Everybody asks about square footage, the school zone, and how long it has been on the market. Those are easy. The questions that actually protect your money are the ones people feel a little awkward asking, so they skip them and find out later.
Here are five we ask on behalf of our buyers, and why each one matters specifically here.
1. What do the utilities actually run?
The mortgage payment is not the cost of living in the house. Ask the seller for twelve months of utility history, not a summer month or a spring month, all twelve.
Arkansas makes this more important than the national version of this advice. Our summers are long, hot, and humid, and an inefficient house punishes you from June through September. Two houses of identical size in the same subdivision can have very different July electric bills depending on attic insulation, duct condition, window quality, and the age of the HVAC.
Ask what the home is heated with, gas or electric or a heat pump, and get the range for both the hottest and coldest months. Then add water, trash, and internet. Entergy and Central Arkansas Water bills for a specific address tell you more about a house than the listing description will.
2. What work has been done, and was it permitted?
Renovations are a selling point and a liability at the same time. Ask what has been changed, when, and by whom.
The part that matters most is permits. Structural changes, a new roof, electrical work, plumbing, and HVAC replacement generally require permitted, licensed work. If a wall came out to open up a kitchen and nobody pulled a permit or checked whether it was load bearing, that is now your problem the moment you close.
Ask for permits and contractor receipts. If the seller does not have them, or the work predates their ownership, verify with the city or county building department. It is a phone call. In an older neighborhood like Hillcrest or Midtown Little Rock, where houses have been renovated in layers over decades, that call is worth the ten minutes.
While you are at it, ask about foundation and drainage work specifically. Clay soil moves in Central Arkansas, and a house that has had piers installed or drainage corrected is not automatically a problem. A house that needed it and never got it is.
3. How old is everything?
Get the age of the roof, HVAC, water heater, and any appliances that convey. Not the condition. The age.
Condition tells you whether something works today. Age tells you what you will be replacing, and when, and that belongs in your budget before you decide what to offer.
The roof deserves its own paragraph in this market. Spring storms and hail are routine here, and roof age drives two things at once: whether your lender will require repairs to close, and what your homeowners insurance will cost and cover. Insurers increasingly treat older roofs differently, so find out the age and whether there has been a hail claim before you get to the closing table. If a roof was replaced after a storm, ask for the documentation.
For HVAC, ask for service records. A twelve-year-old system that has been maintained is a very different purchase than a twelve-year-old system nobody has touched, and in a climate where the unit runs for months at a stretch, that difference is money.
Ask for remaining manufacturer warranties on anything conveying, too. They transfer more often than people realize.
4. Where does everyone park?
Unglamorous and genuinely important. Will your vehicles fit in the garage, or is the garage full of water heater and shelving and one car at best? Is there room beyond the driveway?
If you have a boat, a camper, or a work truck, this question is bigger than parking. Many subdivisions around Maumelle, Bryant, and out toward Lake Maumelle restrict where and whether those can be stored on the property. That is a covenant question, and covenants beat good intentions every time.
In the older close-in neighborhoods, street parking is the whole conversation. Narrow streets, no driveway apron, and neighbors who all got home at 5:30. Drive by on a weekday evening before you write. It is a five minute trip that tells you what a Saturday afternoon showing never will.
5. What has to be disclosed, and what else should I ask about?
Sellers have disclosure obligations, and you should read the disclosure carefully rather than skimming it. Prior water intrusion, foundation repair, termite treatment, insurance claims, and known defects are where the useful information hides.
Then ask the questions the form does not cover. Has the property flooded, or does the yard hold water after a hard rain? Is there a drainage easement? Has there been a death, a crime, or anything else on the property that might affect resale later? What the industry calls a stigmatized property is a real category, disclosure rules around it vary, and whether it bothers you personally is beside the point. Some future buyer may care, and that affects what you can sell it for.
The honest framing: you are not being suspicious, you are doing diligence on the largest purchase most people ever make.
The way we run this
Our buyers do not carry this list around and hope to remember it. We ask these questions as part of the process, we chase the paper, and we make sure the answers come back before your inspection period expires rather than after.
Chase says it this way: "We don't just help people to buy and sell homes. We position them to win."
Start with our first-time home buyer guide for Central Arkansas, browse what is available across Central Arkansas, and reach out when you are ready for someone in your corner.
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