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What questions to ask

Posted: Jun 15, 2011

I am starting to look at houses (first time for me). For people who own their own homes, what kinds of questions do you ask. What are things you look at when you do house hunting. I can look at the places and know whether it will suit us, but unsure if there are specific things I should be asking or looking at. Wanted to get some opinons.

;

whatever you do - get an inspection

[ In Reply To ..]
I made a grave mistake with this. I would have a home inspection for CERTAIN, and might possibly even go beyond that and hire an electrician, plumber and foundation expert to do a quick inspection. I know it might be an extra cost, but I think if you call and ask, they would come run a quick inspection for $50 or so, and so if you pay $150 to $200 for piece of mind, absolutely do that.

I would also do a little research and go to your city and pull up the file on the house and see if all permits were pulled for work, or anything else that would be of value.

I would also do a few drive-by's at various times of day and night to see what the neighborhood is like. What if the neighbor right next door has 5 dogs that he keeps out all night barking? That is something I would want to know before I made an offer!

If you see fresh paint over the basement walls... THAT IS A RED FLAG of an underlying issue.

If the place has a fireplace, hire a chimney guy to run a camera down it to look for broken flu tiles, you do not want a fire!

Look for any signs of water damage, beams of attic, corners of basements, bubbled up paint, discoloration around windows. Water leads to mold which is dangerous.

And lastly, find out what year any updates were done, ie., boiler, furnace, hot water heater, roof, etc.

Remember, taxes go up every year, and insurance costs go up every year, so your payment will go up every year. You do not want to stretch yourself too short. You have to have room for all of the things that go wrong and need fixing.

Also, try right off the bat to make your house payment every other week instead of once a month, you will save yourself roughly 7 years of payments, so instead of a 30 year loan, you could pay it off in 23 years by paying every other week. That little bit of interest and the couple extra payments a year add up FAST.

GOOD LUCK, and HAVE FUN!

My home inspection was a joke - check it out

[ In Reply To ..]
The home inspection was very rushed and I had to trust someone else to be there personally. The inspector could not figure out how to get into the attic/or it was too difficult (attic access was through a vent window on the roof). The attic was not inspected. We have since discovered that there is vermiculite insulation there (possible asbestos) and knob and tube wiring, a fire hazard. When hubby was doing a remodeling project in the basement, we found some beams had charred soot (hidden by the redone ceiling). We, of course, spotted a small amount of water damage in the basement ourselves.

The house also had an abandoned septic system that suddenly the home owner wanted us to sign off on as far as future liability. (This was probably the day before closing, or on the day of closing). We were very pressured to buy as we had sold our house a a few hundred miles away, hubby had started and new job, and we needed a place immediately. I would like to sue the home inspector, but I don't have enough energy and resources to accomplish it.

Buyer beware.

which is exactly why I said to... - get an inspection

[ In Reply To ..]
hire an electrician, plumber, foundation expert, etc., in addition to the home inspection, because you dont know!

When we sold our Duplex, I was home when the new owners inspector came through and he turned on a few lights, opened a few cabinets, never climbed on the flat roof (even though we disclosed that we had problems previously which were fixed--you would think he would check it out to make sure), so we did not do an inspection on our new house becuase we felt the inspectors were a joke.

That is why I suggested to hire someone who specializes in each thing. We did not notice the cracks in basement wall because previous owners had all of their boxed packed and stacked, so nicely covering them and the fresh paint was not a tip off. Now our basement wall is falling down on 2 sides and we have to have it redone at $40,000! UGH!

I would ask to see the disclosure statement. - house tips

[ In Reply To ..]
and if there are any questions that are not answered, that is a red flag. We looked at a house and made an offer (contingent on her answer to the question) where she did not answer whether or not flood insurance was required. I did a little research on my own and found out that it was, indeed, required and would run us around $400/month alone. I am from the desert, so flood insurance was not something that ever crossed my mind prior to moving her. The lady finally got around to answering, after I had already talked to a flood insurance provider and said that it was required, but the property only flooded a few inches in Katrina. When I drive by that house every day and see the 1' plus of water in the yard from bad thunderstorms, I consider how she lied.

Of course, not every homeowner is a liar. I certainly would not lie to sell my house, but as with everything, some people are dishonest, so be careful. We ended up buying a 4-year-old foreclosure for about $25K less that is on far more property and probably better suited to use (though I really did love the character of that first house).

I second the first statement about getting the inspection and I advise you to price insurance on the house you are looking to make an offer on before you make the offer because you never know what unexpected costs there might be. The house we ended up buying is more than 10 miles from a fire station, which makes it difficult to buy insurance at all and certainly more expensive, but it is not in a flood plane, which is unusual around here and that makes it significantly less than it could be.

when buying a home - threedogs

[ In Reply To ..]
Get a house inspector to check it out.

Non-qualified to reply - Gypsy

[ In Reply To ..]
SHERLOCK "HOMES":
Alarm system? (living in "thee part of town" is a false sense of security)
Central air/heat?
Furnace and ducts cleaned/serviced?
Roof repairs?
Interior/exterior paint?
Age of appliances?
Energy-efficient appliances?
DRYER HOSE CLEANED?
Condition of foundation?
Window locks?
Insulation?
ASBESTOS?
LEAD PAINT?
Septic tank?
Flood zone?
Black mold?
Water damage?
Crime? (ask the local police department)
Noise ordinance?
Watering restrictions?
Chimney cleaned?
Energy-efficient windows/doors?
A/C ducts cleaned?
Smoker?
Indoor dogs? (urine soaks into carpet "backing")
Exterminated?
Termite inspection?
Snakes/Alligators?
Power outages?
Garbage pickup?
Water/electric meters functioning properly?
Plow-service frequency? (winter wonderland)
Water lines in relation to trees (root systems)
Pet restrictions?
Has someone died in the last three years? (California home disclosure)
New carpeting/fresh paint? (moved into a brand-new apartment, had "unexplainable" frequent headaches)

FINANCIAL:
Taxes
Home owner's insurance/flood insurance
Average electric bill (A/C and heating)
Average water/sewer bill
Homeowner's association

READ:
Home Disclosures and Material Facts for the state of residence.

Happy House-Hunting! (maybe that should be Happy House-Sleuthing)

www.homebuying.about.com - Home Disclosure and Material Facts

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Wow - thank you all - OP (when buying a home)

[ In Reply To ..]
There is so much to think about and you all have provided excellent suggestions. I am printing them all out.

We are at such a dilemma here. We live in an area where there is no work for DH. With the economy the way it is we're taking a chance that a bigger city would have some work in the area he has experience in. However, that town is over 2 hours away, and of course no guarantee there would be work there for him (we've moved many many many times (over 10 times) by looking at newspapers and seeing all these jobs, then we get there and there is nothing for months and months, if at all. The problem we have is that we have cats. Most rentals will not rent with multiple cats (let alone kittens). I feel I'm throwing money away on renting, not to include that it's going to take us 2, possibly 3, moving trucks to get up there. DH does a lot of gardening and has greenhouses (not huge permanent ones - portable ones, but they are packed with plants. This town just doesn't have anything to offer, even though its a nice town. I found the perfect house here that would give us peace and quiet and 5 acres and within our budget, but buying a home when its just the one income, even though I'd be able to cover it, is just a little unsettling. We definitely have to move from the place we are in so just looking for a better place.

Too much to think about, just makes me want to go take a nap. :-)

Thanks again everyone.

The first question I would ask - homeowner

[ In Reply To ..]
is how much can I afford? If you haven't done so already, you should meet with your bank to prequalify for a loan.

As for shopping for the house, ask the sellers what their average monthly utilities run, bearing in mind that they will be different depending on the size of the family.

If you're looking at a home listed through a realtor, the data sheet should include the yearly property taxes, which need to be figured into the budget.

As for what to look for, if you're new to the town, I would consider renting a few months to see if you like that particular "end of town" and also to see if there are nearby disturbances, i.e. trains, airport, farms that fertilize, etc.

I can't say enough about the home inspection. Make sure if make an offer on a home, that it's contigent upon the home inspection and finances. If either of those goes wrong, you'll get your deposit back.

If you can afford it, you might want to consider contracting with a realtor as a buyer's agent. In this case, the realtor is working for you, not the seller, and will know more about what specific questions to ask and would also be more familiar with the town hopefully.

Good luck!

Be sure to ask about - SNAKESSSsssssss

[ In Reply To ..]
You don't want to end up like that Rexburg, Idaho family.

mold, termites/wood rot, nearest landfill, septic tank? - surrounding neighbors can be informative. NM

[ In Reply To ..]
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