When looking around a home, you will tend to assess whether or not it’s a good purchase for you based on the various qualities that you can already see. You’ll look at the size of the place, you’ll look at the location, and you’ll decide whether you like the way it looks and the way it’s laid out.
The problem is that the home you’re looking at and the home you would eventually get to live in are two very different things. It only takes a few weeks for your mere presence to completely change a property and this is something you should try to bear in mind when you move in there. Read on to see how your home is likely to morph and change once you’re living there…
The Size
The first thing that will change is all that size. Chances are, if you’re looking around a property, that there will be less in it than there would be if you were to move in. The simple reason for that, of course, is that you will be bringing all your stuff, whereas the person living there currently will probably be in the process of moving out or just trying to show off the space of their home.
Thus you need to think very logically when looking around a property about how it’s going to look with things in it – and specifically your things. That means thinking about the size and shape of your possessions and where in the space you would keep them. Think particularly as well about the wall space in the home as this can be deceptive – if every wall has either a window or a radiator attached then it’s going to be hard for you to put furniture against it. Look for flat walls and try to visualize how your items would fit in.
The Newness
Of course it’s also true that your property will quickly lose its new ‘sheen’ just as anything you buy and use tends to do. The walls might look beautifully white and clean right now, but when you live there they will quickly become grubbier as you scuff against them and create steam and smoke while cooking.
What’s particularly important then is that you look at how resilient the property is likely to be. The cleanest white wall is going to be a magnate for grubby fingerprints if you have children – perhaps darker colours would suit you better? Also important is to look for signs that mess has been merely covered up – freshly painted ceilings might be hiding mould that’s been painted over, for example, or cracks forming in the walls. It’s time to get Sherlock Holmes on the property!
It’s also worth bearing in mind that things will go wrong even in the newest and most well-maintained home. So make sure that you can still afford to make repairs when you’re paying for the mortgages.
Jack Norman, the author of this article, is a freelance blogger currently writing for First World Mortgage, a renowned mortgage company. Jack loves to play baseball with his friends on weekends.
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