to think strangers shouldn't poke through my cupboards?

[Arum51]

Need some advice here on whether things have changed in the past 20 or so years.

Put my house on the market yesterday. First couple came round tonight. Seemed nice, but... they opened all the cupboards and poked around! "Just seeing how far back it goes". WTF?

It's been 20 years or so since I bought or sold a house. Have things changed? I would never have started opening cupboards etc, particularly on a first visit!

AIBU, is this how things are now, or were these people the CFs they seemed to be?!

My house is over 200 years old. What should I expect

I really can't afford to do anything though. So it will just have to stay bodged.

It's difficult to detach yourself (no pun intended) when you put your house on the market. To you, it's your beautiful home, you know the good bits that you love and the not-so-good bits that you put up with.

However, people coming in never having seen it before, considering saddling themselves with potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds to buy it from you, don't have the same sentimental 'old-friend' love of your house and are anxious to make sure they make the right decision and don't end up being sold a pup.

It might seem violating, but you have to accept that people will want to look at the actual size and quality/condition of fitted cupboards, try the shower and flush the toilet to check water pressure, maybe look under rugs to see if they've been put their for decorative purposes or to hide something unpleasant. All of the little things add up, never mind the not-so-little things, and they won't be able to add the cost to their mortgage.

If they start trying to open your post to make sure the local postie isn't minded to tamper with your mail or announce that they're going for a king dump specifically to verify the angle of drop and resulting splash, you might want to consider politely but firmly pulling them up on it; but otherwise, if you want to get a sale, you often have to just grit your teeth and let them get on with it.

*put THERE - not their

You could write up a little bullet point fact sheet with details like your many sockets and the USB ports, as well as number of kitchen cupboards and drawers and their dimensions, and any built-ins/under the stairs nooks and crannies too. And anything else you can think of.

Include a photo of the house and the address.

As with Echt, sellers are never present for a home viewing where I live. Time slots are an hour long. When I sold my house a few years ago we would get a call in the morning asking if we could allow a viewing that evening. Sometimes I had more than one viewing lined up.

Quite often this meant we scuttled out the back door as viewers tramped up the front steps earlier than expected, with our dinner plates and homework clutched tightly, and any cooking pots stowed in the oven. We often just sat in the car down the road a bit waiting for people to arrive, look through and then leave. One party arrived at five minutes before their hour was up and we were stuck until we could see them leaving. Another time, exH turned up to collect the DCs for their weekend visitation and was very rude to the EA who arrived at the same time.

We were told by the eventual buyers that our generally fairly vicious volatile cat was a most gracious hostess, purred, brushed their legs, etc.

We were first time buyers, we bought a house shown to us by the vendor rather than ea, big mistake we felt rude to open anything or even lift up the net curtains.
On moving day we had to turn the van around, with two children in tow and extend our rented accommodation for two more weeks as the kitchen cupboards had no backs and the wall behind was so damp anything we put in the cupboard grew mould. The pipe works under sink were completely rotten as soon as we turned the mains on water come out of everywhere. 8 panes of glass were blown in the windows. Oven, hob and shower broken. Leak in pipes under floor boards in landing. So many bodge diy jobs that had been hidden by furniture i.e. Massive holes around many new electric points and wholes in plaster/carpet. We had spent all our money on the deposit and had nothing left had to take out a loan to get things fixed so we could move in! We had wanted a finished house but ended up with a full refurbishment!
Next time we move (and hopefully soon as I very guickly begun to hate this house) I will refuse any viewings with vendor and I will open and check behind everything!!

We were so naive in thinking buying a house from a lawyer and sham (two small children in the home) we were buying a 'safe honest house'. £250,000 is a lot of money to throw away!

OP when I brought my flat while I looked in the kitchen cupboards to check there wasn't any damp I knew the entire kitchen had to be replaced due to how badly they had installed it themselves. The rest of the build in cupboards they showed me the inside of as the amount of storage was one of the selling point of the flat. If I sell I will have to do the same thing.

Yes - I would also much much prefer an agent to show me round rather than the actual owner of the house too. It would really put me off to have the owner there.

Applause to the OP for seeing it a different way! AIBU at its finest!

When we bought our first house the new kitchen was one of the main selling points. It looked great but actually had almost no storage. With the built-in appliances, the boiler and a floor-to-ceiling larder cupboard that contained a boxed-in flue, there was only one (awkward corner) cupboard that was wholly available for storage.

It nearly put us off the house, as we were buying at the top of our budget and didn't want to rip out and replace a new kitchen. We only bought it after checking with the company that fitted the kitchen and confirming they could return and fit matching back-to-back double cupboards under the point tless breakfast bar.

I would never consider buying a house without knowing it had decent storage, and would never assume a big door hid a similarly large cupboard without checking! Yes, you can replace a small cupboard with a larger one, but guess what? If you do this you end up with a smaller room!

We're currently buying and our first visit to the house it had tenants in. I was desperate to see inside the kitchen units to try and ascertain layouts. One looked like it possibly had a dishwasher behind it, one could have been a larder cupboard but I wasn't sure etc. I didn't have the nerve to do it.

Tenants have left and I went round to the empty property last week to take a few measurements and I finally got to have a good poke around the kitchen.

Been there, charlie, although not such a huge amount of money as it was a few bad rentals and a MIL who had been the trailing spouse of a man who worked all over the world (and moved loads of times) that taught me to be very thorough when it comes to inspecting potential places to live.

The cupboard fronts that lead to nowhere or being used to hide appilances or reveal cupboards that have no back and/or hide mould or leaking pipes are very common, so is furniture to hide mould or dodgy plastering/botched DIY. I look behind everything. I bring a torch along.

Drains that are blocked also very common.

It's one thing to sign a contract that says the property must be vacant upon possession but quite another when you buy a house from a hoarder and he leaves the entire loft full of crap and flees the country so you're stuck clearing it all out before you can use it.

I'll never buy another house from a hoarder again unless I have a huge amount of funds and don't have to live there right away.

I didn't have the nerve to do it.

In the future, start growing a thicker hide or ask to see it with just the EA. Envision working in a job you don't really like because you have had to take a loan out for repairs on a house you bought that you weren't expecting because you didn't have the bottle to thoroughly inspect the place. I know, I've been there.

Wish we had opened the cupboard doors when we were buying. When we moved in 2 kitchen doors fell off their hinges and 1 was grip filled shut.

UPDATE!

Well, they clearly weren't CFs. They offered the asking price today. My house is sold, on first viewing!

Thanks everyone, for explaining what they were doing. Clearly, they loved the place, but wanted to make sure it was as nice as they thought, in order to put in an offer.

great result, op!

Brilliant result! Hope it all goes smoothly for you, OP.

Also, I personally think that me being there totally sold it

Bear with me here. Young couple, looking to settle down somewhere. I was able to regale her with tales of all the great kid-related stuff that had happened everywhere. Why this room, right here, was ideal for someone looking to start a family. Or how the magician's tent fitted great just here in the garden for that birthday party. And how I always knew where my teens were, because they were with everyone else's teens - lounging on my patio.

Maybe just right buyer, right time?

Well done OP, that's fantastic news.

I agree, you being there to point out all the advantages made the sale.

Erm... I would have been driven mad if I had to listen to that when looking round someone's house... but maybe that's just me! 😂

Don't get too excited, an offer is the start of a very, very long road. When we sold our house to the first person who viewed it October 2016, they were over the moon. Changed their minds over Christmas and left a message on the EA answer machine saying they're pulling out, that was first day back after Christmas so they obviously didn't want to say before Christmas. It was devastating but the following week we had eight viewings who all put an offer in, I told the EA to tell them whoever pays full asking and completes the fastest gets it, seven weeks later the house sale completed and we bought the one we'd offered on, but I tell you what, talk about stressful, never again would I go through that. So there is a very long, and very worrying road ahead till you sign on the dotted line.

@surreygirl1987. Me too. 😫

Congrats. That's a fab result!