Or are first time home buyers expecting too much?

[ifherbumwereabungalow]

I think this is my first AIBU so am girding my loins to get blasted...
Background story - we put our house on the market last year and after following the agent's advice we didn't do any decorating but made sure everything was spick and span and decluttered. After what felt like a million viewings and no real offers we decided to take a break and try again. We fixed a crack in some plaster and repainted the living room and kitchen. We'd replaced the kitchen and bathroom since being here so they are looking good.
We had our first viewing with the new agent yesterday. The feedback from the young couple was that they thought it needed modernising. We live in a bog standard, three bed mid-terrace built in the early eighties. The rooms are a good size and we have a garden front and back and off road driveway parking in a cul-de-sac.
My issue is that the current crop of homebuyers seem to have very unreasonable expectations of what a house like mine is going to be like. I'm assuming that they think every house on the market has been transformed by Kevin McCloud or George Clarke and that a futuristic utopia should exist behind every front door. I'm looking at houses to move in to and my main criteria are based on the size and number of rooms and whether I can live with the kitchen and bathroom, the decor is secondary to that because I figure we are going to go in and change it all anyway.
So, am I being unreasonable in thinking that people are going into viewings with highly inflated ideas about what they are going to see? And if so, why don't they look at the photos online before they book an appointment??

I've also run into people who want to see the house with no intention of buying. We call them "looky-loos" in the US. I tossed one out after hearing her tell our agent that she couldn't possibly afford our house. She didn't realize that I was the seller.

To those who are having trouble selling, I strongly suggest having your agent visit the competition to see first hand what your possible buyers are comparing your house to and adjusting the price accordingly. Buyers tend to know the market much better than sellers because they've been traipsing in and out of what's on the market for weeks or months before they see yours.

Finally, if you get a low ball offer that is so low you'll never meet in the middle just suggest that they look in a less expensive area. As others have said, it's a business transaction.

I strongly suggest having your agent visit the competition to see first hand what your possible buyers are comparing your house to and adjusting the price accordingly.

you don't need to do that, just go on zoopla and rightmove and you can also see the recently sold prices.

you don't need to do that, just go on zoopla and rightmove

Except that an experienced EA looking at the property in person will see the flaws in the other properties that aren't noted in the online listings.

A lot of first time buyers are maxed out on their budget and will be facing some big mortgage payments so they probably want to get it right first time and not end up trapped in a not-ideal house for a decade paying through the nose for it.

The idea of 'trading up' has gone now too, I think, because it's much harder to do. The rungs between the various stages on the ladder have widened out so buying an OK house and then trading up later is not easy to do anymore. Also a lot of first time buyers are older now 30+ so they want a house they love, not a starter home.

Not saying your house is a starter home or 'just OK', I'm sure it's lovely(!) but just giving my view on why FTBs might be pickier these days.

I think 50-70% of home viewers are unreasonable but it really depends on the area (the market around Scotland is very hot so probably not the same kind of viewings as in England). We sold our home down south for around the same price point and we had an older lady come annoyed and say the house was smaller than the one she had. The whole point of her looking according to her son was to downsize though.

Except that an experienced EA looking at the property in person will see the flaws in the other properties that aren't noted in the online listings.

you have a very high idea of EA!

If nothing else, I can't see any EA wasting their time visiting the "competition" to tell Mr and Mrs Plom how their property compares with the rest of the block

Third bedroom you couldn't fit a single bed it was a small room but the problem was the stairs taking out a chunk of the room. It wasn't obvious in the pictures and floor plans. Many had cots and toddler bed others metal shelves as beds or other homemade beds and no storage.

We came across this when we were looking, too, and these houses were on big estates in 2 of the areas we were looking at! Same issue with the downstairs space. On paper, living room, dining room and kitchen all almost identical in size to the ones in our existing house, but in reality, chimney breasts took out a bigger chunk of the rooms, than was obvious from photos and door plan, a good 2' of the length of the lounge was in the bay window which was about 80% of the width of the room, doors were in awkward places, limiting what furniture could go where and we simply couldn't see how we would fit in those houses without getting rid of stuff, even though they were bigger than the one we were living in.

We've been doing our house up for years. It's expensive and time consuming. Trying to find decent tradespeople is a nightmare, getting time off work to see said tradespeople is a PITA. If you do things yourself it still takes forever, and tbh doesn't always look that good. I wouldn't do it again. Your house might look ok in EA photos but the reality might be that it's too much work.

The couple who bought our old house did so with plans to "modernise". It was 11 years old but they wanted completely open plan and we're are asking me to confirm load bearing walls etc (like I'd have a clue). I'd love to see how it looks now. I'm not sentimental just nosey. Taking walls down would have been pricey so I assume they plan to live there a long time if they want to get their money back. I think "modernise" also means "change to my own style". We're gradually doing it in our new house but priorities shift a lot.

It's expensive and time consuming. Trying to find decent tradespeople is a nightmare, getting time off work to see said tradespeople is a PITA. If you do things yourself it still takes forever, and tbh doesn't always look that good.

That was our experience with our first house - we'd bought thinking we'd be there till kids left home but had to move for work reasons. We needed up spending fortune having loads of hassle and selling it for less than we paid for it.

It got us a big enough house in catchment we wanted but we had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for especially as parents to young children time and money was at all time low.

Second house we were luckier - same priories location, price and size but this time decor only slightly out of date and top quality when fitted. It's just less hassle all round and less stress.

If/when we have to buy again I think we’d be very wary of amount of work needed.

I have money for the deposit. But absolutely no spare cash to do anything other than a lick of paint. So I will wait until I find somewhere that is perfect.

I turned an otherwise perfect house down as I just could see past the wall paper. It would have bee. A mammoth job to redecorate the entire house. And I just couldn't live with it as it was so over powering.

But it seems like no one wants a doer upper these days.

We both work full-time, so have limited time. Neither of us has a trade (but we're learning skills, slowly!).
We don't have anywhere else to live and can't afford both rent and mortgage, so we were limited to places that could be lived in.
The deposit (and mortgage) were so much, we didn't have the funds to take on a wreck. We held back £12k and replaced the roof and boiler, since then we've been twiddling our thumbs while we saved for new windows. We'll be spending about £40-50k modernising our house (new roof, boiler, wiring, windows, kitchen, bathroom x 2, full decoration and flooring - done by us - throughout), and it didn't even look that bad!

Apologies for long absence, school run then swimming lesson. Also am feeling a little sheepish as yesterday's viewers came back with a bang on the money offer and we have accepted! Like a few people said, we just had to wait for the right ones... no doubt I'll be back on again but this time bitching about how house sellers can't be bothered to tidy up for viewings, or claim that they have a four bedroom house when they are clearly just labelling a Dining room as a bedroom!

Very true, Inion. As for £10k to decorate throughout, we spent more than that on our kitchen alone last year and it was an IKEA one. An 80s kitchen will almost always need new plumbing and wiring for modern appliances. Decent flooring also costs a bomb! It can easily cost £500 to re-carpet a bedroom. If the whole house needs new flooring you're looking at £2k+. Covering artex or woodchip, installing more sockets and lighting (and that's without finding out the electrics are outdated crap and needs replacing) and you're talking a bomb. New windows, £££. Upgraded heating system, £££. And this type of work usually always uncovers unpleasant and expensive surprises.

As my BIL who is a spark says, 'I see work and money!'

@MissConductUS have you experienced buying and selling in the UK? The estate agents are nothing like the ones in the US, and do very little other than putting your property online.

As for the OP, I think it’s unreasonable to paint all new buyers with the same broad brush. It’s just another “kids these days” type post.

claim that they have a four bedroom house when they are clearly just labelling a Dining room as a bedroom!

I'd blame our stupid system where we insist on labelling rooms a certain way - and a 4 bed house can be anything from a tiny mid-terraced to a mansion with 5 reception rooms, 4 studies, 3 playroom but only 4 "bedrooms".
The price is a clue, but deciding arbitrarily on the number of bedrooms is stupid, especially when any cupboard gets called a "bedroom", or box room...

Perhaps a more pertinent question is ''are vendors with stupid unrealistic asking prices who can't sell their houses being greedy or deluded or a bit of both?''

Post your rightmove link so we can see it, we can't offer any advice otherwise.

MN equivalent of buyers who go to an open house for a nosey.

If nothing else, I can't see any EA wasting their time visiting the "competition" to tell Mr and Mrs Plom how their property compares with the rest of the block grin

Well, not the rest of the block, comparable houses currently on the market. We've sold two houses with the same agent and he's done this for us both times as part of his market analysis. It was his idea actually. Perhaps things work differently in the US.

Possibly, in the UK they do come with a few prints of similar-ish properties to justify their valuation, but you honestly can do it just as well if not better with internet. I've yet to meet an EA who did anything I didn't do myself - apart from being able to advertise my property on the right sites, which are not opened to the public (hence the increase of online EA!)

@LoopyLu2019

There is a wide scope between a new build and having to totally renovate. Plenty of non new builds don’t need a lot of work done to them.

For me those floor to ceiling built in wardrobes are dated now- they are very 70’s feel unless they are particularly crafted to fit a niche space.

If a property doesn't have floor to ceiling wardrobes, I'd think the property was dated, in the sense that we had hundreds of years of wardrobes being optional in rooms before anyone thought to build custom ones that used all airspace above the floorspace dedicated to them.

Built-in wardrobes may or may not look nice, but I don't think you can call the very concept dated, especially when it is functionally superior to the alternative.

When I say may or may not look nice, I mean some do and some don't.

I have money for the deposit. But absolutely no spare cash to do anything other than a lick of paint. So I will wait until I find somewhere that is perfect.

Yes but in the mantime house price inflation will erode your money?.