House Hunting? Here’s How To See Potential In A Property

Sharing is caring!

On the JJ Barnes Blog, if you’re house hunting, and not sure what you should be top of your list of priorities in any potential home, I’m sharing some top tips for seeing potential in a property.

House hunting is one of the more exciting and stressful processes you can go through. It can also be frustrating, especially when it seems the market has a completely different idea of value than you do, and it’s rare that the best houses are cheaper than you first envisioned.

But it’s also true that house hunting is a lesson in compromise because given your discerning taste, the chance for any building – apartment or household – to 100% match your preferences is unlikely. For this reason, it’s quite important to take your time, to not become disheartened when house hunting isn’t productive for the moment, and most of all, to learn to see potential.

After all, while a house might not be perfect for you right now, there’s no telling what a few months of your creative expression could do for the place. Better yet, buying a property for the bones it offers as opposed to the clothes it’s dressed in is important.

Yet when we’re tasked with seeing a range of different houses at one time, it can be hard to know what to look for. In this post, we’ll discuss a few means you can use to see that potential:

Sight Lines

Most real estate agents will tell you that the layout of a house tells you more than its current decoration ever could, even if it’s their job to point to fixtures and amenities to show what the space could be or what it may offer. 

That’s why it’s often wise to consider how rooms connect to each other, where natural light falls within that throughout the day (visiting at different times can help), and also how spaces flow together, not just in design but spacial integration. For example, if the hallway leads out onto other rooms with many open-frame doorways, that can feel less restrictive than a more segmented design.

Focusing on this helps you see past old wallpaper or ugly carpet. Standing in doorways and looking through multiple rooms often shows you what a space could become – for instance, can you talk to someone in the dining space from the kitchen? If not, how long might it take to arrive with food? Could you knock through that wall perhaps and make the space more accommodating to your preferences? This helps you take a more timeless look at the property, and looking over various households, perhaps with an estate agent such as Harper Macleod LLP https://www.estateagencyedinburgh.co.uk/properties, will help tune your eye for the better.

Structural Integrity

It’s not too much of a stretch to suggest the bones of a house matter more than surface problems that could be present. For example, damp on wallpaper might showcase a lack of ventilation, but if that problem is resolved, you may find the issue doesn’t return.

A solid foundation, in that respect, means any cosmetic changes later become much simpler to handle. However, this also means looking for issues that are more concerning and need your attention. For example, cracks in walls, sloping floors, or holes in the roof often cost a fair amount of money to fix, because they might signify an issue that needs more of a structural approach to fix. 

Most people can handle redecorating a room of course, but structural repairs need professionals and sometimes even permits. At the very least, you have to be willing to repair the issue should you come into the property, and consult with a surveyor and renovation expert to check everything is important, to know if the issues can be fixed to begin with. Foundational shift, for instance, could condemn a property, or it could be fixed with a few smart adjustments.

Privacy

It’s easy to forget about privacy during house viewings unless it’s perfectly clear you’ll be afforded none. That’s generally because people focus on the inside and forget about the outside world looking in, unless they have a specific reason to do so. 

If you can, head outside and check where neighbors’ windows face, how close the street is, and whether you’d need to keep curtains closed all day for privacy. Perhaps you don’t mind a great price on a good apartment even if it means having a window perfectly in line with someone elses, because you don’t have children and don’t mind having some of your rooms seen into. However, you might not want that, and it’s pretty understandable.

However, keep in mind that some issues fix easily with tall plants or fencing, or even planting a treeline. Also, there can be such a thing as too much privacy (as strange as this sounds) – if you’re used to living in among others on a suburban street, living in a remote rural house with no one around for a mile could require more stringent security measures. Planning for this in advance and accepting it, or seeing what adjustments could be made, is all part of inspecting potential.

Design Plans

This is where thinking like an architect can actually help you in your possible interior design motives. Access to the floor plan is usually given if you’re seriously considering the property, and that can be a good first step. There’s also the chance that taking measurements helps you see past current layouts, for instance, you might see the kitchen space becomes perfect for you once you remove that ghastly island surface that hasn’t been cared for, and otherwise impacted your impression of the room.

Most rooms can change completely with different furniture arrangements or by removing internal walls, should they not be load-bearing. But even load-bearing walls can sometimes have a door frame knocked through without harming the integrity of the house (make sure to check this).. Some viewers will bring rough sketches to viewings, noting down where their furniture might fit or which walls could come down. Getting proper architect advice before buying helps too, especially if you’re planning big changes.

Optional Amenities

Looking at what’s missing sometimes matters more than what’s there, especially if there’s a healthy amount of space for a necessary adjustment more in line with your preferences.

So for example, a house without central heating might cost less now but need expensive upgrades later, or perhaps it has the wall space for air conditioning units which can be turned on in a room-by-room basis and be cheaper to run (yes, they can heat too!) 

Of course, additional amenities that you might not have elsewhere can be good selling points as well. Perhaps the chimney is fully blocked up now, but you can see by the glorious fireplace that a lovely wood burning stove would be appropriate, and fixing up the chimney to accommodate that, while costly, would increase your household value for the better.

Room Conversion Potential

If you can convert a room, you may find that a household that didn’t match your specifications now does. For example, you might be looking for a house with four bedrooms so you can grow into the space as you wait for your child to arrive, but the house only has three rooms and a wonderful attic space.

Perhaps the attic space could be adjusted or renovated to move into at a later date, increasing the value of the property, its utility, and eventual worth. Room conversions of this nature can help spaces that seem somewhat neutral right now help the wider property conform to your needs.

This is also true of conservatories, garage spaces, and spare bedrooms. But of course, most houses in the property can be adjusted with enough planning and work. So don’t necessarily think the layout you’ll use for the first year will be what it remains as for the next ten years you live there. Thinking this way can help you think more about the things you can’t change.

Location

Of course, this is the one thing we cannot change. But that doesn’t mean a location won’t differ in the future. For instance, if you’re moving into a rural property, it may be that house building restrictions (so as not to damage the beauty of the surrounding area) could imply that you never have to worry about housing estates being built nearby, which can reduce the value of your household.

Now, this isn’t to say a location will never ever change, perhaps flooding will alter it, or a government may find it necessary to build a railway through a nearby field, but for the most part locations tend to be static for a time. So the location benefits you appreciate now, like great public transport links, can be reliable. Maybe you’ll pick one rural property over another because one has much better access to the local town or city. You might drive and never use the bus or train now, but what about when your child grows and wants to gain a part-time job outside of their studies? The potential here, even if it won’t become relevant for five years, could help you choose one option over another.

With this advice, we hope you can continue to see the true potential of a property, and develop yourself for the better in that direction.