Things to look for when considering a property

Lupus said:
Actually on the bathroom you can go to 15k on small bathrooms. Did that in October last year.
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Not impossible, no. But if you buy an older house and you need to replace those old baby blue or pink bathtub + toilet + basin combos complete with the orange tiles with pictures of flower on them... :P
 
Toxxyc said:
Not impossible, no. But if you buy an older house and you need to replace those old baby blue or pink bathtub + toilet + basin combos complete with the orange tiles with pictures of flower on them... :p
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I know the ones you're talking about! We've seen a couple of otherwise decent houses listed but with an orange bathroom, the wife was seriously not impressed...
 
newby_investor said:
Inspired by @bwana's thread on rainwater harvesting, the thought occurred to me to ask you all forumites if you have any insights on choosing a property?

I am currently planning on selling my flat in Cape Town's Southern Suburbs in the hope of a free-standing house with a bit of a garden and some more space for the kids to run around. I've just realised that I know very little about potential pitfalls. Property viewings are typically "ooh look how shiny the kitchen countertops are", which is obviously a factor for those interested in such things, but it concerns me that of the handful of properties that I've viewed over the last little while, I didn't really look very critically at things which aren't obvious but might cause problems later. I didn't really know what to look for.

What "gotchas" are there? Has anyone bought (or even rented) a property that they've later regretted? Why?

(I think there are factors to consider such as maintenance problems - if the paint is just in poor condition, you can repaint, but if there's an inherent design problem with the house that a bit of plaster and some paint won't fix, then that's a bigger issue.)
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Is there Fiber ?


/Close thread...
 
newby_investor said:
I know the ones you're talking about! We've seen a couple of otherwise decent houses listed but with an orange bathroom, the wife was seriously not impressed...
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We would have bought a house not long ago, but the bathrooms were TERRIBLE. One was huge, but baby powder blue all over. The other one was carpeted, thick, heavy, long-haired carpet all over the bathroom floor, complete with a sunken bath and everything. Was horrifying.
 
Toxxyc said:
We would have bought a house not long ago, but the bathrooms were TERRIBLE. One was huge, but baby powder blue all over. The other one was carpeted, thick, heavy, long-haired carpet all over the bathroom floor, complete with a sunken bath and everything. Was horrifying.
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Ok I would draw the line at carpeted. Horrible idea for a bathroom.

I personally don't care about the colour of the tiles, so long as they aren't in bad condition and everything works and flushes properly.
 
I'd be more worried about the physical size of the place. A tiny bathroom can't be much done about, but if you have just a little bit of space it's not hard to make it really modern.
 
1. Check what the house sold for (when current owners bought it) and when before making an offer. People BS and having this info can assist when you about to make an offer.

2. Don't ever go look at a house in the evening.

3. As mentioned, check out neighbours and street before you buy. I've looked at loads of homes that are for sale at bargain prices, but then there is a mechanic living 2 doors down revving cars all day.

3. Check Google maps traffic at peak times.

4. Ask for a recent copy of utilities so you can see rates & taxes and average consumption costs.

5. Don't believe anything the agent tells you. They are simply chasing a commission check and they will lie to get a sale. Do your own checks to set your mind at ease. Check and double check. If something does not feel right make it conditional to the sale. (ie: roof sagging, OTP is condition to 3rd party inspection)

6. Each street has a ceiling value at the upper end for a house. Don't ever buy the most expensive home in a street, because it will leave you with little headroom if/when you want to sell one day. Furthermore you will be restricted if you want to do renovations because you will never get that money back.
 
Toxxyc said:
We would have bought a house not long ago, but the bathrooms were TERRIBLE. One was huge, but baby powder blue all over. The other one was carpeted, thick, heavy, long-haired carpet all over the bathroom floor, complete with a sunken bath and everything. Was horrifying.
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Ours when we moved in had horrible blue tiles, luckily new tiles, toilet and shower tiles didn't cost too much as it was only a 5sqm bathroom
 
I will never sell my flat for a house, the maintenance on free standing properties is just too much.
 
  • Traffic
  • CPT Southern Suburbs = Off street parking for two cars
  • Damp
  • Solid roof
Compliant electrical = On most older buildings If the electrical system has been updated, there will be a electrical sticker on the outside of the DB board (our house is over 100 years old and has a wooden DB box) As far as I understand it for it to be compliant it needs to have this sticker on the outside indicating its the DB board. So a quick way to tell if its recently been checked.

Bathrooms and kitchens can be redone, bedroom sizes was also key to us buying.
 
Splinter said:
It doesn't cost R30000 to maintain them. Trust me, I know.
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No not at all. But if people neglect them it's about that much to clean off the old crap and apply new paint.
 
I actually discovered that there's lots of good tips in this thread, didn't see it initially when I wanted to see if the topic existed:

Offer to purchase question

Going to keep it as short as possible. We are in the market for a new home. Went looking at a few places and liked one a lot. But house does need some work and area is not exactly our preferred location. Original listing price was way out of feeling with the market and area. We decided to...
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za
 
Just to add - if roof is pitched, climb into the ceiling space and check for any mould/ripped plastic/dodgy electrical cables etc etc. Went to look at a fairly decent place in Pta East lately - climbed into the roof space and immediately told the wife it's a no-go!
 
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