More diligence required when inspecting
While the average property buyer undergoes extensive overall research, just an hour is spent looking at the property they buy, a national survey has revealed.
The St. George Bank commissioned survey revealed that, despite viewing 12 properties, spending seven months searching and undergoing 90 hours of research, the average buyer spends just over an hour actually inspecting the property they finally purchase.
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After spending 3.2 hours per week, for 28 weeks, including searching websites, planning, inspecting and visiting real estate agents, general manager of St. George Retail Banking, Andy Fell, said that the survey found that just 62.5 minutes was spent inspecting the final dwelling settled on.
“Most people will look at a new car for longer than they inspect the home they buy,” said Mr Fell.
Fifty-five per cent of those surveyed also reported finding ‘hidden problems’ with their properties once they’d purchased, despite the same proportion believing they had ‘completed all necessary pre-purchase checks’.
This is a result, said Mr Fell, of not doing their due diligence and spending enough time inspecting the dwelling.
Plumbing problems were by far the most reported “missed” problem discovered, with 28 per cent of buyers pointing to this problem.
Poor television reception and poor mobile coverage also weighed in as missed factors at 23 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.
Noisy neighbours, at 19 per cent, was also a commonly found problem that had slipped through the net, while eight per cent pointed to insufficient parking and future developments in the area as having been missed in the due diligence process.
The majority of the overall research is done online, with 71 per cent pointing to real estate agent’s websites and just 38 per cent of research undertaken through newspapers.
This survey, of 1,500 property buyers nationwide, was conducted in mid-July 2012 by Lonergan Research.