Sometimes the Real Estate you buy has a good surprise...sometimes not.

From Anna Matsunaga, Managing Broker, Team Momentum, Keller Williams Tacoma.
253 353 2662  www.teammomentumrealestate.com

It is always a good idea to order and have a complete inspection with a licensed professional...pretty much 100% of the time.  However there are things that no inspection will tell you and that you will likely only know AFTER you own the house and live in it....things like exactly how the lay out works for you.  Whether you love or hate your neighbors....and little things about the house in general.

Sure you can and should work to get the best idea you can before you buy.  Do a good neighborhood review which includes meeting some of the neighbors and getting their take on the neighborhood.  Consult with a Realtor who really spends time getting to know how you will live in the house and cares enough to talk you out of a beautiful home that he or she knows will not work based on what you told them in your consultation......be sure you can afford the payments.....get copies of the typical utility bills for the place so you know how much your utility bills will be.  All these things can help you avoid surprises that are less than pleasant though it will not completely shelter you from them.

From experience I will tell you even a careful buyer can get some rather nasty surprises.  ( strange things inside the walls, "improvements" that really were not, and you could not tell until they failed, parts that should have been used in the plumbing that were not and you could not see until again, they failed.....and so on.....and really none of these could have been avoided....and we took them in stride and fixed them and were glad we owned the place and were in a place to fix them, even though we swore under our breath a little about them ( mine were mostly oathes that we would find a better place later and well hubby's were not the not to be repeated, actual cursing)

So....imagine my delight with our third purchased family home....so far every large surprise has been a bonus.

The neighborhood is quieter than we thought.  The neighbors are even nicer, sweeter, kinder and friendlier than we ever imagined.  So many things more than we realized are close by.  The schools are even more helpful with the kids than we had expected....so far no shoddy workmanship to anything found anywhere in the house.....so did not expect any more wonderful surprises, felt we already had more than we bargained for.....and I was wrong.

Imagine my delight to find that under the carpet in the only carpeted room in the house ( mind you I HATE carpet) is beautiful, original hardwood floor in almost original condition!



We set about ripping it up right away....I just finished pulling out all the tack strips and nails.....will haul it all off and out this weekend.....

So....when you buy, check out all you can.  Ask your realtor ways to avoid most of the most nasty surprises and may all of the surprises you have be as sweet as ours have so far with buying Song Haven......