5 Things to Remember When House Hunting in Maple Ridge, BC

Maple Ridge, British Columbia, has many charms. Individuals and families look for homes every day there. You might want to follow suit and see what’s available in that part of the country.

If so, you should consider a few different factors. We’ll look at some of them in the following article.

You Should Create a “Must Have” and a “Want” List

When you look at the homes for sale in Maple Ridge, BC, you should make a “must have” and a “want” list. These lists will mention anything you feel you need in your dream home before you buy it, and also anything you want.

For instance, maybe you feel like you need a garage because you don’t want to park your vehicle or vehicles out in the driveway, where the snow will cover them during the winter. If so, you can put garage on your “need” list. You might feel like abundant closet space needs to be on there, or central air, or a finished basement.

Your “need” list might feature a backyard if you have a dog and you want a space for it to run around. Perhaps you have kids, and you feel that a backyard must be on your “need” list because they need a place to play.

If a house in Maple Ridge doesn’t have everything on your “need” list, you can quickly disqualify it. If you give your realtor that list when you instruct them to look for a house for you, that will save them time since they’ll know precisely what you require from your new home.

You Must Find a Home with the Right Number of Bedrooms and Bathrooms

Speaking of wants and needs, few things set a home apart more than the proper number of bedrooms and bathrooms. You might look at that before you look at anything else a house in Maple Ridge offers.

Depending on how many individuals you have in your family, you might need at least three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Say that you have a spouse or partner. You’ll probably want a master bedroom with a full bathroom attached.

If you have two kids, you might want a bedroom for each of them. If you’ve lived in an apartment up to this point, your kids may want their own rooms, and you might agree that’s necessary.

Maybe you’ve all had to share one bathroom up to this point. That’s not much fun, and you might look specifically for Maple Ridge houses with at least two full bathrooms because of it. Finding a home with the proper bedroom and bathroom situation should interest most British Columbia house hunters.

You’ll Need to Look at What Comes with the House

You will certainly want to look at things like bedrooms and bathrooms, but when you’re house hunting, there’s a lot more that needs your attention before you feel strongly enough about a house for you to put in a bid on it. For example, you should look at the furnace and its age.

If you find a home that looks good to you and seems to meet your needs, but it has an ancient furnace, you know you’ll need to replace that pretty much as soon as you move in. British Columbia has some serious winters, so having a working furnace in excellent condition must occur.

If a house doesn’t have a tankless water heater, you’ll probably want to go with one. However, that will cost you some additional money as well.

In short, you’ll have to pay for anything you feel the home needs that isn’t there yet. You should add that to the home’s total cost and think about that additional expenditure as you get ready to potentially buy it.

Consider the Foundation and Roof

You can get a home inspection to learn the house’s overall condition. Any home buyer should know to do that before they put in a bid on the house. The place might look okay, but a professional home inspector can find problems you didn’t know existed.

They should certainly look closely at the roof and foundation when they do the inspection. If the roof isn’t in very good condition, you will have to replace or repair it.

Roof repairs are seldom cheap, but if you need to do a total tear-off and replacement, that’s far more costly. You can sometimes pay tens of thousands of dollars for that, and you might demand that the current homeowner pay for it unless they want to knock some money off the asking price.

Foundation problems can also cost you a lot of money out of pocket if you don’t get the current owner to pay for them. Many home sales stall if an inspector finds the foundation isn’t stable.

Look Closely at the Kitchen

You will want to look at the home’s kitchen before you decide whether or not to put in a bid on it. Some homes in Maple Ridge have modern, spacious kitchens, while others can use an upgrade.

Along with bedrooms and bathrooms, kitchens can sell a home. If you like to cook and have company over, you’ll want a kitchen with plenty of room. Maybe you’ll want one with lots of counter space, plenty of cabinets, an island, a modern gas range, a ventilation hood over it, and so forth.

If you find the kitchen outdated or drab, you might not like the house because of that. You can always pay to do some updates, or you can ask the current owner to make those changes before you seriously consider the house.

If you don’t cook so much, you might not feel so strongly about the kitchen setup. If you still like having people over, the dining room might need just as much attention, though.

If you hunt for homes in Maple Ridge with these factors in mind, you should hopefully locate a house that works for you and your family.