Buyers are scrapping inspections and finance clauses and making “reckless unconditional offers.
Buyers are making critical mistakes when searching for a home in a dangerous new trend, experts have warned. Here’s how to avoid financial disaster.
Buyers’ agent Lisa Evans, of Verve Property, said buyers were making life-altering mistakes in the heat of the moment just to secure a home in the heated property market.
Lisa Evans, Verve Property buyer’s agent. Image supplied.
“The most dangerous trend I’m seeing is the rise of the reckless unconditional offer,” Ms Evans said.
“To compete, buyers are waiving building and pest inspections or finance clauses after just a 15-minute walk-through.
“They are betting over a million dollars on a whim, treating the largest purchase of their lives with less due diligence than they would use to buy a used car.”
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1 Mirram Street, Boondall sold for $1.298m. Picture: realestate.com.au
This panic-driven behaviour often stems from fear of missing out, she said.
“When a buyer sees 30 people at an open home, they immediately assume the property is worth $50,000 more than it actually is,” she said.
“This paranoia leads to hasty, unconditional offers without any ‘forensic’ homework. Essentially, they are paying a ‘FOMO Tax’ just to stop the dreaded weekend crawl.”
Buyers’ agent Lisa Evans, of Verve Property, said buyers were making life-altering mistakes in the heat of the moment just to secure a home.
Buyers also risk compromising on the wrong things when fatigue sets in.
“They buy a house with a ‘minor’ overland flow issue or a restrictive easement, telling themselves they can live with it,” she said.
“In a shifting market, these ‘near enough’ properties are the first to lose value because they have fundamental flaws that a renovation can’t fix.”
The pressure of buying in a fast-moving market has turned the home search into a second full-time job.
Relying on outdated market data is another costly pitfall.
“By the time a sale is recorded on public portals, the data is already stale,” she said.
“Looking backward instead of at the current ‘DNA’ of the market leads buyers to either miss out completely or guess their way into a massive overpayment.”
80 Andrew Street, Wynnum sold for $870,500. Picture: realestate.com.au
The pressure of buying in a fast-moving market has also turned the search for a home into a second full-time job.
“Many families spent their entire Christmas break just recovering from the ‘weekend crawl’ and agent follow-ups,” she said.
“The mistake here isn’t just the exhaustion of it all, it’s the opportunity cost.
“In a fast-moving market, the time it takes to find a home alone can actually cost you more than a year’s worth of mortgage repayments.
“And that’s just the financial cost. I can only imagine what else the search has cost them, when it comes to their time and energy.”
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