Free House Hunting Checklist Spreadsheet (Excel, PDF)

0:00 Are you buying a home and wondering what to look for in a home? 0:03 Today we’re going to talk about what to look for in a home. So stay tuned. 0:11 Hi this is Melody Wilson with the reLife team at RE/MAX Elite and today I’m talking to you about 0:15 what to look for in a home when you are buying the home and if you’re selling a home and you’re 0:20 watching this video take note of what buyers are looking for in a home. So some of the things I 0:26 strongly suggest that you look at and you can’t see this on pictures on mls necessarily 0:31 is the street that the home is located on. So location is absolutely key when looking to buy 0:37 the best home and best investment for your family, is what street is it on? Are your neighbors messy? 0:44 Is it a big mess? Is the yard a mess? Is there toys all over the place? Is there a main street nearby? 0:50 What’s going on in your neighborhood? What’s going on on that street? So take a look also not just at 0:56 those items but take a look also at the types of homes. So the home that you’re looking at is it 1:01 the smallest on the street? Is it the largest home on the street? Is it maybe just the same as every 1:06 other house? My recommendation is that you get a home that’s in the middle not the lowest and not 1:11 the highest price home on that street so if you are looking at a home that’s 1500 square feet 1:17 and that’s on the larger side and most of them are a thousand to 1200 square feet you just need to 1:22 be careful in terms of what your market value is going to be or maybe we should look at a different 1:27 location that that 1500 square foot bungalow is more common than not common. So another thing you Grading 1:34 should look for when you’re buying a home is the grading. So if you’re looking in a new neighborhood 1:39 a lot of times when you’re buying new the grading is not even done so you’re going to have to do 1:43 that item however if you’re buying in an older neighborhood depending on how old the neighborhood 1:49 is you may be looking at fixing grading issues. So any home in the 50s 60s 70s likely the grading has 1:57 sunk a little bit even the 90s and the early 2000s the grading has sunk. We live in Alberta things 2:04 shift and move all the time if you notice that on concrete there’s mud jacking that kind of are 2:12 different than the rest of the driveway means that the concrete is jacked but that it is no longer 2:18 pushed right down and not even with the garage itself that means the the ground has sunk and 2:24 that’s quite normal but if you need to be fixing that that’s a cost that you need to consider 2:29 when buying in those older neighborhoods, the cost of mud jacking the cost of fixing grading, 2:34 if there’s concrete on the side of the home then you’ll have to mud jack it up if the concrete’s 2:39 not broken, if it’s broken then it’s a bigger job in terms of getting the concrete removed 2:44 and putting in new grading. Now grating can also be just be done with dirt and that needs to be 2:49 done properly as well you don’t just dump a whole bunch of dirt and hope the grading is finished 2:53 and what’s the purpose of the grading? The grading is intended to keep water away from your house 2:59 so if the grading is going towards your house water is going to drain in towards your house 3:04 and pushing water into the basement into the foundation is not a good thing over time because 3:08 then you’re going to end up having water in the basement and that that is something we don’t 3:12 want to happen. Another thing to look for when you’re buying a home is the trees on the street if Trees 3:18 you’re in an older neighborhood there’s probably going to be some tree roots happening down below 3:23 where you cannot see and that’s why we recommend getting a sewer scope when you are buying an 3:27 older home just to make sure that the sewer lines are actually not disturbed by those tree roots and 3:32 then you’ll be able to see if anything needs to be addressed at that home inspection stage. 3:37 Okay so I’ve been talking about the outside of the home now one more thing before we go inside into 3:42 the home is take a look at the shingles if you can tell from coming into the home the shingles are 3:46 just in disrepair and they’re just curled up – time to get new shingles and it’s something that you’re 3:51 going to need to consider for cost. Okay so now we’re inside the house what are we going to look 3:56 for? What do I point out when we show houses to you? We are going to point out the conditions of the 4:00 homes the general condition of the home including the types of “upgrades” because sometimes they’re 4:07 diy hack jobs and they’re not really the greatest upgrades they’ve actually taken away value from 4:11 the home and that’s things such as baseboards that are all cut up and not properly done, 4:17 maybe there’s some really bad patching jobs, maybe the kitchen isn’t completely done properly, venting 4:24 is not done, like those are types of hack jobs and I say hacks because it was not done professionally 4:29 or to the proper standards of building and just cosmetic look so in general also what are we going Smells 4:35 to look at in a home it’s not with our eyes it’s with our nose. Are there smells? What kind of smells? 4:40 Are there smells of moisture? Are there smells of smoke? Is there smells of cannabis? All the smells 4:46 do impact the value of the home so we have to figure out what smells they are if they’re issues 4:52 that we can fix if they’re not issues we can fix and what it means to you as a buyer. Now ideally we 4:57 don’t have any smells in the home so we don’t even want to smell scents like air fresheners because 5:02 that’s always making me wonder what is the seller hiding. Now other things that you want to look for 5:08 in the home that we point out is the age of the windows and if the windows show a crack 5:13 if they’re broken but also the seals are gone on them, if the seals are gone on them then that’s when 5:18 moisture is going to be coming in and drafts are coming into the house. You don’t necessarily need 5:23 to have brand new windows in a older home but you do need to have windows that are making sure that 5:28 air stays outside and the cold air is not coming inside. Another thing I’m going to point out are Floors 5:34 the floors. Now what kind of condition are the floor is in? In the older homes you’ve got the original 5:39 hardwood sometimes hiding underneath the carpet or sometimes they’ve just already been redone. In a 5:44 new home of course the flooring is going to all be new so what kind of flooring is it? Is it the 5:48 luxury vinyl planking that’s very popular right now? Is it lino? Is it tile? Is it carpet? What kind 5:54 of floor is there and what kind of carpet do you want, what kind of underlay do you want, we’ll talk 6:00 all about that in terms of finishings. Now other things to look at in the home whether it’s new 6:05 or old is always look up – look at the ceiling and make sure that we see no signs of moisture and 6:12 how can you tell there’s signs of moisture? Well there’ll be yellowing on the ceiling and cracks on 6:18 the ceiling would also be a very bad thing. The only discrepancy there is if it is a drywall seam 6:24 then that’s okay with time but however yellowing you never want to see because that’s showing 6:29 us that there’s water damage, now when you do an inspection the inspector is going to be able to 6:33 pinpoint if there is active moisture or an active leak and we can kind of dig in further at that 6:39 stage. So also what we’re going to point out when we look at home is what does the floor plan look Floor Plan 6:45 like? What is the layout like? Is it something that works for your family? Is it something that maybe 6:51 needs to be changed and can it get changed? We’ll point out the ideas that we might have on how to 6:56 make this home a better flow for your family once you’ve told us what you’re looking for we can kind 7:01 of figure that out from the photos but we can also tell you in person in terms of what can be done 7:07 what we’ve seen it done in terms of renovations and upgrades. Now if you’re looking for a space 7:13 for a homeschool space or a work from home office or a bonus room space or bigger bedrooms 7:20 we kind of have to take a look at the flow of the house and see if it’s possible to do what 7:24 you’re wanting to do if it’s not already currently done and we also want to look at if it’s a income 7:30 property potential, some people are looking to put suites in the basement, so does the basement have 7:34 the plumbing in place, is it easily accessible, can we put laundry upstairs, can we put it downstairs, 7:39 so looking at the floor plan is going to be really important that’s something that we can potentially 7:45 change but there can be a big price tag depending on what other things that we’re doing in the house. Utility Room 7:50 So another thing we’re going to look at when you’re looking at the home is the age of the 7:54 furnace, hot water tank, electrical panel, that utility room is going to be a tell-all of extra 8:00 money that you may or may not need to spend and you also want to see the condition of that area. 8:05 That is the heart not necessarily like the kitchen, the kitchen is like the heart I guess, utility room is 8:11 like the brain of the house and if the brain is not functional that’s not a good thing so you 8:16 want to make sure that it’s clean in there, there’s no signs of water anywhere, you can see if the 8:22 homeowners have been taking good care and there’s been no neglect in that area. If there’s a ton of 8:27 storage crowded likely people aren’t accessing that regularly to keep it well maintained and 8:33 watch to see if there’s any issues so you want to take a look on that kind of thing we can see 8:38 typically those old furnaces you can tell because of just the color of the furnace, but there’s 8:44 also the stickers that you can look at as well. The other thing you can check on is the furnace ducts 8:49 if you see little black little rubber dots that are in the ducting it indicates that the furnace 8:55 at one point has been cleaned now how recent it depends on if there was a sticker placed on there 9:00 but just has been cleaned at one point. So when you’re looking at the home itself you just want 9:06 to make sure it has good bones now outside good bones you want to know if it’s needing any work 9:11 so cosmetic things is the next thing in terms of if you’re just move in ready, ready to go and if the 9:16 renovations were done nicely and the flow is great then that’s all the things of course that we look 9:21 for with our buyers who just want move in ready home. Now now we were outside talking about grading 9:27 but let’s not forget the backyard is the backyard the size that you want? Is it too large? Is it too 9:32 small? Is there access to the back alley? Do you want to have access to the back alley? 9:37 Also with the garage do you want it attached to the house? and sometimes when the garage is attached to 9:42 the home even though it looks like it’s attached it still doesn’t necessarily mean it’s attached 9:46 to the inside of the house so the older homes have the garage physically attached with the 9:50 door it’s actually from the back and you have to access it from outside to go back into the home. 9:56 So those are just some of the things that you should be looking for when you’re buying a home 10:00 it’s important to look at all these items and of course we guide you along so you don’t have 10:04 to remember this entire list but I wanted to go through roughly what we kind of go 10:08 through and point out to our buyers to let them know what’s a good home and what makes 10:13 a home to walk away from or what’s a home that’s worth buying and and possibly what the homes worth 10:18 going into multiple offers for because that’s become very common right now and you want to 10:23 make sure you have all your ducks in a row so that you know if you want to buy this house 10:27 that this home is good now we can still do a home inspection that’s so important to do when you’re 10:31 buying a home, so the inspectors can look at the home with their eyes and not just our eyes they’re 10:36 going to look beyond the surface of what we can not see and have not had the time to look through 10:41 things. Hopefully that helped if you’re looking to buy home this year and wondering how to navigate 10:45 today’s market make sure to send me a message or contact me and I’d be happy to talk to you. 10:51