Buying a trouble free house is one of the most stressful things in life. If you don’t get it right, it will be a pain in the heart and selling it might be more difficult. Think about not just what you want today but what you might want in the future. This article is about what you must put into consideration before buying a house.
1. Financial capacity: the more financially buoyant you are the more and better choices you have. This determines your choice of location, the type of building, whether you go for a onetime payment, mortgage or spread it. 2. Type of Building: family size, class in the society and interest determines the type of building you will go for. Do you go for a bungalow or storey building? Do you like sharing compound and go for attached, semi detached or terraced building. Do you go for a flat in a block of flats, a duplex or a fully detached building? You need to answer these questions to decide on type of building. 3. Estate or Community setting: Do you like estate setting the omo-onile type where you provide all your amenities like transformer, drainage, road, water, security. Or the standard gated estate where most if not all the amenities are provided by the estate management. Do you prefer house in community setting where government or individuals provide the basic amenities? Are you considering government owned estates like LSDPC. 4. Serviced or Unserviced Estate: In serviced estate facilities like drainage, water, electricity, security, road, waste management, generators and more are provided by the estate management. The owners of the building are made to pay specified amount mostly annually. You need to be careful with this because the charges become exorbitant with time in some estates and leads to clashes between home owners and estate managers. Unserviced estate you provide theses amenities yourself or by joint effort with other building owners. 5. Security: We always advice this should be one of your topmost consideration. We have seen situations where home owners move out of their own house to rent apartment due to security treat. 6. Professional Inspection: Even if you feel you trust the seller and your own inspection skill, hire a professional who check the structural integrity of the building, cracks, settlements signs, dampness, state of the plumbing work, electrical wiring work, roof and ceiling inspection, state of window, door, signs of fire in the past, finished level to prevent flooding of house and compound, surface and sub-surface drainage system, staircase inspection, has the house been renovated in the past, does it need renovation presently and availability of escape route to mention a few. 7. Vicinity study: Your building must perfectly fit into the environment, it cannot exist in isolation. Proximity to other buildings in case of fire can it easily spread from other buildings to yours. The type of neighbours, are they the once you can live with, is there any form of pollution e.g. noise from religious houses, fuel station water pollution from underground tank spillage or even risk of fire, any factory around with noise from plants, generator and fumes from its activities. How is the area in the rainy season, are trees close to the building, traffic situation. Look around the area in the night time, rush hour, weekends and morning. Good school around for the children, hospital, bank and possibly police station in the vicinity. Is it the best property for you in the vicinity? 8. Water quality: most house buyers always miss this out, but it is very important to check quality of water. This will save you a lot of money on expensive water treatment and you maintain a healthier condition. 9. Maintenance of the building: Some people buy homes they cannot maintain. The building might be too big, too large compound or finishes might be too expensive to maintain e.g. a house with wooden floor finish. 10. Adequacy of space and Ventilation: Check the size of all departments of the house e.g. bedrooms, kitchen, store, toilet, bath and living room make sure they are ok for you and well ventilated. Inadequate ventilation causes a lot of discomfort and high cost of powering air conditioner and even fan. External spaces for car park and possibly mini get together can also be considered. 11. Documentation: Check the building document and do a due diligence. Does the land have a C of O or Consent, is the building approved, are you buying from the right source. 12. Do not inspect once: Do not rush, don’t be a prompt buyer, do all necessary checks. It is advisable to buy during the peak of the rainy season. There is no perfect building but the precaution you take help in achieving a high level of satisfaction in your house purchase. If you are planning to buy feel free to contact us for an in depth analysis of the property, you will be glad you did. Thanks Kudilek venture & Properties Pho: 08038571852