Press Release Author: Emma Harvey and Wai Lang Chu
Industry: Real Estate
Press Release Summary: Buyers should thoroughly inspect the property before making an offer - ask sellers to move furniture, lift floor coverings and check that heating, water and electricity is in working order.
Press Release Body: A recent poll by HomeServe, the national home emergency service, has revealed that almost one quarter of sellers admit to lying about, or attempt to hide problems with their property to make it more appealing to potential buyers.
According to HomeServe\'s research, of the 24% of sellers resorting to dirty tricks to hook buyers, 8% of sellers admit to either failing to tell buyers about boiler or heating problems or lying about the age of their boiler.
The same number admits to having lied about problems with parking in their area or kept quiet about nightmare neighbours. Sellers also went as far as repairing cracks in walls (6%), temporarily patched up leaking roofs (5%) or hidden evidence of pest infestation such as mice (3%).
The worrying results are revealed as the current UK housing slump worsens. With the average time taken to sell a property reported to have doubled from 5.5 to 13.5 weeks the research suggests that a significant proportion of sellers are resorting to increasingly desperate means to attract buyers.
\"It has become increasingly difficult to shift property and some sellers seem reluctant to fork out money to have these problems rectified,\" commented Jon Florshiem CEO of HomeServe Membership.
\"Buyers should thoroughly inspect the property before making an offer - ask sellers to move furniture, lift floor coverings and check that heating, water and electricity is in working order.\"