What should I actually look for at a showing?
The six numbers that cost five figures: the age of the roof, furnace, air conditioner, water heater, windows and electrical panel. Then look for water. Ignore the finishes entirely.
You have twenty minutes and it gets spent on the kitchen. Spend it here instead.
Ages. Ask, and look for the date labels on the furnace and water heater. Each of these has a known service life and a known replacement cost, and a house where all six are at the end is a renovation with a house attached.
Electrical. Open the panel door: you are looking for the service size and for fuses rather than breakers. Sixty amps means an upgrade and an insurance problem.
Water. Basement walls for staining and efflorescence, fresh paint along the bottom of one wall only, a dehumidifier running, and outside where the downspouts discharge and which way the ground slopes.
Structure. Sight down floors for slope, check doors that do not latch, look at where cracks run in a foundation.
Smell. Musty means moisture. Heavy air freshener means somebody is covering something.
Outside: grading, trees close to the foundation, the driveway, and where the neighbour's water goes.
Next questions
What are the red flags in an older Toronto house?
Knob-and-tube wiring, a sixty amp service, galvanized supply pipes, a clay drain line under mature trees, an underdug basement without proper underpinning, vermiculite insulation, and any unpermitted basement apartment.
City of Toronto
How old is too old for a roof, furnace or water heater?
Asphalt shingles last fifteen to twenty-five years, a furnace fifteen to twenty, an air conditioner twelve to fifteen, a water heater eight to twelve, and windows twenty to thirty. Anything within five years of the end of that range is a cost you are buying.
Market practice
How worried should I be about signs of water in a basement?
Worried enough to price it. Surface causes like grading and downspouts cost hundreds to fix. A failed weeping tile system or a cracked foundation means interior or exterior waterproofing, which runs from several thousand to well over twenty thousand.
Ontario