10 Least Helpful Questions to Ask When Buying

Some questions move a home search forward. Others sound smart, feel urgent, and still return…nothing useful. In a recent Selling Greenville episode, the host laid out the most common buyer questions that waste time, invite vague answers, or try to shortcut a process that simply can’t be shortcut. The thread through all ten: if the question dodges real due diligence, it won’t give you an edge.

Before diving in, one caveat from the episode: there’s no such thing as a “dumb” question. These are just the least helpful—the ones that rarely yield answers you can act on.

The Least Helpful Questions to Ask When Buying a Home

The least helpful questions: There’s value in curiosity, but there’s even more value in asking the right things at the right time. Here are the ten least helpful questions to ask when buying a home—and what they actually reveal.

1) “Why is the seller selling?”

It’s the most asked—and least illuminating—question. Sellers are never going to reply, “Because the property is garbage,” “I’m dumping this loser,” or “I’m desperate; I’ll take anything.” Even when they offer a reason, it’s the least incriminating version of their motivation and rarely the full story.

The episode’s advice: stop trying to reverse-engineer the seller’s motives. Focus on why you should or shouldn’t buy based on your own research, inspections, and priorities. In practice, the real answers tend to surface as you evaluate the property anyway.

2) “Is there anything wrong with the house they aren’t telling me?”

Yes, because no one ever discloses every flaw. In South Carolina, the seller’s disclosure is a basic five–to six-page, mostly yes/no document. Most owners don’t remember every sticky outlet, drippy faucet, or minor quirk they’ve lived with for years. Some don’t even realize problems exist.

The point is not to catch a seller in a perfect confession. It’s to do the work: inspections, crawl space checks, the right specialists, and a calm reading of the facts. Shortcuts here don’t exist.

3) “Why are they selling as-is?”

There are three common reasons—and none require a dramatic mystery reveal:

• Obvious condition issues, and the seller doesn’t have the money (or desire) to fix them. You can usually see this in photos or instantly in person.

• They never lived there—think estate sales—and don’t want to navigate repairs they don’t fully understand. Listings and public records often make this clear.

• Because they can, in a hot seller’s market (the episode was recorded in April 2022 during one), owners of well-kept homes often choose as-is simply to avoid nickel-and-dime repair negotiations.

Either way, as-is is a pricing and due diligence problem for buyers to solve—not a riddle only the seller can unlock.

4) “Why don’t they answer anything on the seller’s disclosure?”

Some sellers barely fill it out. Others make mistakes. One case from the episode: a disclosure claimed a brand-new 2022 A/C, but the condenser plate told the truth—2004. The out-of-state seller had hired an HVAC tech who installed an 18-year-old scratch-and-dent unit instead of new equipment.

Translation: don’t trust the disclosure blindly. It’s a starting point, not the whole story. Verify the big-ticket items with your own eyes and your inspectors.

5) “Do you think they have wiggle room on the price?” (for a new listing)

In a strong seller’s market, the practical answer is no—no matter what you or the comps suggest. New listings (even the overpriced ones) typically won’t entertain discounts out of the gate. And because agents are fiduciaries, a listing agent can’t ethically telegraph “wiggle room” anyway.

If it’s been sitting for one to three weeks, there might be a conversation—yet even then, the episode notes full-price offers still happen. Better than asking? Make the offer and let the negotiation (or silence) answer you.

6) “Is this property overpriced?”

It’s the wrong question because it’s imprecise. What are you really asking?

• “Will this appraise? ”

• “Am I getting instant equity? ” (Unlikely in a hot market.)

• “What is this home worth to me, relative to my options?”

Appraisals are subjective. So is “value.” The smarter move is to compare this home to everything else you’ve seen: if it stands out in your price band and area, then it may be worth more to you than the list price implies.

7) “Why hasn’t this home sold yet?”

Ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s one (or more) of three things: overpriced, in bad condition, or in an undesirable location. In a true seller’s market, those are the only levers big enough to stall a sale.

If you’re brand-new to Greenville or investing from out of state, asking the question is fair—locals or experienced buyers can often spot the reason from photos and a map.

8) “Is this a rough neighborhood?”

That’s a no-go. Agents can’t answer it—full stop. The episode calls out the legal minefield (steering) and the subjectivity. If you want objective inputs, you can pull what you’re comfortable with: crime data from the sheriff, registered offender searches, Google Street View, and your own drive-by impression. An agent can speak generally about remodel activity or market momentum but not label a neighborhood “rough.”

9) “Why aren’t you buying this house?”

Investors ask this when their agent also invests. The answer depends on the agent’s business model, time, and inventory strategy. In the episode, investing is a distant second to day-to-day client work. Purchases happen only when they fit a very narrow profile, there’s time and cash to execute, and no client wants it more.

Bottom line: an agent not buying a property is not proof that the deal is bad. It usually proves the agent is focused on their clients—and on their own bandwidth.

10) “Will the seller pay my closing costs?”

In the market conditions discussed (April 2022), nearly always no, especially on new listings. Occasionally, sellers even ask buyers to pay the seller's costs. Over time, markets flip, norms change, and concessions return—but at the time of the episode, each side typically paid its own. If you need exact buyer-side figures, your agent can outline them deal by deal.

A quick reality check on “shortcuts”

A few of these questions try to hack the sequence: skip inspections, compress analysis, and replace due diligence with a magic sentence from the listing agent. But real estate is a process for a reason. One story from the episode proves the point: a seller underpriced a property because they didn’t realize what they had. During inspections, they made some fixes and were inundated with rental interest. The buyer backed out (against advice) and immediately regretted it; the seller then kept the property after discovering it was, in their words, a gold mine.

The lesson? Answers that matter show up when you do the work—touring, comparing, inspecting, verifying—not when you angle for secret intel.

Market context matters (and can change)

The episode was recorded in April 2022, with conditions that shaped several answers:

• New listings were drawing strong activity—full-price contracts even after weeks on market.

• Sellers increasingly chose as-is simply because they could.

• Asking for price cuts or seller-paid closing costs on fresh listings wasn’t getting traction.

If you’re reading at a different moment, tilt your expectations accordingly. The principles above still hold: vague questions yield vague answers; precise questions, backed by due diligence, move you forward.

Better questions to ask instead

• “What will it take for me to feel confident about this house? ” (Then line up the inspections.)

• “How does this compare to other homes I’ve toured at this price? ”

• “Would this likely appraise at the value given recent nearby sales? ”

• “What’s my plan if the inspection turns up X, Y, or Z? ”

Those questions don’t chase secrets. They chase clarity.

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Bottom Line

Great buyers don’t ask clever questions; they ask useful ones. The least helpful questions to ask when buying a home tend to be shortcuts: “Why are they selling?" “Is there wiggle room?" “Is it rough? ” They sound decisive, but they rarely change your outcome. What does change outcomes is a disciplined process: verify disclosures, inspect what matters, compare options honestly, and make clear offers based on your goals and the market you’re actually in. Everything else is noise.

Ien Araneta

Journal & Podcast Editor | Selling Greenville