Questions to Ask the Seller Before Moving In

The questions

Open any question to see why it works.

1. 1

   Can you walk me through what you do to this house each season?

   Older houses run on a calendar: storm windows, a humidifier setting, gutters after the leaves drop, an outdoor tap drained before the first freeze. A seller's seasonal routine is years of trial and error handed over in five minutes.

2. 2

   How do you actually run the heating and cooling: any vents closed, any rooms you shut off?

   The way a system is set up on paper and the way it is run are rarely the same. Ask which registers are damped, whether any zone is disabled, and what the thermostat sits at in each season, because copying their settings beats guessing for a year.

3. 3

   Which room is hardest to heat or cool, and what did you do about it?

   Every house has one. The answer tells you whether the fix is cheap and behavioural or expensive and structural, and it explains any space heater or window unit you noticed during a viewing.

4. 4

   Where is everything shut off: water, gas, main breaker, outside taps?

   Ask for a walk and a photograph of each, not a description. The value of this is entirely in an emergency, and the moment you need the water main is not the moment to start opening cupboards with a torch.

5. 5

   Is the electrical panel labelled, and are the labels right?

   Panels are often labelled by whoever did the last renovation and then never corrected. Ask which breakers they know are mislabelled and which outlets share a circuit, particularly in a kitchen or a home office.

6. 6

   Is there irrigation, and what is the schedule, the shutoff and the winterising routine?

   Sprinkler systems have a controller nobody explains, a backflow device that may need annual testing, and a blowout that has to happen before a freeze. A missed winterisation is an expensive first-year mistake.

7. 7

   What is planted in the garden, and what comes up in spring?

   Bulbs and perennials are invisible for half the year and easy to mow over or dig up. Ask for a rough map, what is on a drip line, what needs cutting back and when, and whether anything was planted by a neighbour.

8. 8

   Has water ever come into the basement, garage or crawlspace, and where does it go in a downpour?

   The inspection happened on one dry day. Ask what happens in a long rain, whether a sump pump runs, how often, and whether there is a backup for it. Sellers usually describe this honestly once the contract is signed.

9. 9

   Which windows and doors stick, leak or need a trick?

   Every house has a door that must be lifted and a window painted shut. Getting the list means you stop wondering whether something is broken, and you know which ones to put on the repair list rather than live with.

10. 10

    What did you mean to fix and never got round to?

    A generous question that gets a surprisingly full answer, because sellers feel slightly guilty about the list. It also tells you which problems they judged to be minor, which is useful context for the ones they did fix.

11. 11

    Which tradespeople would you call again, and which would you not?

    The second half is the useful half. A plumber, electrician or roofer who already knows this house saves you an hour of diagnosis, and knowing who did poor work stops you hiring them off a search result.

12. 12

    Is there anything in the loft, crawlspace, shed or under the deck I should know about?

    Stored paint, an old oil tank, a disconnected aerial, a wasp nest, insulation that ends halfway. These spaces get a brief look during an inspection and a long look from whoever eventually crawls in there.

13. 13

    What is the broadband situation, and which providers actually work at this address?

    Coverage maps are optimistic and street-level reality is not. Ask what speed they really got, which cable enters the house and where, and whether mobile signal works indoors, which matters more than most buyers expect.

14. 14

    Where does the school bus stop and what time, and how does the school run work here?

    Even without children this maps the morning traffic on your street. With children it decides walking routes, and the seller's answer is more current than any published route map.

15. 15

    What is parking like on a weeknight, and on the worst day of the year?

    Ask about the worst case specifically: an event nearby, a market, a match, street cleaning, snow rules. Permit systems and alternate-side rules are the kind of thing you learn from a ticket if nobody tells you.

16. 16

    Which neighbours should I introduce myself to first?

    An introduction handed over by the previous owner works far better than knocking cold. It also draws out anything you should know quietly, such as who holds a spare key, who watches the street, and who is difficult about the boundary.

17. 17

    What is noisy here, and when?

    Trains, a flight path, church bells, a bar at closing time, bin lorries at five in the morning, a school bell. None of it appears in an inspection and all of it shapes how the house feels at six on a Sunday.

18. 18

    Is there anything about the neighbourhood you found out only after moving in?

    This invites the seller to be the person they wish had briefed them. Answers tend to be practical: the road that floods, the shop that closes early, the collection that is never on the day it says.

19. 19

    What will you miss about living here?

    A warm question that produces the best information in the conversation, because it is where they stop describing a property and start describing a life. Expect a walk, a view at a certain hour, a neighbour, a tree.

20. 20

    Would you mind if I message you in six months when something confuses me?

    Ask before moving day rather than after, while goodwill is high. Most sellers say yes, and one text about a sprinkler timer or a mystery switch is worth more than a folder of manuals.