When we're out looking at homes together, we'll often find that a home falls into one of two categories.  Not all homes fall cleanly into one of these categories, but many do...

1.  The home where things have been done.

We'll notice it pretty quickly. The HVAC was replaced a couple years ago. The water heater is newer. The roof still has plenty of life. Little things have been fixed when they came up rather than ignored. This tells us something important -- not just about the condition of the home, but about the mindset of the seller. We can likely feel reasonably confident that you won't be walking into a long list of repairs once you buy this house.

2.  The home where nothing seems to have been done.

The signs are often there if we look closely. The HVAC is old or older. The water heater is at or near the end of its life. Small things that should have been addressed a while ago... weren't addressed at all. None of this means you shouldn't buy the home. But you'll want to go in eyes wide open, because you may be in for several years of dealing with deferred maintenance.

Interesting, though... these two homes can look almost identical in the photos online. They might have the number of bedrooms, the same square footage, be of the same age, in the same neighborhood. We often can't tell them apart from the listing details and photos alone -- which is why we often have to go see a home in person to learn whether it falls into one of these categories, and which one that would be.

As you can imagine, a home that's clearly been well cared for is worth more to most buyers -- sometimes meaningfully more -- than an otherwise identical home that hasn't been cared for as well in recent years. It's typically not because of any single update, but because of the cumulative positive impact of the care updates and care by the current owner.