Would you pay someone else to do your home search?

grifferz

geoffky wrote: »

With all the tools available for buyers you would have to be simple to use someone to hold your hand.

I don't think they are holding your hand, I think it's more like you tell them what you want, and they go away and do all the tedious work involved in finding it for you. Sure the tools exist but if it makes sense to pay someone else to use them for you then why not?

I mean it's a bit like having a cleaner isn't it? If cleaner costs you £10 an hour but you can earn £50 an hour then wouldn't you rather have the cleaner spend a few hours a week with their hands down your toilet while you concentrate on making the £50/hour doing whatever it is you do? Yet we all possess the tools to clean a toilet.

Like lots of other things it's going to be a service that suits some people because they genuinely get value for money from it, it will suit others because they consider it their lifestyle and it will be totally out of the question for others because they just don't see the point! I don't think it necessarily makes every customer of it "simple"!

Me, I am unlikely to ever be able to justify spending that much money!

demontfort

I think it's an excellent idea if you're thick as mince, lazy to boot and have too much money, just like these clowns who pay £50 a week for somebody to dust their 10 square foot,1 bed shoebox......no coincidence then that it's popular with London buyers :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

thelem

Absolutely not, but then my home is a serious investment to me and I need to be sure it's the right one. If it was only costing me a few months salary then I wouldn't be so worried - if I don't like it I can always find another one.

I might be tempted by someone doing the same as Kirstie & Phil though, basically an estate agent working for the vendor who could pick out the best properties in an area and help you decide what you wanted - even throwing in the odd property that you might never have considered. You could even argue that they could charge 1-2% and save you money, if they got you a bargain on the property.

lessonlearned

Phil Spencer is a relocation specialist/property searcher!!

His company works for the purchaser not the vendor.

BritAbroad

demontfort wrote: »

I think it's an excellent idea if you're thick as mince, lazy to boot and have too much money, just like these clowns who pay £50 a week for somebody to dust their 10 square foot,1 bed shoebox......no coincidence then that it's popular with London buyers :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I've used similar services and I am none of the above!

I suspect this is aimed at people moving from overseas. When we moved over to the US we got relocation agents and realtors as part of our move, and they were absolutely invaluable. In each case they did way, way more than just find property. Our relocation agent found us a rental property, but also took us through immigration paperwork, organised driving tests (even provided the driver's handbook for our state), advised us on organising insurance, utilities, local facilities, and what to look for for in different neighbourhoods etc. Had we needed it she'd have organised school visits too.

When it came to buying a house, our realtor did analysis on neighbourhoods and properties, gave advice on what to look for and what to avoid, provided information on various costs to watch out for that were not familiar to us as non-Americans. She took us out to see houses and neighbourhoods, listened to what we liked and didn't like to refine our shortlist. She was direct about whether a house was worth the asking price or not, and when we found our house, gave loads of advice on bidding. We actually ended up paying less than our opening offer would have been had we been doing it alone.

Could we have found all the information our relocation agent and realtor provided us? Probably yes, with time. But if you're relocating from somewhere else (as people using homefinder services are likely to be), time is something that you might not have much of and in the meantime it could have cost a lot of money and inconvenience. If, as I suspect, most people using such services are from overseas there's a lot of things about finding and renting or buying a home in a different country that are not obvious. If it was all so straightforward there wouldn't be so many threads on this forum asking what to do in different situations!

moneyistooshorttomention

If I was in that sort of financial league - ie "posh houses" as I call them - then I wouldn't hesitate to do so if I was "looking from a distance" as I am now. As I would be able to afford the "posher" houses I imagine they look at/be able to afford their fees/have a wider radius to look for houses in (because I could afford a car).

At an "ordinary" type house level - I simply can't afford to. Anyway, as I'm going for a very specific small location, then there wouldn't really be that much point.

I think this would work for me personally if I were in those financial circumstances - because I don't do "falling in love with a house". I just work out logically as to what houses would "work" for me and what ones wouldn't and then buy the best possible one I can afford that would "work" for me. For someone who takes a more "emotional - fall in love with" approach I'm not sure this would work so well.

EDIT; Shall now spend a while wondering how my attitude about "loving houses" or just assessing them for "workability" might differ if I could afford to look at houses I actually like anyway - rather than just "It can only be a cheap house - so what's the best I can manage - as I'm not going to actually like it anyway....." which I suspect is a common attitude amongst those of us who can't afford "likeable/loveable" houses anyway. "Likeable" starts at over twice the price of my current one and "loveable" is at least 3 times the price - you should see the £725,000 one I look at lustfully every time it hoves into view still on sale...

Davesnave

grifferz wrote: »

I don't think they are holding your hand, I think it's more like you tell them what you want, and they go away and do all the tedious work involved in finding it for you. Sure the tools exist but if it makes sense to pay someone else to use them for you then why not?

If you find the searching tedious, then fair enough, but property searches are potential learning experiences, which may be as interesting and productive as any other form of education.

moneyistooshorttomention

Hmm...blow learning experiences in my view....I'll take "having it easy" any chance I get....:rotfl:

Life can dish out one heck of a lot of learning experiences (usually of the unwanted variety) in my experience without going looking for them...

You name it and I'll pay for it and save myself the work (if I can afford to) any time:rotfl:

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Hmm...blow learning experiences in my view....I'll take "having it easy" any chance I get....:rotfl:

Life can dish out one heck of a lot of learning experiences (usually of the unwanted variety) in my experience without going looking for them...

You name it and I'll pay for it and save myself the work (if I can afford to) any time:rotfl:

So you don't analyse the housing market or do any kind of research?

Of course you do!

Bearing in mind your other posts, I'd say you do more analysing than most.

thelem

lessonlearned wrote: »

Phil Spencer is a relocation specialist/property searcher!!

His company works for the purchaser not the vendor.

My reading of the OP was that they were getting people to do everything though - so you arrive in your new country already owning a home that you've never seen before (except maybe on RightMove).

I don't know how his own business works, but on TV it's about providing background information about the local area and market and filtering the properties available. You're still doing your own search though. Indeed it's not unusual for the shows to end with a buyer making no offer.