# Fall Tells On a House

*Five things the season shows you that summer keeps hidden.*

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Summer is a flatterer.

Everything is green, everything is leafed out, the grass hides whatever it feels like hiding, and the air conditioning has been running long enough that nobody's thought about the furnace since March. A house shows well in July. That's not a knock on July. It's just that a house in July is a house on its best behavior.

Fall is different. Fall tells on people.

I spent twenty-three years as a nurse, and the thing nursing does to you is it teaches you to look at something during the season when it's actually going to tell you the truth. You don't assess somebody when they're comfortable. You assess them when the covers come off.

So here's what I pay attention to this time of year, and what it tends to mean.

## 1. Where the leaves collect

Leaves don't land randomly. They pile where the wind stops and where the water slows down.

If there's a wet mat of leaves along one side of the foundation and it's still damp three days after a rain, that corner doesn't dry out. It never did in summer either — you just couldn't see it. Standing water against a foundation is one of those small things that turns into a large thing over about ten years.

The good version of this: a yard where the leaves blow clear and the ground under them is dry. That's a house sitting on ground that drains, and that's worth more than a new backsplash.

## 2. What the gutters do when it rains

I'm not talking about whether the gutters are clean. Anybody can clean gutters the week before a showing.

I'm talking about where they let go. Follow the downspout with your eyes and look at what's directly underneath it. Is there a splash block, a buried line, something carrying that water away from the house? Or is there a little washed-out crater and a dark stripe down the siding?

Every inch of rain that hits a roof has to go somewhere. Fall is when you can actually watch it happen.

## 3. What the trees are doing

Trees are honest. They've been there longer than most of the owners.

A big mature tree out back is usually a gift — shade in summer, a windbreak in winter, and a yard that feels settled instead of new. I love them. But look at where the limbs reach. Anything hanging over the roofline is something you'll be paying attention to for as long as you own the place.

Look down, too. Roots that have started to lift a walk or a driveway are telling you what they'll do to a sewer line eventually.

## 4. Whether the yard has been loved

This is the one I probably care about most, and it isn't on any inspection report.

You can tell. Beds that somebody built over years and years. Bulbs that come back because somebody planted them on purpose. A shed that got painted more recently than it had to be. A yard like that tends to sit on top of a house where the little things got handled too — because that's just how the person was.

The opposite is also true, and I say it kindly. A yard nobody's touched in five years is usually attached to a furnace nobody's serviced in five years.

## 5. How the house feels on the first cold morning

This is the one you can only learn right now.

Go back for a second showing early on a cold day. Before anybody turns the heat up for you. Stand in the room over the garage, and stand in the finished part of the basement, and see how those two rooms feel compared to the living room.

Houses have rooms that are hard to heat. That's not a dealbreaker — most houses have one. But it's a lot better to know about it in October than to discover it in January when you've already signed everything.

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## None of this is about finding something wrong

I want to be clear about that, because I know how a list like this can read.

Most of what I notice is a reason to like a place *more*. The tree. The beds somebody built. The yard that drains right. Those are the things that tell me a house has been taken care of, and they're a lot harder to fake than fresh paint.

But you should walk in with your eyes open. That's all any of this is. I'd rather be the person who mentions the downspout in October than have you find it yourself in February.

Twenty-three years of paying attention. Turns out it doesn't switch off at somebody's front door.

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If you're thinking about buying or selling this fall and you'd like somebody to walk a property with you and say what she sees — call or text me anytime. I answer my phone.

**Marianna DiCesare**
RE/MAX Broadwater · Travis Broadwater, Broker
520 National Road, Wheeling, WV 26003
304-231-7615