The Unstaged Viewing: Twelve Checks That Save First-Time Buyers Thousands

There is a particular kind of quiet that falls over a house viewing. The lamps are on at four in the afternoon, there is a diffuser doing something vanilla, and the agent is saying lovely and bright for the third time. It is very easy to leave having admired the kitchen and learned almost nothing about the building.

The fix is not to become suspicious of everything. It is to have a short, boring routine you run every time, so you compare like with like and the emotion has less room to work with. Twelve checks, twenty minutes, one phone full of photos.

Go on a wet weekday if you can

Rain is an honest surveyor. It reveals gutter overflows, blocked drains, leaking downpipes and that one corner of the bedroom ceiling that only shows up in November. If you can only manage a Saturday, at least walk the outside of the property and look up.

The twelve checks

1. Nose first. Pause in the doorway before you go in. Damp has a smell — musty, cold, faintly like a cellar. Fresh paint in one room and nowhere else is worth a question.

2. Skirtings, corners and the backs of furniture. Look for tide marks, bubbling paint, soft plaster and black speckling. Check behind curtains, under windows and around radiator pipes. Slide a phone behind heavy furniture if you can do it politely.

3. Outside ground levels. In the garden, check whether paving or gravel sits above the damp-proof course. If the ground outside is higher than the floor inside, water will find a way.

4. Gutters and downpipes. From the pavement, zoom in with your phone camera. Look for overflowing hoppers, staining down the brickwork and pipes that end nowhere.

5. Drains. Lift an inspection cover if it is safe and not bolted. Look and smell. Standing water or a whiff of sewage is a conversation you want to have before you offer, not after.

6. Windows. Failed double glazing shows as misting or a milky film between the panes. Check trickle vents open, timber frames are not soft at the bottom, and sash windows are not painted shut.

7. Boiler and heating. Photograph the data badge and the service sticker. Note the age listed. Turn on the hot tap and see how long it takes. Check radiators for cold patches at the bottom, and find the stopcock while the agent is still there to point at it.

8. Electrics. A modern consumer unit with RCD protection is a good sign. A plastic board with a fuse carrier is not necessarily a problem, but it is a question. Count the double sockets in the main rooms — you will notice their absence later.

9. The EPC. Read it online before you go. It shows the insulation, glazing, heating and the likely running costs. Ratings matter to your bills now and to resale later.

10. Leasehold red flags. For a flat, the lease length is the headline: anything approaching 80 years remaining gets expensive to extend. Ask about ground rent review clauses, the current service charge, the last three years of accounts, and whether an EWS1 form or cladding assessment exists.

11. Structure. Hairline cracks are usually plaster. Diagonal cracks above door openings, cracks you can fit a coin into, or a visibly sagging roofline are worth a surveyor's opinion. Look at ceilings for old water staining and check that any extension has building regulations sign-off.

12. The boring bits. Water pressure, phone signal, broadband speed, parking permits, bin storage, and the government flood risk map. Stand still for a minute and listen: a railway, a pub garden, a school playground and a busy A-road all sound different at 8am and 8pm.

Photos worth taking (nobody will judge you)

Boiler badge. Consumer unit. Stopcock. Window frames. Any damp patch, with something in shot for scale. The roof from the street. Drain covers. The meter cupboard. The boundary of the garden. The view from the front door at night, if you can manage a second visit.

Your camera roll will look strange and it will be the most useful thing you own when you are comparing three properties a fortnight later.

Questions to put to the agent

How long has it been on the market, and has the price changed? Why are the sellers moving? What is included in the sale — ask for the fixtures and fittings list in writing. When was the boiler last serviced? Has there been any damp, flooding, subsidence or Japanese knotweed? For leasehold: years remaining, ground rent, service charge, any section 20 major works planned. What is the council tax band? And has anything nearby been submitted for planning permission — most council portals let you check in two minutes.

Agents are not obliged to volunteer problems, but they are obliged not to mislead. Ask in a message so the answer is written down.

Rough cost signals to keep in your head

These are broad ranges, and London and the South East sit at the top of them. A replacement boiler installed, roughly £2,500 to £4,500. A full rewire, £3,000 to £6,000. A new roof, £6,000 upwards, sometimes well upwards. Failed glazing units, around £150 to £400 per window. Damp or timber treatment, £1,500 to £5,000 depending on scale. A RICS Level 2 HomeBuyer survey, typically £400 to £700 and usually the best-value money in the whole process.

Use these to sanity-check a price, not to negotiate a quote. Tradespeople will give you a real number once they have seen it.

Write it down the same evening

Rightmove descriptions are persuasive and your memory is not. Within an hour of getting home, write five lines: what you liked, what worried you, what it would cost to fix, what you still do not know, and how it compares to the last one. That note will be far more use than the brochure.