House Stalking

This is a bit different -- but it's essential advice if you are thinking of moving house.

Taken from an email written by my brother Bill Lightfoot, one of our seasoned Property Directors, this is what Bill has to offer by way of advice when it comes to finding the perfect home to buy:

"Recently I bought a shiny new laptop. I looked for hours on the internet, I read reviews (from people I don’t know – probably idiots!), I compared makes and models. I thought about it. I left it for a couple of days. I decided to go to Currys and look at them in the flesh. I thought about it some more. 

Does this sound familiar? 

Eventually, I bought one. It cost me just under ￡700 and it’s a good one – I like it.

Now, what if I was thinking of buying one that cost ￡450,000 or perhaps ￡1million?! 

The mind boggles. 

It would have taken months of deliberation but of course, this is just what is happening when you are buying a house – your new home.

I recently read a book called Places of the Soul. It was a fascinating book written by an architect all about the effects on our mental and physical health caused by our environment at home and work. Who knew noise caused heart problems or the true importance of sunlight to our happiness?

It got me thinking about how incredible it was that people sometimes spend as little as twenty minutes looking around a house before offering hundreds of thousands of pounds to buy it. 

It’s bonkers!

You are going to be living there – probably for many years. Your quality of life is going to be intrinsically linked to the location, build quality, layout, orientation, materials, garden, neighbours, road noise and above all the feel of the house.

I think it is fair to say with all that at stake a bit of house stalking is in order here!

I don’t mean get all weird about it (sitting outside at 1 am with night vision goggles!) but if you find a house on the internet or through a good agent that you think might be the one it’s time to spring into action and do some research. 

I doubt you will do anything that week that will impact on your life as brilliantly as finding the right home.

So, first things first – get in the car and visit the house when nobody knows you are coming. See it from the road in its natural state. If it is on a busy road, go at a busy time of day. If it is near a school, go and see what happens at home time. Go at night – see if there are cars parked everywhere. 

In short, stalk the house! 

Find out about it – after all, you’re going to live there perhaps for years.

If it all looks good then great it’s time to arrange to view it. I always think it is good to view with the owners there if you can swing it – I know it can feel a bit awkward but the agent never knows as much about the house or the surrounding area as the owner. 

Ask about the cost of heating, the broadband speed, the buses, the best time to sit in the garden. Essentially ask them what it is like to live there because that is what you are considering doing. Owners are not used to selling houses – you tend to get more revealing answers from them than you get from seasoned agents!

Once you have had a good look around and I mean a good look around, in every room, looking out of every window, standing at the sink and cooker, walking around the garden, then I dare you to talk to the neighbours.

I recently showed a couple around a semi-detached house. Afterwards, while the Dad put the kids in the car, his wife wandered next door and rang their doorbell. A nice friendly-looking old chap answered. She said she was interested in buying next door and was wondering how he liked living there and in the area. They had a good chat. Interesting research for the viewer and of course she was also getting a good idea of the person she was going to be living just the thickness of a wall away from! Very wise I thought, the chance of noisy parties keeping them awake looked slim!

Now go home, talk about it with your partner and/or kids or whoever is going to live there with you. See what they thought. If you are going to live there on your own take a friend to the viewing who will give you an honest opinion. Let it all sink in for a day or two – then go and have another look. 

Seriously, never buy a house on the strength of just one twenty-minute viewing. 

Call the agent and let them know you are interested, find out if they have got anyone else interested or have any offers. If they know you are giving it serious consideration then a good agent won’t sell it without talking to you.

Then go back and view it again. At Hobbs Parker, we much prefer to sell to people who have seen the property twice or even more. They are far less likely to change their minds and more likely to complete the purchase.

When you are there, ask a few more questions of the owner. Now you are getting to know them, chat about where they are moving to. Be interested in them. You would be amazed at how many times when there is competition to buy a house, the owner tells us to sell to the buyers that they liked most. 

Chatting to the owners also gives you some clues about how quickly they might need to sell. Whether they need every penny from the sale to buy the next one or maybe they are downsizing. All of which helps when you are negotiating the price. The agent won’t necessarily tell you that stuff.

So now with all your research and house stalking complete, if you love it, it’s time to buy it."

Wise words Bill!