It’s generally accepted that buying a home is a time-consuming business – but how much time is consumed, exactly?
Canadian real estate website Zolo conducted a survey to find out how many hours on average buyers take in going through the whole process. That includes searching for homes online, driving around to go to open houses and research neighbourhoods, viewing homes in person, and spending time with real estate and financing professionals.
And let’s not forget the hours of lost sleep, due to the stress of it all.
The total average time all that takes, according to the survey results, is 124 hours. That breaks down as an average of 32 hours poring over online listings, 27 hours of driving around, 25 hours of viewings, 19 hours of talking to experts, and 21 hours lying awake thinking about it all.
Zolo’s survey also asked how long buyers spent viewing each individual home, and how long it took them to make an offer.
The report authors wrote, “Another interesting trend is that younger buyers spent more time viewing the property before buying. Buyers aged 21 to 29, preferred to see a property three or four times before putting in an offer, while buyers aged 30 to 39 viewed a property, on average, only twice before putting in an offer. (Surprisingly, one per cent of respondents bought a home sight unseen — they only saw online pictures — and these buyers were aged of 30 to 39.)”
On average, Zolo said, home buyers viewed 19 homes before putting in an offer.
Check out the survey infographic below.
