What to look (and look out) for when buying your first home?

We have a mid-terraced house and had a few problems which we fixed and there were a few things we found out when and after we bought it.

The back garden fence to the right of us is owned by the guy on the right, the back and left parts are owned by us - worth looking at the official docs.

The porch is only a single skim of brick which makes it quite cold in winter.  The heater that was there didn't work!  Fortunately we were fussed, had it taken out and patched up.  There living room and stairs to upstairs are off the porch but fortunately the cold doesn't climb the stairs and there's an internal door between it and the living room.

Check the electrics box, does it have automatic switch-off capabilities if there's a power surge?  Is it a modern, new box or one of those ones with the old style fuses?  Can you shut off just one part of the house's electrics, for example just downstairs or just upstairs?

This might seem a strange thing to do but tap on the walls, if you hear a hollow sound then there may be internal damage which might need plaster work doing.

Take a close look at windows, especially double glazed to see if there is any misting which could mean a seal is broken.

Disclaimer: I have never purchased a house, but I've been with family while they've looked, and have heard about all the stuff they wish they had checked!

I have to say, I strongly advise checking that all windows work and are properly put in and sealed. My sister moved into a brand new house in AZ, and it was inspected, and later they discovered that the upstairs bedroom window was no only hung crookedly, but also had about a centimeter gap under the window where it hadn't been sealed properly to the wall and you could see straight through outside!

Also, make sure you get to inspect the house without the furniture in it VERY thoroughly, especially the walls. My best friend's house has walls that have most obviously been poorly patched in several areas because of water damage. Don't be afraid to push on the wall a bit if you suspect an area to be weird or soft.

Which leads us to:

Check under every sink in the house to make sure that the cabinets (if they're staying) and floor has not suffered water damage. I moved into an apartment once and didn't check for that, opened the kitchen sink undercabinet, and discovered that the whole shelf had completely rotted out due to the sink leaking. Luckily I was renting!

And finally:

Check the carpeting! My mom just rented a home and didn't notice that the previous tenants obviously damaged the carpet in the corner of one room, and replaced some of it with a poorly done and poorly matched patch. She had no idea for a week or two, because you can only tell if you stand in the room near it and look at the floor directly. It's bad for the carpet though, as it could eventually come loose and wrinkle. Don't be afraid to pull up on the pile of the carpet to see how loose it is! The last thing you want is to trip over a lump in your carpet :/

Oh yeah, one more! Be afraid of area rugs! My dad was renting a house out, and he approved them to move out and discovered later that they had hidden a huge burn in the carpet with an area rug! They also had serious damaged the hard wood floors in the bathroom, but hidden it also with a small rug over the top.

Sorry if that was a lot! Hope it helps some!

Oh yeah! I don't know if anyone else mentioned this, but keep an eye out for mouse and roach bait traps in corners and under things! Sounds like a "d'uh!" kind of thing, but it's a clue about if pests are a problem.

Check the electrics box, does it have automatic switch-off capabilities if there's a power surge? 

Matt,
I don't think you mean switch-off capabilities in the event of a surge.  Even basic surge suppressors are almost unheard of on British services.    I think what you might have in mind is a main earth-leakage circuit breaker, also known as an RCCB or RCD (equivalent in principle to the American GFCI, except that the latter generally protects only a single circuit or part of a circuit, not the whole house). 

There are many factors which determine whether a main RCD might be needed or not, so the absence of an RCD is not necessarily a problem.

I'd agree that a look at the fuse box(es) can often give a very rough idea about some of the installation though.  A cupboard which is jammed full of many small units all wired up somewhat haphazardly as the wiring has been extended over the years is a sure sign that there may well be other things which are not up to scratch.

oh oh, I just learned this one on a show about buying houses last night!.... If you go to view a house and theres a bunch of air freshners around ..that a red flag because they are trying to cover up dampness smell in the house.

1. How slow the process can be. I know it varies but being in the process of buying a home now, and having it be a pretty straight forward sale with no chain, I'm surprised how drawn out the process is. I did just find this info online though which looks like it could help speed up the process.

If you're buying a home after June 1, 2007, houses will be required to have a Home Information Pack when they market the home.  For more info....http://www.homeinformationpacks.gov.uk/introduction.aspx

2. Be aware of the stamp duty thresholds. If we offered one pound over what we did, our stamp duty would have gone from 1% to 3%. That can be a pretty big chunk of change.

3. If the property has been extended or converted in any way, did they get proper planning permission?

4. Be realistic on how much you have to spend on improvements and how much work you are willing to do. If you walk in and instantly start thinking "we can change the light fixtures, switches, flooring, kitchen, baths, etc" realize that all that adds up pretty quick.

What do you have here that's the equivalent of an inspection? Shouldn't that uncover a lot of the things you guys have brought up? Or will we be on our own to make sure about damp, wiring, etc.?

You still have a home inspection here. The mortgage lender will insist on a valuation inspection to ensure they are lending you what the home is worth. They may or may not provide you with the report. I just got mine today and its not very detailed and only about a page long. You can however arrange to have a structural survey done and its recommended on older houses or houses that have been altered. It should uncover anything such as damp or woodworm. The difference here, in my experience, is that this happens further down the road in the US. In the US, you usually have the inspection within 10 days of making an offer. Here, it varies, and in our case is over a month and a half down the road. By that point, you're already somewhat emotionally and financially invested in the property. If the home info packs I mentioned above come into play, it looks like this information will be available when you view the property to begin with.

We had two surveys done, one was paid for by the mortgage lender and the other by us. The survey done by the lender was so basic and only told what the lender wanted to know whereas the survey we had was quite thorough and told us what we needed to know.

Your solicitor doesn't always make a suggestion but it's never a bad idea to ask. We used the firm I work for so I know my solicitor quite well and it so happens that he rents properties in my area so he was able to recommend a good surveyor.

3. If the property has been extended or converted in any way, did they get proper planning permission?

But be aware also that there is a statute of limitations on enforcement.

So long as the unauthorized extension/alteration doesn't involve a change of use of the land and doesn't have other complications (such as being in a conservation area etc.) then nothing can be done if it has gone unchallenged for 4 years.     For a change of use (e.g. commercial to residential) the limit is 10 years.

Edited to add link:

http://www.planning-applications.co.uk/enforcement1b.htm

I recently bought my first home in the States, and can't tell people enough to use a home inspector if you're seriously interested in a particular home.

I started looking at houses in late December.  I found what seemed to be the perfect home in January.  I hired a home inspector, who also arranged my termite inspection, to check the place out.  I took off work to be present at the inspection.  The termite inspector found an inactive, untreated termite colony under the kitchen.  Warming weather would find them active a couple months later.  He recommended a whole-house treatment to make sure they were gone:  $617.  The home inspector found about $5,000 of problems.  I canceled the contract on the home, as I didn't have $5,000 to fix it.  The home inspection cost me $200, and the termite inspection $70.  It was some of the best money I ever spent.

One of the problems was a laundry room that had been flooded so bad that one could hear wood splintering when standing near the wall (this was a manufactured home).  My washer and dryer would probably have fallen through that area.  To fix it would have involved removing flooring and subflooring.  I was told later that a single man bought the place and the poorly-operating water heater that the inspector warned me about burst 2 weeks after he moved in. 

I went on to find a wonderful "bricks and sticks" (traditional construction) home that was newly built.  My home is about half the size of the manufactured home, but enough room for us.  The size of my homeowner-related headaches is undoubtedly much less than it would have been in the other place. 

I don't know if it's a problem in the UK, but I also checked to see what zoning/deed restriction laws might be in place.  Some places in the US are covered by BSL (Breed Specific Legislation) and certain breeds of dogs or species might be prohibited in an area.     Some places have restrictions on the number of animals a homeowner may have as well.  For any pet-lovers, this is an important consideration too.

Buying here is a bit of a nightmare - we arranged our mortgage & Conveyance through OneMove.com they co-ordinated the whole move for us while we were still in the U.S, they made it very easy and acted like our P.A's through the whole move, highly reccomended...hope this helps