National Homebuyers survey shows that home sellers rue privacy invasion!

‘Someone must have died in here’; ‘She’s cracked the toilet by sitting on it’; ‘He should actually use that bath once in a while’. These are, without a doubt, insulting and upsetting criticisms at the best of times and certainly words that many people would find hard to forgive if uttered by a friend or family member. However, according to a survey by established property company, National Homebuyers (www.nationalhomebuyers.co.uk) these are actual comments that people selling their homes have had to endure.

The research was conducted with people that have sold their home in the UK within the past five years. All the vendors that took part in the research felt that the potential buyers that had visited their homes fell into two very clearly defined categories:

Firstly, there were those that took a real interest in the smallest detail, staying for a cup of tea and asking the vendor how quickly he or she would be able to move. Secondly, there were those that seemed to loathe the experience and were clearly of the opinion that walking around other peoples’ homes was a terrible, and often embarrassing invasion of privacy. In the main, members of the former group tended to have no intention of making an offer and often caused the most uproar and upset by abusing the vendors through their complete lack of tact.

Of the 500 survey participants questioned 367 believed that their privacy had been invaded by people viewing their home and felt that they, as well as their property, had come under scrutiny. With 62.8% revealing the area of their home that they felt most uncomfortable about people viewing was their master bedroom. The most popular measures taken in order to safeguard privacy were removing all personal effects such as mail and locking selected drawers and cupboards.

Interestingly, the survey also showed that 19.2% of vendors believed that viewings of their property had been made by so-called professional timewasters while 6.6% believed that people that they actually knew, even neighbours in disguise, had visited their home in order to invade their privacy and catch a glimpse of their home life. Over half also said that they had been asked questions that had no relevance whatsoever to their property.

Vendors also revealed some of the worst things that people viewing their homes had done. 27.2% claim to have caught viewers snooping at their personal effects in drawers, 18.8% said people had used their toilet without asking and often without even bothering to flush the chain and 8.2% were annoyed by viewers who claimed to know more about their property than they did.

Julian King, director of National Homebuyers, comments: “There’s no doubt that one of the reasons that moving home is considered a stressful event is because it generally means presenting your property to complete strangers and while many home owners may have grown accustomed to their bright orange carpeting and glaring gold appliances, the thought of having someone else criticising this is often unbearable.”

“Obviously there are some perfectly genuine home viewers out there but this research has given us an extremely interesting, and sometimes amusing, insight into just how much peoples` privacy is invaded when moving home.”

National Homebuyers is an established property company that purchase all types of residential and commercial property. The company acts as a cash buyer with no chain, providing an ideal service for homeowners looking to sell quickly. This service is only intended for homeowners willing to accept an offer below market value in return for a quick, hassle-free purchase. National Homebuyers remove the stress and dramatically cut the time involved in selling a property on the open market. The homeowner is under no obligation at any time to accept the offer.

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About The Survey
The National Home Buyers survey was conducted in February with a sample of 500 employed mortgage borrowers. The research was conducted over the telephone. A full copy of the survey results is available upon request

About National Homebuyers
A valuation from an R.I.C.S. chartered surveyor is required before National Homebuyers makes its cash offer. This is fully refunded to the homeowner on completion. National Homebuyers refunds up to £500 of the homeowners legal costs on completion.

For More Information Please Contact
Kim Stoddart/Vicky Hoad
Launchpad Communications
T: 01273 779196
E: vicky@launchpad-communications.co.uk