scheduled, discussed the agent doing both sides, and had an offer on the table that morning. There was one other offer that weekend, and the agent told me where we had to go to net the seller $500 more. We agreed and we bought the house. We got price concessions for the roof and the seller took out the bushes.

 

[Jstpssng]

Never had a title issue become a problem... the Pre that is run at the time of listing would kill the listing if the Title is clouded.

Not all cash sales (including mine) go through a realtor. Just last month a member told of not knowing they didn't own access to their home until being hauled off in handcuffs for improving their driveway.

 

[aczlan]

Ours didn't either, however we looked at the deed and we know the neighbors (we get along well with them), so it wasn't a big deal.

Aaron Z

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^ Same thing on my property. One adjacent property had been monumented by a surveyor, the opposite line I walked with my neighbor, who I've known for years. (It's now blazed and waiting for paint.) The third parcel has an old fence,... the last is the town road.
Still, after reading all of the horror stories here I would hire a title attorney if I was spending a large sum of money.

 

[ultrarunner]

I've bought and sold without brokerage and always used a Title Company as is custom in California except one time.

Never had any issues even the time I didn't use a Title Company... typed up the papers myself on an IBM Selectric and we met at a Notary, presented my cashier's check and then off to the County Recorders...

Twenty years later when I sold the property... again without a Realtor... it did raise a red flag at the Title Company the buyer used... all it meant was they did some extra checking and found all to be in order.

I have no problems buying with a Realtor because several homes I only found out about because of my Realtor... she knew I liked fixers and when one came into her office, she let me know.

 

[JDgreen227]

Just one more thing...back when I had a sideline job of home inspections, I had a number of realtors contact me and ask me to check out a house they had listed...and if I found something wrong, they wanted to know the best and cheapest method to cover up the problem. Needless to say...I refused to have anything to do with those agents.