28 November 2018 Liane Fletcher, Co-Founder, Property Whispers
Buyers are having their fair share of frustration finding a property to buy. Aside from price expectations and having difficulty securing finance with the unfolding events from the royal commission, buyers are also finding that online information can be misleading.
We undertook a project recently to understand the challenges they are having in their search.
A number of first home buyers, upsizers/downsizers and investors across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were contacted by phone. Some had only recently started looking while others had been on the hunt for some time.
Buyers were asked how they were undertaking their searches, and expectedly, the primary sources were the major browsing portals, Domain and REA.
Two main frustrations emerged.
1. Price parameters
Buyers are searching using price parameters within their budgets; however, when they contact the agent about a particular property, which supposedly matches their criteria, they could be disappointed to find that the price guide above their search parameters was out of their budget range.
2. Short stories
Buyers are finding that property information, in particular photos, is not always “telling the full story” about a property.
For many buyers, these issues mean wasting time contacting agents or attending inspections, particularly on Saturdays when many have family commitments and other obligations.
We also asked buyers whether they had registered themselves on local agent databases. Many buyers felt that having done so, they were being spammed or pestered. Feedback from those buyers is they wanted to be emailed about properties that matched far more closely with their purchase specifications and given realistic price guides.
Finally, buyers were asked whether they had used or had considered using a buyer’s agent to help them find a property. Few had but a surprisingly high percentage said that they might consider it in the future. The cost of using a buyer’s agent was the main deterrent.
The overwhelming feedback from buyers is they want to be matched with properties closely meeting their purchase requirements, property details — particularly photos — that are accurate, realistic pricing and flexibility with inspection times.
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