Twenty minutes to gather everything a six-figure decision rests on. Here is the list, kerbside inwards.
Digital Property Inspector · Updated August 2026
A viewing is twenty minutes to gather everything you will need for a decision worth six
figures. Most people spend it forming an impression. The ones who buy well spend it collecting
evidence, and they leave with the same set of facts every time.
This is that set. Work kerbside inwards, because the outside tells you what the inside is
going to cost.
Before you travel
Ten minutes at the desk
Asking price, time on market, and any reductions
Tenure, lease length and ground rent if leasehold
Council tax band
EPC rating and the recommendations page, not just the letter
Flood risk for the postcode
Sold prices on the same street in the last two years
Rental comparables if you are letting it
Outside
Kerbside
Roof line straight, tiles or slates present, no obvious slipping
Chimney stack and flashing
Gutters and downpipes — staining on the wall below means a leak
Pointing, especially at ground level and around openings
Cracks: hairline is normal, anything you can get a pencil into is not
Window frames and their age; are they the original units
Damp course visible and clear of the ground
Ground levels — soil or a raised path bridging the damp course
Boundaries, and what is on the other side of them
Parking, and whether it is actually yours
Room by room, inside
Every room
Length and width, and the ceiling height if it is a sleeping room
Damp: look behind furniture, in the corners, at skirting level
Smell — musty means damp somebody has painted over
Condition of the plaster, the floor and the ceiling
Number and position of sockets
Radiator present and sized for the room
Windows open and lock; check the trickle vents
Photographs, one from each corner
Kitchen and bathrooms
Extraction — an extractor that actually works, not just present
Under the sink for leaks and staining
Water pressure, hot and cold, and how long the hot takes
Sealant and grout, and whether the tiles sound hollow
Age of the kitchen and whether it survives another tenancy
Services
Boiler make, model and age; look for the service sticker
Consumer unit: modern RCD board or an old fuse box
Gas and electrical certificate dates
Smoke and heat detection: mains wired, interlinked, battery
Loft: insulation depth, water tank, signs of daylight
Stopcock — find it, and check it turns
The three questions worth asking on site
Why is it on the market? The answer, and the pause before it, tells you
about your negotiating position.
What has been done to it, and when? Then ask for the paperwork. Work
without certificates is work you will pay for twice.
Has anything been claimed on the insurance? Subsidence and flood both show
up here before they show up anywhere else.
Do it in the room, not afterwards
Notes written back at the car are always thinner than notes written in the room, and
photographs on a camera roll lose which room they came from within about a day. Record it where
you stand, against the room it belongs to, and the write-up is finished when the viewing is.
What you should leave with
Room dimensions for every room. Photographs attached to the room they were taken in.
Condition against each one. The boiler, the consumer unit, the certificates. A note of anything
you would want re-checked by a surveyor.
That is what turns a viewing into something you can price, put to a lender, or send to a
partner who was not there.
Stop writing this up in the car
Record every room on your phone as you walk it, with photographs and measurements against
each one, and leave with the report already finished. Seven days free.