If you’re a first-time homebuyer, you obviously won’t be too experienced with what to expect. Purchasing a home is s tricky, long and complicated process. You’ll probably need all the help and advice you can get. With that being said, when you’re looking to purchase a home, there are a variety of things that you should be looking out for that will act as warning signs. Here are a few of the most common red flags to pay attention to when going house hunting.
Insects/Pests
So you’ve just walked through your very first showing and you feel pretty confident about the house. It’s large enough to accommodate your growing family, it’s close to work and it simply feels right. However, you’d noticed several insects, from roaches to house centipedes. Who cares, it’s only a few insects, right? They’ll die out and you won’t have to worry about them, right? Wrong. Admittedly, it could have been a coincidence that there were a few pesky insects in the house, but you should certainly do your due diligence and follow up on the matter if you decide to go through with purchasing the house. What may seem like a few harmless bugs could lead to a serious infestation. These infestations are incredibly dangerous, as they can lead to thousands of dollars in repairs and, depending on the pests, health hazards.
Fresh Paint
So you’ve walked through another house and it seems perfect! You’d noticed that the current owners had buckets of paint in random rooms throughout the house, but it didn’t seem as they’d painted entire rooms, only small portions. No big deal, right? Wrong. While it may seem harmless at first, it very well could be a sign of a much larger problem. If you see buckets of paint lying about the house and only small portions of the house being painted, the owners could be trying to hide something. Make sure to address the situation.
Poor Neighborhood
When purchasing a home, you cannot solely focus on the home itself; you must also look at the surrounding neighborhood. If you decide to purchase the house, you will be a part of that neighborhood. Do your research on your neighbors and see who exactly is living around you. Don’t just look at who you’re living with, look at how they are living. If the neighborhood seems run down and dangerous, you may not want to move in at all. It could make things difficult to sell the house in the future.