When a property comes up that might be worth a look, the first thing I do is check against other prices on the road on www.houseprices.co.uk to see if I can get an idea of the ceiling price for the road. The more data there is for a street, the more chance you have of getting a good comparison, but if there are only a couple of properties that have been sold recently you probably won’t be able to tell.
For example, if you’re looking at a terraced house for £100,000, you can see on the house prices website that 6 terraced houses have gone in the last year, you can tell that they pretty much span the length of the road and their prices have been between £90,000 - £110,000, so you can bet that there’s not much profit to be made. If, on the other hand, you’re looking at a semi-detached for £85,000 and you can only see that two terraced houses at the other end of the road have gone for £85,000 – £90,000 then you’ll have to go and look at the property. It may be worth it as semis are generally worth more than terraces, or it may be that one end of the road is very different from the other and there’s no profit to be made – You just have to go and have a look, find out as much as possible and do the sums.
As we’ve viewed more properties, we’ve learned to look out for things and get more information. We always have a good look around at everything inside and outside. There’s a Viewing Checklist document from the BBC web pages – www.bbc.co.uk/homes/property/buying_viewingchecklist.shtml
which is quite useful to take with you.
Inside: moving curtains to check for damp around windows, and if it looks like there is damp, feeling the walls to see if it’s just condensation and a bit of mould or actual damp; looking for cracks in plasterwork; whether it has central heating and how many radiators would be needed if not; quality of pipe-work, wiring, etc; whether there are any gas heaters that would need removing; what type of boiler there is and how old; how many power-points are around the house (especially in the kitchen); whether the cooker is gas or electric; what redecoration is needed, etc.
Outside: looking for cracks in brickwork and whether any re-pointing needs doing; looking for evidence of a damp-proofing course; looking at the quality of chimneys, guttering, roof; looking at windows and doors and whether they need double-glazing; looking at the garden, garage, fencing, any out-buildings etc and whether any work needs doing on any of them.
We always take a digital camera or mobile phone with a camera and take plenty of pictures. That way, if one of us can’t go we can get an idea of the place, but more generally, we’ll have something to refer to when thinking about prices and what’s needed. We always take a notebook and a tape measure with us too and write down all the details of the property and any measurements that we might need – the address and price of the property, any information we’re told while we’re there, window measurements for double-glazing quotes, number of power points needed, etc
Ask the person doing the viewing as much as possible. Sometimes it’ll just be a person who’s on a contract with the estate agent who can give you an un-biased view and tell you the ceiling price for the property done up to a high standard, but don’t believe everything they tell you. Sometimes, somebody will still be living there so you can get more information about the neighbours and general area – schools, shops, why they’re moving etc. Sometimes it’ll be a bulk viewing with various people turning up to have a look. It’s worth paying attention to the sorts of people viewing, what they’re looking at and anything they say.
Other tips:
Don’t be afraid to ask the neighbours – we had a cup of tea with the neighbour of one place we were looking at and he was able to tell us the amount of a previous offer put in, who lived in half the street, who used to live in the property, that the property had had ‘a red ash survey’ done (which is apparently something they recommend checking for if a property has concrete floors) and had come back clear (which is good) so if we’d bought it, we wouldn’t have had to pay for that!
Have a drive/walk around and check out local amenities – where the nearest shops are etc. Also look and see if there are any developments going on in the area or any areas of land where they might be due to happen. One property we looked at looked out over a huge expanse of land at the back with relatively new offices and warehouses in the distance. The land definitely wasn’t fields for farming and had development written all over it. The question would then be whether the development would bring value in the future so that people would be happy to buy or whether they’d take one look and think ‘I don’t want to put up with 12 months of building’.
Em
