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British take average 17 minutes to choose home


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A survey by IMG published in today's Guardian found that British buyers take an average of just 17 minutes to choose their new home, relying mainly on 'gut instinct' that this is the one for them. They spent longer (54 minutes) selecting curtains and other soft furnishings. Why is it then that when house buyers come to France they either (a) visit a hundred properties and refuse to compromise, convinced that their dream home is just around the next corner; or (b) buy a totally unsuitable ruin whcih they attempt to do up, never having even put up a shelf properly back in Britain, and are then forced to take a loss when they try and offload their 'partially renovated' wreck onto the property market? Food for thought?

P-D de Rouffignac

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[quote user="P-D de Rouffignac"]

A survey by IMG published in today's Guardian found that British buyers take an average of just 17 minutes to choose their new home, relying mainly on 'gut instinct' that this is the one for them. They spent longer (54 minutes) selecting curtains and other soft furnishings. Why is it then that when house buyers come to France they either (a) visit a hundred properties and refuse to compromise, convinced that their dream home is just around the next corner; or (b) buy a totally unsuitable ruin whcih they attempt to do up, never having even put up a shelf properly back in Britain, and are then forced to take a loss when they try and offload their 'partially renovated' wreck onto the property market? Food for thought?

P-D de Rouffignac

[/quote]

Well PD your (a) with us was wrong - we visited about 200 houses. However, the one that we bought probably only took 17 minutes (if that) to decide that it was the one.

We had a number of houses to visit on that particular expedition. It was the first on the list, mianly because that was first on our route. We visited the other houses and then went back for another look.

It did not fit what we had originally set out to look for, but that changed over time - i.e. experience dictating.

Found it was very different from looking for a house that will be a holiday home / retirement home to one near to work. Wne working, the area of choice is a lot smaller and with budget constraint will lead to only a few small areas. With the French house it was somewhat different. It could be anywhere we chose and, even when we did settle on an area, it was quite a massive one - views of the Pyrenees being a criteria meant that the area was large.

Another thing that we did was to up our budget - we quickly learnt that there are large variations in price over areas.

We did find three others that might have been the one (one we even got as far as signing the Compris but the vendor did not). Of the other two, 2nd and 3rd viewings removed them from the list.

Finally, were we justified in viewing 200 houses to find the one that we wanted? The estate agents will probably say no (perhaps apart from the agent whose house we bought - I only booked to see that one and she took us to see another). But with estate agents fees what they are in France then perhaps they should not expect to sell houses very easily unless they drop their fees. Plus, and a very big plus, it was our money we were spending so we feel we had a right to ensure we bought the right house.

We also found wide variations in agents attitudes - so much so that one if they came up with the absolute ideal house at a fantastic price we would not have dealt with them, and this was one that likes to pitch to the British and Dutch buyers (and it is not the one in the Montagne Noir who were excellent).

The thing I would take issue with is 54 minutes for curtains - they are of by a factor of about 10 [:D]

Paul 

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Ahhhh, at last - after having made about 80 posts to topics where I have only "amateur interest" -- at last a topic I actually know something about!  Hooray! Where do I start on the psychology of persuasion...? Well:

All purchasing decisions (houses and curtains) are based on emotion .... then justified by logic.  And emotions can indeed be seduced very rapidly - even quicker than 17 minutes.

That initial "Oh God I love it! I want to buy it!"(Or whatever the emotion is) feeling then needs to be checked-over by some logic - and provided the deal stacks up OK as defined by your brain's logical bit - you proceed with the purchase.  And Yes - sometimes you need to have a further look round at a hundred other houses to convince the logical bit of your brain that it's OK to proceed, or "rationalise" why it's OK to up your budget.

Why we get buying decisions wrong is also fascinating....

I hope other forum readers find this topic as compelling as me!  Ian

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Well Ian, I hope you don't have to show 200 people round your property before a buyer comes along.

Wenever we were selling a house we got very tired of showing folks around who obviously wanted something quite different, but pretended to be madly enthusiastic about it.

The eventual buyer was usually the one who just looked and said nothing.

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There is, I think, a feeling amongst some buyers that if they really want a house (especially if they really want it) they need to affect an air of indifference - and somehow this will alter the price the seller is willing to accept or somehow make them seem a more attractive purchaser...can't say I fully subscribe to this school of negotiation (Neither do I subscribe to the other exteme: "This is soooo cheap - I thought you'd want heaps more for it - I have just got to have it!" [:D]).

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We are just rubbish at the "air of indifference" thing!  Both the houses we have bought in the last 35 years, we fell in love with almost instantly;  hence, I suppose, the "17 minutes" figure.  It wasn't that we took 17 minutes to chose - in both cases, here and with our previous house in the UK, it was simply that we had looked at loads (probably around 30 or so) of properties and when we found the right place, we knew instantly.  And in neither case could we keep this from the vendor, we just told them we were interested and that we'd be making an offer - we'd be no good at poker!
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Jamesg

I have had the same experience as you.  All the ones that effect the most interest ("Oh, let's put the kids in this bedroom and my mother's dresser in the kitchen") either did not make offers or totally unrealistic ones.

We had all this yet again recently (our housesale fell through after 5 "definite" offers and 3 surveys with good results).  Why oh why are people just allowed to walk off leaving you an emotional and financial wreck?

As you said, the ones that do buy are usually not the wildly enthusiastic punters.  Our buyers came to us via our internet advert, only saw the house once and completed in record time.

The ones that really get my goat are the ones that want to come back for other visits with mother/father/boyfriend/children/surveyor/architect/every-one-else-they-can-think-of and waste hours of your time (not to mention all the frantic cleaning and tidying you feel you have to do beforehand) and then go all quiet when you contact them to see if they are interested after all.

Grrr..................

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  • 2 weeks later...
When we bought our house in UK my husband walked through the front gate saw the size of the (empty) garden and said "we'll take it." We then viewed the house, I have never liked it!! However, it is now my turn, the house in France was MY choice! All he wanted was at least an acre.

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[quote user="P-D de Rouffignac"]

A survey by IMG published in today's Guardian found that British buyers take an average of just 17 minutes to choose their new home, relying mainly on 'gut instinct' that this is the one for them.

P-D de Rouffignac

[/quote]

Yes we had certain specific things we were looking for when we bought our French house. So we looked at a great many and before we found our house, it was just what we wanted! The vendor was a man going through a messy divorce and he had put off selling the house that he had spent so much money on as long as he possibly could! Half-way through the guided tour, he turned to me and said, "You love this house as much as I do don't you?" I had not said a great deal deal during the viewing but I had to agree with him. After our second viewing, he was even prepared to negotiate and we came to an agreement quickly on price. Apparently he had been offered the full price on quite a few previous visits but had made excuses and had not sold - he was indeed a nightmare vendor - according to the notaire! However he had made up his mind that I was right for his house. And he was right, I still love this house! It took a whole lot less than 17 minutes to know it was right for me!

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