Things to Look For Before You Purchase a Home

home buying checklist

While purchasing a home can be a wonderful thing, if you don't do your due diligence when it comes to checking things out beforehand you may find yourself in a bit of a mess. Below you will find a few things that you should look for before you purchase a home.

  1. If you go to look at a home and the house seems smaller than the listed square footage you may want to get someone to check it for you. It isn't likely that a seller of a home will out and out lie about the square footage of their home but they might include things that shouldn't be included in the total such as attic space or garage areas.

  2. Another thing you should check out before you purchase a home is crime in that particular area. You can do this by looking online at such sights as Trulia but you can also call the local police department in that area and ask point blank what the crime rate is there. You can also check for registered sex offenders to see if any might live nearby. Once you find out these things it may change whether or not you actually want to purchase that home.

  3. If the home you are looking at is in a neighborhood that has an HOA you need to check into all the details surrounding the home owner's association. These details might make or break the deal for you.

  4. Be sure not to pass up the pest inspection before you purchase a home. Sometimes folks will skip this part of the inspection to hurry up the process of home buying. This is a very important step in home buying that can potentially cause you to be sorry you bought the house in the first place if you don't have it done.

  5. Lastly be sure to talk to those who know the house or live near the house and ask them if there are any weird stories about it such as a death in the home or rumors of ghosts. While this may seem silly, it is my guess that no one wants to purchase a home with either of these issues.


If you do your best to get the answers to all of your questions about a particular house before you buy it, you will likely be happy with your purchase.

Courtesy Huntsville AL Real Estate Broker Mike Manosky.

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