An Essential Guide to Viewing Property
By Max Birkin for House of Henley
The ‘house hunt’ has been somewhat simplified by television; a couple with 2.4 children and a Labrador need more space, so they look at three decent sized semis in Balham and end up buying the first one they viewed because “it gave us that feeling”. Other central tenets of TV property searches include scene-setting shots of slightly dodgy-looking high streets, fantastical wishlists (two bedrooms, a home gym and outdoor space for under £300,000 in Zone 3) and the obligatory pre-offer pint in a local pub. For better or worse, most of us take part in a rather different sort of house-hunting – looking at 462 properties on Rightmove (including houseboats) before only booking one actual ‘real-life’ viewing where the estate agent tails you round the house like a hungry dog. Neither method is particularly effective, so it might be helpful to take heed of the following few tips. After all, house hunting is essentially shopping for the most expensive and financially important purchase of your life so far, so being a little more thorough does pay dividends.
Be prepared
Picture Credit: Furnished by Anna
Happily, we live in the digital age, so with a few taps we can view all the sold prices for houses within a 5-mile radius of the property you are interested in, read the full OFSTED report for the local comp and check if Tom Hardy has been sighted in the café down the road. Also online and worth a view are any planning applications that your potential future neighbours might have made (especially useful if you are considering a loft conversion or side-return infill or the like), as well as local council guidelines for, say, protecting the trees that line the street, or prohibiting additional buildings like garages or hen coops. Slightly grimmer but arguably more important is looking at crime statistics for the area – do check car thefts, burglaries, knife crimes and so on in your search area, and compare these to the national average. The best thing to do if you are not already familiar with the area you are searching in is to spend a weekend or two frequenting local haunts, chatting to anyone friendly and trying out the butcher, baker and candlestick maker. Otherwise, Google Earth remains a hugely valuable resource, with Streetview being a particularly useful asset (check out the standard of box-hedging on the street from your sofa, glass of wine in hand) but remember that this is usually a year or two out of date. However, human interaction does trump the internet, and the most valuable resource is a nosy neighbour, so if you’re brave enough then knock at the door of whoever twitched their net curtains most aggressively and ask some questions about the vendors, the local area and the community.
Be thorough
Picture Credit: Zoë Zimmer / House & Garden
A viewing should not consist of a leisurely walk around the property, guided entirely by the estate agent and peppered with comments along the lines of ‘ooh ahh what lovely cornicing you have’. It should last a good twenty-thirty minutes (obviously longer if a substantial house) and you should be as thorough as Danny Ocean casing out a casino. Look at the front doors, the gardens, peek through windows, look for any sign of how well your neighbours look after their homes. Ideally, you want to be buying the worst house on the street so you can renovate it and bring it in line with the other properties; you do not want to be the only house without an array of broken white goods on its drive. Open cupboard doors, examine grouting, lift up rugs, turn on the shower and flush the loo. If it feels a little wrong, you are doing it right, although maybe draw the line at opening underwear drawers and going through the bins. You must do at least two viewings and ideally these should be at different times of day. The house may look beautiful when bathed in August sunshine, but on a rainy afternoon you might find it rather different (not to mention potential leaks you might miss). If you are considering having work done, then do not hesitate to bring your builder along on a viewing with you, to add some realism to your grand plans for a rooftop pool and basement spa. You don't need to totally ape Kirstie Allsopp's style - cheerily banging on interior walls to ascertain whether they are structural or not, before exclaiming 'I'd knock this right through' - but you do want to get a feel for the potential of the space.
Be annoying
Picture Credit: tff architects
Often, we avoid asking trickier questions like ‘why are the vendors selling’ or why does the back bedroom smell of raw sewage’ for fear of seeming rude. This is ridiculous; you are buying a house from the estate agent, not with him, and if they don’t get a little sweaty under the collar than you haven’t done the viewing right. Ask the hard questions: reel off your statistics on local burglaries, enquire about problems with the neighbours, find out if the vendors are in a good position to sell. You will naturally be getting a surveyor’s report done if you proceed with an offer, but it doesn’t hurt to check for damp and ask about Japanese knotweed yourself. Obviously try not to irritate the agent so much that he later ignores your emails; there is a way of asking questions politely but firmly without raising anyone’s hackles. Copy Emily Maitlis’ pleasant but unyielding technique and you’ll have the estate agent blurting out information like a heated cabinet member. Remember, English politesse is not going to lull you to sleep at night after a 6-lane bypass is built 20 metres from your door, and it is doubtful that it will help out at all if it turns out the gentleman two doors down has previously starred on Channel 5’s The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door.
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