How to view a house when you are not a surveyor

This is written to be used rather than admired. Each section below is a decision about property viewings, and each one has a default.

Look for water first

Water causes more building damage than anything else, and its traces are visible without any equipment. Staining on ceilings below bathrooms or chimney breasts, blistered paint at skirting level, and a musty smell in a closed room all point at moisture. Outside, look at gutters, downpipes, the ground level against the wall and whether anything discharges onto masonry rather than into a drain.

A stain that has been freshly painted over is still a stain, and fresh paint in one patch of an otherwise tired room is worth asking about.

Then look for movement

Buildings move; the question is whether movement is old and stopped or recent and continuing. Doors that will not close squarely, gaps between skirting and floor, and cracks that widen towards the top are all worth noting. Crack width and direction matter more than length, and diagonal cracks around openings are the ones surveyors take seriously.

The useful part is this: you are not diagnosing anything here; you are deciding whether the full structural survey is the level to commission.

Check the things nobody stages

Open the loft hatch if you can, look under sinks, open the consumer unit cupboard and look at the boiler and its service label. Run a tap at both ends of the house to see pressure, and flush a toilet while a tap runs. Look at the back of the property, which is where cheap extensions and unfinished work usually are.

For most people, sellers stage the rooms they expect you to look at, so the useful information is in the ones they do not.

Assess the site, not just the building

Boundaries, parking, bin storage, access for a ladder or a skip and where the sun falls are all fixed and expensive to change. Ask which way the garden faces and check it against a compass rather than a description. Note what backs onto the property, since a neighbouring building or a pub garden is a permanent feature of living there.

Look up and down the street for scaffolding, skips and for-sale boards, which say something about the area maintenance cycle.

Ask the questions only the seller can answer

How old is the boiler, when was the roof last worked on, has the property flooded, what work was done and was consent obtained. Ask what the neighbours are like and how long they have been there, because the answer given is often more revealing than its content. Ask why they are selling and where they are moving to, which tells you about chain position as well as motive.

In many jurisdictions sellers must complete a disclosure form, and asking early gives your conveyancer more time with it.

Know what the viewing cannot do

Nothing behind a wall, under a floor, inside a drain or above a ceiling is visible, and that is where the expensive problems are. Furniture, rugs and stored boxes are frequently positioned over exactly the floor and wall you would want to see.

Put simply, a viewing that raises no concerns does not mean a survey is unnecessary; it means you have no reason to walk away yet. Use viewings to screen and a qualified surveyor to diagnose, and never invert the two.

The takeaway

Screen for water, movement and the unstaged rooms, then pay a surveyor to answer what you found.

The version you keep doing is the version that works.