When is a HomeBuyer Report not a HomeBuyer Report?

Since the launch of the RICS HomeBuyer Report service in 2009, many buyers will have experienced a move with the assistance of our most popular survey report.

However, having recently revisited some of our initial Reports that went out using the official RICS software, we can clearly see where we think we have improved. Photographs are now added within the Report to clearly identify issues where necessary.

Unfortunately, this is not easy for Surveyors to do without the software we use as supplied by Quest Associates, so your Survey may not necessarily be the same as one of ours.

Interestingly, during a recent visit, a homeowner showed me their HomeBuyer Report carried out by a competitor. Their Report had no photographs and the client was happy as they had not expected any. So does it add value? Well, we with think so given that we get so much positive feedback and repeat business. It may take us an extra 20 minutes to do the Report and increase the costs for printing, but isn't this what you would expect from a Report that's going to be used for negotiation, or as a guide to when to get jobs done, or as just that something to read through in the evening as you look forward to your move?

This does not cost anything extra and in fact many clients have told us that our fees are lower than our competitors, so how we can afford to do it? Easy, each new client costs us a given amount in advertising, so if we do a good job, hopefully we will be rewarded by them telling someone else. This brings down the cost of advertising in the future and therefore the cost to our client. So doing a good job is essential for keeping fees low.

But what if one of our Surveyors falls short of the mark?

Not all Surveyors are the same and yes the standards may on occasion fall below our own. We do our best to ensure that this does not happen, but if we do find a Report is lacking, then a revisit may be instigated by one of our supervising Surveyors and a new Report commissioned.

Let us provide a quote for your survey and let us show you how different we are.