Have a Plan: A concrete plan will prevent you from wasting precious time during your inspection. A good strategy is to look for anything that you didn’t see in the advert, that you didn’t see online or is unlikely to appear in a pest inspection or building report. Useful activities include:

  • Looking behind the back fence
  • Taking a picture of the neighbours' homes
  • Listening to the noise level in the house
  • Finding anything that doesn’t look good to you and thinking about the solution
  • Checking the ceiling height
  • Assessing sunlight
  • Determining orientation
  • Checking for smells

Take photos as well as videos because at the end of a long Saturday you are not going to remember which houses had the best and the worst features. When you inspect the footage later, you will notice things that you didn’t see at the time of the inspection. If you are going to take photos or record video, don't forget to ask the agent who is showing you the property if this is okay.

Choose A Weekday: There is no rule of thumb as to which is the best day to carry out a home inspection. However, there are fewer crowds on the weekdays and you can spread your home inspections out throughout the week instead of cramming them into one day.

Put a Limit on it: In a rush to find their dream home buyers will often try and view too many houses in one day. This isn’t a good idea because tiredness will make you see things that aren’t there and cause you to overlook something important. It is better to view 2-5 houses in a day instead of trying to view 12.

Online Research: You can save a lot of time by doing your research before hitting the road. You can do some online inspecting and eliminate any properties that don’t fit your criteria before you start your search.

Your Budget: It’s nice to dream however, there is no point spending all day looking at houses that you know you can’t afford. You might want to look at one or two, but your main focus should be on finding a house that you can live in now and not in ten years time.