A story about Property Defect Management or, how to make wrong things becoming right. Let me start writing about this through a short story that, possibly, some of you may have heard.
Perfection Does Not Exist
It was the first half of 16th century when Michelangelo Buonarroti, an Italian sculptor, painter, and architect, completed one of the most magnificent sculpturing masterpieces in history, The Moses. Legend says that he was standing right in front of his completed work, staring at Moses and admiring the perfection of his art when, suddenly, he shouted at the mute statue: “Talk to me, Why do not you speak…..?!”.
So perfect was it, that it seemed impossible he could not even articulate a word on demand!
Michelangelo’s anger raised as no reply came from the perfect but made of white cold Carrara marble statue. Letting his famous hot temper to take control, Michelangelo picked up a hammer and hit the statue on the knee leaving a scar to show that perfection does not exist!
These last four words, “perfection does not exist”, should be used as a reminder when, after waiting for few years, property buyers are finally receiving the home of their dream. We all, as property buyers, should be able to manage our expectations and realistically look into what has been the commitment of the developer to us when signing the Sales and Purchase Agreement and then only, proceed with our property defect management.
It’s All About Expectations and Their Management
One of the most common mistakes of home buyers is forget about this important document and, instead, remembering what was showed to them in the show-house during the selling pitch by the sales consultant or agent engaged by the developer.
I have been a salesperson too and, God knows how often, driven by the wish of “closing a sale”, I’ve “painted’, in the imagination of the buyer, a 900 sq.ft. home with two bedrooms and attached bathrooms as a beautiful and space-full dwelling where to grow a family. Property developers, ID architect, decorators, and marketers’ job, is to “touch” the emotional buttons of buyers through light effects, mirrors and whatever else available to get them falling in love with the show unit.
On their side, home buyers, are imagining themselves and their family living in such a beautiful home, and this is what they remember when the day comes to receive the real deal and start going through the new house to complete the property defect management.
Windows look smaller, ceiling less high, tiles less shining and the whole dream goes broken in thousands of pieces! That is when a house defect checking becomes a hunt to the smallest and less visible property defects as they try to get back the partially broken dream.
Property defect management should be a balancing exercise of what we were expecting, what we remember it was promised to us, what has been the actual commitment (Sales and Purchase Agreement) and what has been delivered to us.
Homebuyer’s Rights as Defined by The Law
The only terms of reference which should be used during the property defect inspection, are: the technical specification page in the SPA, stating material and deliverables in terms of numbers and not of brands, the layout which is also attached to the SPA and, when and if present, any additional supplementary agreement signed with SPA for extra furnishing or additional benefits included in the purchase.
By law, a claimable defect is referred to:
- poor workmanship which includes broken or chipped tiles, uneven surfaces, not properly installed windows, or doors and plumbing/electrical issues such as plugs which are not working or water leaking from poorly assembled pipes or clogged manholes and water pipes.
- lack of something which is, instead, stated in the SPA as included such as power point, fan or aircon point or smart lock at the main door
- alterations from the original layout attached to the SPA in terms of sizes of rooms or height/width of windows and doors
- alterations from the original SPA as type or sizes of materials and finishing. I.e., tiles are smaller, windows’ frames or doors are made of a different material and wall tiles are not as high on the wall as stated in the SPA
Once we have “sized” our range of investigation and managed our expectations, remember one last thing, perfection does not exist, as per the short story at the beginning of this article. With all the above in mind, we can say we are ready to start our new home defect management.
Defect Management and Digital Transformation
While in the past defect management was entirely done in a traditional and manual way, nowadays, with a full stream digital transformation disrupting the real estate industry, it is possible to handle the Property Handover process and the property Defect Management with ProFix, a user-friendly app which, once adopted by developers, allows a much easier and seamless “conclusion” of the property buying journey!
ProSales Solutions is not just a digitalised system! ProSales is not just selling a system, we strive to help our developer clients to serve their homebuyers better and to build trust in relationship with them. A strong good reputation of the developer’s brand is also created in the process or property buying journey.
One of the big advantages of using ProFix is that it allows instant communication between all parties involved or, developer’s team, home buyer and contractors in charge of the repairing work. ProFix has ended miscommunications and misunderstandings as all details and communications are available online as well as the progress status.
This has helped countless developers to keep delivering new homes even during the tightest Movement Control Orders caused by the pandemic.
The ProFix Solution
Moving forward, ProFix has became very popular within developers and contractors, however, homebuyers shall understand how to use it in an efficient and mindful way.
What do I mean with this? Simple to explain.
Another short story, to close on a “tasty” note this article and to clarify how to become more mindful homebuyers during the property defect management, comes from one of my personal hobbies, cooking.
Imagine one day, while I’m preparing a delicious Italian dinner for my family, my daughter enters the kitchen and starts questioning me about my way of cooking. Why I’m doing this or how comes you are using so much of that…and so on.
For a good 30 minutes she keeps asking one question after the other and, unfortunately, the final result is badly affected by my lack of concentration and focus. Dinner results too spicy or over-cooked and, it ends up in the garbage while the family must go for a last-minute takeaway!
We can relate this to brick and cement or, property defect management and follow up with the contractor using a digital VP & Defect Management tool such as ProFix. Keep on checking with developer or contractor, using the traditional way, about the status of repair will not help getting it done faster and better but will end up with extended time and, possibly, lower quality.
Let’s all be patient and let the experts do their job while, at the same time, managing our own expectations and become ready to accept those small and quite insignificant defects which are not compromising the general quality and value of our new home! Being balanced, reasonable and able to manage expectations will help tremendously in the whole property defect management process as, “Perfection Does Not Exist”!
ProFix is helping developers, contractors and homebuyers getting along during the property defect management process in a transparent, simple, and efficient way!
As homebuyer, make sure the developer of the property you are buying is using it and, if not, reach out to us we will help the developer and reward you!
