6 Questions to Ask When House Hunting

This week, my room mate and I started looking at houses to move into after our time at the dorms has expired. We have gone to a couple of open houses and will be going to a couple more but by knowing the questions you want to ask and questions that are important as to the value of the house you can really make an impression on the realtor in a way that will give you respect in the environment. Yes its intimidating as a 20 something college kid but the rational behind our decision is that it would cost us just as much money to pay rent as it would to pay the mortgage, so why not get a return on our money? So here is a list of some questions you can ask and the pros and cons of each.

1) What did the owners pay in property tax + specialties last year?
Obviously when buying a house the biggest concern is can you afford the mortgage payment or not. But a lot of people don't stop to calculate the property taxes and specialties into their monthly payments. The rational behind this is that if you budget for the taxes each month then at the end of the year when you need to pay X amount in taxes you have that money saved up and ready to go whereas if you don't save that money in your monthly payments you may be scavenging the couch for extra pennies. Also, make sure you are able to set aside money each month for unexpected costs such as a broken window, plumbing issues, or roofing issues.

2) What type of heating/ air is in the house?
This is an important question because how your home is heated and cooled is going to be essential in your monthly utility costs as well as your own information of what it might be to replace it if it breaks or even routine maintenance that may need to be done.

3)When were the windows last replaced?
For us up here in the North this is especially important because if our windows are not properly insulated/ installed we can loose hundreds of dollars each month in heating costs and the same amount in the summer. When is it -30 the last thing you want is that cold air slipping into your home and making your furnace do double time. Also, if the windows are in bad shape that can be a good reason for you to negotiate the price in your favor.

4) When was the house built?
The year built is extremely important just in the fact that older homes tend to have more issues. You want to make sure that if you buy the house you are comfortable assuming the risk of the older structure that can potentially turn into a money pit. However, some of those older homes have great bones and can make for a really great fixer-upper investment so use your best judgement and maybe get a second opinion. Blinded by love is what they say right?

5) What is the price per sq ft of the house?
Obviously location is going to play a huge role in this one. But you want to make sure that if you are in a location that the $/sf is comparable otherwise someone has their price way too high and this is a good way to see the big price tag in another light. It also can give you another pro or con when you are narrowing between homes.

6) Does it come with the appliances?
Being college kids this is a HUGE plus for us. Not having to worry about taking out a huge loan while trying to figure out how we are going to cook our food and wash our clothes is a definite positive. But be careful about what appliances you get and that they aren't trying to pawn off Grandma Jean's old cook top off to you just so it can cause you trouble.

So these are what we think 6 important questions are when finding a house and there are definitely more out there. As we continue this adventure we will be sure to keep updating with tips and tricks that we find along the way. Are there any other important questions that you think should be asked?

With love,
Tinsel & Tulle