How Do Most Home Buyers Evaluate Homes?

I read an interesting piece on the website realestateview.com.au. I will go on to say that most of the findings the article talks about is  in sync with my expectations. The article is about the aspirations of buyers when they are searching for a home.

Each hierarchy of home buyers have different set of expectations

The first home buyers, next home buyers (those upsizing and those downsizing), owner-occupiers and investors make for a really big hierarchical spread of buyers and they generally have different set of expectations.

Trusting one’s own research

The article points out that we tend to back our own instincts and research when it comes to buying a home. This is in stark contrast to our stance in case of other purchases where we trust peer reviews, internet articles and recommendations more.

Exception to the rule

First home buyers are an exception to this rule. In fact, this is only expected. It being their first purchase, they are not that surefooted about the decision they make and hence soak ever-so-thankfully any opinion that comes their way.

Areas of Due Diligence

While conducting research, buyers tend to take a wide repertoire of factors into perspective. The list may include, but is certainly not restricted to, finance, kind of amenities available, neighbourhood, house prices, and so on.

While the investors remain glued to the historical sales figure (giving them an insight into possible capital growth) other hierarchies of investors look for data like auction results, comparable sales figure and median housing prices more.

The quintessential safety factor

Safety is also a prime concern for home purchasers. Having said this, buyers keep a closer eye on crime statistics in their locality when compared to investors. Again, this is along the expected lines. For investors, criminal elements pose a threat to their property but for owner-occupiers or (first and next) home buyers; it can become a matter of personal injury or fatality.

You can read the original article here.

Energy-efficiency

In my opinion, soon we will have another addition to the priority table. How energy-efficient are the homes will be on the top of buyers’ mind? Moreover, they will make it a point to ask whether the roof (of the home they propose to buy) fetches adequate amount of sunlight for incorporating solar panels.

Wi-Fi connectivity will also come into the picture sooner rather than later. What do you say?

What forms your top priority when you search for a home?