I'm Researching The Frustrations People Have When Searching for Property. Can You Give Me Your Opinions?

Hi all,

I'm User Researcher doing my own research into how people look for property in Australia. I am not a real estate agent, or someone who works in property. If you could fill in my survey (less than 1 min), or give me any feedback, that would be awesome! Even if you don't want to fill in the survey, any frustrations/issues you have while looking for property would be super helpful!

I'm doing user research before creating my own app to see if I can make it easier for people to find and compare properties that they are viewing on the weekends. The data I'm collecting is to find out what sort of features I should add into the app, rather than just build it with a bunch of useless features. The data is anonymous as well, I don't need your name, your email or anything like that. The only specific demographic thing I was looking for was an age.

https://goo.gl/forms/sLXMXHtKRhS8KqTC2

Comments

  • +3

    My parents arn't rich enough to buy me a house is a big frustration for me.

    • Lol, fair point. I'm also in the same boat. This survey is also for people who are renting or sharehousing too.

  • Not going to get into your survey as you don't provide enough information as to why you are doing it, or how you will use the information.

    • Sure, I'll edit my post to include this stuff.

      Basically I'm doing user research before creating my own app to see if I can make it easier for people to find and compare properties that they are viewing on the weekends. The data I'm collecting is to find out what sort of features I should add into the app, rather than just build it with a bunch of useless features. The data is anonymous as well, I don't need your name, your email or anything like that. The only specific demographic thing I was looking for was an age.

  • Post a deal first, then maybe we'll talk about doing the survey!

    • If I know of any, I sure will. I did post this deal way back when I worked there. But i couldn't remember my password into that account, or the email.

    • welcome to 'straya'

    • I didn't even think about neighbours when searching for a place. Also its probably something you don't really notice when you are at an inspection because you are so focused on looking at the place. Thanks for the feedback :)

  • +1

    I gave up smashed avo 18 months ago and I am still no closer to owning a home

    • :o Not the smashed avo! I love smashed avo.

    • you also need to give up regular avo

    • You're doing it wrong then.

      I gave up smashed avo and managed to buy a house. It worked for me.

  • +1

    Finding the property isn't the thing that's frustrating for me. I can find lots that I like.

    The frustrating thing is being outbid by people that have far more money.

    • Do you feel like you find a place, its priced right, and it ticks all the boxes, and then you go to auction and you are outbid straight away? Are the price guides way off?

      • Yep, price guides are never honest.

      • Price guide being off or not highly depends on who's attending the auction/sale and their level of interest in the property.
        If they have more money than you and they really really want it no matter what, i.e. their wife wants it or else, your screwed.

  • +1

    No price or price guide in the listing, and the agent wants all your personal info to hand it over.

    Price guide is wrong.

    Photos are wrong.

    No plan.

    No open house times listed.

    Full address not provided (seriously, why)

    Agents that try to be your "friend" and want to "help you" by recommending random crap they can't sell.

    Nobody ever puts in what internet is available. Sometimes they'll mention cable tv, but nobody ever says ADSL/NBN/etc.

    You're missing Allhomes.com.au in your survey. Very popular in ACT/Canberra.

    • Thanks for your insights. So basically agents just being lazy lol! I agree with you about not knowing what internet is available. When i was looking at the place I'm in now, they told me ADSL, I should have checked myself, because it only took cable. So i wasted a lot of time, and didn't have internet for a while.

  • I think people need to lower their expectations. I bought my first home last year and it took a lot of sacrifices (no eating out etc) and I had to lower my expectations and look at a much broader area than I had imagined.

    Funnily enough, what I ended up buying was actually in quite a wealthy area that I didn't think I could afford, but the house is extremely old - when I inspected, I noticed a lot of people (mostly young couples) had this disinterested look on their faces before they even went in - they had already made up their minds beforehand and so whenever they saw something they didn't like, it would be a bigger negative than if they went in with an open mind.

    A huge plus for me after buying the house was that I had access to superfast cable internet (almost consistent 80Mbps, sometimes 200Mbps at off-peak)!!! I did research the nearest exchanges and NBN rollouts in the area when I was looking for a house, but it was a minor thing because of the lack of information, and also because of my lack of knowledge about whether a few KM distance to exchanges really mattered anyway. I gave up on NBN - no rollout in the areas I was looking (don't get me started on the NBN mess!).

    Good luck with your research and app!

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