How to buy a cottage and not miscalculate

Buying a country house requires a lot of investment. As for the place for your future summer residence, here we are not entitled to give advice. Someone prefers closer to the city so as not to spend a lot of time on trips. For some, on the contrary, the presence of untouched nature around and silence is important, and transport accessibility fades into the background. This is your choice, you can visit several summer cottages and garden associations before deciding on the location of the future summer cottage..

If you are choosing a home in a gardening partnership, it will not be superfluous to get acquainted with its guidelines and rules. You can also travel around the neighborhood to find out where the nearest body of water, supermarket is, whether there is a hospital or paramedic, pharmacy. Infrastructure for a comfortable stay is no less important than the house itself and the condition of the site. However, we touched on this topic in detail, talking about the choice of a land plot outside the city..

Experts assure that it is often safer to buy an old cottage without renovation than a house that has undergone pre-sale preparation. In the first case, all the shortcomings will be obvious, everything is visible, you can immediately calculate what repairs will be required. In addition, in this case, the owners are usually ready to make concessions and reduce the price, because it is clear that the house is not in perfect condition..

Worse, if the owners prepared for the sale of the cottage, carefully masking the flaws in order to raise the price. In this situation, it will be much more difficult to find out what is wrong with the house, how much effort and money will need to be invested in it, and the owners do not intend to bargain, assuring – “We built for ourselves, everything is fine”.

What to look for if the cottage has passed pre-sale preparation? First of all, of course, on the foundation. This is the foundation of the house, if there are problems with it, no repairs will save you. If it is noticeable that the foundation was recently re-plastered or revetted, the blind area is new, maybe the owners tried to mask cracks and other problems. In this case, you can still identify them:

1. First, go down to the basement! It must be dry, odorless, damp and moldy. If there is water in the basement, refuse to buy such a house right away, it definitely has problems with the foundation.
2. You can also walk around the house, closing and opening interior doors and windows. If they are skewed, they close badly, they open themselves – this also indicates problems with the foundation..

An important point is the neat design documentation for the house. The project will immediately show if there were alterations, perhaps something was added or transferred without the appropriate permissions. Therefore, the documentation should be carefully studied, do not be lazy. You can learn a lot about the house from your neighbors. Getting to know them, in general, will not be superfluous. You should ask how long it took to build the house you are planning to buy. Long-term construction carries additional risks, because in this case the box of the house could stand for a long time “under all the winds”.

An important point will be the presence of all the amenities in the house. Perhaps, getting ready for the sale and wanting to raise the price, the owners hastily added a bathroom, which in the end may turn out to be much colder than the rest of the premises. And you definitely don’t need problems with sewage. Therefore, immediately ask where the water is supplied from, whether there is a modern drainage system, for example, a treatment plant with aeration. Just a cesspool is of course not the best option, it will have to be cleaned regularly.

Many experts believe that it is best to buy a summer cottage in winter. In this case, you can check for yourself how the heating system works, how warm the floors are in the house, and whether the windows leak through. It is also important how the water supply and sewerage systems work in the winter, whether they freeze in severe frosts. So explore this option before the warm season if you really want a home with all the amenities. In addition, in winter you can find out whether there are permanent residents in the village, whether the roads are covered with snow..

By the way, a little more about water supply. If the country house has a well or a well, it is advisable to check the quality of the water. Just take a clean bottle with you, get some water when you inspect the house and plot, give it for examination. If the water quality turns out to be unsatisfactory, this is a reason to look for another home..

Don’t forget to take a look at the attic space. If there are traces of dampness, there is musty air, pieces of insulation hang from the roof – there are problems with the house, in particular, the ventilation is not organized correctly. In the heating season and during rains, problems with the roof can clearly manifest themselves, and this is already a major overhaul and additional costs.

If you have a construction friend, you can take them with you to inspect the house. It is not a fact that even a specialist will immediately identify all the problems, but this way there will be more chances not to miss anything important.