4 Things to Do Before You Buy a Home That Almost Nobody Does

There are a few things worth doing before you buy a home that almost nobody actually does. Skip them, close on the house, and you can end up months later with a problem you cannot undo.

Get your estate plan in order first. Decide how you are taking title before closing day. Understand anything you are signing, and read the recorded restrictions, before you sign rather than after. And get a survey.

In the video below, North Carolina attorney Tiffany Webber walks through all four, including the buyer who skipped the survey and found out the property line ran about two thirds of the way through his house.

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1. Get Your Estate Plan in Order First

This one sounds out of place. You came here to learn about buying a house, not to think about dying. Stay with it, because it matters more than it sounds.

If you do not have an estate plan, you still have one. You just did not write it. Every state has a default plan for what happens to your property when you are gone, and here in North Carolina ours might not be what you would choose.

A personal example. Before Tiffany daughter was born, if she had passed away without a plan, part of her estate would have gone to her husband and part would have gone to her parents. She loves her mom. That is not what she would have wanted. Her husband should have gotten everything.

Now picture that same default with young kids in the mix. In North Carolina, if you pass away leaving a spouse and children, the estate gets divided between them, and the exact split depends on how many children there are. If those children are minors, you now have minor kids accidentally co owning real estate alongside your spouse. That is a legal headache nobody signs up for on purpose.

Here is why this belongs before the purchase. The way your plan is set up can change how you should buy the home in the first place. You might decide to buy it in the name of a trust, which is a legal arrangement that holds the property so it does not have to go through probate. Or you might want this specific property to go to one specific person, which means the plan has to say that. Get the plan in order first, even a basic one, because the house you are about to buy might need to fit into it from day one.

2. Decide How You Take Title Before Closing

Title is legal ownership of the home, and how you hold it decides what happens if an owner passes away or runs into trouble.

Here in North Carolina, married couples get access to a special way of owning property called tenancy by the entirety. It gives you two things. If one of you passes away, the home automatically goes to the survivor with no court process. And it protects the property from each spouse individual creditors, so if a creditor comes after just one spouse, they generally cannot touch the house.

For a married couple that is usually the default, and it is a good one. If something in your life is a reason not to do it that way, your closing attorney needs to know before closing, not after.

If you are not married and buying together, the default flips. You would typically take title as tenants in common, meaning if you pass away your share goes to your heirs rather than to the person you bought the house with. Maybe that is exactly what you want. If you wanted your co owner to get it, you have to say so up front and ask for survivorship.

You can change how you hold title later, but every owner has to agree and sign off. It is so much easier to get right at the closing table than to round everybody up a year later.

3. Understand What You Are Signing, and Read the Restrictions

Talk to an attorney about anything you do not understand before you sign, not after.

Once you sign, you signed. Outside of really extreme situations there are no take backs. You agreed, and you do not get to un-agree because you read it more carefully the next day.

We get asked to review contracts all the time, and the hard part is that by the time it lands on the desk it has almost always already been signed. We can sit down and help you understand what you signed. But if there is something in there you do not like, the only way it changes now is if the other side agrees, and they usually will not, because they already got the terms they wanted.

If a contract is in front of you and you do not fully understand it, do whatever it takes to understand it first. Ask questions, slow the process down, have someone walk you through it.

And while you are reading things before you sign, read the restrictions on the property. Before you buy, before you even sign the contract. The restrictions are the rules for what you are actually allowed to do with the property, and people find out about them after they have closed and made plans the rules do not allow. There is more on that in how CC&Rs work and what it takes to change them.

4. Get a Survey

This is the one worth begging about. A survey is a professional drawing of the property showing exactly where the boundary lines really are and what is actually on the land.

It is not free and it may not be cheap. Here is what it buys you.

A survey tells you whether the property lines are where you were told they were, or where you just assumed they were. It catches encroachments, where something crosses a boundary line, and easements, which are rights other people have to use part of your land. Those are things you cannot see standing in the yard or looking at an aerial map.

And a survey can tell you whether you are even buying the property you think you are buying. In more rural areas with unplatted land, meaning the property was never mapped and recorded, buyers have been sure they were buying one specific piece, skipped the survey, closed, and found out afterward they bought an entirely different parcel. Not the one they wanted, and not one they could do anything with.

About five years ago somebody called us who had skipped the survey on a previous purchase. After closing he found out the property line ran about two thirds of the way through the house. His home was partly built on the neighbor land. A survey would have caught that before he signed, while the seller still had to deal with it. Instead it became his problem.

Watch the full video for all four in detail. The related check that takes two minutes is reading the legal description on the deed.

Common Questions

What happens if I die without a will in North Carolina?

State law decides who inherits. With a spouse and children the estate is divided between them, and the specific shares depend on how many children there are and the type of property. Minor children ending up as partial owners of real estate alongside a surviving spouse is a common and messy result.

What is tenancy by the entirety in NC?

A form of ownership available to married couples. The property passes automatically to the surviving spouse without probate, and it is generally protected from the individual creditors of one spouse.

How should unmarried co buyers take title?

By default, as tenants in common, which means each share passes to that owner heirs rather than to the co owner. If you want the property to pass to the other owner, survivorship has to be requested and stated up front.

Can I change how I hold title after closing?

Yes, but every owner has to agree and sign a new deed. It is much simpler to decide before closing than to fix later.

Why do I need a survey if there is a GIS map?

A GIS map shows a general location and is not legally binding. Only a licensed surveyor establishes where the lines actually fall on the ground, which is what catches encroachments and mismatched parcels.

Buying Around Lake Norman?

At Thomas & Webber, we handle the closing itself, and we can talk through how you take title before you get to the table. If the estate planning side is the piece you have been putting off, we do that work too.

Our offices in Mooresville, Cornelius, Denver, and Kannapolis serve buyers and sellers throughout the Lake Norman area, including Davidson, Huntersville, Sherrills Ford, Troutman, and Statesville.

Email your contract to close@thomasandwebber.com or call us at (704) 663-1600 to schedule your closing with us.