More Than Once

Home buyers are taking a longer time to find a home to purchase—and may view the property they want more than once before deciding to make an offer. Nearly 2,000 recent home buyers say they spent an average of 124 hours, or over about 10 days, searching for a home, according to a survey from Canadian real estate firm Zolo. One of their biggest regrets is that they wish they would have spent even more time viewing homes, the survey shows.

But sellers can take heart: The more the same buyer visits a home, the better the prospect is for a sale. Only 10% of buyers say they viewed a home just once before submitting an offer, 23% viewed twice, 31% viewed three times, and 20% viewed four times, the survey shows. Younger buyers tend to spend more time viewing a property before purchasing than older buyers, according to the survey. Buyers ages 21 to 29 preferred to see a property three to four times before putting in an offer. Buyers ages 30 to 39 viewed a property twice, on average, before submitting an offer. Further, buyers viewed an average of 19 homes before putting in an offer.

Source: RealTrends