Six questions worth asking before you view

A viewing is twenty minutes of pattern-matching against a decision you will live with for years. The way to make it useful is to arrive with the questions already written down.

Before you go

1. How long has it been listed? Not to haggle - to understand. Something sitting for three months in a fast market is telling you something the photographs are not.
2. Why is it available? An expiring lease, a sale, a landlord leaving the market: each implies a different amount of urgency on the other side.
3. What are the running costs? Rent or price is the number everyone compares. Service charges, utilities and parking are the ones that decide affordability.

While you are there

1. What is above and below? Two minutes on the neighbours is worth more than twenty on the kitchen.
2. How is it heated, and what does that cost in the worst month? Central heating on a listing is a fact; the bill is the question.
3. What would you fix first? Ask the agent. A good one answers honestly, and the answer tells you what they think the weakness is.

None of this replaces standing in a room and knowing. It just stops the room doing all the deciding.