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

we're about to begin the process of searching for our first home (and first mortgage). i can't think of a better place to begin it all than this forum and the wealth of experience you guys have to offer. so let 'er rip:

what did you look for when you were searching?

what warning signs or red flags did you come across? what are things to avoid?

what tips do you have for first time buyers?

what do you wish you'd done differently?

Good questions, niku2. We'll be doing the same in the new year. I have a book called Buying a Home in Britain, but haven't read it yet. I hope it's helpful! Has anyone else read it?

from personal experience  open and close  kitchen drawers.. Dh  didn't realize  until  we bought the    house  that the fronts  were  just  glued on!!   we had  to construct kitchen drawers!!    they  took everything off the   walls.. mirrors..  towel racks, toilet roll holders..  even the ball  end for the light string   and didn't leave  any replacements! 

Check that there are no rowdy pubs nearby.  Also, if you are near any kind of open area, check that there are no planning permissions granted or outstanding for something that you wouldn't want to have nearby.


Vicky

Go back and look in the evening or during the day-what might seem like a quiet area on a lazy Sunday could turn into parking/rat-run hell. 

Find out if the loft is boarded - great place for storage

Have 1 of you downstairs & the other walking from room to room upstairs to hear how creeky the floor boards are - wish we did that with this house!

Basically check every inch if poss - it's an investment & you'll be spending a long time there. Sometimes people check over a used car more than a house !

Have 1 of you downstairs & the other walking from room to room upstairs to hear how creeky the floor boards are - wish we did that with this house!

That's an excellent tip!

Keep 'em coming!

Not sure how to check this one out,.but the house we live in is rented by us but Dales friend bought the house and is renting it to us . before the original owners moved out and we moved it..those cheeky *£$"!&$% took every door knob off the door and took it with them! Also,when we looked at the kitchen when they lived here still,it had cupboards on the walls and etc. When we moved in,we seen they took all the cupboards off the wall and took that with them as well..// I have no kitchen cupboards  :\\\'(. ,they also took the radiator off the kitchen wall.
Needless to say, we are looking for a new house in April

So you'd probably need to ask whats going and whats staying!

So you'd probably need to ask whats going and whats staying!

Yes, do ask beforehand, but be aware that there will also be a fixtures and fittings list that you need to inspect before exchange of contracts.  If you dont like what you see on that list, then do not exchange!

Re fittings, I'd ask the seller whether cupboards, cabinets, wall lights, etc. will be sold with the house or removed.  If they are to stay with the house, get it put in writing.    I've even seen places where the outgoing owner has taken fancy brass light switches and sockets off the wall and not even fitted cheap white replacements, just left the wires hanging out! 

Check the deeds to see if any rights-of-way exist over your land.   People have bought a place with grand ideas about how to build extensions, patios, etc. only to discover later that they can't do any of them because there's a right-of-way running right past the side of the house.

Check also for any convenants on what you may or may not do.  This is more likely to apply to a modern estate house than an older property.  Some have restrictive clauses about the maximum height of any hedge or trees, how many vehicles may be kept on the driveway, and so on.

If the house is a semi-detached (= U.S. duplex) or a terraced (row) house, check who has responsibility for party walls and any other shared areas.

I know some people will disagree with my next point, but if you are in any way planning on buying a place to "fix up," alter, or extend, I wouldn't touch a listed building with a 10-foot pole.   There are enough planning/building regulations as it is without getting involved with listed-building consents.

A general building survey does not normally include an inspection of electrical wiring, plumbing, or heating systems.  If you're not able to examine them and determine their condition and safety for yourself, you might want to arrange for independent inspections.    For the electrics, you want to ask for a PIR, or "Periodic Inspection Report." 

Ditto on the electrics.  we rent our house but it had just flipped from owner to owner so no formal inspection had ever been done on the electrics until we rented the house.  In order for the landlady to rent the house, an inspection had to be done. 

well, the electrics (as well as most of the work in the house) had all been done by a previous owner and it was down right dangerous!  The electrician could actually wiggle the wires out of the breaker box!  As well, we had a few light switches that were live - 110 volts worth!  he said it was a miracle that there hadn't been a fire.   

All is fixed now and we feel much safer.

Make sure the house has enough airbricks. We're finding just how necessary it is to have more than one.

Check thoroughly for damp. Something I've never had to think of in AZ but is a big issue here. The previous owner had painted the entire house so it all looked lovely but now we're noticing the damp seeping through the paint in the bathroom.

This should come up with the Land Registry documents but check if there's a right of passage through or around your property. We're the end of a row of town houses and two of our neighbours have right of passage right through our back yard and up the driveway. Not a big deal as they're lovely and they only use it to bring their bins around but it means we're required to keep a 4 foot wide path free of obstruction at all times and they're required to have keys to our back gate. (which we should be lucky as they could argue about us having the locked gate there in the first place!)

Ask about what renovations they've done while living there and ask to see paperwork on it. We have two boilers in the house, one doesn't work and one does. We can't take out the one that doesn't work because they've stupidly connected the new one to the old one and therefore all the plumbing is going through both. We'll have to hire a plumber to fix this in the future.

If you have a bay window, make sure they've sealed the top.

And I ditto the comment about the loft. Ask if it's all boarded and insulated. They had bags of insulation in the loft but hadn't bothered to put it down. We had to buy loft boards so we could put things into the loft.

Check thoroughly for damp. Something I've never had to think of in AZ but is a big issue here. The previous owner had painted the entire house so it all looked lovely but now we're noticing the damp seeping through the paint in the bathroom.

Modern houses (of brick construction) should have a damp-proof course inserted a couple of bricks up from ground level, but many old houses do not.  Curing damp problems on those can be extremely difficult and expensive. 

well, the electrics (as well as most of the work in the house) had all been done by a previous owner and it was down right dangerous!

I've seen far too many like that......       In fact when I see the state of the wiring in so many houses I'm actually quite surprised that the rates of electrical fires and electrocutions are as low as they are.

As well, we had a few light switches that were live - 110 volts worth! 

Brass/chrome/stainless steel types?    That's a common problem where new metal switches have been retro-fitted to an older house.   

Prior to 1966 it was common practice for lighting circuits to be wired with no earth (ground) wire.  It was perfectly safe so long as all-insulated fittings were used, but it results in just the sort of thing you describe when somebody has come along later and substituted metal fittings without bothering to rewire to add an earth connection for them.

If you have ideas about fitting metal switches, lights, ceiling fans, etc. to an older house, that's something to check out as well.   

Modern houses (of brick construction) should have a damp-proof course inserted a couple of bricks up from ground level, but many old houses do not.  Curing damp problems on those can be extremely difficult and expensive. 

Our house was built in 1925. We believe there's something within the walls which is causing the damp to come through. It's only in one specific part of the wall, next to the bath taps. It's not from beneath the bath as it's all bone dry there and there is no water on the outside. We can only assume it's a burst pipe or something actually in the wall.

The problem with the bathroom is that there is only one airbrick in the house which is on the ground floor and even though we have an extractor fan in the bathroom, it's of no use. We've bought a dehumidifier and use it during the day in the bathroom but this one patch of wet is still persisting. It's only started a few months ago so we don't know what to think but like I said before, they had just painted everything, so it could be a problem that's only decided to show up now.

We're still planning on what to do about it. We need to find the source of the damp first.

As far as the rest of the house goes, we get a bit of condensation which needs to be dealt with but other than that, we don't get that much damp. Just need more airbricks, I think. The air can't circulate.

keep 'em coming!

you guys are wonderful!