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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be sick of time wasting house viewers?

97 replies

PinkBalloonsAndCherryCoke · 10/07/2018 17:17

We've had our house on the market for just over a month, and during that time have had several viewings, of which most have been time wasters.

Our EA has said that in the current market it's best to let anyone view who wants to, as people have been known to view a house and like it so much that they then decide to sell theirs.

So far the time wasters we have had have been:

A couple viewing who took ages and really faffed around, asking lots of questions then at the end were chatting and said that they had already had an offer accepted on another house in our area and were going ahead with that sale and were due to exchange soon, but just wanted to see our house to see if the layout is similar to the one they are buying.

A couple who again took ages and faffed, and said at the end of the viewing that they are looking to move 'in a year or two' and just wanted to see what they could get for their budget!!

A couple who looked round and seemed to like it. The agents phoned them for post viewing feedback a couple of days later and the couple said that they were looking for a house with more bedrooms than ours has and that they didn't want a house without an ensuite. Our full house details are on right move and on paper details from the EA office, so why the heck would they look round a house knowing full well that it didn't have as many bedrooms as they want, or an ensuite?

It's really pissing me off! DH and I both work, and we have DC and pets. Each viewing obviously requires a certain amount of cleaning and tidying and preparing, and to find out after that it was just a waste of time and effort is so annoying.

AIBU to be pissed off?

OP posts:
FASH84 · 10/07/2018 17:30

The first two YANBU, the last one they might have viewed to see if it was possible to extend to get the space and extra bathroom they want. We just did an open day, one major clean and tidy, 15 viewings in a morning, sold.

Original poster
PinkBalloonsAndCherryCoke · 10/07/2018 17:31

An open day is a great idea, FASH! Might have to look into doing one!

OP posts:
andadietcoke · 10/07/2018 17:36

My parents' house has been on the market for 12 months and we've accepted an offer today. It only takes one buyer in the end, but we had to put up with a lot of people coming for a bit of a nose around because it has a pool/jacuzzi/sauna and then putting stupid offers in.

Feedback from the agents has been ridiculous - often non-existent or nothing we can do anything about. Hang in there.

blackfootdaisy · 10/07/2018 17:41

I wouldn’t let anyone view unless they were under offer
Too many time wasters

Original poster
PinkBalloonsAndCherryCoke · 10/07/2018 17:43

We were originally going to do this but when the EA valued the house they said that in this current market it wouldn't be beneficial to do that, blackfootdaisy

andadietcoke Glad to hear you've got an offer for your parents' house! It must have been very annoying and frustrating with all of the nosey viewers!

OP posts:
autumnkate · 10/07/2018 17:45

I feel your pain. Ours has been on for 3 months- it has no private parking- you park on the street. All the feedback, literally all, is that they want private parking. One couple arrived and immediately asked if there was parking. READ THE DETAILS.

LeighaJ · 10/07/2018 17:47

You don't perchance have anti cut padlocks on the outside of all of your doors in the house do you? Halo

Shortstuff08 · 10/07/2018 17:49

Our house took 3 months to get an offer.

We asked loads of questions about each viewing and said no to loads.

Several couples who hadn't even put their house on the market yet
A couple who wanted to move to the area during the summer holidays (house went up for sale in november)
A couple who told the estate agent it was over budget, but they felt they could talk us down.

The house was priced for a quick sale. I wasn't dropping the price and wasn't waiting til August and would have accepted an offer from someone hadn't even put their house on the market. The estate agent knew that we wanted to sell quickly and was happy with our decisions.

SinkGirl · 10/07/2018 17:49

Our house was on the market when I was pregnant / when our twins were born. The agent was desperate to sell it and kept arranging viewings with people who were viewing other properties locally - ours was quite unique in various ways, ideal for some but definitely not others, and 90% of viewings were a complete waste of time. Drove me mad having to clean the house and be presentable all the time while pregnant / two babies in nicu / one baby at home / two babies at home and pumping etc. One time they just turned up without telling me and let themselves in while I was crying and hooked up the pump. They got fired that day and got a new agent!

The stress was off the charts. Didn’t sell until they were 7 months old or move out until they were 10 months old and it was a huge pain in the ass. YANBU.

TheWernethWife · 10/07/2018 17:49

We sold out house last year and our EA would not arrange any viewings unless people had a mortgage in place. Had a few viewers who wanted a bargain but shut them down very quickly.

PatchworkElmer · 10/07/2018 17:50

The first 2 scenarios, of course YANBU.

Third one- maybe YABU. En suite was one of our criteria as well, but we looked at a couple of houses to see if we could fit one in, or if the rest of the house trumped having one. DH was looking for things like where existing drainage pipes were, which would make creating an ensuite cheaper. We were genuinely interested each time we viewed a house.

The house we eventually bought had a tiny box room adjacent to the master bedroom- we’ve converted it into an ensuite.

Ethylred · 10/07/2018 17:52

It's business, don't take it so personally.

MikeUniformMike · 10/07/2018 17:53

Are you sure it's not the EA pushing people to view.?
They are very persuasive and are pushy.

Original poster
PinkBalloonsAndCherryCoke · 10/07/2018 17:54

Of course it's personal Ethylred; we have to clean and tidy the bloody place ready for their time wasting viewings.

shortstuff I'm going to start asking more questions to our EA about viewings too.

OP posts:
mysocksmakemeitchy · 10/07/2018 17:54

We had some very rude people. One of them put an offer in, but we told the EA to tell them to bugger off Grin

InProgress · 10/07/2018 17:57

Tell your estate agents to vet the buyers first. Mine are very strict and will only allow those who have had an offer in their own house or are in a position to buy.

They said they do this as there are a lot of time wasters about and it's a lot of effort to get your house show-house ready.

Charm23 · 10/07/2018 18:00

Unfortunately, the time wasters aren't just viewers but buyers who lead you on and then pull out at the last second.

We sold our house back in February this year but we had offers made, accepted and then later they pulled out a total of 5 TIMES. Our solicitor said he had never heard of it happening so many times.

By the time it came to the 6th offer (which was a low-ball offer) we had had enough and were dubious about accepting any offers that didn't match the price we wanted for the house. The buyers kept coming back with sob stories about how they 'had to borrow money from their children to increase the offer'etc. Rinse and repeat several times until we finally got our asking price. We accepted their offer by which point we genuinely weren't even getting excited because we were so used to being let down... but hey, 6th time lucky and the sale went through after 10 months of it being on the market.

We recently bought our new house (which again was not simple!) and we're so happy we're no longer having to deal with estate agents and solicitors!!

tattychicken · 10/07/2018 18:08

Old neighbour/friends of ours used to view houses almost as a hobby, as something to do T the weekend. They were vaguely planning to move in about 5 years time, but would book viewings for any family sized house that came on the market in our village/surrounding villages, then gossip about the "awful bathroom" or that it was on the market as the couple had seperated. Bloody nightmare and awful for any vendors.

BlueBug45 · 10/07/2018 18:17

@autumnkate some people think they maybe able to turn the front garden into parking which is probably why they are viewing.

SamHeughansLeftEyebrow · 10/07/2018 18:21

The first two do sound like genuine time wasters but sometimes something looks right on paper/screen, you go and look and find that it is not as represented. Or that you might be prepared to compromise on the en suite if everything else is perfect. Or once you get there, you realise that the neighbourhood is not all that, but it wasn't clear from the web. Or just that you really didn't like the house that much. And you have to come up with a reason on the spot when the EA phones you when you are in the middle of something else.

It took us a year of looking, filtering the complete non-starters. In the end we were looking at anything that we might have been prepared to compromise on, or adapt to suit. I am sure a lot of vendors thought we were time wasters. We weren't, just had a very clear vision of what we wanted and were in a position to wait until we found it.

flamingofridays · 10/07/2018 18:24

Yanbu. We've had several viewers who "like the house but not the area"

Well how about checking our the area first before I arrange my life around your bloody viewing.

Jaxhog · 10/07/2018 18:29

They do it because they can. Most people seem to have no idea what they want, and spend very little time checking out a house when they find one they like.

Someone should run a course on 'how to find your best house for now'.

Atthebottomofthesea · 10/07/2018 18:39

We sold a 3 bed. The first viewers thought it was a 4 bed. The second decided there was not enough parking. Garage plus double drive and odd bits of road. Very few houses offer more parking than that.

The house we bought pretty much had nothing on our original list of wants. We only viewed it as nothing we 'wanted' was coming up.

Don't discount those who are not after your exact house type, you never know.

NotAnotherUserName5 · 10/07/2018 18:42

Yanbu. Seems to be a thing to view houses as some kind of weird hobby Hmm

Good luck selling. Hope it’s soon for you

SoVeryOuting · 10/07/2018 18:43

It's shite, OP.

Sellers can be time wasters, as can buyers.

Don't be surprised by anything, never underestimate the stupidity, stubbornness and plain shitty behaviour and you'll not go wrong.

You just have to be philosophical, patient and accept no bullshit from anyone, be they vendors, buyers, estate agents, the banks, solicitors.

The amount of crap everyone has to go through during an already stressful time is unreal.

My sympathies Flowers.