How to walk a townhome for stairs, storage, parking and outdoor space

A townhome shows well because it is bright and easy to walk through in ten minutes. Four things decide whether it works for the next ten years, and none of them are in the photos: the stairs, the storage, the parking and the outdoor space. Walk the home for those four and you will learn more than a second showing would tell you.

Stairs, at the age you will actually be

Count the levels and then count the flights. Three levels usually means two flights between the garage and the bedrooms, and the main living floor sits in the middle. That layout is efficient and it is also a home where nothing you need is on the floor you are standing on.

Walk it as the version of yourself who will live there. Carrying a baby and a car seat from the garage to the top floor, several times a day, while a toddler climbs the same stairs behind you. Carrying groceries from the garage, past the living room, to a kitchen on the middle level. Doing it with a knee that is not what it was, or with a parent who visits and cannot manage two flights.

Then look at the stairs themselves. Are they straight or do they turn, and is there a landing. Could a sofa, a mattress or a fridge get up them, because that decides what furniture you can own. Is the flight from the garage narrow and dark, because that is the one you use with your hands full.

If the primary bedroom is on the top floor and the laundry is in the garage, you will carry every basket up two flights for as long as you live there. Notice that at the showing, not in year two.

Storage, and the garage that has to do everything

Townhomes are short on storage, and the garage usually absorbs the shortfall. Open every closet, look under the stairs, and check whether there is a crawl space or a locker. Then be honest about what you own: seasonal bins, tires, camping gear, sports equipment, tools, luggage, holiday decorations, a stroller, a bike per person.

A tandem garage is the one to think hard about. Two cars nose to tail sounds like two parking spots, and in practice it is often one car plus the storage the home lacks. If you park two vehicles in a tandem garage, you shuffle them every time the inside car needs to leave, and you have nowhere to put anything else. If you use the back half for storage, you have a one-car home. Measure the depth and the door opening against the vehicle you actually drive, especially with a truck or a van.

Look at what is already in the garage. Hot water tank, furnace, electrical panel, laundry: each takes floor space and each needs clearance.

Parking, visitors and charging

Parking is one of the most common sources of complaints in a townhome complex, and it is almost always about the second vehicle and the guests.

Ask three questions. How many stalls come with the unit, and are they on title, on the strata plan, or assigned by the strata. What are the rules for a second or third vehicle, including whether the driveway apron in front of the garage counts as a legal stall. And what are the visitor parking rules: how many spaces, whether a permit is needed, how long a guest can stay, and whether residents are permitted to use them, because in some complexes that is the fight the minutes are full of.

If you drive an electric vehicle, or expect to, ask about charging before you write an offer. Installing a charger in a strata typically needs council approval, and the answer can depend on the building's electrical capacity and whether an electrical plan has been done. Do not assume a stall with an outlet nearby is a stall you may charge from.

Outdoor space and who is responsible for it

The patio, the deck or the small yard is usually limited common property. That means it is yours to use, and it is not automatically yours to change or to maintain. The bylaws set the terms.

Find out who cuts the grass, who maintains the fence, and who is responsible if the deck membrane or the railing fails. Then find out what the bylaws allow you to put out there. Common restrictions cover barbecues, storage sheds, planters, hard-surface changes, hot tubs, awnings, satellite dishes, screens and what may be visible over the railing. Some complexes restrict pets in a fenced yard, or require the yard to be maintained to a standard.

Stand in the space and check the practical things too. Is it shaded all day. Does it face the visitor lot or a walkway. Is it big enough for the table and the barbecue together.

How I walk a townhome

I start in the garage, not at the front door, because the garage tells the truth about storage and parking in about a minute. Then I walk the stairs twice, once empty-handed and once imagining the groceries. Then I go to the patio and ask who maintains it.

Only after that do I look at the kitchen and the finishes, and by then I usually know whether the home works. If a buyer needs two vehicles, wants a charger and has a garage full of gear, we are looking for a specific kind of complex and I would rather know that on the first showing than on the third.

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