What to Look for When Touring a House: A Buyer’s Walk-Through
Knowing what to look for when touring a house is the difference between a showing you remember for the right reasons and one you remember for the kitchen backsplash. Most buyers walk in, fall for the light or the island, and walk out without noticing the water stain on the garage ceiling. A little structure fixes that.
This post started as a 2019 tip: once you are ready, start looking at homes, and look at enough of them that you are not buying the first one out of nerves. That still holds. Here is how to make each tour count.
Before you go
Have your financing lined up. A preapproval rather than a prequalification tells you your real price range, and it tells sellers you can close.
Look the address up on FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center before the showing, not after you fall for the house. Flood zone affects your insurance cost and, in parts of Fort Bend County, it is the single most important fact about a property. The map is a starting point, not the whole story, which is why the seller’s disclosure matters too.
Ask your agent for the seller’s disclosure if it is available. The TREC Seller’s Disclosure Notice is required on most resales of previously occupied single-family homes and asks the seller about past flooding, repairs and known defects. Our post on the sellers disclosure Texas requires explains what it does and does not cover.
What to look for when touring a house: outside
- The roof. Missing or curling shingles, sagging lines, and a roof age you can confirm. In our area, insurers pay close attention to roof age.
- Drainage. Does the yard slope away from the house? Are there downspouts, and do they empty away from the slab?
- The foundation. Cracks in brick that zigzag along the mortar, doors and windows that look out of square, gaps at the top of the garage door.
- The lot. What backs up to it: a greenbelt, a drainage ditch, a busy road, a future development.
What to look for when touring a house: inside
- Water. Stains on ceilings, especially below bathrooms and in the garage. Soft spots in floors near tubs and toilets. A musty smell in closets.
- Systems. Look at the age stickers on the air conditioner and water heater. Feel whether the house cools evenly upstairs and down.
- Doors and windows. Open a few. Sticking doors and cracks above door frames can point back to the foundation.
- Layout. Walk the path you would walk every day: garage to kitchen, kitchen to bedrooms. Furniture and staging hide a lot of awkward space.
- Storage and light. Where does the stuff go, and which rooms get afternoon sun in a Texas summer?
Take notes you can actually use
After the fourth house, they blur together. Take photos of the front of each house first so you can match the pictures later. Jot down three things you liked and three that worried you before you get back in the car. Give each house a nickname. Your agent can pull up the listing details later; your first impressions are the part only you can record.
How many houses should you see?
There is no right number. Some buyers know in five showings; others need twenty. The point of the original tip still stands: look at enough homes to know what your budget actually buys in the neighborhoods you want, so that when you write an offer you are choosing, not settling. If you are not sure which neighborhoods those are, compare their total monthly cost, including HOA fees and district taxes, before you start touring.
A tour is not an inspection
What to look for when touring a house is the stuff you can see. Plenty of what matters is not visible on a 30-minute walk-through: wiring, the attic, the plumbing under the slab. That is what the option period and a licensed inspector are for. Our home inspection checklist covers what the inspector checks and how to use the report.
Use the tour to decide whether a house deserves an offer and an inspection. Use the inspection to decide whether it deserves your money.
Written by Stacy Burgin, a real estate agent with Terra Point Realty serving Fulshear, Katy and the greater Houston area, with 300+ transactions and 130+ home sales closed. If you are ready to start touring, call (713) 766-1697 and we will set up a first round of showings around your schedule.