Don't Buy A House Without Doing These Essential Checks First!

There are few things in life more exciting than being able to buy a new home.

It gives you and your family a fresh start and a place to really call your own. Not only that but, if it's your first home then it puts you firmly on the property ladder, something not a lot of people are in a position to do in the modern age. However, if you think you've found the perfect place, it's a good idea to take a moment and pause. Even the best house in the world can end up having some issues with it down the line. With that in mind, here are some essential checks that you need to make before buying a home.

The Foundations

A house is like a relationship, if the foundations aren't strong then the whole thing is going to come crumbling down pretty quickly. Of course, with a house, that can be very literal. A home might seem like a perfect place but an attractive presentation can often hide a multitude of sins, one of the most serious being structural issues. Make sure that you have the property thoroughly surveyed so that you don't end up in a position where you're left with your very own pile of rubble instead of a home.

Uninvited Guests

If there's one thing that can take a house from dream come true to living nightmare in an instant, it's the presence of pests. From creepy crawlies to unexpected furry friends, an infestation in your home is a lot of people's worst nightmares. That's why building and pest inspections are so important. You need to be able to be 100% sure that your new home is entirely pest free on the day that you move in.    

The Neighborhood

If you've found a home that seems truly perfect and, for some reason, it's a whole lot cheaper than anywhere else you've seen, that should be setting alarms bells off in your mind. One of the most common reasons for this is that the area that the property is in isn't all that great. The best way to know whether that's the case is to visit the property at different times of day and night. That way you can see how much noise there is on the street, how busy it is, and what kinds of things are going on there.

A lot of people have a tendency to skip these kinds of things because they simply want to get the whole process over with right away. Whether this is because you've been trying to find a home for a long time and you just want it over with, or because you've just got a really good feeling about a property and want to move in as soon as you possibly can. However, you need to rein those feelings in. Buying a house is simply too much of a financial and personal commitment to take lightly and you have to be sure that you're making the right decision.

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This is a contributed article written for WhimMagazine.com