Looking for a new condo to move into is an exhilarating challenge, especially if it is your first time to start owning a place that you can finally call your very own. However, it is entirely possible to get carried away by your own excitement about finally getting a new home. If you do not keep these feelings in check, then you might end up thinking with your heart instead of thinking with your mind.
If you are still not convinced that you should be more careful about your purchasing decisions, then you may change your mind after considering the following possible scenarios that you might find yourself in. Here are a few things you might be shocked to find about your potential new condo:
Your Potential New Condo Might Have Some Hidden Damages
Once you have gone to the condo to inspect it, you might find yourself falling in love with it if it is in line with your personal aesthetics. However, you must not let your emotions get the best of you. Even if the place looks great at first sight, there may be a lot of damages hidden underneath the beautiful exterior. The first time you go to the condo, try knocking on the walls or any of the structures that are there. Be wary if the wood or concrete sounds hollow, as it may be a sign that the unit is not up to the mandated building standards of today.
Make sure to take a good sniff around the place, too, and do not worry about looking weird while doing it. Sometimes, there are things that our eyes can miss which our noses can pick up. For instance, if you smell anything strange, that may be a sign of something rotting in the condo, or an indication of a possible mold problem developing in a place that is hard for you to reach.
After you have done your personal appraisal of the condo and found nothing wrong with it, it is still a good idea to hire a professional inspector to take a good look at the unit. According to an article by Kate Ashford on Forbes, you should never skip the inspection of the condo, especially since experts will be conducting the investigation. Do not simply go with your own conclusions about the place, as an inspector has the training and the experience to help them analyze if the property is ready for selling or still has a lot of issues that need to be resolved. For example, inspectors can find out if there are clear signs of water damage, if there are any cracks in the foundation that you should be concerned about, and if things such as the chimney are in working order.
In case your inspector does find anything wrong with the property, this may give you an advantage when negotiating for a lower price with the owner. After all, they cannot charge you full price for something that is damaged. However, do not forget to take into consideration that you may have to end up paying for repairs, which may end up costing you more than the original price of the unit.
Your Contract May Be Hiding Some Secret Financial Surprises from You
While you may occasionally make an honest mistake during your time as a lessee, make sure that you have read your lease in full and are fulfilling your end of the contract. There may be times when something goes wrong in your house, such as a broken window, a water leak due to old pipes, or even an electrical short. These may sometimes be due to some negligence on the lessee’s part, but more often than not these may be due to the original owner of the property not keeping all parts of a home up to date with the latest safety regulations.
What can you do if you failed to sign a contract and thus have no physical evidence of the agreement between you and the person selling the property?
Though it may make your life much more difficult, all hope may not be lost. It is much harder to prove that an agreement actually took place if it was done by speaking to each other in person or by conversing over the phone. However, thanks to digital technology, you can still try to check if you had any correspondences regarding the transaction done through your text messages, faxes, or even e-mails. Make sure to make a copy of all of these so that you can use them in your favor should you need to bring an attorney in to make a strong case for you.
Your Landlord’s Body Gestures May Say Much More than the Words They Speak
According to an article by Marc Chernoff on Marc and Angel Hack Life, attitude is not just based on the specific words that a person says out loud. In fact, people’s body language actually tells us much more about somebody’s personality because they are gestures that we make without being entirely conscious that we are doing them.
If your potential landlords seem to keep checking the time or taking a close look at their fingernails, this is actually a clear sign that they are bored or disinterested in what you have to say and just want the conversation to be done and over with. Another facial expression to watch out for is if they narrow their eyes while listening to you. This indicates some form of anger, hinting that these landlords do not like you. Also, watch out for wrinkles in the corners of people’s eyes, especially when they smile at you. Do these persons’ entire faces change as they smile, or do only their lips and mouth seem to move? The absence of wrinkles in the corner of the eyes is a signal that the smile is not at all sincere, and that the person is forcing it to appear pleasant.
If you find that you may be facing some form of resistance or disrespect from the lessor of the house, what can help in times like these is to keep a level head at all times. Fighting fire with fire will only make the situation worse.
Now that you have educated yourself on particularly common pitfalls that many first time buyers face, you should be able to avoid signing a contract for a condo that will only bring you nothing but grief instead of the happiness that you seek. If you are looking for ways to make the search for the perfect home a little easier, you can try to use tools such as the site called PropertyGuru Singapore. This can help you find a condo for sale that is within your budget and has all the qualities that you are looking for in a home.
Though it may seem difficult at first to get the perfect home, each house you visit and each landlord you talk to will give you more experience when it comes to negotiating your lease. Eventually, with all of the experience that you have earned, you will be able to discuss and land the right house you have been looking for.
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