What questions to ask when buying a house

10/29/2021

First of all, if you decide to rely on an agency to search for your home, make sure it has been in the area for a long time and that word of mouth is positive.

In many cases, the agency is the best choice as it deals with the management of the sale in the various stages:

- It ensures that all documents are in order by checking them with the municipal technical office and identifying any inconsistencies thanks to the experience gained over the years and the studies undertaken on the subject.

- It mediates the relationship between buyer and owner in the event that disputes arise, regulating the purchase with an official compromise signed by both parties. Any failure to comply with the conditions by one of the two parties will be managed by the agency which will resolve the solution by protecting the interests of the injured party and restoring the balance.

In spite of the more reliable agencies, however, there are some that focus only on immediate gain, relying on a sales agent who will point out only the positive things and omit the most unpleasant ones in order to close the deal.

On the contrary, if you go to analyze the house together with the owner, it is much more likely that he will tell you the entire history of the house, listing the various changes made over time and the more technical characteristics such as the arrangement and age of the systems, revisions carried out and various strengths and weaknesses.

We always recommend, if possible, to also consult friends or relatives in the choice (you know a thousand eyes are better than two), especially if you know someone who has knowledge in the field of masonry, this because he could notice structural defects not visible to inexperienced eyes. .

Having said that, to anyone you trust to buy your home, be it private or agency, there are questions to ask extremely useful to understand if it is right for you or not.

- If you are buying an apartment in a building the first thing to understand is how much the condominium expenses are; sometimes the price of the house is tempting not taking into account the fact that maybe it is so low because it is in an old condominium complex that does not have the typical characteristics of insulation and energy saving of a new structure. Precisely in this regard there is a second question of equal importance to the one just mentioned, namely whether maintenance is planned in the building. Even just a simple renovation of the facade in anticipation or already approved in the last condominium meetings and therefore in the process of being launched could cause you a large outlay of money in relation to your share as you are now owners of the property.

The things to check before buying any type of property are:

- Possible irregularities: the documents and the floor plan found through a joint search may not coincide with the real structure of the house. This is because over the years the owner, unwittingly or not, may have carried out interventions in an abusive way. And here we find works that can be carried out but for which no applications have been submitted for the start of the works and for which it will be necessary to pay an amnesty and start the practices for changes to the plan, or windows or openings that do not respect the criteria dictated by the superintendency in the case of historic villages or that do not coincide with the right aero-illuminating ratio dictated by the regulations that must therefore even be closed because it is not possible to heal them or even in the worst case you find yourself with bathrooms built in areas with different destination and not modifiable (in this case it will be necessary to completely dismantle them) or apartments obtained in the attic with areas that are too low to obtain habitability. In this case it will be necessary to completely revolutionize the environment to bring it up to standard, on pain of the unsaleable property.

- Standard systems and regular roof: the various systems, whether they are electrical, plumbing, etc. they are those that usually escape the buyer as they are hidden in the walls and flooring, but for this very reason it is necessary to ensure that they are up to standard, certified and functioning. The age of a system can affect its proper functioning, as well as a roof that is too dated and has never been revisited over time, thus risking serious damage to the structure due to water infiltration.

- Subdivision of the rooms: often when you are inside a structure you imagine it once finished and renovated according to your tastes. But if the problem were, for example, a tiny kitchen and you wanted to expand it by creating an open space with the living room, you should make sure that the wall to be knocked down is not load-bearing. In that case, the situation could still be solved with the creation of an arch to unload the weight or the installation one of a beam to support the upper floor, preventing any sagging. Of course it would make the job feasible, but it would certainly have other costs than removing a simple and minute partition.

- Traceability of the property price: knowing how long the house has been on sale could affect the bargaining margin of the final price. A house that has been for sale for a long time could potentially be sold for a lower price.

These are just some of the questions to ask before buying a property and are the ones that could save us from serious problems to face in the future, but obviously to avoid unpleasant surprises and regrets after the purchase, as we have recommended above, we must pause to examine every detail and also consult trusted people to have a more complete check. Having said that, we wish you a good search for your new home and hope that it will exactly match your needs.