Before you wire anything

An accepted offer is the start of the work. These are the eight things worth doing before the money moves, roughly in order of what they cost if you skip them.

The eight

1. General inspection. Non-negotiable, even on new construction, and especially on anything with a basement.

2. Sewer scope. Twenty minutes of camera work on any house older than about 1980. A collapsed line is five figures and is invisible to a general inspector.

3. Roof age, in writing. Ask for the permit or the invoice. "Recently replaced" is not a date, and your insurer will want one.

4. The actual tax bill. Not the listing's figure. Look up the parcel, and check whether the current assessment reflects a sale — in many counties a purchase triggers a reassessment and the bill you inherit is not the bill the seller paid.

5. Insurance quote. A real one, on this address, before the inspection period closes. See the post on insurance.

6. Lease and estoppel, if it comes tenanted. The estoppel is the tenant confirming, in their own hand, what they pay, what deposit you owe them, and what they have been promised. Sellers misremember. Tenants do not.

7. Title commitment, read. Easements, liens, and anything unusual about access. It arrives as a PDF nobody opens, and it is the one document that can make a property unsellable later.

8. Management, lined up. Interview before closing, not after. The gap between closing and a signed lease is the most expensive stretch of the first year, and it starts on the day you close whether or not you have chosen anyone.

Seven of these cost a few hundred dollars in total. The eighth costs a phone call. Between them they are the cheapest money in the transaction.