Our first house — help!

Q. My fiancée and I are looking for a house. We know this is a good time to buy, but even with so many starter homes to look at, what should we be looking for so we don’t get stuck with problems? We know the obvious things like sagging floors, bad roofs and termites, but my mother keeps showing us your column and saying we have a lot to learn about owning a home. Help!

A. Don’t feel helpless, but use your five senses. Smell, touch, taste, look at and listen to a prospective home. Incidentally, I’m impressed that you’re so forward-thinking about getting a house, since it’s a necessity to have a place to live, and if you can afford to make the wise investment in real estate rather than rent, you’re starting off on a more financially solid footing.

And speaking of footings, start on the ground and work your way up. Go to MSC.FEMA.gov and fill in the house address you’re interested in. Zoom, pan, then look for the flood zone designation. You want to be in a zone “x” if you can. Other zones, shown with different types of shading, indicate flood levels such as AE8, AE9, etc. Those numbers indicate how high the water will rise in a flood and also indicate that you’ll have the added annual flood insurance expense, averaging $2,000 a year. Unless you must live near water, a preserve or other low-lying area, avoid them in a starter home. Also, any home closer than one mile to a shoreline or large body of water is in a wind zone, raising your insurance rates and requiring more expensive new windows if you add or replace more than 50 percent of them.