What to actually check when inspecting a property

Open inspections run for 30 minutes, usually on a Saturday, with strangers moving through at once. It's easy to leave having seen a place without really inspecting it. The agent's job is to highlight what's good; yours is to find what's not. This is part of our guide to buying your first home in Victoria, and you can tick it off live with our open home inspection checklist.

Before you go in

Read the setting first. Note the street (quiet or busy, parking, nearby pubs or industry), the neighbours (well-kept or not, since you'll live beside them), and what's close by: train lines, major roads, flight paths, power lines.

The exterior

Walk the perimeter slowly and look for:

• Walls and foundations: diagonal or stepped cracks across corners (hairline cracks are normal), bulging or leaning walls, rising damp (white salt stains on lower bricks), or one corner sinking.
• Roof and gutters: a sagging roofline, missing tiles, lifting flashing, moss, and sagging or blocked gutters.
• Drainage: water pooling near the building, downpipes not connected to stormwater, or ground sloping toward the house.
• Trees and fences: large trees or surface roots close to the building, and fence condition and boundaries (the agent should know who owns each).
• Out-buildings: the condition of any garage, shed, or granny flat, and whether it is an approved structure rather than unpermitted.

The interior

Slow down while others rush. Start with your nose: damp, mould, stale air, smoke, pet urine, or heavy fragrance masking something. A room that smells "fresh" may just have had the windows open. Then work through:

• Walls and ceilings: water stains (yellow or brown), diagonal cracks, and fresh paint in isolated patches. Ceiling corners are where leaks show first.
• Floors: slope (stand still, or drop a pen), gaps between boards, cracked or lifted tiles, and what carpet might hide.
• Windows and doors: open and close each one; check they move freely, latch, sit square, and show no water ingress around the frames.
• Wet areas: run taps for pressure and hot water, flush toilets, and check around the toilet base, under the basin, and the grout, silicone, and exhaust fans for mould or damage.
• Kitchen: run the taps, check under the sink for leaks, open every cupboard for water stains or pests, and test the stove, oven, and rangehood venting.
• Bedrooms and living areas: storage, natural light through the day, ventilation, power points, and the heating and cooling units (age and condition).

The infrastructure

The parts that aren't obvious at a glance:

• Switchboard: old ceramic fuses versus modern circuit breakers, whether there's a safety switch, and any scorching. An old board suggests old wiring.
• Hot water system: type, age (often a date on the unit), and any rust or leaks. These last 8 to 15 years, so an old one is a replacement cost.
• Plumbing: modern copper or plastic versus old galvanised steel, and leaks at visible joints.
• Heating, cooling and internet: what's installed and its age, plus the NBN connection type from the address checker at nbn.com.au, since HFC, FTTN and FTTP differ in speed.

Come back before you commit

You can't test everything at one open. If a property is promising, return at a different time: a weekday for traffic and noise, after rain (which reveals roof issues fast), and at night for street activity. Walk the surrounding blocks. An hour spent across different times saves years of small regrets, the ones buyers only notice after moving in: blinding morning sun, a 6am train horn, a garage too narrow for the car, patchy phone signal, or a half-collapsed shared fence.

Take notes in the car straight after, before the properties blur: price guide, first impressions, specific issues, and questions to follow up. A pattern across several inspections shows what's standard in your market and what's genuinely unusual.

The most important thing

A property inspection is not a building inspection. You're looking for first impressions and obvious red flags; anything serious needs a qualified inspector. Your job at the open is to decide whether the place is worth the next step. If it is, book a building and pest inspection and have your conveyancer review the Section 32. Those catch what you missed.

Sources

• Consumer Affairs Victoria: Due diligence checklist: the regulator's official checklist of what to investigate before buying, which this walk-through complements.

Sources verified 25 July 2026.