Advice to those looking for homes........

FH and I just moved into our house on Wednesday and we are finding more and more surprises every day. Its been a lot of work and so far the finished products look great but wanted to pass along some things that we should have looked for/asked about.

1. Bathroom - if they have a shower curtain and its shut....PULL IT BACK!!! We pulled it back and laughed our rear ends off. They have all these decals all over the tub, it needs to be siliconed and the curtain and window treatment was covered in mildew. This isn't so bad but in another house it could potentially be hiding a bigger problem.

2. Plunger - if there is a plunger displayed in the bathroom make sure you find out what problems they are having. We fixed ours b/c FH and dad know how to but for someone else this could be costly.

3. Wallpaper - ask if they recently papered and if not ask if they know what is behind it. The people we bought from didn't tell us that there was wood paneling behind the paper in the kitchen. So a small, relatively simple job of removing paper is now a problem b/c of the paneling.

4. Open every door, every window, every closet and look in every crevice. Really be thorough - it'll pay in the end. So far we haven't had too many surprises, we've been lucky. My girlfriend just bought a house and didn't look in the kitchen cabinets and when they moved in and she went to clean them they are completely rotted on the inside and she now has to spend a small fortune to replace them.

Good luck to all those house hunting - hope my tips help!!!!

Thanks for the words of advice! We will be closing on our house soon and I will look everywhere!

That is some good advice. I esp agree with opening all doors. Isn't finding all these surprises lovely?

We have a back door that is rotted shut. Our inspector had told us the bottom frame part was rotted (but more the door step) and we thought no big deal. But later found the door is rotted shut. The whole door and frame needs to be replaced. On closing, they didn't give us a key to the door so we asked for it and they said it was the same as the front door but said they never used it because the sliding glass doors that led to the back were more convenient..we after closing we found why they never used it.

Also, our sprinkler system works but not the timing device and there is no other way to water the front shrubs. Also it isn't up to code. Neither was caught by the inspector. So now to bring it to code and to fix the timing device - will be another $500! This year we watered by hand - next year we will overhaul the whole system...urrgghh! love the unexpected surprises!

The best way to avoid some of these problems is also to get a good home inspector. I've seen inspectors spend an hour and I've also been to home inspections that have lasted 4 hours!! ...but those are always the ones that those little problems are discovered in and taken care of before the closing.

Thanks for the Help! We are doing our last Walk Through our recently purchased home on Wed. FH & I will be sure to take you up on that advice.

Another Place to Look - under area rugs
Dont be shy you are probably paying a ton of $$$ for your new home. As the old saying goes -- Let the Buryer Beware!

I am dreading the wallpaper thing. We have it in EVERY room in our new house. We are closing soon but not moving in till the beginning of next year and I am dreading the wallpaper. It has all been up for about a million years!!!