I’ve been trying to buy a sofa for five years but I knew I was going to make an offer on my house before I’d even stepped inside. Sounds rash, doesn’t it? I wouldn’t say I regret it, at least not every day. Given the mad mortgage landscape I’ll be here for the foreseeable, so the laws of positivity dictate I maintain a cheery outlook.
The selling points - all of which I spotted before our viewing - were proximity to the station, the fact the street was flush with period properties and therefore resembled London (the city I wasn’t quite ready to leave), as well as some charming features: sash windows, fireplaces in the bedrooms, a woodburning stove, a large range oven and a number of original Edwardian fitted cupboards.
Most importantly, no part of it set off my gag reflex. What a shame I didn’t look more closely at the time. I might have discovered that the sashes were contemporary fakes, the fireplaces didn’t work, the gleaming flames inside the wood burner were made from fabric, and the range was mostly broken - and burnt your fingertips if you dared to touch the buttons and use it.
News of the imprudent antics of other house buyers makes me feel much better about my quick decision-making. We at least visited the place twice. Apparently a fifth of buyers spend under 20 minutes in a place before making an offer, according to research from online property company Zoopla. Its survey of 2,000 people put the average time we look around a property at 49 minutes, while just under a third (28 per cent) only visited once before trying to buy.
Zoopla also deployed some sneaky-sounding tech to find out what we’re looking at in those precious few minutes. It discovered that we rarely focus on the important “bricks and mortar” stuff, like cellars, attics, damp, condensation and water pressure. Instead, we’ll look at family photos or home tech and gaze at the furniture. A few (14 per cent) admitted to poking around in sellers’ drawers.
How does Zoopla know this? It backed up its poll with an experiment in which prospective buyers wore eye-tracking glasses, to reveal what they were really looking at - pictures and plants, for example, over permanent features.
But who are we to say what takes priority when it comes to matters of the heart, a category home buying clearly falls into. Spotting art we like makes us feel welcome; if a person with whom we share artistic taste has lived here, we probably can, too.
Great furniture tells us that we could buy similar pieces, providing us with interiors inspiration to step into and make our own. And gazing at plants is practical behaviour. Their health should give clues as to where light comes into a property. Zoopla viewers even spent time assessing hand soaps. And why not? If a previous resident could afford to bung cash at an elegant savon, maybe my budget will one day permit the same.
The success - in browsing terms, if not actual sales - of estate agents The Modern House and its period spin-off Inigo, reveals how deeply interior decor determines our desire to live in a place, even when all of us know we won’t have the budget or time or taste to make a place as attractive as we originally found it.
The Zoopla suits say we should be fully informed before making big house-buying decisions. I’m inclined to stick my fingers in my ears, yet again. The only question you really need to ask yourself is what you can and can’t live with on a daily basis. Deafening wallpaper, or invisible damp? Gloriously high ceilings, or gangrenous white goods? I’d far rather a home I feel happy to live in each day, than worry about the big stuff - most of which we can’t control anyway.