Property buyers are often under the impression that getting a property survey done is nothing more than adding a cost that’s not really needed. They feel it’s something best avoided when there are already a lot of costs involved anyway. However, would anyone ever go ahead and buy a car confidently that has no MOT or service documents?
An insurance company carried out a survey revealing that only 25% of all homeowners get a survey done when buying a new home. Interestingly, 56% of those who had to undertake major work after coming to know that issues already existed in their property said that their decision to acquire it would definitely have been affected if they had prior knowledge about those issues. Before you go ahead and buy a property, it’s always good to know its history and its overall condition as is mostly the case when making second-hand purchases.
Of the many reasons that should compel you to get a property survey done, we have picked the top five.
1. A mortgage valuation comes with no benefits for a homebuyer
As a lender, you get to know what the value of the property you are lending against is when you get a valuation done. It helps you confirm whether the property truly is worth what’s being paid for it. A valuation that doesn’t take more than 20 minutes usually takes into consideration defects that exist in a property that may impact its value. However, the scope of valuations is limited. They fail to take into account issues like dry rot, damp, subsidence in much detail even though these are common. What’s more, it’s not binding upon the lender to disclose the findings of the valuation to the homebuyer.
" The traditional practice is of a surveyor to visit the property when compiling the valuation report. However, the trend these days is to get desktop valuations done remotely. For such valuations, the surveyors needn’t visit the property. Only recent sales data available online are enough to get the job done "
2. Surveyors share an impartial and objective opinion about a home
During home inspections, all our surveyors take an impartial view of the property. Moreover, their years of experience and skills make it more likely that issues which wouldn’t be noticed by a buyer are located. An average home buyer doesn’t set aside more than 35 minutes to check a property before he decides to purchase it. Our surveyors on the other hand dedicate at least 2 hours to inspect it, depending o how big it is. Surveyors cover areas you wouldn’t, like the attic.
3. Avoid paying for unforeseen repairs
The surveyors reveals that buyers who avoided a survey ended up paying 5,750 pounds on an average on repairs before they could move in. Moreover, 17% of them had to dish out more than 12,000 pounds on an average to make their homes livable. Do you feel you could spend all that money on repairs just to avoid the cost of a survey?
4. Locate issues that the contractor should address before signing the agreement
It doesn’t really mean that you shouldn’t buy a property if a surveyor locates any issue that needs expensive repairs. If the seller is unwilling to address the issue the surveyor locates, you could renegotiate with the seller and ask for a price revision making sure that the new price reflects the repair costs. Lowering the purchase price leaves you with enough funds to carry out the necessary repairs.
5. Surveyors possess an insight into local issues and risks
Since knowledge of local issues always matters, we put surveyors possessing such knowledge to work. They know about the kinds of properties your area has, local issues to consider like the chances and past incidents of flooding, pylons, electro-magnetic fields and overhead cables being close by and instances of underground mining, current or past. Armed with the knowledge, the surveyors form a true assessment of the property. You can bank on the assessment and know what you’re buying so that you can avoid expensive repairs later.
