Transcription
Welcome back to my no-nonsense guide to buying property. In the last episode, I talked about how to search out the most worthwhile properties. Once you've found them, then it's time to line up a viewing. And in this episode, I'm going to be revealing the all-important questions to ask the seller and the estate agent, so you don't waste a minute on that all-important for us to look.
Now, my other must-noted for avoiding wasted time when you find a potential home is to get yourself a Move IQ property report. One of these is that it's a detailed look at any home in the UK, including who owns it, how much they paid for it, current valuation, planning information on the property, and locally, crime rates, school statistics. There's an absolute ton of information in our property reports. Follow the link with this episode, enter the address of the property that you're interested in, and you'll get to know it instantly. It could even uncover things that mean you cross the property off your list altogether. You know, maybe that's a good thing. You want to know all that you can. Information is powerful.
So let's imagine you've had one of the property reports, everything's looking good, and doing your research. But before you view means that you'll be able to ask more pertinent questions and come across therefore as a savvy buyer when you actually are in the viewing, looking around the property. So let's get into the questions to ask the seller. To start with, these should focus on their personal experience of living in at the property.
Number one, well, obvious, why are you selling your house? Um, if they're a household similar to yours and they need more space, well, perhaps the property won't be right for you either. Have they grown out of it? If they've only been there a short time, then why are they moving? Are there problems with neighbors? Or are there problems with the property? Or or is something planned in the area that they don't like? Something coming down the road? I don't know.
Number two, have you done any renovations? Have you done any works? Are there certificates, complete certificates, paperwork to support the work that you did? I think it's really useful to find out what's been done. What have they done? What are the present assessors done? And obviously, the paperwork to support that is really important. But your lawyer, at the end of the day, will cover that off should you get that far. But it is, it's a good question to ask upfront.
Question three, to the vendors or a seller, if you were staying, is there any work that you would want to do to the property? I think that's, I always find that really interesting. Yeah, they're the ones that live in it every day. What would they do? That can also reveal faults, things that need fixing, or or potential opportunities, things that you might not have spotted in terms of what you could do to the house.
Number four, have you found anywhere to move to? And that tells you whether they're in a hurry, or whether they might be open to offers, or whether actually they're quite relaxed and they're not open to offers or not in a hurry.
Number five, what are the monthly bills? What does it cost to actually live in the house? And check the EPC, that's the Energy Performance Certificate, and that tells you how efficient the house is. And they should be provided, or will be provided, by the estate agent as part of the the sales particulars.
Question six, are there any noisy or difficult neighbors? Legally, sellers have to disclose any disputes. But a question upfront could at least uncover a neighbor who's just been a bit of a pain.
Number seven, have there been any structural problems or insurance issues? Or, you know, general issues with the structure of the property? Ask the question.
And finally, question eight, what are the best and worst bits about living in this house? And and one of the best and worst bits about the area? It opens up conversations again. Information is power.
Of course, you might not always be able to meet the seller on a view, in particular, a first viewing. And you'll need to ask the estate agent. In addition, you should also be asking the agent these following questions.
How long has the property been on the market? If that is longer than three to six months, why?
Number two, have there been any rejected offers? Knowing this, if there's been offers, you know, made and rejected, knowing that could leave an opening for your negotiations. And it certainly informs you to a greater extent about where to pitch yours.
Question three, what's the area like? Yes, this is also a question that you'll ask the seller, but the estate agent might have a different perspective. And I just think it's useful, it's interesting to to get different opinions about the area.
Number four, is the seller in a chain? And how many people are involved? Is that chain set up? Is it complete? Really great if you can get an understanding of where that's actually, yeah.
Number five, one of my favorite questions, invite this date agent to justify the asking price. How did they reach that figure? It's really good to put that to them, let them try and sell it to you, see if you believe it.
If you're viewing a flat with a leasehold situation, then make sure you ask who owns the freehold and how long is left to run on the lease. Find out the cost of the annual service charge or the ground rent. And you'll definitely want to know about things like the parking situation, whether there's any storage space, and how repairs to the flats are split. Good if you can get some examples about what they've done in the past. Is there, if they're thinking funnels, there are service charges, there's a management company, try and get a sense of how well the place is maintained by effectively knowing how often maintenance is carried out and when shared areas were last refurbished. And I've also always felt that knowing from the outset whether other are the residents in the building are tenants or owners, and can also help to give you a feel for the place. And my final question on flats is, how good is the soundproofing? Um, because I've seen good ones and I've seen bad ones. Really great if you can get somebody to walk around in the flat above whilst you're viewing, and then you get a proper sense of it for your own needs.
My um, Move IQ property report will uncover a lot of solid information about the house and about the area, such as transport links. But do your own observations. Visit at different times of day. Get involved. It's by doing that, um, that if you're there at different times of the day, you'll get a sense of how busy the road is. You'll get a sense of how easy it is to get a parking spot if there isn't off-street parking, for instance. You'll get a sense of what it's like at night, what it's like at the weekend. And there will be things that are important to you, and perhaps important to you, but not to others, like they're called restaurants, or pubs, or parks, or playgrounds, or sports clubs, or nurseries, things like that.
Yes, I know this might seem like a lot of information to try and gather, but it is potentially your home, the biggest sum of money you're ever going to spend. You want to be confident when you take that decision. You want to be informed. Um, you need to have a really good all-round picture feel of the property. Beyond getting a feel for it by by just walking around, you're starting to get the feeling that this could be the the home for you.
Stay tuned, because in my next episode, I'm going to be talking about how to do a second viewing. Make sure you download my free ebook that accompanies this series. It's completely free. Click the link that comes with this episode, and I'll see you next time. Second viewing. See we come. [Music]