The sharing economy is helping property buyers save on building and pest inspection costs.

AIRbnb kicked off the sharing economy for property, and now expensive inspection reports for house hunters are getting the online treatment.

THE sharing economy is expanding further into property as new business models employ people power to save money.

Property was a pioneer of online savings through the sharing economy with Airbnb, and now real estate buyers are able to pool their money to pay for building and pest inspections — a vital part of the buying process.

Beforeyoubid.com.au and eyeon.com.au are among the new breed that offer to cut the cost of inspection reports by hundreds of dollars.

House hunter Joel Knudsen has yet to be the winning bidder at an auction but has used beforeyoubid.com.au twice. Its cashback model repays between $240 and $350 of a $499 building and pest inspection report, depending on how many people buy the report.

“It’s the second time we have done it and the second property we have missed out on, but to get some money back is awesome. The savings are in a table on their website,” Knudsen says.

“The whole due diligence process of looking for property becomes cheaper. We are aware of the fact that you are going to miss out a few times.”

Sharing the cost of property inspections can save you plenty. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Beforeyoubid.com.au CEO Rhys Rogers started the business a year ago after discovering that many potential buyers were skipping the reports because of their high costs.

“I thought they should be cheaper, and people should definitely be getting them, so why isn’t there a shared cost model out there?” he says.

Rogers says his firm uses a panel of more than 70 inspectors across Australia and they are rated online by customers, similar to other sharing economy services.

He believes there is more innovation to come from the sharing economy. “I think it’s going to occur as long as people have the imagination.

“Who knows what the next thing is, but there’s definitely people thinking about it.”

New research by RateSetter found that 68 per cent of Australians would be willing to use sharing economy services in the next six months, a big jump from a year ago, and two-thirds had used it in the past six months.

“The beauty of the sharing economy is that everyone, young and old, can participate in a way which suits them,” RateSetter CEO Daniel Foggo says.