As finding and buying a new home in Kensington is a long winded and time consuming process, when you eventually find a property you really like it is easy to get carried away and maybe even put it an offer.  Before you rush in and do this, you should consider some things first to ensure that you buy the right home for you, and not just settle for the best of a bad bunch.

One of the things that you should do is ask some questions about the house in the W8 district, for example:

•    How long has this property been on the property market for?

•    What is the reason for the house being sold?

•    Has it had many viewings? Has it had any offers put in?

•    Has the house been renovated or modified in any way?

•    Has there been any damage to the property? If so, when and how when it fixed? What materials were used?

•    Has there ever been any issues with subsidence of the property?

•    When was the boiler last inspected and how old is it?

•    Is the seller including anything in the sale?  For example, the oven, light fixtures etc.

•    Have there ever been any problems with the neighbours?

•    Is there any issue in parking by the property in Kensington?

•    What council tax band is the property in?

Of course the seller is going to tell you all of the good points and down play any of the negative points, and as a result of this you may not know how much to believe of what the seller has said and how they responded to the questions.  This is why you should always do your own research on the property and the area the house is situated in, here are some things you should do:

•    When you view the house look out of the windows and see what your view is like.  Is there anything blocking your view,  does it look like any of the neighbours are building something that could block your view?

•    View the house again on more than one occasion and always at different times of the day, check to make sure there is nothing going on in the neighbourhood in SW7 that could prevent you from wanting to move there (for example, a noisy road during the evening or a local hangout for a ‘gang’ right on the property wall).

•    Look into the neighbourhood and find out what it is like, does it have high crime rates? Is there a neighbourhood watch scheme? Talk to local residents and what could be your new neighbours, read newspapers and newsletters local to the area and consider enquiring at the police station for the crime rates.

•    Take a tour of the surrounding area and find out where your new doctors would be, where the dentist and opticians are, where the schools are and if there are any vets nearby in the W8 region, see where the local shop is and what it is like and have a look at the public transport connections. The first thing you should find is where the local hospital is.

•    Check with any insurance that you may have, in particular car insurance, and make sure that the change in address to Kensington wouldn’t mean an increase in price that you would have to pay.

•    If there are any changes or modifications that you would like to make to the house make sure that you can get the planning permission to do so.  There’s no point buying a home because you intend to add something to it to make it perfect, only to find out once you’ve bought it that you can do that after all.

•    Have a look at some of the properties' utility bills and compare this to what you pay now.  Will buying this property mean an increase in your monthly bill prices?