Ten questions to ask before you offer on a house

By the time a surveyor is instructed, you have already offered — and an offer made in the dark is harder to adjust than one made informed. A surprising amount of information is available for the asking before you put a number on the table. Here are the questions worth asking, and what the answers tell you.

To the estate agent

1. How long has it been on the market, and has the price changed? Portals show some of this, but ask directly. A price drop and four months of listing changes your negotiating position entirely.

2. Why are the sellers moving? You won’t always get the full story, but the answer’s shape matters. A relocation deadline means motivated sellers; “downsizing after thirty years” means a house with thirty years of one family’s maintenance habits.

3. Have any sales fallen through on this property? The important follow-up: why? A previous buyer’s survey killing the deal is exactly the thing you want to know before spending your own money. Agents must answer honestly if asked directly — so ask directly.

4. What’s included, and what’s excluded? Sheds, greenhouses, curtains, the good light fittings. Trivial individually; occasionally revealing about the sellers collectively.

To the seller (ask via the agent, or at a second viewing)

5. How old are the roof, boiler and wiring — and is there paperwork? The three most expensive systems in the house. “New boiler 2023, certificate available” and “not sure, it’s always worked” are very different answers with identical kerb appeal.

6. Has the house ever had damp treatment, underpinning or an insurance claim? Past works aren’t necessarily bad news — properly documented repairs can be reassuring. Undocumented ones are questions your surveyor and solicitor will want answered anyway; asking early saves weeks.

7. What building work has been done, and was it certified? Extensions, loft conversions, removed walls, new windows. Every yes should come with building regulations sign-off or a competent-person certificate. “The previous owner did it” is not a certificate.

8. Any disputes with neighbours, or shared arrangements? Shared drives, party walls, fence ownership, that hedge. Formal disputes must be declared on the property information form — but an early informal answer tells you what you’re moving next to.

To yourself

9. What does this house cost per year, not just to buy? Council tax band, energy rating, insurance quirks (flood history, subsidence postcode reputation, non-standard construction). A cheap house with a bad energy rating and a flood-loading premium is not a cheap house.

10. What would have to be true for this to be a bad buy? The most useful question on the list. If the answer is “an expensive roof, hidden movement, or a botched extension” — good news: those are exactly the things a survey checks. Offer accordingly, then verify.

The pattern behind all ten

None of these questions is hostile, and none will lose you the house. They signal a serious, organised buyer — which sellers and agents privately prefer to a keen one who unravels later. The buyers who get burned are rarely the ones who asked too much before offering.

Ask the questions, keep the answers in writing where you can, and hand the whole file to your surveyor when you book — every honest answer sharpens the inspection, and every evasive one tells the inspection where to look.