New Homeowners Day: 3 Tips When Purchasing A New Home

May 1st is New Homeowners Day and at Healthy Spaces, we deal with a lot of new homeowners. Either during the inspection process when they're considering buying a home, or after they have already purchased a home, only to discover problems in the basement or crawl space. 

Here are three tips from us here at Healthy Spaces to you, to make buying your new home less of a headache.

1. GET AN INSPECTION

Having an inspection done is crucial when you're considering putting an offer in on a home. Once you've made an offer, you generally enter the inspection period. Finding mold might not be an automatic deal breaker. But if you do you encounter the nasty stuff, the best thing you can have done is have it identified by a qualified inspector. A lot of the time, mold problems aren't reasoning enough to not buy a home, but on the other hand, some are. 

2. USE YOUR NOSE

Are you smelling a weird smell? That's typically a sign of mold and water problems. Mold grows on wet organic materials. To reproduce, it sends off airborne "spores" (seeds) to hopefully land on other wet organic surfaces and grow. These spores are what you smell when a basement or crawl space is "musty." 

3. LOOK UPSTAIRS

If you see huge cracks in the walls, this is an obvious sign of potential foundation problems, but so is a window that's hard to open, or a front door that needs an extra hip check to close. Cracks near doors or windows, sloping floors creating a gap between the floor and interior walls, are all signs of problems with the foundation. 

Purchasing a new home should be an exciting time in your life. Don't let the worry of what's lurking underneath to ruin your experience. Call Healthy Spaces for a FREE assessment so you only have to worry about when to throw the housewarming party.