What To Look For When Buying a House (Are The Sellers HIDING Something?)

Buying a house in 2023? Here are 10 x URGENT CHECKS you can carry out TODAY! These home buying tips will save you TIME and MONEY and can often reveal the REAL REASON the owners are SELLING the house.
The house buying process in the UK is slow and expensive, by using the house buying tips in this video you can avoid expensive conveyancing fees by spotting any issues long before solicitors get involved.
I recommend carrying out these checks before viewing a house or making an offer on a house as they may highlight deal breaker issues for potential home buyers.
These checks will also help you to narrow down what to look for when viewing a house as you can focus on all of the bits that are important to you.
If you are buying a house in the UK, I would recommend the following checks:
• Find Your Local Council: www.gov.uk/find-local-council
• Internet and Mobile Checker: checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/br...
• Buy Title Plan and Title Register: search-property-information.s...
• Rightmove Sold History: www.rightmove.co.uk/house-pri...
• Zoopla Sold History: www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/
• For Planning Permssion, Building Control and Local Plans: www.google.co.uk
Whether you are a first time buyer buying a house for the first time or you are selling and moving at the same time, these checks will help ensure your dream property doesn't turn out to be a nightmare.
Do you have any house viewing tips for UK home buyers? Please post them in the comments below!

[@HonestMoney]

• Follow Me On Twitter: twitter.com/darrenthedegen • Find Your Local Council: www.gov.uk/find-local-council • Internet and Mobile Checker: checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/broadband-coverage • Buy Title Plan and Title Register: search-property-information.service.gov.uk/ • Rightmove Sold History: www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices.html • Zoopla Sold History: www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/ • For Planning Permssion, Building Control and Local Plans: www.google.co.uk

[@emmacrawshaw451]

One check you haven't mentioned is flood risk. Having previously lived in an area that regularly flooded, I now check every property I'm looking at buying. There is a website by the government that looks at the long term flood risk for that postcode, it includes rivers and surface flooding.

[@eddieharris6004]

Absolutely, flooding the ultimate nightmare....but be wary of official "flood risk maps", often inaccurate.

[@seabreeze4559]

website name please ?

[@dees3179]

Environment agency.

[@imabaddonkey437]

Haha the flood report is one of the first things i pull whenever my buyers are interested in any property.

[@chrisgemmix0815]

Even if that's a bit of an effort, it might be helpful to do the drive between the candidate property and your place of work, both directions, at the time you'd usually travel. That's a good way of spotting traffic issues: queueing, right turns onto busy main roads, school drop-off/pick-up locations with parents clogging the entire road etc.

[@nomates3204]

You can also find out if there are any HMOs nearby or even next door by looking up the local council HMO register

[@NnennaGilbert]

Are nearby HMO's considered problematic? Just saw a planning permission sent for an HMO on the street i'm looking to buy

[@philiphudgens4726]

This is the most important one...plus if only there was a way to find out people on benefits nearby. I bought a rental where the the little anti-social scumbags made sure that no tenant stayed longer than the minimum tenancy, despite the house being top-notch & I'm a very fair & conscientious landlord. Btw, I judge people as I find them wealthy or not ergo I'm not implying that EVERY person on benefits is a scumbag...just to deny that the majority of nasty effers that cause trouble come from council estate families is pure ignorance.

[@Meganjimmo]

Great video thanks Darren!

[@rajkang8278]

Thank you for posting. Very helpful👍

[@SuperFunklord]

Amazing content, thank you for the links

[@mattrichardson3149]

This is great alpha! Thanks for this

[@adrianfielder4675]

Wow, some great detail there, great video and well timed for me !

[@Vinukra]

Excellent video! Thank you sir.

[@kevchilton908]

Fantastic information 👌👍

[@phylliewilly]

Thanks so much for this -- so helpful and practical!

[@howarddavies5445]

Yes, still with you, what an excellent coverage of Due Diligence. This is a MUST for everybody who is looking to buy in UK. Brilliant!

[@combatkid999]

Thank you very much, this is a very useful video

[@gudnyt]

Thank you for this video 😊

[@constantinebrown5773]

Watched. Learned. Subscribed.

[@nevermind6351]

Very comprehensive, this short upload is a property course in and of itself. I need to go through this a couple of times to get ALL of these details. Thank you, this is invaluable knowledge.

[@dragos_serghie]

This video is pure gold!

[@jamesfahy2935]

Thanks. Very useful.

[@Boneamps]

Geat Video!! I knew about the land registry bit and I even did this when I was about to rent a flat just to Check who the Landlord was and whether he had the right to rent it as I've heard horror stories before about that. But regarding buying is a great idea to know how much people paid for the property so it gives an estimate of how much they would be willing to accept. Nice bit about finding company info to maybe find names of potential neighbours. Intrusive, yes but I would rather know than not know. But it is limited to people that are self employed through an LTD so might not find everyone, but good idea. Great information as always!

[@claireclaire238]

Be careful of auction properties. I just found out that the back garden of the house I was interested in has a separate register of title that is missing from the auction pack. Could it be that the seller is trying to sell the house quickly knowing they don't actually own the large back garden?! 😮

[@amalali504]

It's crazy that they omit such vital information from potential sellers. Surely that's illegal? Or certainly something a buyer can pull out of?

[@oktfg]

Good tips

[@SLS64]

I have only just found your channel and even though I live in New Zealand,I am enjoying and getting value from your content,and have subscribed. Thank you for the interesting and educational information.

[@Jules_Pew]

Also, knocking and asking the neighbours about the area can be a gold mine. When I bought my current one, I got a ton of info about the house and road I was buying including subsidence checks that it passed.

[@PaulaDavies-pw1vh]

This was brilliant Darren 😊- didn’t know half of how to go about these searches, we also do Google earth and zoom in on surrounding area, we have found public footpaths right next door to property we were interested in, builders yard, conveniently filtered out of RM pictures, list is endless and another shocking one whereby the next door neighbours to a house we liked had appeared to have built a two storey house between their garden and house directly behind them! 😂 yet again, pictures of it filtered on RM listing 🙄I’m guessing zero planning building applications- house is lovely but had been on market for nearly a year, wonder why 🤔

[@jimmydavis7587]

I love how you assume everyone has 2 cars

[@stevo728822]

Get an insurance quote on the property.

[@patpalloon]

Excellent video. I can add find my street. You can find out if the road has been adopted by the council, which is really useful to know. If it hasnt you might want to give it a miss.

[@dyecaster9341]

Yeah but why? What does "adopted" mean in this context.

[@patpalloon]

@@dyecaster9341 means the council will maintain them. Usually on a new estate - the housebuilder will maintain them to begin with but they should be adopted by the council. If they don't it can lead to problems and home owners will be liable for maintenance - whilst still having to pay their council tax.

[@privateprivate4384]

Google maps is not up to date. We have renovated our home extensively inside and outside with planning permission for all changes. Anyone sourcing our home via Google Maps will see our home and homes in our area before renovations.

[@curlysue3620]

Check police crime in area too. How do you find out if seller declared problems with neighbours? Thank you in advance.

[@ianjohnson4541]

hi - are there any ways of checking if a property has outstanding loans secured against it? I'm thinking more in terms of loans that aren't the mortgage..

[@stevep8321]

Is there a way to find out if the houses next door are rented ?

[@edithnackers7127]

Google the address, if it's rented, there is a high chance you will find an old listing for the property or Airbnb.

[@ryantansley8853]

What are your thoughts on surface water flood risk? I found the perfect property but it had a high risk of surface water flooding which has made me reluctant to put an offer on it. The owners have been there 12 years and have never had an issue

[@PropertyAtAuction]

I saw similar recently and was a bit worried until checking my address, friends and family addresses (around the country) and they / we all had medium to high surface risk but never actually had any problems 😂

[@philiphudgens4726]

@@growsethjones7249 One of us, one of us...

[@Samuels691]

This is some serious DD

[@beverleysilcock9135]

do a streetcheck crime,how many houses are bought or rented etc

[@johnnettleton1240]

Pay £600 and commission a detailed level 3 RICS Building Survey. Including a rebuilding cost valuation and immediate, mid term and longer term repairing liabilities. But most purchasers go for the the most basic Homebuyer level 2 which doesn’t give the same standard of detail or they skip a professional survey to save costs. A good survey always more than pays for the cost protecting the purchasers investment and gives you a 10 year cost plan.

[@adrianfielder4675]

is that a full structural survey ? as experience has taught me that that is the only survey where if the surveyor screws up you have recourse against them.

[@NnennaGilbert]

​@@adrianfielder4675no wonder the surveyor i contacted refused my request for a level 3. I found it weird that he looked at the house on google maps and said the property doesn't "look old", i should rather do a level 2 and "save some money"😳😳i'm now looking for a different surveyor

[@davewright9312]

​@@adrianfielder4675I'm afraid you don't ...I have had a client recently where the roof was leaking and had been for some considerable time which culminated in part of the bedroom ceiling collapsing...they had only lived in the house for a few weeks and had a full structural surve y prior to buying but because the previous occupants had stuff up the loft. Where the leak was he didn't or wouldnt move the items and as such refused to accept liability

[@johnnettleton1240]

Yes a full structural survey

[@johnnettleton1240]

There are some caviats like any contract but in 99% of surveys the buyer with a level 3 building survey has the information to negotiate adverse defects or a detailed picture of risk and future potential costs. If laying out say £400000 on a house purchase is it not worth the cost of a detailed survey.

[@nonapplicable3932]

11:40

[@noblecreditmanagement3942]

Crime search?

[@bobjohn3108]

Once you know someones name, you can run a Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) queries against them

[@AlistairBrugsch]

I was going to mention OSINT as he alludes to it a bit already ("go check social media...") Though researching the techniques is a job in itself 😂 OSINT podcast!

[@Rahul-oy4bp]

Very few sellers coming in the market since last 2 weeks. One seller underpriced through an agent and when she got 6 offers with 3% above ask price and I said would bid above and give buyers commission to the EA but the property listing has been removed. Property was listed just to gauge the market. 😢

[@gudnyt]

Overthinkers are shaking 😂

[@porschecarreras992cabriole8]

The sellers are hiding that the house crash is happening 😂😂😂

[@jqmatinex8666]

Give it another 3 to 6 months and the reality of property value reduction will be acknowledged by sellers.

[@TW-mp8zx]

Properties went up since then lol... shall we give it another 3-6 months ?

[@MightyDrunken]

Maidstone = i aM stoned

[@charliep1858]

theres no f in the word 'things'

[@user-bt8cz9nv4x]

You’re kidding, I always thought there was!

[@chilloutcentral2097]

I’m sorry, Robusta tastes better than arabica. Arabica tastes sour. That’s not a nice coffee. Arabica is overrated.

[@stephenkelly3001]

how to talk shit lol