Step-by-step instructions for inspecting a private house before buying

Buying a private house with a land plot is an important step. It is difficult to make the best, indeed the best choice, there are many proposals, the risks are great. Step-by-step instructions of the site Our site will help you prepare for the inspection of a private house and conduct it according to all the rules.

Where does the search for a suitable home for sale usually begin? That’s right, with viewing ads, of which there are a huge number of online. Do not rush to immediately go to your favorite site with a house! You need to carefully prepare for the inspection.

First, we strongly advise you to use Google Maps. The address of the property is indicated in the ad, find it, make a route on the Internet and evaluate what is next to the house, what objects. Perhaps you will not want to go anywhere if an industrial zone is located near the village, the area is swampy, the infrastructure is not developed.

Google Earth service will allow you to set the height of the site above sea level, and maps in general will help you find out the orientation of the house to the cardinal points, the settlement plan and its surroundings. If everything suits you, we advise you to download an application with geolocation to your smartphone, as well as a public cadastral map of Rosreestr. It will help at least approximately clarify the boundaries of the site.

Going to inspect the house you like, you need to take with you:

• Smartphone with loaded maps and charging to it.
• Building bubble or laser level, if you know how to use it.
• Lantern. Yes, the smartphone also has it, but it’s better to take a separate, more powerful one.
• A tape measure that you can use yourself.
• Garden drill.
• Socket tester (optional, but desirable).

Dress in a hiking fashion, choose comfortable shoes, because you have to walk around the site and climb into the basement and the attic.

Important! It is up to you who to take with you to the house inspection. A lawyer is not needed at the first stage, but a construction friend will not hurt. Take family members who will live in this house with you – their opinion is very important. You can bring specialists next time – you will definitely have to inspect the house before buying it repeatedly.

Of course, you need to inspect the house and the plot during the day. On the way, evaluate the route and the landscape – you may then drive along this road every day. Assess the entrance to the house, is there a parking place for the cars of guests who will come to you.

Arriving at the place, do not rush to go into the house, walk around the site and ask the owners for permission to make a couple of wells in different places with the help of a garden drill. This will allow you to estimate the composition of the soil for sure – the fertile layer should be more than 20 centimeters thick. In addition, as the portal already wrote, drilling wells more than a meter deep will make it possible to assess the level of groundwater.

You should be alerted by signs of boggy – reeds, cattails, trees affected by lichens.

Important! If there are traces of recent earthworks on the site, for example, a neat lawn or a flat area covered with sand, perhaps the owners tried to cover the swamp or simply buried construction waste here.

Check the boundaries of the site with the Rosreestr cadastral map downloaded at home. Do they match reality? Of course, technical errors are not excluded, but it is still worth finding out if one of the neighbors has seized part of the allotment or, on the contrary, the fence of the area being inspected is located in the neighboring territory. Maps in a smartphone, of course, will not give 100% accurate measurements. To make them, then you have to call cadastral engineers with the appropriate equipment. But for the first inspection, and such a reconciliation is useful.

Important! Be sure to ask the owners if the house is formalized, whether the building corresponds to the extract from the USRN. If the owners have not completed the house, you are at risk. The dacha amnesty in Russia has been extended until 2021, but not all buildings can be legalized. Agree, it will be very disappointing to buy a house and then demolish it.

Check if the location of the house itself and outbuildings complies with the current rules and regulations.

Now is the time to approach the house itself. Signs of long-term construction should alert you – some parts of the building look newer than others. Ask the owners when and who started building the house. Such leading questions often help clarify the truth. A house that has been unfinished for a long time can be problematic.

First of all, we check the foundation, because this is the basis of the entire building:

• You are interested in cracks but may have been plastered before being sold.
• It is necessary to assess the condition of the blind area.
• Check the levelness of the floor on the terrace and the visible bottom of the rail.
• Check the verticality of corners, piles and facade walls.

Minor deviations – up to 2 centimeters – are quite acceptable, especially if the house is already several years old.

In the house, be sure to pay attention to the following points:

• Layout, how comfortable and thoughtful it is.
• Basement. Yes, be sure to go down and make sure that the walls are free of mold, dampness, drops of moisture.
• Attic. Check the insulation and touch the roof structures – they should not be wet.
• How doors and windows open, are they skewed?.
• Floor base. Feel free to stomp your feet and even jump in different rooms. Are the dishes ringing in the sideboard and everything is shaking? There are clearly problems with the floor, you need to change or strengthen the beams.
• Level you need to check the verticality of the walls and the horizontalness of the floor.
• Check all communications, evaluate the number of outlets and the convenience of the location of the switches. Find out how the house is supplied with water, where the drains go. If there is a stove or fireplace in the house, ask them to light it.

Important! Experts are confident that winter is a great time of the year for visiting a private house. You can immediately assess how efficiently the heating system works, check the radiators. It is advisable to order a thermal imaging survey later, when the question of buying a house will be finally decided.

In the process of inspecting the house, take pictures of everything, literally every important object:

• Several views of each room.
• Boiler or oven.
• All meters: for gas, water and electricity.
• Engineering equipment.
• View of the house from different sides of the site.
• Entrance and porch.

Then show the photos to the real estate specialists you know, the whole family. And look at the object yourself, as they say, with a fresh eye. In addition, we advise you to take a photo of the title pages of title documents for the house, in order to then check the property in open sources on the Internet, on official resources..

Also ask to show the latest utility bills. So you will not only make sure that there are no debts for them, but also estimate how much it costs to operate the house..

Important! First, a positive home experience can be the result of a well-done home staging. A nice picture might have been specially prepared for you. Well that’s good, presales are the norm. But fresh paint on the walls and new wallpaper on drywall can hide serious problems, so don’t be fooled..