Twenty-five years of building houses, reduced to the nine things I walk through on every property before a client commits money to it. Take it to your next showing.
This is a list of where to look and what to ask about. It does not tell you what something is — no list can do that from a photograph or a twenty-minute showing.
What it does is change the order of events. Most buyers find these things after they've fallen in love with a house, after they've written an offer, and sometimes after they've closed. Finding them in the first twenty minutes means you still have every option: negotiate, investigate, or walk away and keep looking.
None of the nine is automatically a reason not to buy. I've bought and built on properties with most of them. The difference between a problem and a disaster is almost always whether you knew about it before you set the price.
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My background is construction, not inspection. Everything here complements — and does not replace — a licensed home inspector, a professional engineer, a licensed electrician or plumber, or your lawyer. Where one of these turns up, the right move is always to get it properly assessed by the appropriate professional. What this list buys you is knowing to ask.
Outside first, then down, then up. It's the order water travels, and water is behind most of what goes expensively wrong in a house.
Before you go inside, walk the perimeter. The soil should slope away from the foundation, and downspouts should discharge well clear of the wall — not onto a splash block six inches from it, and not into a buried pipe nobody can account for.
Roughly the cheapest problem on this list to fix and one of the most common causes of the most expensive one. Grading and drainage decide whether a basement stays dry far more often than anything you can see from inside it.
AskWhere do the downspouts actually go? Has water ever come in?Efflorescence — a chalky white deposit on concrete or block — means water has moved through that wall, carrying salts out with it. It may be historic and long since resolved. It may be happening now.
Look at the base of walls, behind stored boxes, and in the corners. In a finished basement look for it at the bottom of the drywall and for staining or bubbling on the baseboard.
AskWhen did that happen, what was done about it, and is there paperwork?Nearly every poured foundation has cracks. A vertical or near-vertical hairline with no offset is usually shrinkage from the concrete curing, and is extremely common.
What I ask about: cracks running diagonally from the corners of windows and doors, cracks wider at one end than the other, and any crack where one side sits proud of the other. Those can indicate movement rather than curing.
AskHas anyone looked at this? Is it being monitored? Get an engineer's opinion before you firm up.Walk every room end to end, and pay attention to what you feel. Floors that slope noticeably, bounce underfoot, or make cabinet doors swing open on their own are telling you something about what's underneath.
In older houses a little unevenness is normal and often meaningless. A pronounced slope, or bounce in a specific span, is usually a beam, post, or joist question — and it's frequently straightforward to correct once identified.
AskHas any structural work been done? Were walls removed, and was a permit taken out?You're looking for three things: a fuse panel rather than breakers, aluminum branch wiring (common in houses built in the late 1960s and 1970s), and knob-and-tube wiring in older stock.
None of these is necessarily unsafe when properly maintained or remediated — but all three can affect what an insurer will write and what a lender will do, which makes them a price and a timing question, not just a safety one.
AskWhat's the service size, and has the wiring been updated? Confirm insurability early.Look at the supply line where it enters, usually near the water meter. Galvanized steel and lead supply piping both turn up in older Hamilton and Oakville housing stock.
Galvanized restricts flow as it corrodes from the inside. Lead is a health question and municipalities often have replacement programs — worth checking what applies at that address.
AskWhat's the supply line made of, both inside the house and from the street?Furnace, air conditioner, water heater — and if there's a rental agreement, whose it is. Most units carry a manufacture date on the label. Add the roof to this list from the outside.
These aren't defects, they're a schedule. Knowing that a furnace is nineteen years old doesn't stop you buying the house. It tells you what your first two years of ownership actually cost, which belongs in your number.
AskHow old is each one, is anything rented, and can I see the contract?Two things to look for. First, whether the bathroom and kitchen fans actually vent outside — a surprising number terminate in the attic, which puts warm wet air into a cold space and eventually produces staining and mould on the sheathing.
Second, insulation depth and any daylight, staining or matted insulation, which points to leaks or ventilation problems. Both are usually inexpensive to correct and expensive to ignore.
AskWhere do the bath fans terminate? Has the roof ever leaked?Finished basements, second units, decks, structural openings, electrical work. Ask directly what has been done to the house and by whom, and whether permits were taken out and closed.
This is the one that most often becomes a real problem, because it's a legal and disclosure question rather than a repair question. An open or missing permit can affect insurance, financing, what you can legally do with the space, and what it's worth.
AskYour lawyer and the municipality — before you waive conditions, not after.The list is worth more if you run it at the right moment. The cost of finding something rises sharply at each stage below.
On competitive offers. In a multiple-offer situation you may not get conditions, which is exactly when this list earns its keep — because everything you can establish before offer night is something you no longer need a condition to protect you from. If you know a house well enough, you can bid on it honestly. If you don't, the right answer is sometimes to let it go.
I spent twenty-five years building the things this list is about. If you're looking at a property and something on this sheet is bothering you, send me a photo — I'll tell you what you're looking at and whether it's worth paying someone to investigate.
That offer stands whether or not you're working with me, and whether or not you ever do.
Send me a photo — 416-953-9545