10 Warning Signs Before Buying A House: Be A Thorough Inspector

Before buying a house, you should look out for various warning signs. As someone who has purchase multiple homes since 2003, let me share 10 main warning signs to look for.

With real estate demand so strong post-pandemic, every buyer must be a thorough home inspector. The last thing you want to do is bid an enormous amount of money for a home and then have to come up with large unexpected costs.

After inspecting hundreds of houses and buying and selling multiple properties over the years, let me share with you some sneaky things sellers deploy to make a house look better than it really is.

The more tips you know before buying a house, the better. A house is likely going to be your biggest financial asset. And if you’re going to take out debt, then all the more reason to beware of as many warning signs as possible.

Warning Signs Before Buying A House

Selling a property is stressful. Anything can happen during the ratification process, especially if you accept a no-financing contingency and no-inspection contingency offer.

Your goal as the seller is to make your property look as good as possible in as cost efficient manner as possible. Therefore, the cheapest and easiest things to do are paint, change light fixtures, clean, and redo the floors. As a buyer, you need to look beyond the cosmetics to see what’s really going on.

Here are the 10 warning signs before buying a house. They are not the end all be all. If you like the house, just be aware and negotiate the price accordingly. Everything is generally fixable when it comes to a home. But you need to have a good understanding of how much things cost to fix.

These warning signs can easily be discovered by you. You can then hire a professional home inspector to look through the issues as well.

Here are some warnings to look for before buying a house.

1) Exterior cracks and tilts.

The inside can smell fresh from that wonderful floor varnish and paint, but the exterior could cost you a fortune if you don’t pay attention.

Here’s an example of a Victorian house in San Francisco that was purchased for $1.45 million. It looks OK, right? But when the owner went to get a permit to remove some decayed siding and a rotted door, he found more serious foundation issues.

Below is what the house looks like a year later. What went from fixing up some siding ended up being a complete demolition of the entire structure! Why? Because very often when you start rehabbing a property, the deeper you dig, the more problems arise. Once you’re in there, you figure you might as well replace more and more stuff until you might decide to demolish the entire structure.

If you didn’t initially budget to spend six figures destroying the house as a buyer, your financial situation will be seriously compromised. On the other hand, if you did have plans to sneak a demolition in to save on permit fees to build a massive structure for a flip, then maybe you’ll be just fine. Just make sure to have a wad of cash to pay off the building department employee who has to approve your new structure!

Bring a leveler, preferably with a laser pointer. Make sure the cracks aren’t much more than 1/4 inch wide. If they are, you should get a structural engineer to inspect. A lot of sellers will attempt to mud over and paint the cracks, so look out for a paint or surface mismatch as well.

2) Ownership history. 

Just like when you see a resume which shows a new job every year, a home with high turnover is also a serious warning sign. I consider high turnover as any home with an average ownership length of three years or less per owner. For perspective, the average length of ownership for a home in America today is about nine years. You can easily check homeownership turnover online.

It’s really hard to truly know what it’s like to live in a home until after you’ve taken possession. My biggest fear about buying my old SF rental property was that it was on a busy street next to the busiest street in all of San Francisco. My then girlfriend and I camped out for hours during the day and evening before making the purchase.

Yet even then, once we took ownership, we discovered we had underestimated the constant honking, rattling manhole cover, and tremors from the traffic. I ended up spending $10,000 for sound deadening windows that were installed behind the original windows which I also replaced with dual panes for another $10,000.

Having multiple owners in a short period of time is one of the biggest warning signs before buying a house. It should really make you wonder why the previous owners didn’t hold the property for longer.

3) Look for water damage concealed by paint. 

If you conceal water damaged areas with paint, you trap the moisture in the walls that will likely lead to mold. Black mold is unhealthy to breathe. Look carefully at the underside of drawers and sinks in the kitchen. Look at the base of the tubs and toilets. One of the biggest culprits is the sheetrock underneath window sills. If you see soft or warped sheetrock, you know there are leaks.

During my 10 years of ownership, twice I hired a handyman to cut out the sheetrock, replace with new sheetrock, mud, sand, and then paint. In preparation for my sale, I also did some of my own patching and sanding work as well. Nevertheless, I still had to disclose the leaks in my disclosure package so they couldn’t use the lack of information to back out.

4) Uneven or bouncy floors.

Bring a marble to an open house and place the marble around different areas of the floor of each room. The older the house, the more important it is to do the marble test to see how uneven the floors are. Sometimes a house will aggressively settle, creating a hump in the middle.

Deflections may be costly to fix because you’ve got to rip out the existing floor, correct the support columns, find a matching floor, and finish it to match the original flooring. And if there are very uneven floors, foundation work might also be needed.

It is natural to have uneven floors for older homes that have settled over time. In fact, an older home where the foundation has settled may be safer than a new home where the earth has not yet had a chance to shift. If the previous homeowner has obviously done foundation work, like install a concrete I-beam and a steal beam for support, you are likely good.

Either way, you need to make sure during the ownership history, the owner has done something to bolster up the foundation. Concrete I-beams and steal-beams are always good. So is earthquake proofing the home.

5) Beware of room fresheners. 

Some stinky people wear deodorant or perfume. Therefore, some stinky houses are often sprayed or decorated with scented candles or potpourri. Your mission is to find out whether there is an insidious odor emanating somewhere in the house. It could be a leaky pipe, mold, sewage, cat and dog pee, etc.

6) Beware when music is playing in each room.

The agent/seller is trying to mask the noisiness outside. I know, because this is exactly what I did when I had potential buyers come over. I turned on the central fan to create some white noise and played some music in the master bedroom. Insist that all music and AC be turned off so you can determine the noise level yourself.

7) Areas the seller won’t let you see.

If a seller won’t allow access to the crawlspace or a room in the property until you are under contract, they probably have something to hide. The listing agent should let you see and inspect everything. Otherwise, this is a big warning sign to be aware of.

8) Sellers providing incentives to waive inspection.

There is no reason to waive inspection unless there is something big to hide. Always have an inspection contingency because it is your leverage to get out of a deal or negotiate your price lower.

That said, in a strong housing market, putting in a home inspection contingency may make your offer uncompetitive. Therefore, if you do waive the home inspection contingency, make sure you thoroughly inspect the house during each visit before putting in an offer.

9) No permits for work done.

Doing a lot of remodeling without permits is one of the largest warning signs before buying a house. If the seller hasn’t used any permits, what other shortcuts could the seller be doing without telling you?

You should always ask to see the Report of Residential Building Record aka 3R Report. The 3R report is like the report card for your property. If the seller says they added a new deck, the new deck should be in the 3R report. If it’s not, then there is a chance the deck was not built up to code, and may, therefore, be unsafe.

You should have your inspector thoroughly inspect everything that was done without a permit.

There are some things that really don’t need a permit, such as remodeling a bathroom or changing windows. You can easily tell whether the work has been done right or wrong. But for major structural and electrical work, a permit is very much preferred.

The biggest reasons why homeowners don’t get a permit are due to cost, time, and ongoing higher property taxes.

10) Spray painted hedges.

Who the heck would spray paint their hedges? It looks so fake. Yet here I was, minding my own business on an afternoon stroll when I saw a realtor do just that. They also bought new grass for their once dead front lawn. Smart on the natural grass, but not so smart on the spray. Curb appeal is very important. But it must be done right. If they are taking this shortcut, what other shortcuts could they be taking?

Be Super Vigilant With Your Inspection

Now that you know the warning signs before buying a house, you can now buy with more confidence.

Each time you visit a property you want to buy, put your inspector’s hat on. Test the electricity and water. Inspect the foundation. Look at the electrical box and see if it is properly labeled. Bring a marble and a needle to inspect the floors and sheetrock. Look at the ceilings to see if there is any new paint spots. Don’t forget to bring a notepad too.

A good disclosure package will highlight all the problems of the property. But it’s up to you to verify the problems are what they say they are, and not something worse. You should make it your mission to find even more problems and use them as leverage when negotiating.

After coming up with a detailed list that needs fixing, you’ve also got to come up with a detailed remodeling budget if you plan to redo the bathrooms, kitchen, and so forth. This is when you can negotiate on price before ratification or after ratification.

Write a price concession letter if you find too many things wrong with the home, but you still want to buy. If you keep detailed records of your finds and present them to the seller, the seller should be amenable to some type of compromise. The last thing the seller wants is for the deal to fall out of escrow.

Also consider your short and long term housing needs. Your forever home may be a great fit now, but those needs could likely change down the road.

My Previous House

Part of the reason why I sold my old rental house was because I didn’t want to spend more money fixing it up. The house was on a busy street, so no matter how nice I made it, I knew manny potential buyers would balk at the location.

My kitchen and a couple bathrooms hadn’t been remodeled in 25 years. My HVAC unit was 20 years old. Further, my roof had a couple of weak points, which after 12 years, needed some professional maintenance beyond me getting up there and spraying everywhere with a roof patch. I didn’t want to spend $200,000 – $300,000 updating the house, especially because it was a rental.

Although home prices should continue to do well over the long run, I’m happy I sold to reduce my homeownership headaches. The sale proceeds have all been re-invested in completely passive investments.

Inspect A Home Thoroughly

Always take your time to properly inspect a home before buying. Find a professional inspector or someone who is at least knowledgeable about the home construction and remodeling industry. You should be able to go back multiple times to inspect the home, take pictures, and take videos.

Finally, carefully read all the disclosure documents. The seller and the selling agent is required by law to disclose as much history of the property and the work done as possible. If you want to understand more a particular disclosure statement, simply ask.

Take your time in carefully evaluating a property. A real estate purchase will be one of the largest purchases you will make in your life. If there are other warning signs before buying a house we should know about, I’d love to hear them.

Real Estate Investing Recommendation

If you’re looking to invest in real estate, take a look at Fundrise, one of the leading real estate crowdfunding platforms today. They operate several private eFunds that allows you to diversify into various types of commercial and residential real estate opportunities across the country. It’s free to sign up and explore.

For individual commercial real estate opportunities, take a look at CrowdStreet. CrowdStreet primarily focuses in real estate investment opportunities in 18-hour cities, those cities with lower valuations and faster growth due to demographic shifts.

With work from home now commonplace, it is likely more people will escape expensive and densely populated areas like NYC to lower cost areas of the country. CrowdStreet is also free to sign up and explore.

I’ve personally invested $810,000 in real estate crowdfunding to diversify my real estate holdings and earning income 100% passively. Real estate accounts for about $150,000 of my estimated $310,000 in passive income.

Shop Around For A Lower Mortgage

To take advantage of record-low interest rates, check out Credible, one of the leading mortgage lending marketplaces where qualified lenders compete for your business. It’s free and takes less than three minutes to get real quotes.

I was able to refinance my mortgage to a 7/1 ARM at 2.625% with no fees. Mortgage rates are low, but are ticking up. Take advantage before rates go higher.

Updated for 2022 and beyond. Real estate demand is strong due to record-low mortgage rates and the permanent work from home trend. As an investor, you want to buy real estate for capital and rental price appreciation.

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