5 major things to look for when buying your first home

Buying a home is the biggest financial step a person is going to make in their life. What else costs upwards to $250,000? There’s so much planning and research and things to take into consideration. A lot of new couples do this as their first step into building a life together. I know for myself as I’m currently looking into buying a house and it’s all a big headache, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for. I don’t consider myself to be an expert, but after months of research, I truly believe I know what I’m talking about.

1. Hidden issues

Make sure you’re able to tell a house that needs work. A lot of the time, previous homeowners will do band aid fixes to the house to make things look nice on the outside, when in reality, there may be a hole in the roof or wall that they just have patched up. You have to be cautious before making such a big purchase, band aid fixes are so easily overlooked if they’re pretty on the outside.

2. Heating

Next, you want to make sure you’re going to buy a warm house. This one goes hand in hand with hidden issues. Chances are when you’re going to look at a house, you’re going in the middle of the day, also the warmest time of the day, evenings and nights are the coldest times and when you get the true temperature, the house will hold. If the house is a bit older, you’re going to have to find out how well the house is insulated. The best way to do this is to bring a thermometer with you and test the temperatures in different spots of each room. Also, if the house has thermostats, check them. If the homeowner has them turned up on 30 and the room feels like its 15, there’s an insulation problem.

No one wants to come home to a house without any heating. (Photo by DepositPhotos)

3. Plumbing

Bring someone with you who knows what proper plumbing looks like and how things should be hooked up. If at all possible, bring a plumber. I’ve lived in places with awful plumbing, trust me when I say it is not fun. If there’s bad plumbing in your bathroom, it can get so bad that the smell of sewage can take over your house. Trust me.

4. Foundation

When you walk into a house, look around, look at the walls and look at the window hardware and the door frames, just look at the foundation you have to work with. Don’t buy a house because the walls are a snot green color or because someone wrote on the moldings. Paint fixes that. If you go into a house with good foundation to work with, don’t worry about the colors on the walls or the flooring, all of that is cosmetics and very easy to fix.

5. Home inspection

Have the home inspected, bottom line. They will go through the house with a fine tooth comb, it will cost a bit of money, but I promise you its worth every dime. They will be able to tell you if you’re paying too much for the house or if the house is not worth a cent. Also, getting the house inspected makes it easier to get home insurance, so you’re killing two birds with one stone.

I really hope this post helps aspiring new homeowners. I wish I would have taken some of these things into consideration when I started looking into new homes or even apartments for that matter. I haven’t found a home that quite meet everything I need yet, but the guidelines definitely help and I do use them in every house I look at.

(Featured image by DepositPhotos)

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DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation for writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company I’ve mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.