When you last went house hunting, did you arm yourself with a checklist of questions? And if not, did you regret it after moving in?
If you're thinking of buying a house, proceed with caution. Not just because interest rates have gone up yet again so your mortgage will now be more expensive unless you've got a fixed rate. And not just because some pundits reckon that the housing market is overpriced.
No, it's also because you might buy a house without really thinking about it properly. For some inexplicable reason, people do, you know!
Estate agents often say that people tend to make up their minds about a house within 11 seconds of drawing up outside it -- hence the importance of the oft-quoted phrase, kerb appeal.
The latest survey from Abbey Mortgages says we usually take rather more time -- 96 minutes in fact. But considering buying a house is usually the biggest investment anyone will ever make in their lives, it's still rather startling if people take little more than the length of a movie to decide. Apparently, people spend more time (139 minutes) researching their holiday destinations than they do buying their own home!
It's hardly surprising then that half of all house purchasers encounter unexpected problems with their new home once they've moved in -- shoddy workmanship, problems with neighbours, inadequate water pressure and parking issues to name but a few. As a result more than 12 million people wish that before committing themselves they had:
- visited the property more frequently;
- paid for a more detailed survey;
- talked to their new neighbours;
- spent more time in the neighbourhood;
- checked out local amenities or schools;
- investigated potential parking issues and the costs;
- researched their journey to work.
I find some of those rather shocking because they seem to me to be among the most basic things to check out. But then a friend of mine only discovered how noisy the passing traffic was after she'd moved in because she didn't stand in the garden for a few minutes to just listen.
Unsurprisingly, quite a few of those surveyed wished they'd been able to spend a trial weekend in their prospective new home before committing themselves. Much as I like the 'try before you buy' idea, I suspect it won't catch on. If my house is anything to go by, I doubt many of our homes would pass muster if buyers were to have two whole days to look for problems!