House hunting to buy in London - WTF

[auslass]

Just wondering if it's normal for people selling houses to leave them looking like a bomb hit them before people come into inspect to buy -

Have been to three so far, all of them the same! All of them owner occupied.

One: basically smelt like the owner had been hungover all weekend and just got out of bed when we were coming to look. Hadn't hoovered in what seemed like weeks.

Two: Bomb had hit it, unwashed dishes piling up, dust everywhere and again not one made bed in sight.

Three: guy left skid marks in the toilet. Also no beds made.

It might be just me being new to London, but if you left your house like that in Sydney you wouldn't sell it, or you certainly wouldn't get what you were asking.

AIBU? Is it not a thing to care about your house when you want to sell it?

Are you sure they were owner occupied? Could have been tenants who weren’t particularly motivated to endure a quick sale!

Ensure not endure

Lol after the first mess I asked specifically (first one the real estate said was owner occupied - not sure why they'd say if it wasn't- tenants would be understandable).

Just does my head in, either way it worked. Just seems alarming that all three looked like complete toilets.

Depends where.

In areas where properties get snatched within 1 hour of going on the market, why should people bother? Some people are pigs in their normal life so it doesn't matter to them.

I can't comprehend how anyone can live like that, but if you know your house will sell, no point changing your habits I guess.

The amount of properties I have seen where you are welcome by a pile of shoes at the door... people are grim, but some enjoy mess.

first one the real estate said was owner occupied - not sure why they'd say if it wasn't-

It's stupid to lie as it will come out later, but most buyers won't touch (or even view) a property with tenants in them. If they refuse to get out or destroy the property before they do, it's a nightmare for the buyer.

No it’s not normal for a motivated owner occupier.

You may well get it when there are tenants there.

You may also get It if the seller doesn’t really want to sell for whatever reason, wants to spite the co owners jn a divorce or whatever.

I bought a flat once from a guy whose flat mate was on the sofa both times I looked at it in a really unappealing shortie dressing gown.

They’d also taken the lightbulb out of the bathroom because ‘it was better’ than having the fan stay on for a while after they’d put the light on. No window so - no, I got nothing.

Still bought it though.

The amount of properties I have seen where you are welcome by a pile of shoes at the door... people are grim, but some enjoy mess.

I've never realised that shoes by the front door may upset anyone! Am I the only one not to have realised this?

In some areas houses sell so quickly in London that owners dont need to make them look nice.

Am in the same boat - I can't believe some of the listings online - the photos - couldn't even be bothered to make the bed, or do the dishes before the photos were taken - it's a joke!

We viewed one the other day and they split a house into 2 flats (we viewed the 1st floor and it had the toilet practically in the kitchen!

Saw another one that had a couch flipped over on its side in the photo?? wtf!

In saying that though i've viewed a few lovely ones - I just wouldn't even view some of the horrible neglected ones when there are well presented, well looked after properties for the same price

We have a load of shoes piled up by the door but if we were trying to sell our house I would bung them in a cupboard remove most of them and just leave a couple neatly lined up.

No, it's not normal at all unless you are looking in really shit areas at very cheap properties.

You're NOT alone in finding this - and being astonished by it too. We've just finished a year of horrendous house business and are completing, in London, tommorow. (Massive yay!!!) We saw some extraordinary things and in one or two really off-putting levels of filth.
I think the owners felt so confident of a sale at pretty much any price they just didn't care and tbh they were right... When a house finally came up in the area we wanted at a price we could (just) afford we grabbed it! Bugger all on the market a couple of months ago mind.

Looking London at real estate makes me so homesick for Sydney. Every property you see has been properly done for sale unless someone literally died in it and then its clear its a deceased estate sale. Sigh. Homesick.

Could they be repossessions? I saw two when I was buying in London. One fairly empty but the other had washing up, clothes etc.

I think it's just the way a lot of people live OP. Not London but a naice town here with a hot property market, we looked at four and two of them were shit holes, one had a tenant with a huge alsation, everything stank of dog urine and was coated in a layer of dog hair, think skirting boards, walls, plug sockets let alone the furniture 😖

The other one was extremely messy with family stuff and really dirty but we bought it 🤣 because it was the only suitable one that we looked at that we could afford, there were three other viewings that weekend and houses get snapped up within the week here unless there's something wrong with them.

So yes I guess that's why, people live like that and don't have to clean up to sell.

When we got the keys was when we realised the true extent of the dirt 🤢

Yes the toilet in the tenanted house we looked at was full of skiddys!! 🤢

The amount of properties I have seen where you are welcome by a pile of shoes at the door... people are grim, but some enjoy mess.

A pile of shoes is grim??? We take our shoes off when we come in. Some shoes make it to the shoe rack...

Presumably they know their properties will sell regardless. However, I agree, what you’ve described does reflect rather low personal standards. I can only apologise on behalf of the English!

This is mind boggling. I told hubs that I'm not going to the first viewing and that he can do it, vet them and I'll go to the nice ones. Might be a princess move on my part but the more houses I see like that the more I want to move back so it's in his interest!

I can't see anymore skid marks. The horror.

ScarlettBlaize looking in Richmond and Kew, not exactly bad suburbs! That's why I'm so confused.... if I was looking in worse areas I would def try to level my expectations some.

I bought an absolute wreck of a house so i kind of think YAB a little U.

It’s all cosmetic stuff.

I've been shown houses with -

• sleeping teenage children in beds
• owner sitting at kitchen table, ignoring estate agent and me
• owners sat on sofa watching telly and yelling at estate agent to get a bloody move on

A friend bought a house with a locked garage, that they weren't allowed into at any viewings. In the end the EA went round on their behalf and took a photo - it was piled high, floor to ceiling right up to the door of boxes which miraculously disappeared on purchase.

And I've also come back to a house I was trying to sell, that had just had a viewing, to find the cat had dragged a bird in through the cat flap and spent the day chasing it around, dismembering it slowly in every room, then eating it and chucking it back up again. The house was covered in blood, feathers, guts, vomit, bones. And they didn't want to come back for a second viewing

Are you looking at properties that are being sold as ‘has potential’? If so I guess owners have already taken a hit on the price and can’t see the point in making it look good. Which seems very silly if they want a sale.

However it also seems a bit silly if you are a genuine buyer who is refusing to even see properties with cosmetic issues. Unless you want to instruct your EA to only show you homes which are fully refurbished and ready to move into, in which case you will pay for the privilege.

In a very expensive and desirable area I would be a bit more open minded even if you privately despise their housekeeping.

I bet they're rentals OP.