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What are the most important questions to ask before buying a home?

My husband and I live in the U.S. and would like to move to a small town in Canada. We have found a house and are thinking of making an offer. What are some important questions to ask before we purchase a home? We owned a home once before - before we bought it, we had a home inspector check it out. He said that the house was fine, but when we sold it, we discovered that the septic tank was installed incorrectly and it never should have passed inspection. We want to avoid making another mistake like this. What can we do to make sure that we are getting a quality home?

This open post was written 12 months ago | V/U/S: 342, 6, 3 | Edit Post | Leave a reply | Report Post


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Since writing this post mango may have helped people, but has not within the last 4 days. mango is a verified member, has been around for 2 years and has 11 posts and 137 replies to their name.

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closed offline Verified User (1 year, 1 month) Long Term User Shouts: 53 #
An Undisclosed Location | 12 months ago (22 minutes after post)

Do you know that the house you’d like to buy has a septic tank?

There is fine print in the offer to purchase agreement that allows you to get out of deals due to substandard equipment.
Let me see if I can find a copy of it for you.
You could get a home inspector or a septic tank cleaning company to check the tank for you.

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closed offline Verified User (1 year, 1 month) Long Term User Shouts: 53 #
An Undisclosed Location | 12 months ago (25 minutes after post)

I couldn’t find the form itself, not without buying it.
But, you can see some of the stipulations on here:

http://www.kingstonpropertyforsale.co…

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mango offline Verified User (2 years) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
Fort Collins, CO, US | 12 months ago (56 minutes after post)

Thanks very much! Do you know of any other problems I should keep an eye out for? I’m going to ask the home inspector about mold, termites, and the stability of the foundation. I really don’t know what else to look for. It certainly seems like our dream house.

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MrRodneyLong offline Verified User (1 year) Long Term User Shouts: 1 #
An Unknown Location | 12 months ago (1 hour, 8 minutes after post)

have you talked to the neighbors? that’s a good place to start they may help you a lot more then you think , ask them about the neighborhood and the home. anyone who owns a home know what you are going through and most will help you make an informed decision. Look for an inspector that used to be a builder. I mean someone that actually knows how thing are supposed to look. and when you schedule tell the guy about you r previous problem and tell him you want him to take a hard look at this home, ask him how much for extra time with your home looking for problems.Gen rule if hes not dirty after the inspection he prob missed a lot. Our inspector ( I have several home I rent out) gets in the attic, under house, pulls off siding around the gutters, Checks to see if the doorways are squared up. On a 2000 square foot hose it takes about 3.5 hours

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mango offline Verified User (2 years) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
Fort Collins, CO, US | 12 months ago (1 hour, 22 minutes after post)

That’s a very good idea, about contacting the neighbors! After all, I’ll want to introduce myself, anyway, since I’ll be living there if all goes well. There are only five home inspectors that work in that area, but I’ll check to see if any of them used to be builders. Thanks for the info!

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Anonymous #
12 months ago (4 hours, 31 minutes after post)

ask if the house has ever had a flood. also ask about the roof. when was the last time they had it done?

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