Second viewing

joolesw1972

We viewed 2 houses yesterday, one that we love! Ticks almost every box, but to be sure we are going to view a couple more this week that we also like the look of. But plan to book a 2nd viewing for next weekend when our friend who's a civil engineer is staying and has offered to look it over structurally for us, but what else should we be looking for on the 2nd viewing?
So far I thought about checking the size of the small bedroom to see if it will fit the bed we have, condition and colour of carpets, kitchen units and built in appliances, check windows are sealed/open/close.
What else?

ConfusedofYorkshire

Open every kitchen cupboard to check it's a real one, turn on the taps and shower to see how the water pressure is. See if you can get a good look at the roof from onwards of the windows- check in the guttering. Boiler and thermostat, and number of sockets in each room

I_have_spoken

Ask about speed of broadband. What is N/S orientation for sun in rooms. Is it on a water meter. What is council tax band.

But a 2nd viewing should be a very thorough check of the area.

Drive past at several times of day, esp on a Fri/Sat night. How close by is local boozer, drop in there so see the sort of people who live locally. Enquire about neighbouring houses being rented out. See how many houses in street still have cars outside during the day, suggesting lot of unwaged. Is the house on a route kiddies use to get to local school. Any nearby houses in poor state of repair or with overgrown gardens. Any neighbours with trees/leylandii growing. Try and catch the PCSO for a word about local issues/anti-social behaviour. Can you hear barking dogs.

joolesw1972

Thanks for those, hadn't thought about plugs, water pressure or broadband!
We have driven past a couple of times to see what it's like & have friends who live a couple of streets away so have a fair idea of the area, quite a few retired folk on the street, not a through road so fairly quiet, but will take note of all those things to look for, am trying very hard to think with the head & not get over excited

jules888

Speed of broadband?Dont think thats going to be a deal breaker!
Never did half those things others have mentioned.
As someone who moved last year i would say things that will be expensive to fix are the important things like boiler,electrics,windows.

ConfusedofYorkshire

jules888 wrote: »

Speed of broadband?Dont think thats going to be a deal breaker!
Never did half those things others have mentioned.
As someone who moved last year i would say things that will be expensive to fix are the important things like boiler,electrics,windows.

You say that, but it can be the seemingly little things that can really make you hate a place. I've always rented and have moved quite a lot so I've finally learnt what to look for.

I moved into one house and realised it had zero mobile signal, awful tv reception and mobile broadband didn't work. So I could never get calls or texts in my house, we had to convince the landlord to put in a husband tv aerial and we had to sign up for contract broadband, which wasn't ideal as we didn't know if we'd be there for 12 months. It was very slow and I needed it for the work I do from home.

That house also had kitchen cupboards which just had a wall behind them so we never had enough storage space. Luckily we didn't buy it:rotfl:

steve2005

jules888 wrote: »

Speed of broadband?Dont think thats going to be a deal breaker!.

It is for us.
Whenever we look to buy a new house the first thing we after finding one we would consider looking at is putting the postcode into the VM site!

Mojisola

Look at the staircase and see whether you will be able to get your furniture up to the bedrooms.

tigsly

I wouldn't worry about a water meter - i think most get changed to water meters when you move- so if it doesnt have one now - it will as soon as you own it... (or at least thats how it works here!)

traineepensioner

Take a camera and ask the vendor if it's OK if you take some pictures. Then take pictures of anything & everything. It's surprising how many additional questions are raised after a second viewing.

Mojisola

Having bought a house with drainage problems, I would now also lift the manhole covers and check that the drains are clear.