Is this your first home or the first time you are buying a home in the winter? Buying a Metro Detroit home in the winter can be a little trickier because of the snow and cold. These two question come up aquite often when I have buyers in the winter: 1.) How do you find a good home in the winter? 2.) What should you be looking out for when buying a home in the winter? You as a potential buyer of a home could have issues when it snows. How do you know what the roof looks like if it is snow covered? Are the shingles curling? Are there multiple layers of shingles? Is there one bad spot, or has there been a patch job done to the roof? It could be a potential problem when the snow melts off and you see the roof. I went to list a clients house this weekend and there was snow on the roof. So far as I knew the roof was good. But my client informed me that the roof had a bad spot in it.
Having snow on the ground complicates the home buying process. When there is two or three inches of snow on the ground it becomes trickier on knowing what the outside looks like. When the yard is snow covered you cannot see what shape the landscaping is in or how bad the cement or asphalt is. There may be piles of junk in the yard or a cracked up driveway. All the bushes may be dead. You just do not know when everything is snow covered. Another outside item that you will not be able to check is the pool. The pool will be covered and you will not know whether it runs or not. Does it leak? You just do not know. You are taking a gamble with the pool.
Did you know that air conditioners cannot be checked in the winter? Once the outside temperature drops below 58 degrees it is not safe to run the air conditioner. You could ruin it by turning it on in the winter. So the air condition unit only can be visually inspected in the winter. No home inspector will even turn the air conditioner on during the winter. So you will be gambling on the air conditioner. It is best to ask for a home warranty to protect yourself.
Have you been looking at Michigan foreclosures? When buying a foreclosure you have no recourse with the bank. In many states a bank does not fill out a seller's disclosure when listing the home. In Michigan they are exempt from doing seller's disclosure because they have no knowledge of how old the furnace is or how old the roof is. The bank never lived in the house so they have no past history of it. Even when water pipes burst they do not reveal anything. If the roof is covered with snow, it very hard to know how bad the roof is on that foreclosure.
Whether you are buying a Waterfront home in Oakland County MI or home in Northville it is easier to find out what the past history is when the home is not a foreclosure. At least with a home that is privately owned you can at least look at the seller's disclosure to find out how old the roof is. You can also have your agent ask the listing agent to find out. But your last safety net when buying a home in the winter is to have a good home inspector. Be sure to ask the home inspector when hiring him what he will do to look at the roof. Will the home inspector bring a snow rake? Will he climb up on a ladder to look at the roof close up?
The smartest way of protecting yourself is to ask pointed questions of the seller via email and in writing. Be sure to get the answers in writing. That way if you have a problem later on, or if the seller lied to you have it writing. You then would have facts to back up a court case if you had to sue.
The only way to buy a home whether it is in the summer or in the winter is to hire a home inspection. Hiring a good home inspector can help protect you from buying a money pit and help you uncover some of the issues winter may hide. Ask questions before you hire a home inspector. You need to pull some of the snow off the roof in several spots to get a general condition of the roof. I hope these simple Winter home buying tips will save you some money when it comes to roofs and buying a home in the winter.
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