What this checklist is for
Viewing an apartment in Lima without a framework means being guided by the impression of the moment: the view, the light on that particular day, the agent's enthusiasm. Those impressions matter, but they say nothing about what living there will be like in three years, or what the property will be worth when you sell.
This checklist turns your plans into explicit criteria, ranked in three levels: must-have, nice-to-have and deal-breaker. The distinction looks obvious on paper. It is far less obvious standing in front of an apartment you like.
It is built from the points we check ourselves before presenting a property: the location at street level rather than district level, the age and upkeep of the building, the floor, the orientation, current and future overlooking, how the square metres are actually laid out, service charges and parking.
How to use it
The questions cover your objective (main home, pied-à-terre, long-term or short-term rental investment), your decision horizon and your practical constraints. There are no right answers: two buyers with the same budget will produce very different checklists depending on the intended use.
It takes a few minutes. You then get an ordered list, which you can receive by email and take with you on viewings, on your phone or printed. The value is not the list itself, but the fact of having written it before viewing, while you can still judge coolly.
What to do with it next
Use the same list for every property you view, and take notes as you go. By the third apartment, memories blur: that is exactly when an identical grid from one viewing to the next lets you compare something other than impressions.
If a deal-breaker shows up, the question is not whether the rest makes up for it, but whether it really was a deal-breaker. Either answer is fine, as long as it is a conscious one.