Research to Inform the Five Year Review of the Home Report

Appendix C - Buyers/Sellers Follow up Interviews Discussion Guide

INTERNAL USE ONLY 14-029755-01
Five year review of the Home Report - General public topic guide
Standard version FINAL

Introduction

• Introduce self and Ipsos MORI.
• Thank participant for taking part and for their time.
• Explain that the interview will take 20-30 minutes.
• Explain background to the research - aims to investigate how the Home Report has performed over its first five years of operation. During this interview we will explore your views and experiences of the home report.
• Emphasise confidentiality and anonymity
• Ask permission to record.

Warm up

• First of all, can I just confirm that you have bought or sold a property in the last two years?
• Could you tell me a little bit about the property you most recently purchased and why you bought it?
  
  PROBE FOR: type of property, age of property, condition of property when purchased, type of purchase (first time buyer?), is it a listed property? etc.
• Where did you get advice from when purchasing your current home?
  PROBE FOR: legal advice? financial advice? house-hunting advice?

Looking for a property

First of all, I would like to ask about the your most recent property purchase and how you used the Home Report as a home-buyer.

The next three questions are about the process of finding a property in general, not just the home that you eventually purchased

• Before you started looking for a property, how much, if anything, did you know about the Home Report?
• How much impact did the Home Report have on the decisions you made when in the process of buying your current home?
  IF NOT COVERED
  • At what point did you get a Home Report for a property?
  • Did it have an effect on whether you went to view a property?
  • Did it have an influence on whether you made an offer on a property?
  • What about the property you eventually purchased?
  PROBE FOR: examples of properties they did/didn't pursue because of information in the Home Report, which part(s) of the Home Report had the most influence
• What did the process of accessing a Home Report involve?
  PROBE FOR: Costs, format, timings etc. Any issues/problems?

I now want you to think about the property you actually purchased and the Home Report that was provided for it

• To what extent did you think the information within the Home Report was…
  a) Complete? - What was missing? How important was this information?
  b) Reliable? - Why do you say that? What was inaccurate? Did anything need to be revised?
  c) Useful? - What was the impact on decision to buy, did it affect price negotiations?
  
  PROBE FOR A-C: single survey (including repairs), property questionnaire, valuation, energy report, if listed property probe on info available related to this. Why is that?
• What about the section on accessibility…
  • was there enough information? Why do you say that?
  • was the information correct? Why do you say that?
  • was the information helpful? Why do you say that?
• How did the information in the Home Report affect your level of confidence in the buying process as a whole? Why was that?

ONLY ASK IF THE SURVEY INDICATES THE RESPONDENT SOUGHT FURTHER ADVICE ON THE HOME REPORT

• What advice did you seek about the contents of the Home Report?

IF NOT COVERED:

• Why?
• Who did you speak to?

Was the advice in agreement with the Home Report?

ONLY ASK IF THE SURVEY INDICATES THE RESPONDENT COMMISSIONED A FURTHER SURVEY OR VALUATION REPORT

• What other surveys or valuation reports were commissioned for the property?

PLEASE ENSURE YOU PROBE FULLY

IF NOT COVERED:

• What type of survey was this? A Home Report refresh, or something else?
• Why was it commissioned? What stage of the buying process were you at?
• Who told you that an additional survey/valuation was needed? Was it a suggestion or a requirement?
• How much was the new survey/valuation? Who paid for it? What of that was fees?
• Was it the same surveyor or a different surveyor?
• Was the new survey in agreement with the Home Report? What was different about it? What reasons were given for the difference? Were you able to talk to anyone about it?
• Was the new valuation in agreement with the Home Report? Was it higher or lower? How big was the difference? What reasons were given for the difference? Were you able to talk to anyone about it?

Selling your home

First of all I would like to ask about the process of selling your home.

• Could you tell me a little bit about the property you most recently sold and why you sold it?
• Can you just tell me a little bit about the process of selling your home?
  PROBE ON: Who was involved? How long was it on the market? Were any changes made to the way it was marketed - why?
• To what extent did the cost of the Home Report impact on your decision to sell your property in the first place? What about the other costs and fees associated with putting your home up for sale?
  PROBE ON: what were costs for and how much?
• What did the process of getting a Home Report involve?
  PROBE ON: who commissioned? who carried out? did you shop around for a surveyor - why was that? cost of HR/valuation?
• What issues, if any, did you encounter when getting your Home Report?
  PROBE ON: What happened? Who was involved? How was this resolved?
• To what extent did you think the information within the Home Report was…
  a) Complete? - What was missing? How important was this information?
  b) Reliable? - Why do you say that? What was inaccurate? Did anything need to be revised?
  c) Useful? - What was the impact on decision to sell, did it affect price negotiations?
  PROBE FOR A-C: single survey (including repairs), property questionnaire, valuation, energy report. Why is that?

IF NOT ALREADY COVERED:

• How easy or difficult was it to complete the required information in the property questionnaire?
  PROBE ON: was there any information you didn't know? Was there any information you didn't want to give - why was that? Did you think this would affect the sale of your property? What did you do?
• How did the information in the Home Report affect your level of confidence in the selling process? Why was that?

ASK IF THE SURVEY INDICATES THE RESPONDENT DISAGREED WITH INFORMATION IN THE HOME REPORT OR IF THEY INDICATE THERE WAS MISSING OR INACCURATE INFORMATION EARLIER IN THE DISCUSSION

• To what extent did you agree with the contents of the Home Report? Can you tell me a little bit about the situation?

IF NOT COVERED:

• What was the information you disagreed with?
• Why did you disagree?
• What did you do about it? Did you ask for a revision to the Home Report?

Was the issue resolved?

ONLY ASK IF THE SURVEY INDICATES THE RESPONDENT COMMISSIONED A FURTHER SURVEY OR VALUATION REPORT

• What other surveys or valuation reports were commissioned for the property?

IF NOT COVERED:

• What type of survey was this? A Home Report refresh, or something else?
• Why was it commissioned? What stage of the buying process were you at?
• Who told you that an additional survey/valuation was needed? Was it a suggestion or a requirement?
• How much was the new survey/valuation? Who paid for it? What of that was fees?
• Was it the same surveyor or a different surveyor?
• Was the new survey in agreement with the Home Report? What was different about it? What reasons were given for the difference? Were you able to talk to anyone about it?
• Was the new valuation in agreement with the Home Report? Was it higher or lower? How big was the difference? What reasons were given for the difference? Were you able to talk to anyone about it?

Summing up

• Overall, how positive or negative was your experience of using Home Reports? Why do you say that?
• How much influence did the Home Report have on the price you offered/accepted for the property you bought sold?
• What changes/improvements would you like to see to the Home Report?

IF NOT COVERED:

• What other information would you like to see in the Home Report?

PROBE ON: Why? Are you interested in that as a buyer or a seller?

• Is there anything else you would like to add to the discussion, that we haven't already covered?

Thank and close.