Questions to ask when viewing a property to buy

Devi

Hi,

this is a little premature but I would like to be armed with the "right" questions to ask an estate agent and the sellers when viewing a property to buy so any advice would be most appreciated.

Apologies is this has already been done to death and please post a link to a previous thread if this has already been covered in the forum.

Thanks

Devi

steve1980

Leasehold:

How long is left on the lease - less than 65 it's going to be difficult to get a mortgage and the lease renewal could be thousands.

Maintainance charges

Service Charge

Double glazing - how long left on warrenty

Council Tax - Band or how much

Any external repairs/maintainance due

Freehold:

Double glazing - how long left on warranty

Council Tax - Band or how much

Conservatory (if one is there) - how long, warranty remaining

For both:

How long has the property been on the market?

Would the vendor take an offer (use this one if you are intrested and AFTER the viewing!)

Hope this helps.

azkaban420

1. 'What are the neighbours like?'

You can usually determine a bit from how they answer...if there's an obvious pause before 'yeah they're nice', that spells 'not that great' to me!

2. 'Why are you/they moving?' - gives you an idea of how quickly things can move along, if they're upsizing/downsizing, moving into rented etc etc.

3. 'Has there been much interest/viewings/offers?' Can direct this to the EA, but I guess also they seller.

Good luck!

Az