Open House viewings

[thirtyplusone]

Just returned from a disappointing day of house viewings, including an open house. It was the first time we'd been to one, I felt totally rushed with a five minute tour, other couples waiting outside and I've left with little recollection of what the house looked like! It was a shoes off, please don't touch anything type of affair and I've left feeling like I couldn't ever feel at home there.

With ours about to go on the market, our estate agent wants to start with an open day but I'm inclined to refuse the suggestion based on today. Have you any positive experiences of them, selling or buying? It does seem to only benefit the agent.

[Optimist1]

Our agent suggested we had one when we sold the last house. Benefit to us was that we didn't have to have a grand tidying session every time potential buyers wanted to view. Apparently when buyers are physically in the house with other potential buyers they fuel each other's keenness to proceed - can't tell you whether this was so in our case, but we did receive offers which eventually resulted in a sale.

Perhaps if you tell your agent what you didn't like about the open house you attended they could reassure you that they do thinks a bit differently?

[Dadsussex]

For an auction property the open house viewing or single time slot viewing is pretty common

On a standard house via EA I personally feel it's not great

I've given in allowing EA's to show buyers the properties I sell and I have been doing them myself for about 3 years now

I know some people when buying prefer an EA but I've never understood that, I can tell the buyer what is what, know exactly what a room is/was and how stuff was put together/painted/reconditioned etc etc

In the open house I've had EA's send over an agent and they have zero time to find anything out about the house and then the buyers learn nothing, so go away with no idea to questions they have, a potential sale lost therefore

I've done viewings for buyers lasting 5 mins and viewing lasting 40 mins, I really feel if a seller is polite and can hold a conversation I'd rather view with them

On my own personal property I 100% only show myself and on a 1:1 viewing, I can answer everything there and then and if a buyer is genuinely keen I actually make the tour a proper tour and show and tell everything - never had an issue that way

Overall I don't do open days as you can perhaps tell, the way I see it is if you were buying a pair of say shoes and the shoe shop did an open event and showed only one pair of shoes and gave you a few seconds to look and feel them and then charged £100k-£1m+ you'd likely not be happy......... so why is a house any different?!?!

Anyhow rant over :-)

[Toottootcar]

In Scotland this is pretty much the norm. Have never been made to wait outside. If you're selling you just give as much info as you can to each viewer. The ones with questions or who are keen will hang around till they can talk to you.

[wheresmyphone]

Make sure they have two agents on site if it's not pre booked appointments. We used to live overseas where OH are the norm and people used to get stuff nicked.

[EssentialHummus]

As a buyer I do feel it creates a pressurised situation and makes people competitive if they feel pressure easily. I'd wager (based on no experience) that it makes people more likely to bid above the point they otherwise would, and therefore that the sale would be more likely to fall through due to cold feet or valuation issues.

[thirtyplusone]

That's my feeling too Essential! The agent we've appointed is already being pushy with me, goodness knows how they treat the buyers.

I am also slightly fearful of people helping themselves to things. I'd much prefer to do the viewings myself and be able to answer questions.

We're in a 'popular' area of London, one of those hottly tipped places to buy, 2 bed ground floor apartment, but I don't feel like the market is as hot as it was a year ago so I'd rather give serious buyers proper time in the property than mess around with people changing their minds or finding something better at 'next weekends' open house viewing around the corner... (personally I can't wait to move away from here, I don't see the hype myself).

[Bluntness100]

I think you need to watch the agents carefully with these. I wished to view a house, we were actually very interested and chain free, and it was only on an open day they would permit it. I was out of the country at the time of the open day , and the agent refused to let me view at another time and didn't even ask the seller. I got the impression it saves them some additional work where they have to go round properties with people.

I also had another one, where the seller showed me round, as the agent was very blunt and said they were contracted for the open day only and as such would not show people,round at other times, and as such I could only view it if the seller would show me round.

Personally I'd be inclined to let people view when it was convenient to you and I'd decline the open day.

I think being an estate agent can lead to a lot of evening and weekend work showing properties and it's beneficial to them if they can just do open days,

[EssentialHummus]

Also try to carefully assess what the market is like locally based on sold (not asking ) prices. I'm in an area of Zone 2 where agents are still pricing very enthusiastically, but stock is getting reduced pretty heavily.

[Orangebird69]

My bil has just sold his house immediately after an open day for the full asking price (over £500k more than they paid for it 10 years ago ). Go for it.

[WellTidy]

I've been to open day viewings. The agent is right that it can create a feeling amongst the buyers that they need to act fast if they're interested. We made an offer after one open day viewing, basically because we got a bit carried away with the fast momentum. We withdrew the offer the next day when we'd calmed down. So I suppose what I am saying is that it can create a competitive situation, but that might not actually get you to a sale.

[Meandyouandyouandme]

We are having an open day this weekend with timed slots, so only one lot of people at a time, so I'm hoping nothing will get stolen! We've got 10 viewers booked in so far.
The agent recommended it as a way to sell in our area, which is a very nice area of a northern city regularly mentioned in this section.
So I'm hoping I'll only have to tidy up once, and I've got my pineapple at the ready
Also they don't take offers on the day, as they don't want people to panic offer and then just withdraw them. Hopefully we might get an offer on Monday.