Is property searching making you fat?

I had an interesting conversation with a potential client, Mick, recently- both himself and his wife have been searching online for their “perfect” property whilst living interstate and were complaining about the enormous amount of time it was sucking up.  Every spare moment after work and most Friday evenings and Saturday mornings  were spent going through alerts, emails and follow up calls from selling agents, in their quest.  It didn’t help that they were looking to buy in Sydney’s crazy-busy popular market, in a price bracket that is considered entry-level in the suburbs they are hoping to buy. With most of the suitable properties selling quickly, and having to organise interstate trips at short notice, it hasn’t ultimately been an easy or successful pursuit for them. As a result, in the past 6 months their social life has been curbed, their gym/sports sessions considerably curtailed and less time for their children going to parks and the usual family and friends events.  In his wife’s words: “All this property searching is making me fat!”

As buyers’ agents, we know exactly where Sam’s wife is coming from. We’ve heard so many of these stories before, from fledgling property buyers.  It can be so tempting to spend hours online, and get lost in pretty property photos and floorplans (that often look very unlike the real thing upon inspection!) and it’s not difficult to suddenly look at the clock and find you’ve wasted yet another 3-4 hours mindlessly wandering online, with little to show for your time.  Even many investors and buyers we’ve come across, rarely seem to actually wear out the necessary shoe leather on physical inspections and instead find excuses as to why a certain property won’t really be suitable, before arranging an inspection or two.

Perhaps the easy comfort of the laptop and the lounge is too tempting, and even the inactivity between open homes (stuck in Sydney’s ever-increasing and frustrating Saturday morning traffic) is making some buyers too sedentary.  We all know that leaving less time for that run/gym session, footy game or even a brisk walk with the dog isn’t good for us, so allocate search time and stop the clock after an hour of online searching.  Make those phone calls to agents whilst walking the dog, and perhaps plan to pound the footpath between open homes, instead of taking the car.  You never know. You might not only benefit by finding your ideal home sooner, but you could just avoid piling on the couch potato kilos as well!