The Behaviour of House Buyers in Response to Suspicious Signals of Houses for Sale

Abstract

The study aims to analyze the behaviour of house buyers in response to suspicious signals of houses for sale, including a surprisingly low listing price and a lengthy listing time. The authors apply a three-stage research method based on a survey data set of 448 buyers who have just bought self-built single-family houses in Ho Chi Minh City's urban area from June 2017 to May 2018. The results of the study found that a surprisingly low listing price not only does not attract and create an auction war among buyers, but it also creates a suspicion signal for the buyer, and as a result, the house becomes harder to sell with a lower transaction price and prolong the listing time. Finally, the Cox Proportional Hazards model results show that the first listing month provides the best performance with the highest probability of sale, but when the listing time is extended, it will also cause buyer suspicion and thus decrease the saleability of the house.