England 2/11/2012 – Surveyor Local look to improve home buyer understanding of home buying pitfalls
Surveyor Local, a national group of local residential property surveyors, recently unveiled their new website and with it a whole new approach which it hopes will foster greater understanding about what surveyors actually do.
Typically companies would employ copywriters to author marketing copy for a new site. However Surveyor Local felt that this approach would do little more than produce another electronic brochure.
Instead the Surveyor Local site is based around a blog which gives each of its 100 plus surveyors a platform to connect with and improve home buyer awareness about some of the potential horrors that await the unwary.
Surveyor Local, who have locally based surveyors in every county in the UK, have always maintained that local knowledge and awareness can be the difference between a detailed and contextually relevant home buyers survey and a generic document of little value.
The site provides its surveyors with the ability to upload micro reports and detailed photographs of the issues and defects they encounter when carrying out Homebuyer Reports and Building Surveys.
Naturally any information or photographs published are anonymised with all client names and addresses removed.
The surveyors are encouraged to highlight problems of major concern or potential expense to buyers as well as providing area background information to add perspective. For example cracks on a building could mean subsidence but in North London, where the under soil is predominantly clay, most properties exhibit a few cracks.
It is estimated that fewer than 10% of home buyers commission a survey when buying a house in the UK. The primary reason for this surprising statistic is likely to be the perceived additional cost to the already expensive home buying process.
However Surveyor Local argue that the profession has done little to promote the fact that a survey can save money by identifying defects that can form the basis of renegotiation.
The chances of specific defects being reported in a balanced light are enhanced when a surveyor has local knowledge and awareness.
Contact:
Surveyor Local
England, UK
Tel: 0845 519 9589
Email: Online form
Website: http://www.surveyorlocal.co.uk/