Are you buying a different home?

 

If yes, then you might want to check out some home problems that might have been hidden by repair and maintenance to avoid additional costs for you. Here are five places to look for problems before buying a house:

 

 

1. Exterior Tilts and Cracks

 

The inside of a home can have a fresh scent due to new paint and floor vanish. However, the external parts of the home could lead to a lot of expenses if you fail to be cautious. Hence, bring a level to the house and ensure it has a laser pointer. Ensure that the cracks are at most a quarter inch wide. If they are more than that, obtain a structural engineer for inspection. Many sellers try to paint and mud over the cracks. Therefore, also search for surface or paint mismatch.

 

 

2. Water Damage Hidden by Paint

 

When water damaged areas of the house are hidden with paint, moisture is trapped in the walls and will result to mold. Mold, especially black mold, is not healthy to breathe and can lead to health problems for asthma patients. Search the underside of sinks and drawers in the kitchen. Also, check out the base of the toilets and tubs. Check underneath the window sills for warped or soft sheetrock, and, if any of these are present, you will know leaks exist.

 

 

3. Bouncy or Uneven Floors

 

During an open house, carry a marble so that you can place it around various areas of the floor on every room to check how uneven the floors are. It is more important to marble-test the floor of an older house. At times, a house aggressively settles to form a hump at the center. Deflections are costly to correct since you must demolish the current floor, fix the support columns, find a matching floor, and complete it to match the original flooring. In case of extremely uneven floors, it is necessary to carry out foundation work.

 

 

4. Foundation Issues

 

Most houses have hairline cracks that show the home is settling into its position. However, significant gaps indicate a larger problem with the foundation. Also look out for sticking windows and doors and visible cracks over window frames.

 

 

5. Wonky Windows

 

Search for lopsided frames on windows and raise and lower the windows to ensure they slide smoothly. If the windows stick while sliding, it could either indicate poor installation or foundation problems. If you fail to check for this, you will end up buying new windows since that’s the only solution.

 

 

Conclusion

 

If you are buying another house, check for these five home problems and you will escape the expensive solutions required to fix them. While some houses can be fixed at a reasonable cost, other houses that have very weak foundations result to the demolition of the whole house and reconstruction, which can be super costly. Therefore, no matter how small or big the problem is, it is good to identify it before signing the paperwork for your new house. This will prevent you from incurring additional costs that you had not anticipated.