Often you'll find that real estate inspection appointments have short open times; this is due to the agents having to be involved in so many open inspections each day.
There are many things that you should carefully take note of; here is an example of what to look at in every room.
Furniture placement is carefully done by a stylist to maximise the appearance of the room size. Is there enough room for your furniture?
Rugs are often placed over timber floor areas. Rugs can help with suppressing flooring noises and assist in creating visual warmth in a room. Rugs can also be used to hide floor damage; I suggest you always take a peek under them.
Doors held open by magnetic door catches should be closed to check that the door actually shuts and is not binding on the floor or door frame. I often find that many doors do not shut when tested.
Windows are often shut, as refrigerated air conditioning units do not require them to be open. This often results in awning or sash timber windows being painted in the closed position prior to the property being listed for sale and making them unable to be opened. Most people like fresh air at night when the temperature is nice, so this should be an option. Having to have the windows forced open, can damage the timber frames, resulting in the new owner having to remove the opening sash or awning windows to resize them to be able to be closed and to paint the frames. In an older house, this may be quite time-consuming and expensive. I find this to be very common to most older homes. 
Aluminium windows and doors also commonly have issues with the sliding roller mechanisms or the solid slider blocks that may require maintenance or replacement. 
Modern (timber look) uPVC tilt and turn window frames can be damaged on the outside of the window by small stones thrown during lawn mowing. If the house has any lower window sections, it is best to check for damage. 
Ceilings are commonly painted in a matte white paint to achieve the best appearance; it can also assist in hiding deformed ceiling issues such as sagging or popping of the nail heads.
You should also check inside built-in robe areas, as often the rear wall areas may back onto an exterior wall or bathroom. When renovating for a sale, the vendor frequently doesn't paint the areas that aren't visible. These areas may also develop mold and other types of wall damage, such as rising damp, due to leaking bathroom plumbing or drainage issues. 
You should check electrical switches and power points to ensure they are serviceable and adequately fastened to the walls.
Termite damage to wall framing, window frames, architraves, skirting and flooring areas is also an area of concern that requires a thorough inspection. Tapping can show hollow areas; looking for filled-in areas is another sign. Ideally an inspector will have a moisture meter, thermal camera, and a termite radar unit to find wall moisture locations and if termites are inside the wall framing.
It takes time to look everywhere in every room, this simply cannot be done when you look for 15 minutes at an open house inspection.
This list is just an example of what is commonly investigated during an inspection in each room of the house you are looking at. Then the ceiling space is investigated, and the on-roof inspection is done looking for flashing issues, cracked tiles, guttering areas etc. The external walls, eaves, fencing, garage area, timber external structures... It takes around 90 minutes to investigate a moderate sized house, longer for multi storey or large houses.
This list should help you in what to look for, but as always, I would suggest you have the house inspected by a qualified, insured building and pest inspector.

Termites are frequently thought of as a problem for older homes, but I have also observed active termites in the wall framing of more recent homes and renovations—some of those under 15 years old.
Termite activity can sometimes be found under the house slab of newer houses, where the soil is more temperature and moisture controlled. The termites gain entry into the house from around the plumbing pipes or due to holes in the slab from concrete formwork pins that are removed when finishing off the slab surface.
This is an excellent reason to always have a pest report included with your house inspection.

I am having holidays for a few weeks and will be available again for home inspections after the Christmas period.
Thank you for your patronage this year and all the previous years, I wish everyone an excellent break with family and friends.

​Although a recently completed house, several faults were noted that require repairs by the builder.
The ceiling was water damaged from a plumbing leak emulating from the bathroom area above. The gyprock ceilings should also now be replaced.
The aluminium laundry door would not close without lifting as the aluminium door was binding on the aluminium door tread. Rehanging the door or resizing the door is required.
The toilet hand basin was poorly chosen or positioned by the builder, as the door could not be closed, so the builder chose to change the handles over to knobs. But didn't change the cabinet doors over, so there are two holes in the cabinetry door face.
The gate post was poorly attached to the concrete pathway by a surface bolted plate. The post was not structurally able to support the weight of the gate; the post was flexing when opened.
The ceiling was noted as lacking in thermal efficiency when checked with a thermal camera. The yellow areas are hot areas, the darker areas are showing colder items such as joists, beams, etc.
There were also poorly fitted doors, a loose toilet seat was noted, and inadequate eave sheeting drip set down that will result in wood rot. Cracked areas of Hebel rendering...
The standard of building quality was average, in my opinion, considering the amount of money that a house now costs in today's market.
​As always it pays to have a building inspection done, it will save you money now and in the future.

Roofing timber frame structural problems can take many different forms. For example, older homes may have chemically delignified purlins or have cracked rafter timbers.
Movement can be seen in the timber roofing frames of even more recent homes, rafters can become dislodged from beams and purlins due to settlement. Most vendors are unaware of issues unless shown.
Finding these problems requires a thorough inspection of the roof space, and it is preferable to be aware of them before purchasing the home so that suitable repairs can be made.
Ignoring these roof structure repairs can cause serious issues like leaks, the growth of mold, and in the worst situations, roof collapse.
As a building inspector, my role is to support the sale, not to oppose it. Frequently, the vendor is unaware of the flaws and will fix them as soon as they are found because they want the sale to proceed.

Looking at a house during an open inspection can be a difficult time for most people. What looks wrong or not quite right may be legal or possibly it is not. 
Real estate agents should be honest in their dealings. It is illegal for real estate agents to mislead consumers, regardless of whether this is deliberate or not. Real estate agents must give consumers truthful and complete information relevant to a property, including its features, location, zoning, history, the characteristics or use that can be made of the land, and the property’s price. 
What is the 7 year rule?
​ This regulation is based on Planning and Development Act 2000 Section 157(4), which essentially says that seven years after the development started, local governments cannot serve enforcement notices for an unauthorized development.
Do you always require council approval?
Council approval is typically required for most external renovations, extensions, or building work, but not for internal renovations that do not involve structural changes. Depending on your council, even apparently minor projects like a new fence or deck may occasionally require approval. Significant extensions, any project involving significant excavation or filling, and new freestanding buildings such as studios or granny flats are among the projects that almost always require council approval.
I have changed what I wanted done slightly, does this matter to the council approval?
It can be challenging to comprehend every requirement of "The Building Act" and building planning permits. Builders frequently wonder if they need to obtain additional approval for minor modifications or variations to their initial building permit. This can be an issue that the council should be involved with and not just done by the builder to please you without notification to the council.
Some alterations are fine without council notification, what can I do legally myself?
Replacing damaged or sunken paving, creating new pathways, or installing new garden surfaces around the dwelling, replacing or removing fences, but note that some fences must be built to certain heights or are required by your council. It is always wise to call the council for advice prior to bidding or making an offer
Interior floor coverings and flooring replacements do not require council approval. Erecting a new or similar-looking structure to replace a deteriorating one, such as a pergola or verandah, if the primary goal is to provide shade. The replacement structure must be built like-for-like and structurally identical, with no alterations to the timber or structure size allowable.
You should always discuss with the agent any issues you have about the property and ask for clarification from the vendor prior to bidding at an auction.
Some structures are just so poorly constructed that they would not be able to get retrospective approval from a council. These structures are often carports, verandahs, or garage areas that have been converted into rooms. These often do not have adequate concrete footing set downs, as they are built on top of existing exterior paths. Are not adequately water-proof and do not have the legal requirements, such as ventilation and light, to enable the area to be a habitable room. I often see the exterior walling poorly fastened and inadequately flashed, enabling moisture issues, such as rot and termites, to occur. The roofing was inadequately fastened with little or no fall and the roof sheeting was joined mid-span span allowing moisture ingress, promoting mould growth within the ceiling area.
These rooms can often have cracked floor tiles and a musky smell when you first enter the room. If it has just been painted, you will only smell the paint. This is why I use a thermal camera and a moisture meter at a building inspection
A building inspector will check for damp issues and check the roof sheeting areas for leaking issues. These are the expensive issues to have fixed.
The purple colouring on the thermal image below shows the location of the moisture but this was not visible to the eye on a freshly painted ceiling.
Gaps to the gyprock lining are easy to see above the sliding door, as was the unprofessional flushing that was visible using an ultra-high lumen torch. 

The standard fall for a pathway away from a house is 1:60, or 10mm, for every 600mm wide the pathway is. This is to allow enough to fall away from the house slab or fall onto drainage to reduce the risk of slab edge absorbtion and the subsequent rising dampness or fretting that can occur. Rising moisture (capillary action) can draw up the water-soluble salts from the surrounding soil or base material under the paving. This effervescence can cause brick flaking or fretting of both the brickwork and mortar. As the damp proofing viscourse often protects the wall brickwork from this issue, the rising damp and salting will be drawn up through the side of the house slab surface as often the slab side of the house does not have adequate protection. The rising salts can lift the floor tiling near the internal walls, often causing cracking, and is noticeable by the salting appearing through the floor tiling grout. Often, the tile lifting is first noticed near sliding doors due to the ease of viewability in natural sunlight and the lack of furniture against the walls hiding the drumming tile areas.

Often, when looking at a house, the bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry areas have been recently renovated, either professionally or by the owner.
The reason for this is often to make the house more modern, but it can also be simply because these rooms, especially wet areas, require some attention.
Looking around the installed cabinetry in a laundry area can often expose how professional or otherwise DIY the updated area is.
Any areas behind cabinetry where the wall skirting tiling has been removed to enable the fitment of the cabinetry are signs of issues.
If these areas are to be adequately waterproofed, gaps in the tiling should be adequately sealed up at a minimum.
Often the bottom edges of the wall sheeting are exposed, and on occasion, timber wall framing is visible.
Any area, such as under sinks or next to a washing machine, is going to at some point have water leaking issues, and the adjacent room can be affected.
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When tiles have been painted over in an effort to update the look without spending a lot of money, indications of shoddy workmanship are frequently visible.
There are businesses that can perform this service for a fair price, and their finished work is frequently excellent, but the process involves many stages.
Prior to applying a mold-killing solution to the grout, the tiles should be cleaned with sugar soap.
​After that, the existing tile surface is sanded to make it easier for the new paint to adhere to it. A primer coat and two coats of the actual floor coatings are applied next.
The business doing this work will provide a warranty, and this is the difference between a DIY job and a renovation that will last.
Looking for obvious faults, such as paint runs, suggests it is DIY. I doubt that any of the required processes have been completed to ensure the longevity of the paint finish where it has been applied. 
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I have been to many open inspections, often as a favor to a family friend or relatives who are after a little help with one of life's big decisions. 
There are some things you can look for yourself when looking around a house when you have short limited time at an open inspection without the expensive inspection equipment that we carry. You may need a decent pocket torch and a decent zoom camera, for looking at the gable lead flashings from the road kerb prior to the inspection.

• Roof sheeting issues can often be seen from the road or on Google Earth satellite images, you can research the property prior to going. Having a look at the property from above can show rust or patching on the roof sheeting. It is more difficult to see issues that relate to tile roofing, however. Tile roofing leak issues are often due to lead flashings that have cracked due to age or rusting issues on flashings around skylights and evaporative air conditioners. Cracked or loose hip cap tiles or pointing can also contribute to leaking, as can other tile gaps caused by sagging hip rafters or a poorly supported ridge. Unfortunately, some things require an on roof inspection to find issues that can cause water ingress damage.