Most home buyers flit through inspections and regret it later

The data, coming from a survey of 1,000 property buyers, reveal that 58 per cent of buyers spend less than 60 minutes inspecting their property before purchasing, with 26 per cent discovering flaws after purchasing.

Of this group, 36 per cent overlooked issues because they “fell in love with the property”, 32 per cent did not have inspection experience, and 11 per cent were simply frustrated with the purchasing experience and wanted to hurry up.

Patrick Nolan, head of home loans at ME, said to Smart Property Investment that purchasing a property always involves emotions to a degree, so it is important to let the head make decisions instead of the heart.

“When they fall in love with the property, it can be very instantaneous and there's a lot of excitement that's generated from that. So, going back and looking a couple of times allows you to spread that over and really make the decision to purchase with the right information and make that decision based on your head and not your heart,” he said.

Further, 74 per cent of respondents said that they have paid up to fix the issues, 41 per cent would have paid less if they knew about the issues earlier, 23 per cent regretted the decision, and 19 per cent would have not purchased the property if they were aware of the issues.

“We recommend a prospective buyer goes and looks at the property at least several times at different times on different days so they can get a real sense of the property, of the neighbourhood and the environment and what's happening, but it also gives them an opportunity to really have a close look at the property to make sure there's nothing that needs further attention, repair or something they're concerned about," Mr Nolan said.

The survey also found approximately a third of buyers did not organise a professional building and pest inspection when purchasing a property, which Mr Nolan said, could leave property owners with a nasty bill.

"The other key thing that we're really trying to get across is that if you get an inspection done before you purchase, you're then really informed and aware of what potential costs are to fix, whether that problem may be in future and you can take that into consideration when setting the price you're willing to offer, or potentially how you manage your funds around buying a property.

"That's probably the key thing; knowing before you make an offer will better inform you and better prepare you as to how you spend your money, either buying a property, or updating it as you're required thereafter."