Home Buying Checklist - Paint And Stucco
By Raynor James, Fri Dec 9th

Buying a home is a big investment. You should use a checklistwhen sizing up potential homes. In this article, we cover a homebuying checklist for paint and stucco.

Paint and Stucco

The exterior of a home typically makes the biggest impressionwhen you first view a potential buying opportunity. Manyhomebuyers, however, often make the mistake of looking at colorschemes as the principal issue. In truth, a close review of theexterior of the prospective home can tell you a lot about thequality of the structure.

A person selling a home is not stupid.



Before putting a home onthe market, they are going to take steps to spiff it out toraise buyer interest and the rate you are willing to pay. Thereis nothing devious about such conduct. It is natural to want toput your best foot forward and a person selling a home isn'tgoing to act differently. This is why you want to take a closelook at the exterior paint and stucco on a home.

1. The first thing to look for is peeling or flaking of paint onthe exterior walls. If you see this in an obvious place on awall, run for the hills because the house needs a total repaint.Typically, you are not going to find such obvious problems.Instead, you need to poke around behind bushes, up under roofoverhangs and in nooks and crannies. If you find problems ofthis sort, it tends to mean the paint job on the home was notapplied correctly. Once these problems start occurring, you cancount on them getting worse over time.

2. The second thing to look for is stains around perforations inthe paint. For instance, look for an area where bolts or nailspenetrate a painted surface. If you see rust around the hole,you may be seeing an indication of poor maintenance. Even worse,you may be seeing an indication of a water drainage problem.Investigate such occurrences very carefully.

3. With stucco homes, you are typically going to find somecracking do to earth movement and temperature changes. As longas these areas are relatively small, you shouldn't have problemspatching them for a nominal price. The bigger problem, however,is if you find stains or soft spots on the bottom section of astucco wall. This can mean there are problems with the drainagescreen behind the stucco wall and water isn't getting out. Ifwater isn't getting out, the stucco will continue to degrade andyou may have a mold problem at some point. Both situations canbe very expensive to fix.

When checking out perspective home buying opportunities, theexterior of the home should be looked at very closely. In thiscase, the merits of the home all come down to the details.

About the author:Raynor James is with the FSBO site - http://www.fsboamerica.org- FSBO homes For Sale By Owner. Visit our home buying page -http://www.fsboamerica.org/buyer.cfm - to view and buy homes,houses, condos, land and real estate.

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