I would not let them in!

[snowandshowers]

5 years ago we had viewers to our house which was for sale. A retired couple arrived with a clip board held out in front of the man. They came in and were a nightmare. Opening my windows, wardrobes, kitchen draws, running taps, jumping up and down on my floor, taking photos, flushing toilets, and much much more! After 3 hours I had had enough and said we were going out so they would have to leave.
We never heard from them again but the owner of the house we eventually bought said she had had them view hers and they had stayed 6 hours doing the same things.

I later found out they are serial house viewers and do it as a "nice day out".
Anyway we are now moving again and low and behold who turns up at the door, only Mr and Mrs pain in the arse. I did not remember their name or I would have refused a viewing. Same as last time clip board and pen ready.

The moment I opened the door I recognized them.

I was so angry with these time wasters I just said "YOU AGAIN! FUCK OFF! and closed the door.
I feel better now.

How on earth do you think ‘chains’ start? 🙄

It depends where you live and what the market is like. Around here, the EA's won't show you around unless you are proceeding to market. this couple clearly are not planning on moving house.

What a pair of weirdos. Bravo! I wish I could do this with my neighbour 😂

Yes weirdos.
But I'm also viewing houses at the moment so a few tips in there for me, I've been doing 10minute walk arounds but I should be doing a bit more due diligence on the flushing and tap functions 😁

They'd love to visit an American open house! You get snacks and drinks aswell 😂

I'm an American and we've never done snacks and drinks at an open house. I also don't recall being offered any while attending open houses. Perhaps it depends on the area and how hot the market is.

Offering snacks and drinks would also encourage more looky-loos.

Another American here. I've always enjoyed going to an open house if it's an upscale fabulous house. It's just fun and you can sometimes get some wonderful ideas. I've occasionally seen a plate of cookies, probably provided by the agent. 15/20 minutes, tops.

After the first half hour, I would begin to wonder if that couple is casing the joint as they say in the movies, and make up an excuse to get rid of them. Zillow and the like are pretty cool too for looking at houses. Why would they do this for that long? It sounds pretty pathetic. OP, how old is this couple?

My parents had this problem in the nineties! Their estate agent confirmed that that particular couple had been banned 😂 I do wonder what they’d end up doing should they actually want to move again but no-one will accept them. Silly people.

My DSis and DBIL visited us in the US several years ago. They went out for a walk and saw an 'open house' sign so went in and started socializing, they thought it was some kind of neighbourhood party. I explained when they got home. They met some nice people though.

Americans are generally very sociable. When we were selling our last house, we did an open house, and everyone just assumed that I was another potential buyer, which let me strike up a conversation with people about what they liked and didn't like about the house, what other houses they've seen, etc.

I felt a bit sneaky about it, but all is fair in love and property deals.

This is why I like the Australian system of open inspections (and the Australian system for buying houses too as quite frankly the UK system is fucked....)

The house has a set time that it is open for an inspection, home owners are not in the house, the estate agent is there with the pamphlets, people wander in and look around, at the end of that time slot, it's closed up and the agent moves onto the next open inspection (will have a full day of it on Sat and Sun).

Job done. Nosy parkers can see the house without inconveniencing the owners. Agents like to have lots of people through as it convinces genuine customers that there is lots of interest, and they have a chance of getting future customers if the neighbours like them and are looking to sell their own house.

And yes, there are people who spend the whole of the weekend going from house to house, but they don't inconvenience home owners or agents.

We had a look at our neighbours house before it went up for auction. Had a great chat with the agent and discussed the possibility of them valuing our house.