What to look for when you tour a high-rise condo

A tour of a high-rise condo is usually staged to make one impression, which is the view. The lights are on, the shades are up, and the agent walks you straight to the windows. That impression is real, but it's also the least likely thing to change after you move in. The things that wear on you over years of living in an apartment, such as noise, heat, slow elevators, and weak water pressure, are easy to miss in a 20-minute visit unless you go looking for them.

This guide is a checklist for that second look. It applies to new-development model units and resale apartments alike, though with a new building you may only be able to check some of it in a finished unit on a different floor. The guide to new development and resale covers the paperwork side of the same decision.

Go at the hour you'd use the room

Light is the first thing a tour shows and the easiest to misjudge. A west-facing living room that glows at an afternoon showing can be hot and full of glare by early evening in summer, and a bedroom that looks bright at noon may get no direct sun at all in winter. If you can, see the apartment twice, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon or evening. The guide to living with a view explains how orientation and floor height change what a view is like to live with.

While you're at the window, look down and sideways as well as out. Note what sits directly across from you, how close the next building's windows are, and whether any lots in front of the view could be built on later.

Check the windows themselves

Floor-to-ceiling glass looks the same in every listing photo, but the details differ from building to building. Find out which panels open, how far, and whether there's a screen. Feel the glass and the frame on a cold or hot day for drafts and heat. Look at the sills and the base of the glass for water stains, which can mean condensation in winter or a leak in the window wall. Ask how often the building cleans the exterior glass, since residents can't reach it themselves.

Listen

Noise is easy to overlook on a tour and hard to fix once you've moved in. Stand in each room with the windows closed and listen for a minute without talking. Check which rooms share a wall with the elevator shaft, the trash chute, or a stairwell, and whether the apartment sits under a roof deck, a gym, or a mechanical floor. Ask whether the building has rules about flooring underlayment and work hours, since a neighbor's renovation will reach you through the concrete slab. On lower floors, open a window to hear the street, and on any floor near the water, ask what wind sounds like in a storm.

Find out how heating and cooling work

High-rise condos use a few different systems, and each one feels different. Some apartments have through-wall units under the windows that heat and cool each room separately and can be noisy. Others have fan coil units fed by the building's central plant, where the building may switch the whole tower between heating and cooling by season. Newer buildings increasingly use electric heat pump systems with a thermostat in each room. Ask which system the apartment has, who controls it, whether it can heat and cool at the same time of year, and how the energy is billed. Then turn it on and listen to it.

Run the water

Turn on the shower and a sink at the same time, and see how long the hot water takes to arrive and whether the pressure holds. Water pressure on upper floors depends on the building's pumps, and some buildings have known weak spots. Look under the sinks for stains or soft cabinet floors, and open the washer and dryer closet to see whether the dryer vents outside or is a ventless model, which usually takes longer to dry a load.

Use the building, not just the apartment

Count the elevators and ask how many apartments share them, then ride one at a busy hour if you can. Ask whether there's a separate service elevator for moves and deliveries, and how far ahead moves have to be booked. Walk the hallway on the apartment's floor and notice whether it smells of cooking, which points to weak corridor ventilation. Visit the package room, the bike room, and the storage units, and ask whether storage costs extra or has a waiting list.

Then look at the amenities with an owner's eye, not a guest's. Worn gym equipment, stained lounge furniture, or a closed pool tells you more about the building's budget than a brochure does. The guide to amenities worth paying for explains how those spaces show up in the common charges, and the article on judging building amenities goes through each category in more depth.

Measure what matters to you

Bring a tape measure, or ask for a floor plan with dimensions. Listings often give the ceiling height of the tallest point, so measure under beams and in the kitchen and bathrooms too. Check the wall lengths where your sofa, bed, and desk would go, since glass walls leave fewer places to put furniture, art, or a television. Note the radiator or fan coil units and columns along the window line, which take up more floor than plans suggest.

After the tour, write down what you noticed while it's fresh and turn the open questions into a list for your attorney and the listing agent. Answers about leaks, noise complaints, and system replacements often appear in the board minutes and the building's financial statements, which your attorney can request as part of the purchase.