Five Top Things to Look for when Shopping for You New Home

So you have decided you are ready to buy a new home? If this is your first home, however you may not know where to start. With a little bit of advance knowledge you should have no problem finding just the right space for you and your family. When you are shopping for a new home, there are several things that you want to focus on looking for. Below you will find a few suggetions on where to focus your attention when checking out houses. This list in no way covers everything, but is a nice way to get you started.

1. Start with the exterior

The first one is typically a common one that many choose to do and that is to walk around the exterior of the house. Be sure to look closely for cracks or lifts in the siding. You will even want to look at the gutters and see if there were any problems there. The key is to see if you can spot potential moisture problems that may have happened.

2. Bathrooms that signal problems

When you arrive at the bathroom there are several things that will stand out to you as potential problems. For example if you notice water spots, or stains around the tub or toilet this could mean there is an existing leak. Or perhapsh there used to be a leak. Either way this may signal a potential problem, especially if the leak was not patched up properly.

3. Stained floors or celings

Have you ever been inside of a home that has a huge brown stain on the celing or perhaps on the floor? Look very closely at the ceiling in each room. You may notice that someone has painted over what looks like a stain in the ceiling. Some times homeowners will paint over an issue in the home, in hopes that you will not notice it.

4. Try to peak under the carpet

If you see carpeting in any home, you more than likely are considering tearing it out and putting your own down or living with the floors. I usually like homes that have just an area rug, this way I can really see what type of condition the floors are in. If the home does have wall to wall carpeting you can always take a peak perhaps in a corner where it is worn down, but this is not always possible.

5. How much closet space?

I know this may sound weird but this is usually the last thing that many potential homebuyers think of when looking at a home. Yes the bedrooms may have a closet, but did you notice how big they are? They may not be big enough to hold all of your items, and if you don’t have money to remodel than you may want to move on to the next home.