What To Look For When Touring A Home

When you buy a home, you want it to be as comfortable as possible. Watch out for these details when touring a home to help you make a wise purchasing decision.

Picking out a new home is a thorough process—you want to make certain you’ll be happy living there. At the same time, you might need to make a concession or two here and there, or you risk searching fruitlessly forever. Nevertheless, there are some details you shouldn’t compromise on. Use this article to educate yourself on what to look for when touring a home so that you don’t buy a house that’s festering beneath a shiny veneer.

Faulty Utility Systems

Water, electricity, gas, and HVAC systems are all built into the structure of a home, so they’re harder—and more expensive—to fix or replace. Be on the lookout for visible signs of wire damage or leaking. In addition, listen for unnatural sounds when you activate the HVAC system. If you notice any of these warning signs, you may want to pass on that house and move on to the next.

Odd Smells

Another problem you don’t want to deal with right after sealing the deal on a new home is a bad smell. Certainly, you can eliminate most odors with an open window and the passage of time, but some are more persistent. The residual traces of heavy smoking are one example. Some smells might cross from the realm of irritating to hazardous. For example, the smell of gas is a red flag, as it may point to a leak somewhere in the house. This could directly affect your health if you breathe it in too much. A damp stench is yet another smell to avoid, as it’s often produced by mold or mildew growing in the wet recesses of the building.

Floor and Wall Irregularities

The stability of the home’s structure is perhaps among the top factors that need to be in good condition. Your safety and the integrity of all the parts of the house depend on it. As you tour a home, evaluate the possibility of foundation movement by checking to see that all the doors and windows fit properly in their frames and can move as they were designed to. If they don’t, subtle imbalances in the ground may be shifting parts of the home unequally. Large diagonal and horizontal cracks in the walls also show that the earth around the house is unbalanced. When a home’s weight is distributed unevenly, it places more pressure on certain points, bending them and producing the cracks.

Photo Credit: RawPixel/IStock Via Getty Images