A new study has found that a quarter of viewing time among prospective home buyers is taken up focusing on clutter and mess. The research conducted by Anglian Home Improvements used eye tracking technology to find out what house hunters really focus on when viewing a property and it found that men tend to focus on the outside while women pay more attention to inside. Throughout the study a range of house hunters viewed a property while wearing eye tracking glasses to see what actually grabbed their attention during the viewing. The furnishings and decor took up 27 per cent of the house hunters’ focus during the viewing, with a similar amount of time, 24 per cent, being spent on looking at clutter and mess around the home. In comparison, the layout of the house took up just four per cent of their time during the viewing. Clutter around the house was most distracting for the female house viewers, who spent 28 per cent of their viewing time focusing on it, compared to 20 per cent for male buyers. The results show that even when the potential house buyers didn’t mention the mess to the estate agent, their eyes were consistently drawn to it when panning a room. Overall, men spent more time than women looking at the structure and features of the grounds and building at 32 per cent compared to 22 per cent, while women focused more on the personal elements such as photo frames, decoration and furnishings at 16 per cent compared to 13 per cent.
More info: Anglian Home