Things not to do when viewing a property

[bonfireheart]

• turn up late
• repeatedly press the door bell (esp when you're late)
• complain about how houses in another area are bigger and cheaper (thereby assuming either the seller is clueless or doesn't have access to rightmove)
• point at DD10 and say "where's her dad?"
• come to see a small/mid sized house with three average size bedrooms, see photos and measurements online and then complain to the house owner that there's not enough bedrooms for your massive family in a tone suggesting that they've personally offended you by only having three bedrooms (go home and have those conversations)

Oooof!!

Don't turn up and announce that you live in the same model house up the road but you noticed that we had knocked through downstairs and you want to have a look as you are thinking about doing the same to your house.

SayNotoCarrots She did get away with it.

For how long, I know not - stopped seeing her shortly after that (you don't say).

(This was a long time ago, things obviously changed)
Don't get the keys for an empty property from the ea, have a second set cut then use it as a drop off for a stolen goods scam. (Next door, empty a long time. One day parcel arrives for someone I'd never heard of, nanny signed for it. I was (nosy) looking for return address and opened the delivery note. Thousands of pounds worth of video stuff. Rang company, they arranged collection (by police ass cc was stolen) shady blokes then arrIve demanding parcel (with threats when I said it had gone) EA change lock. Apparently they'd been doing it all over the city. Usually waiting in for deliveries.

I appreciate not wanting time-wasters.
I kind of think it's good to get some feedback, though, why folk don't want the property. Even if misplaced.
It's soul-destroying to try to sell, get viewings, and then nobody offers & you're not really sure why not.
So I think I'd rather have the stupid comments than none at all.

I hate when the vender shows you round, you feel like you have to be nice and complimentary. With an agent you can be more honest. Kitchen needs replacing, carpets are worn, decor is appalling and will need to be redone throughout, whatever.

Normally for us it's always the agent who has showed us round, but on the odd occasion it's been the vender, we've always been very polite and kept our thoughts to ourself. I would only show someone round on second viewing.

watto funny you say that about your brother, we bought our current house (first home) from our ex teacher we weren't rude though and as a physics teacher I think she was mightily impressed that one of her ex students (dh) had gone into something directly related to her field as she wouldn't stop asking him about it! I think being our teacher once upon a time is what got us the house.

Don't ask the sellers DP what he'd accept on the property. When said DP says you will have to ask DW as it's her house don't totally ignore DW and ask again

I viewed a property once when the whole family was home. I wasn't given any instructions and walked about as you do when considering a place as potentially your new home. I opened a door to a bedroom to find Grandma sleeping. I'd woken her and she didn't seem to speak English. There were (well behaved) children playing. I think food was being prepared. I love an empty house and an estate agent!

When we sold our last house we got the agent to do all the viewings. Figured we were paying them £££ to sell our house so they might as well work for it!
We got lucky with him though, he was a lovely chap who worked very hard, got us lots of viewings when the market still wasn't too healthy and then got us a decent offer.
I have to admit I preferred viewings where the agent showed us round.

dont put a note on the car windscreen (car parked on drive) stating not to park here and sign it "from the new owners" when the sale process was nowhere completed.

Come round to view a typical 1930s semi with double garage and act surprised and sad there are stairs, you're looking for a bungalow and then complain about the double garage, you need a triple garage. I'm pretty sure the property details given were not a blank sheet of paper!

Shall I do a happy one?

When we were selling our house we had a couple come round with their baby. First time the bay was asleep in the car seat and I suggested they leave the baby in the kitchen in the car seat and I would sit in there while they looked. They seemed grateful to not have to lug a sleeping baby and car seat all over a 3 storey house.

They came for a second viewing and it was a sunny day, my own dd (1year) was playing in the garden. I offered to have the baby come and sit with us so they could look properly at some of the bits they had questions about. They ended up staying for a hour and playing nicely.

They had one final query and were very apologetic about wanting a third viewing without having made an offer. They came round and their baby was a mess of teething scream. Mum looked fraught, my own dd was asleep in her room. So I offered to take her baby for a walk around the block, Mum agreed after a bit of uncertainty, but I think desperation won out. I walked her baby round in a sling until she calmed. They decided to buy the house.

We only moved half a mile away so we are still friends. She still talks about how she had no 'mummy friends' and how that house viewing was the beginning of a happier stage of parenting.

Dh did our viewings. 1st ones. I thought it was a 4 bed. How? What? Ad clearly stated 3 bed.

2nd. Not enough parking. Double drive and garage. Yes on street could get busy but not sure where she thought she'd find better.

Luckily sold to the 3rd viewers.

I did view one house that pointed out all the electrical sockets for me. I think he was just a bit eccentric.

I used to know someone who had a job as a Saturday viewing person for an EA (to supplement her income from her, different, Mon-Fri job). She told me a story that one day she was showing a French couple round a perfectly nice house. They were very complimentary to her about the house in English, but had also had a conversation between themselves in French, which was far from complimentary. She was bilingual and had understood every word they were saying

We are selling DM’s house after her death (it is also our home). We had about 10 viewings.

First one - never turned up but claimed she did and agent didn’t (though agent stood chatting to DH for 10+ minutes waiting for her to turn up)

Next one - too far from the station (we live about 2.5 miles from 2 different train stations on different lines into London and both are easily accessible.

Next one - can see the potential and is looking for a project and this is too much (needs new kitchen and bathroom but everything else is cosmetic and has had a new boiler/central heating and been rewired in the last 2 years)

2 never got back to agent. Another 2 said it wasn’t what they were looking for.

Another one offered substantially less than asking price but wanted quick completion because she had lost a mortgage offer due to another buyer in the chain stalling. We could not do this because our hands were tied by the need to obtain probate before being able to proceed. And we weren’t that eager to sell as had only been on the market a week at that point.

Then there were the 3 developers (house has a lot of land with it and could easily be developed)

• first one wanted 4 week completion and would offer £50,000 under asking price but, we had to allow him to apply for planning permission and, if not approved he’d pull out and we’d pay his costs; if we couldn’t keep to 4 weeks he’d accept 6 weeks without planning permission but would offer £90,000 less than asking price
• second developer offered £65,000 under asking price and told agent they planned to extend to a 4 bed (currently a 3 bed) and build another 4 bed next to it leaving both with garden space and off street parking but thought the price asked was too much for a 3 bed house - ignoring the land he would be getting and building on!
• last one never even viewed the house, never contacted the estate agent for details just read the online listing and sent EA a letter offering approximately £100,000 under asking price.

We even had a developer send us a letter here saying they had seen the house for sale online and wanted to discuss buying it. Didn’t bother replying to that one.

We accepted an offer much closer to asking price after the house had been on the market 5 weeks and are soon to exchange contracts once searches etc are through.

We sold our house last year and i did the showing. I had no choice with the first potential buyer.

We have an energetic friendly dog, so our plan was DH would take dog out, i would wait for the EA and then leave when the buyer arrived, and then come back for feedback and let DH know he could come back.

Day of the viewing, call from EA saying they were unable to do the showing, could I do it? Put on the spot but i have always loved property shows and thought it would be easy!

Potential buyer, and 2 young kids turn up 30 mins early. DH not yet home so I have to put dog in the back garden. Things were going well until the lady starts asking questions that only the EA can help with, and the kids clock the dog and start whining to play with him/1 was scared incase he got in the locked door.

Having said that, I did the next viewing (because I didnt trust out EA after he was almost an hour late showing us to a house we were interested in and didnt seem to know much about it!) and it was great. They asked questions I knew the answers to, such as what the neighbours were like and if parking was ever an issue.