At the risk of being unpopular with the British public, many of whom are trying to sell off their homes in these difficult times, I cannot but agree with the HIP (Home Information Packs). It may be frustrating for sellers, but a delay of several days before erecting a “For Sale” sign should not be a reason that the HIP should be abandoned. After all, homes do not sell in a few days, especially in today’s market.

I will not argue that many buyers probably do not read the HIPs, but that is their mistake. The information included in those packets are extremely useful. I only wish we had something similar for rentals. It would have saved us many headaches with all the questions that we were unsure of that needed to be answered. Running around to get the answers turned out to be inadequate, as there were many others that we only had answered after we moved in. Had we known beforehand, we might not have chosen the particular property to rent. I would feel the same with a property we had to buy.

Perhaps I also feel this way because you would have to have the answers to all those queries in the US before you can even market your house. I cannot believe that the US homebuyers are any different than the British homebuyers in terms of what they would like answered in regards to their potential new home. Who would not want to know what to expect in terms of how much they would need to pay to maintain their home? Like buying a car, wouldn’t you want to know what problems the house has? I wouldn’t want to be blindsided after the fact.

So, what am I missing? Why would buyers not bother to read the HIPs? Maybe I’m clueless about buying a home in Britian but I definitely would want to be as informed as possible before such a major purchase.