Checking Out A House For Sale From A Realtor’s Perspective

As shocking as this may be, real life house hunting is not always like an HGTV’s House Hunters Episode. Sometimes you need to see more than 3 houses to figure out which property you want to buy. Now i’ve seen hundreds of homes in the past few years, so I generally know what to expect from a house based on location, style, year built, and general awareness of things, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something that surprises me from time to time.

Generally speaking, when you’re house hunting, you will be looking at the following:

  • Layout and Floorplan – where would your furniture go? is this big enough? does it have the space you need to live and build your life?
  • Does it require certain changes or upgrades to make it your future home?
  • Where would your car go, if appl.?
  • Location – is this where you want to be?
  • etc.

Now as an agent, I have different concerns when we go look at a house together. It’s my job to make you aware of certain points of interest:

  • Do I see anything suspicious? Does it look like any work was done without a permit – i.e. code violations?
  • Do I see anything that would prohibit your loan approval – i.e. mold, exposed wiring, code violations.
  • Do I see some cracks in the wall that appear to be of concern (and something I would point out to a home inspector and/or structural engineer)
  • After seeing the inside, does it appear to be priced appropriately? I am of the opinion you can’t truly put a price on a property until you see the inside and condition.
  • Sometimes it’s something as small as (but costly) tree roots in a driveway that may be growing towards the home

These are things that you may not be aware of or think about when you’re blown away by the decorations, or looking for your first house. Depending on what you’re looking for, some of it may not matter anyway, but it’s nice to know someone’s looking out for you best interest, isn’t it?