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Properties You Should Not Buy

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Most people don’t know what to watch out for when buying a property for personal use or for rental purposes. You cannot base your interest in properties only on price alone; it must meet all other criteria for a good buy. So ensure to carry out proper inspection and investigation on the house and the surrounding area or community.

These are some things to consider before paying for aproperty.

·        Closeness to a valley or gully: Any building or land close to valley is prone to land slide that can occur anytime in the future without warning. These areas are also pathway for rainwater which is naturally finding its way from uplands to the valleys, therefore will be prone to erosion.

·        Never buy a house in an area with too many bent houses and structural cracks: An area with too many bent buildings suggest that the depth of refusal (hard incompressible soil) being used as piling end depth may be wrong or poor piling practices may have been carried out by the companies that handled the job. Proper investigation has to be done to ascertain the reason for having several sinking houses in the vicinity. If you go ahead and buy a house in the area it will be a matter of time before the house start sinking too, the only exception is if there is a detailed piling document issued by a reputable company that did the job. The piling document has to be extensively verified for adequate compliance. Nevertheless, it will be better to get a land and carry out comprehensive soil test and do the foundation piling with a reputable company. This way you are certain the piling was done properly to the right depth.

·        Buildings that have been exposed to continuous flooding for years: This makes the foundation weak and may be at the verge of collapse. Before buying a ready remodeled or renovated house built several years back, ensure to do the right structural integrity checks. If you must buy this house for remodeling or renovation, proper assessment must be carried out to ascertain the structural integrity. Most times, if there is high risk resulting from defects like bending, cracks and settlement in the structure of the building; it will be wise to demolish the structure and build a new house from the foundation.

·        Property at the bottom of a slope: Plots of land at the bottom of a slope are prone to flooding due to natural drainage of water coming from the uphill lands. This is even worse when there is no channel for onward drainage of the flood from your property to a nearby river or valley. Such buildings may suffer from severe gully erosion because of concentrated runoff from steep ground into depressions. These flood water carry debris that elevate the potential to damage structures and injure people. Sometimes, people buy properties at the bottom of the sloppy area and enjoy it for some years with very little flooding, however, after several years they begin to experience severe flooding, and this is due to more houses being built up hill. These houses and their compound flooring reduce the exposed surface area of the soil for the rainwater to sink naturally into the ground and thus increase flooding in the immediate environment.

·        Structures with more than two floors: In areas where there are minimal government oversight to ensure that the approved structural plans were followed strictly during construction, some people use substandard materials to save cost. Many of such structures that were built years ago have the tendency to collapse due to bad design, faulty construction and/or foundation failure. Such collapse results from cracks and differential settlement which has a huge effect on the structural integrity of the houses. Building inspection (visual inspection, concealed object inspection, dampness inspection and stress and strain survey) needs to be carried out to know the risk of such existing buildings before you buy.

·        Riverfront properties: Living by a river may have several benefits but the disadvantages should be considered.  Waterfront properties with flowing water are easily affected by erosion and avulsion; this is the natural washing and tearing away of land over which it passes. Relying on building reinforcement to strengthen an existing riverfront building can be very expensive. Also these areas might be plagued by a great deal of activities and noise coming from watercraft, yelling etc. It is easy for people to trespass on your property due to the easy access from the river. Flooding is the greatest risk for the houses as varying water levels throughout the year can cause serious trouble.

·        Low foundations: Never buy a house with foundation at the same level or lower than the road. It is very important to check the topography of the area. More importantly, one should consider the level of the land/compound around the building with respect to the road. The higher the compound and the house compared to the road, the better. This will prevent flood from entering the compound as well as the house from the road.


Ø  Selection tips before you purchase the land site for building a rental property

Ø  How to prioritize your budget to get back the best sale or rental value

Ø  Challenges of Managing Rental Properties

Ø  What You Should Know About Real Estate Speculation


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