Buyer’s Beginnings: A Checklist For Any Newly-Purchased Property

Get Your Utilities In Check

One of the first and most important things to check off your list when moving into your new home is to ensure that you get your utilities in check. This includes water supply, electricity, heating, gas and your internet connection. Getting these factors ticked off early is the best way to ensure that you aren’t encountering any inconveniences when moving in. 

Ideally, you’ll get the utilities sorted prior to moving into your new home in order to ensure that you don’t end up in a situation where you don’t have water or electricity for your first few nights in your brand new abode. If you are unsure about anything, we highly recommend calling a reputable electrician who will be able to help you out with anything you may need. 

Gather Important Documents

Another incredibly crucial thing that you’ll need to do when you move into your new home is to gather your important documents and store them in an accessible place where you will be able to reach for them in any situation. Some of these documents may include home insurance policies, mortgage documents, purchase agreements, inspection reports, land titles, appraisals and home warranties.

At the same time, when organising your documents, it is important to take note of anything that you may be missing. If you find yourself missing an important document, you will have to contact your real estate agent, bank or anyone else who is involved in handing over your new home to you. 

Conduct A Full Inspection

On the first few days of moving into your new property, it is always recommended that you do a full and thorough inspection of your home. This is often referred to as a handover inspection and will entail you inspecting all aspects of your new home and deciding on whether you are satisfied with its build and condition. 

Some of the key items you should be checking during the inspection include: 

• Your roof and garage space to ensure that there are no points where rainwater can enter the house as this may end up damaging your insulation, flooring and plasterboard etc. 
• Internal cladding, doors, baths, basins, toilets, vanity units, bench tops, kitchen cabinets, drawers, built-in appliances, skirting and floors. It is important to ensure that your cupboards are correctly fitted and fixed in positions compliant with the relevant building plans and specifications.
• Correct installation of the waterproof membranes in the wet areas such as the toilet, bathroom and shower areas. 
• Make sure all appliances such as in-built ovens, stoves, rangehoods and dishwashers are in working order.

Locate Shut Off Valves and Circuit Breaker

In the rare occurrence of an emergency, it is important that you know where your shut off valves are. This will ensure that you are able to restrict water supply should you be doing repairs on your pipes or other aspects of your home. Many houses have a number of cut-off points that will allow you to stop water at its source, from your own shut-off valve to your water company’s shut off valve, to the water meter. There are many locations to get familiar with both inside and outside your house, so ensuring that you have located these points is important from the get go. 

Similarly, you will want to locate your circuit breaker in the event of a black out or power outage. The main purpose of your home circuit breaker to protect the electrical wiring in your house and to keep you safe. This can protect you when the wires in your house are overloaded with electrical current, causing them to heat up.

Test Your Smoke Detectors

By law, you will need to have working smoke detectors at various locations in your home. When you first move in, it is important to ensure that your smoke detectors are in working condition. You can easily do this by lighting a few matches or spraying a smoke test aerosol in front of each sensor in order to ensure that they are working. Better safe than sorry! 

Inspect Your HVAC system

Lastly, it is important to inspect your HVAC system. Heating and cooling is an absolute necessity, and an expensive one at that. In order to ensure that you aren’t over charged in the summer or winter months, it is important to call a technician in to check your HVAC system. You will need to get your heating and cooling units, insulation, and ducts inspected in order to ensure that all is well with your HVAC system. It is also advised that you get any potential issues fixed as soon as possible. 

Moving into your new home should be an exciting experience that is free from worry and stress. We hope that our new home checklist helps you stay organised and on top of everything as you prepare to move into your home sweet home.