How to Avoid Beer Goggling Your Next Home Purchase

September 22nd, 2008 categories: Home Buyers

You’re up late one night, cruising the Internet on Realtor.com. After looking at house after house, one in particular catches your eye.

You forward the listing to your agent and demand a showing the next day - “I must see this house!”

You walk through the home and the online pictures don’t do it justice.

A gracefully bending stone driveway, new “period” custom kitchen cabinets, master bathroom tile that actually sparkles it’s so clean and the living room furniture is perfectly arranged with a soft cashmere throw tossed neatly across the sofa. The fireplace invites you home with its crisp crackle.

The house even smells good - not Glade Plugin or potpurri good - but fresh, airy, clean people good.

You decide to write up an offer. A good offer - not full price but pretty good.

Almost teasing you, the home sellers counter at a slightly higher price. You don’t want to appear too eager so you think about it for an hour and accept.

The perfect house is yours…almost. All that stands between you and perfection is the inspector.

While you accompany the inspector through the home at least a week after your first encounter with it, you and he discover some flaws. A crack here, a missing GFCI outlet there, a CAIR system that doesn’t actually cool.

Like waking up after a long night at a bar with a hangover, you slowly come out of your mania induced haze to realize the person sleeping next to you is not quite as attractive as you remembered or hoped (I do not speak from personal experience).

Welcome to reality. And for many home buyers, reality can be frightening and stressful when they’ve just found out their “perfect house” has a few zits.

No home is perfect. Not even new construction. Not a home lived in by the most meticulous of individuals. Period.

When you take off a home’s makeup - the decor, the ambiance, the lighting, your mood, and the subtle persuasion by a skillful agent, a home looks very different under the microscope of a home inspection.

The only way to avoid the shock and disappointment is to prepare yourself early on and bring along an agent with a critical eye.

At your first rendezvous with said “perfect house,” avoid looking at the makeup. While it feels better to fall in love with your home, a more prudent approach would be to walk through it looking for potential areas of concern, such as:

Are the mechanicals up to date and have they been serviced recently?

When were the major items last upgraded? Roof? Septic? Siding? Windows?

Any dampness in the basement? Or minor evidence of water leaks?

Do doors and windows open and close properly?

Any major cracks in the foundation?

Has the home been vacant for any period of time?

Many of these answers can be found in the home’s disclosures but some may only be answered with a closer look.

Don’t wait for the inspector to reveal that your home may have some flaws because you may be setting yourself up for some heartache.

For related posts:

Home Buying 101: Get a Home Inspection

Got Asbestos?