Make a snap decision

5 April 2012

How quickly do you choose a house? According to a recent survey, it takes on average 18 minutes at a single viewing to decide to buy a £150,000 home - less time than it takes to buy a £150 pair of shoes. The findings of the survey, by the online property finder fish4homes.com, are another example of the current hyped-up housing market, in which buyers are so desperate to find a property that they fling caution to the wind.

However, estate agents and surveyors say that 18 minutes can be more than enough time for a first viewing, as long as you know what you're looking for, have done some research before you arrive and are prepared to go back for a second look before committing yourself.

"Twenty minutes is quite long for a first viewing," says Bridget Jackson of FPDSavills in Wandsworth. "Most people have already decided on how much space they need, the location they want and their budget before they come. A lot return for a second look."

Russell Mann, of Featherstone Leigh in Richmond, agrees. "People usually do their homework," he says. "They're looking in specific roads or blocks where they've seen other properties before."

Knowing what you want means you can make sensible compromises. Mann estimates that only five per cent of buyers find exactly the right property, with the rest compromising.

"In Kensington, buyers have often looked at more than a dozen properties before they find what they want, which means they know exactly what's on the market," says Nick Mahony of John D Wood's Kensington office. "So, when the right property comes up it takes them two minutes rather than 20 to decide it's the one."

BEFORE THE VIEWING

Location: As Nick Mahony points out, this is the one thing you can't change. Do you want to live near shops and transport? How noisy is the pub on the corner in the evenings? Are you pleased to be close to a school or will noise from the playground and children dropping sweet wrappers in your garden drive you mad?

Price: How does the price of the property you want compare with similar ones? Put the price in context by looking in estate agents' windows, logging on to the internet and reading the local property press. London markets can be "a bit toppy" (ie overpriced), partly because there's a shortage of houses for sale.

Priorities: What can't you do without? A certain number of bedrooms or bathrooms? A garden? Generous ground-floor space? Fix these in your mind so you don't get carried away with something superficially wonderful but fundamentally unsuitable.

Once you've done the groundwork and are targeting specific properties, you can gather a lot of information in less than 20 minutes when you view, says Ray Barrowdale of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

AT THE VIEWING

Does the outside look tidy? If the garden is full of rubbish and the paintwork is peeling, it's a good bet that the rest of the property won't be well-maintained. Look at the roof and guttering - are there loose tiles or weeds sprouting?

What are neighbouring houses/ gardens like? A next-door garden full of old mattresses and rusting car parts could indicate a neighbour from Hell.

Inside: Look for evidence of very recent redecoration. This could mask damp patches or, worse, dry rot. Buyers told fish4homes that damp patches were one of the defects they had most often missed.

Will you fit your furniture in? Modern houses usually have less generously proportioned rooms (and doorways) with lower ceilings than period properties. And check storage space. Older houses don't always have built-in cupboards and you could find yourself buying a lot of wardrobes.

Layout: Many estate agents provide floor plans, showing how the rooms connect to each other and the location of doors, windows and radiators, as well as size of rooms. Can you live with the layout, or see how to change it without too much difficulty/ expense?

How old are the electrics? Round-pin plugs and a tangle of wires in the fusebox spell rewiring - and redecorating. Again, buyers surveyed by fish4homes admitted that failing to spot ancient wiring or faulty plumbing proved to be an expensive mistake. Wiring and plumbing aren't automatically covered by building surveys.

Dècor: Don't let someone else's taste in décor and furniture influence you. Remember, the furniture will be go and you can redecorate.

AFTER THE VIEWING

Go back for at least a second viewing, preferably at a different time of day and in different weather conditions. Rooms that seemed dark in bad weather or the morning can look quite different on a sunny evening. Don't let yourself be panicked into making an offer because you think you'll never find anything else. You will.

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