What’s at stake

A home inside a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area carries a flood-insurance condition on any federally backed mortgage, and no standard homeowners policy covers flood damage anywhere. Zone letter and ground elevation together decide whether cover is compulsory and what it costs.

Next steps

• If you want a floor under the risk, price a policy anyway — homes in this band usually qualify for inexpensive cover.

What’s at stake

Whether an ordinary carrier will write this home at all often turns on wildfire exposure. In the harder-hit parts of California, Colorado and similar states, buyers land on state FAIR plans at considerably higher cost, and mandatory mitigation work can add real expense once you own the place.

Next steps

• Speak with two or three carriers about writability and price before you offer, treating the state FAIR plan as the fallback scenario.
• Add roof class, vent screening, decks and the five feet nearest the walls to the inspector’s list.
• Check with the local fire authority on evacuation routing and any mitigation rules carrying the force of ordinance.

What’s at stake

A standard homeowners policy carves earthquake damage out; cover only comes as a separate purchase. Where shaking hazard runs higher, two things move both the risk and the premium — how old the structure is, and whether it has been retrofitted with foundation bolts and braced cripple walls.

Next steps

• Use the inspection window to get a professional read on the foundation and any retrofit work.
• Price standalone earthquake cover while contingencies still protect you; in this band both the premium and the deductible run large.

What’s at stake

Ground movement sits outside standard homeowners cover, and putting it right costs heavily. On a susceptible slope, a neighbour’s regrading or a change in drainage can set the ground moving years after the sale closes.

Next steps

• Walk the parcel and the ground above it. Leaning trees, cracked walls and lumpy, uneven earth are the signs to note.
• Should the house stand on or below a grade, book a geotechnical consultation; set against the exposure, it costs little.

What’s at stake

Building on or filling a federally regulated wetland calls for a Section 404 permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, and skipping one can end in a restoration order. A mapped wetland on the lot or at its edge limits what you can add — extensions, a pool, septic, drainage — and ground like this tends to keep basements damp.

Next steps

• Establish whether the lot line touches the mapped feature. What counts here is the parcel boundary, not where the house stands.
• Look into the local buffer ordinance — commonly 50 to 150 ft — since it can limit work near that edge.

What’s at stake

A cleanup site nearby raises specific questions: contaminated groundwater moving below the surface, vapor rising into lower floors, deed restrictions, and a discount the next buyer may quietly apply. Read the status next to the distance — a site still under remediation carries different weight than one closed out years ago.

Next steps

• Nothing in this layer calls for further action in a typical purchase.

What’s at stake

Most environmental risk near a home is mundane: a facility that reports chemical releases, or an old gas station whose underground tanks leaked. The effects are practical — odors, air quality, petroleum in the groundwater, hesitation from the next buyer. An unresolved tank leak close by belongs on your list before you sign.

Next steps

• Give the linked EPA entries two minutes each — most turn out routine, and the chemical list and case status tell you which do not.
• Walk or drive the street at a few different hours; noise, smells and truck movement only show themselves in person.

What’s at stake

After smoking, radon accounts for more US lung cancer deaths than any other cause, by EPA estimate. The gas rises out of the soil into houses, and two neighbours can measure very differently — only a test of the actual house gives a real answer, and one fits comfortably inside a standard inspection window.

Next steps

• Test during the inspection window all the same — EPA guidance is to test every home in every zone.

What’s at stake

Every public water system answers to federal monitoring, and its compliance history sits on the open record. “Serious violator” is the EPA’s term for a system with significant problems left unresolved. A private well answers to no one — testing it falls entirely to the owner.

Next steps

• Identify the supplying utility and read through its latest Consumer Confidence Report.

What’s at stake

When a county keeps drawing federal disaster declarations, the record is telling you something about recurring hazard. That pattern moves insurance price and availability, and it hands you a concrete list of past events to raise about this particular house.

Next steps

• Make the recurring hazard the first line of your insurance conversation — get quotes that name the peril explicitly.
• Go through the recent named events with the seller: damage, repairs, claims.