Every Sunday, in communities across the country, you will find real estate agents holding open houses for their listed houses. Although some people participate in these two-hour events to get decoration ideas, and agents use them to build networks and get in touch with potential buyers, open houses are also great for buyers to have a low-key review of the property and ask questions. Method and speculate on its applicability. 

Sellers usually spare no effort to decorate the place before opening the house. In some cases, they will try to hide the problem that the house (especially the old house) may prevent its sale. Next time you open your house, please pay attention to these seemingly minor house features, which may indicate that the seller is hiding something, or that the new owner is having trouble on the road.

Related: 10 things to take you to an open house

When approaching the house for the first time, check the distance between the bottom of the house’s wooden siding and the soil. Anything less than 6 inches will put the house at risk of termite infestation. These underground wood chewers looked for the shortest route to enter the house and began to dine on its structural members. In all cases, soil should not accumulate on the siding.

Related: How much does termite treatment cost?

Some unconventional mortgages, including FHA, VA, and RD, require houses to meet certain conditions and safety requirements before the mortgage is approved. This does not mean that you cannot buy a house, but if there are no railings on the steps, you may have to install it before the end of the sale. 

Other mortgage requirements may include no peeling paint and a roof in good condition. If you will apply for one of the above mortgages, it is best to obtain a list of property requirements from the lender before participating in the open day.

Related: 9 reasons why you may not get a mortgage

The best way to redecorate a house is to tear off the existing shingles before installing new shingles, but some local building codes allow up to two layers of shingles. Installing a new layer on the old layer will not only invalidate the warranty of the new tile, but also increase the excessive weight of the roof structure. The second layer of shingles may also indicate unrepaired roof deck damage.

Related: 7 signs you might need a new roof

Just because the house has vinyl siding does not mean there is rot and damage underneath. Vinyl siding will not damage the siding below, and there are some very high-end vinyl sidings on the market today. 

However, the seller may install cheap vinyl siding to hide a large number of exterior problems, including missing siding, rot, or other types of damage. The older the house, the greater the possibility of damage under the vinyl siding. 

Look for other clues to see how the house has been maintained over the years. Although it is impossible to know what is under it without removing it, evidence of rot or damage in the attic or basement may increase the likelihood of existing damage under the vinyl siding.

Trees are an important part of landscaping. If you are looking for a house in an older block, you will most likely encounter tall, towering trees. Unfortunately, some popular tree species, including oak, maple, birch, and sycamore, have invasive roots that can enter drains and drains, causing drains to be blocked and expensive sewer cleaning and maintenance. 

To find out where the sewer is running, look for clean pipes near the foundation. Normally, this line will extend directly from there to the municipal sewer main. If your house is on your candidate list and you want to continue to use it, it may be worth checking with your local district office to see if there is a utility icon indicating the location of the sewer line. Without this knowledge, a tree at least 10 feet from any buried drain is usually a safe bet. Twenty feet away is even better, because many tree roots do not extend that far.

The water and foundation do not mix. Building codes usually require a yard slope of at least 2% from the foundation to prevent rainwater or sprinklers from draining down the foundation wall. It is usually possible to repair an inverted yard slope by hauling the soil and raising the slope next to the foundation. However, water may have leaked from the foundation and caused water damage, resulting in leaks in the basement and the presence of mold or mildew.

Related: How to level a yard

Maybe the real estate agent does her second job on Sunday afternoon, so she can only hold an open day once a week. However, when the open day is held at an atypical time, please be more skeptical. Strange schedules may make potential buyers notice something, such as a large freight train that shuttles nearby at 3pm every Sunday. Do some research in nearby areas to see if unwelcome things happen during non-open days.

Most sellers try to make their houses smell pleasant in open houses by cleaning and placing a bowl of fragrant potpourri. However, suppose you smell a strong scent of candles or incense when you walk into the house. In this case, the seller may try to cover up other odors, such as mold, mildew, or animal urine. What are they hiding? If you are interested in the house, you can ask the agent to make a private display and ask the seller not to extinguish the scented candles or use air freshener sprays.

Related: The Best Candles of 2021

Today's building codes require the installation of multiple power outlets—usually one for every 8 feet of linear wall space—to meet all of today's equipment and technical requirements. In an old house, each room may only have one socket, which usually indicates that the wiring has not been updated for a long time. 

Another clue can be found by looking at the socket. If the socket has only two slots—but not the round holes required to insert a grounding plug—then the wiring is obsolete.

Copper, PVC, and PEX are the current materials of choice for water supply lines, but older houses may still contain galvanized pipes that are prone to rust and corrosion. Galvanized water pipes were popular in the 1950s and 1960s, but they fell out of favor when they started to rust, resulting in low water pressure. In some communities, they were not installed until the 1990s.

If you turn on a faucet and a faint stream of water comes out-then the person buying the house may need to completely replace the water line.

Related: 9 Dangers lurking in your home's water supply system

Poor room configuration is nothing new. However, when opening the inner door makes it impossible to enter the room comfortably or interfere with the function of the room, the seller (and his agent) may remove the door from the hinge during the open day. Poor door/room configurations often appear in bathrooms and laundry rooms, but they can happen in any room. If you come across a room without a door, they are also likely to remove it because of a problem with the door. To be safe, imagine it is on a hinge and see if it will interfere with the use of the room in the proper position.

Wall builders who used to apply plaster on wooden slats to create nearly perfect flat walls are indeed craftsmen, but old houses that still have plaster and slatted walls are usually inadequately insulated. When renewing an old house, the plaster is usually torn off, new batting insulation is installed, and the wall nails are covered with drywall boards. 

However, before making a judgment, please go outside and inspect the exterior wall panels-if you find a small round plug near the top of the wall every 16 inches or so, it indicates that blow-in insulation was added to the stud space later Material.

Related: 5 things about blowing in insulation

There is an old saying that “good fences make good neighbors”, so it’s no surprise that shared driveways can cause discomfort. No matter how quaint or postcard-perfect the neighborhood is, if the house you are viewing shares a driveway with the house next door, it may cause problems in the future when you or your neighbors inadvertently park your car above the centerline. Consider whether it is worth the trouble.

Many potential home buyers will notice that a door is sticky or difficult to open and close, and then they suspect that the house has settled down. If the door is scraped off, it may open and close easily, and the seller may think you will not be smarter. However, when glued doors are shaved, their anti-collision panels usually need to be adjusted to lock the doors properly.

If you notice a hole above or below the impact plate, it indicates that the impact plate has been moved, and there may be a structural reason to move it.

Related: solved! 4 Solutions for unlocking the door

A large gap in the inner corner of the room may indicate that the house has moved and there is a structural problem. However, it is possible to repair corners and repaint the walls to hide the problems of potential buyers.

Focus on the intersection of the skirting board at the bottom of each corner, because it is more difficult to hide the problem here. If the skirting board is not flat, you may suspect that the corners have been repaired and may be hidden underneath structural problems.

Related: 6 signs of structural damage you shouldn't ignore

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