Pet peeves when looking for a new home online

House sellers are urged to get their online listings into top shape to attract potential buyers.

How your property looks to people searching for a new home online is vital if you want to ensure a transaction.

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But it appears that some house sellers just aren’t getting the message.

A survey of 2,750 Brits who were looking to buy or rent a home highlighted their pet peeves.

Insufficient images crowned the list of biggest annoyances. More than four-fifths (82%) agreed that a listing with less than ten good-quality images is a big turn-off.

Four out of five (80%) of those surveyed admit that a house listing with a dull description is a pet hate for buyers. When selling a house, it is desirable to show some personality!

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A whopping 79% reveal that not having a good-quality video available for viewing is a major turn-off. Going forward, high-quality videos are likely to become standard practice for online home listings.

Three in four rank bad quality and unflattering images as one of their top pet peeves. This is closely followed by a messy home that isn’t show ready, with 73% disclosing it as an irritation.

Interestingly, the tenth biggest pet peeve is a listing with pictures taken on a rainy day. Almost half (49%) of buyers reveal that this gets on their nerves.

The bottom of the table shows features that most  homeowners don’t see as an issue, including an overgrown garden (13%), posters/frames hanging on the wall (15%), no price history listed (19%) and not enough page views (25%).

The survey was commissioned by Bankrate.com/uk