What to Look For at a Showing That Has Nothing to Do With the Decor
Here is something we notice with almost every buyer at their first few showings. They walk in and immediately start responding to how the home looks. The paint colours. The furniture. The staging. Whether it feels cozy or cold, open or cramped.
These reactions are human and natural. But they can also be misleading. Because the decor is not the home. The decor is what the current owners have put on top of the home. It will leave when they do.
What stays behind is what you actually need to evaluate. And those things are often invisible if you do not know to look for them.
Start outside before you go in
Before you even step through the front door, take a few minutes outside.
Look at the foundation. Are there cracks? Do any of them look recent or significant? A few hairline cracks in concrete are common. Large or horizontal cracks in a foundation wall are a different conversation.
Look at the roof from the street. How old does it look? Are there missing or curling shingles? Roofs have a lifespan and replacing one is a significant expense. A roof that is clearly aging is information worth noting.
Look at the grading around the house. Does the ground slope away from the foundation, which is what you want, or toward it? Grading that directs water toward a foundation is one of the most common sources of basement water issues.
Look at the eavestroughs and downspouts. Are they intact? Do the downspouts direct water away from the house?
None of these observations replaces a home inspection. But they help you walk in with a preliminary sense of where to pay attention.
Inside: pay attention to the ceilings and the basement
These two areas tell you more about a home's history than almost anywhere else.
Ceilings: look for water stains, even old ones that have been painted over. A yellow or brown ring, no matter how faint, tells you that water came through at some point. It may be a resolved issue. It may not be. Either way, it warrants a question.
Basement: look at the walls, particularly at the base. Are there white mineral deposits, sometimes called efflorescence? That is a sign that water has moved through the concrete at some point. Are there any cracks, and how do they run? Horizontal cracks in a basement wall are particularly concerning. Does the basement smell musty?
You are not trying to diagnose the issue. You are trying to identify whether there is an issue worth exploring further.
The windows and the doors
Check that windows open and close properly. Fogged or cloudy glass between panes usually means the seal has failed and the window has lost its insulating value. That is not a crisis but it is a replacement cost worth knowing about.
Check that interior doors close properly and latch without force. Doors that stick or do not latch can indicate settling or shifting in the structure. Some settling is normal in older homes. Significant or uneven settling is worth understanding.
The mechanicals
Ask about the age of the furnace, the air conditioning unit if there is one, and the hot water heater. These are systems with defined lifespans and replacement costs that are meaningful.
A furnace that is fifteen or twenty years old may work perfectly well today. It may also need replacement in the near future. Knowing the age of these systems helps you plan financially and factor it into your offer thinking.
What the listing does not tell you
Ask us to find out, if we do not already know, the history of the property. Has it been on the market before? Were there previous offers that fell through and why? Has it had any major repairs or renovations, and if so, were permits pulled?
Work done without permits is a real issue. It can affect insurance, financing, and future sale value. It is a question worth asking.
The feel test is also real
After all of this, we want to be honest with you: how a home feels when you are in it matters too. Not the decor. The bones. The light. The flow from room to room. Whether it feels like somewhere you could actually live.
This is harder to articulate and impossible to put on a checklist. But it is real information. And after you have checked the practical things, trust what you feel about the place underneath all of it.
The practical and the intuitive together are what the decision deserves.