If you’re selling your home with us, you’ll already have our handout with practical checklists you can use when buying.

Here’s a few things we tell our clients to ask when viewing.

Our favourite questions to ask sellers:

• Why are you moving
• How many viewings have you had
• How many offers have you had
• How long has it been on the market
• Have you had any neighbour disputes, who lives nextdoor/upstairs/downstairs?
• What renovations have been done? (and who done them? You’ll feel more confident knowing that qualified people have fitted kitchens, or built extensions)
• How old is the boiler
• When was it last rewired?
• What is included with the sale – white goods, curtains, blinds etc?
• If you don’t have an obvious parking area, ask. Is there allotted parking, is there resident permits?
• Have you got a fireplace? Is it gas? Is it safe to use? Anything you should know about it?
• Has there ever been any issues with subsidence?

Some other tips:

• Google the address – just to see if anything pops up – it might help you find out anything that happened in the house or street.
• Look up. Check the ceilings and the corners of the rooms for damp and mould. This could be an issue from bad plumbing or ingress from external walls. This even happens in new homes, don’t assume it only happens in old properties.
• Look behind and inside. Have a check behind things that you can. Inside cupboards, behind kitchen units, etc. Does anything smell? Damp or musty?
• Flick the switches. Do they work? Throw on the cooker and make sure things work that you are getting to keep.

These tips are all in our handy booklet that you can download for free.