To expect people to do a bit of research before viewing a house?

[iswhois]

Had three people turn up so far and have turned the house down due to a "showstopper" which they could have easily for seen had they done some research on the location or looking at the floor plans.

I know they are entitled to not buy the house for whatever reason they wish but it just feels like a massive waste of everyone's time.

Maybe I'm just bitter and desperate to move haha

Ooh can you tell us what the ‘showstopper’ is? I’m intrigued

People are breathtakingly rude when viewing houses. The amount of time wasters is shocking

Why not just be very clear in your property description.?

I agree, we had multiple people view our flat then discount it due to the size. The square meterage was there in the floor plan and the pictures made the (admittedly small) size clear. It’s so disheartening when you put effort into cleaning up and preparing only to have feedback which you can’t change, and was obvious from the listing!

Huh? A showstopper?

Ooh what was the show stopper?

Don't really understand what you mean by a showstopper?

Are you sure that the estate agents aren’t bringing people who’ve asked to see similar houses as part of the tour? Maybe less common in Corona times but we certainly had that when we were viewing end of last year.

I have no idea what a showstopper is.

We had people say they didn’t want to buy the house because they didn’t want to live in X area - couldn’t have been more upfront about the location. Sometimes people are just browsing or ruling out all options - there’s not a lot you can do about time wasters.

I get you OP - when we sold our house we had people view who said it wasn’t close enough to the motorway for their commute (check a map!) and that they wanted a downstairs cloakroom (check the floor plan!).

V annoying

I completely agree. My old house had a downstairs bathroom, which was pretty standard for the type of house, and VERY clear in the description and floor plan. Yet people would still view the house and say that was what put them off.

It was so annoying!! As you said they had every right to not buy the house for whatever reason. But surely they could have saved everyone some time and energy by looking at the floor plan before viewing

I found this so frustrating and dispiriting when we were selling our old house. In our case it was the parking; the estate agent description couldn't have made it clearer (it said something like 'parking available in communal car park approximately 50m from the house') but we had about 20 viewings; three of those were offers and every single bloody one of the other 17 gave the feedback 'nice house but I don't like that you have to walk from the car park'.

Totally agree, although I have no idea what a show stopper is! We live near a busy road, its behind some woods so you cant see it from the house but its obviously there on Google maps which is included on all listings. The amount of people who have viewed and are shocked that there is a road nearby 🙄

Whats the showstopper op? Just being nosy but yes people should research better however surely the viewing itself is research?

I think showstopper = dealbreaker, maybe?

I mean something that would stop a show mid performance (actor falling desperately ill, power cut etc)

So something than renders the house completely unacceptable to them

One was, he didn't understand the layout of the house in that the main bathroom is accessed through the bedroom (it's a really old, tiny cottage), and it was for him and his adult daughter so wouldn't have worked- fair enough, but had he looked at the floor plans he would have known not to bother

second woman put off by proximity to local pub, again could have figured this out from looking at the location of the house on google maps or similar.

These are all things I would do prior to viewing

It’s rather irritating when people seem to think that everyone who will come and view the house should want to buy it

I saw plenty of houses where the size was on the floor plan but you couldn’t get an accurate vision of how big the place would actually be. Some places were dirty, dull, dark, on a street that actually wasn’t that nice, or just gave off an aura of being a really sad house. Some had such a lot of person taste that it would take a lot of money to do it to ours. None of this you could tell from the photos.

Estate agent photos are taken to be deceptively big and so you often have people disappointed in the size of rooms cos they looked so much bigger in the photos. It’s as much of a waste of time as a buyer when you turn up and the rooms are loads smaller than they appear in the photos.

@iswhois

Have you spoken to your estate agent about this? I had the same issue with my first estate agent when I was selling my last house- tons of viewings but for about 95% my house clearly was not suitable (in very obvious ways). I found out that the estate agents' bonuses etc were heavily based on number of viewings. When I switched agents I asked them to make certain things clear to any potential viewers and we had far fewer but those that looked seemed genuinely interested.

Do you live in that house thats surrounded by both carriageways of the M6?

Seriously though, i feel your pain. I put my house on the market last week, made it quite clear that it needs a fair bit of cosmetic work doing, and its priced accordingly.... and yet people turn it down because it needs work doing. Yes, yes it does! That's why it's priced about 40k lower than the same house in show condition!

I think to be fair to be people they will view in the hope that they love the house enough to compromise on what ever it is - after all layouts CAN be changed, and locations cans be compromised on if the house is perfect in every other way (just ask Phil and Kirsty!)

Had three people turn up so far and have turned the house down due to a "showstopper"

Are we talking bath in the dining room or pink bejewelled ceilings throughout?

Is your house built on a motorway flyover? Tree house?

I don’t understand the annoyance.

Almost all buyers feel that they need to compromise somewhere. I think you can only decide on a particular house once you have seen it in person.

If you find everything amazing, you can be willing to compromise on the location or the small garden or the downstairs bathroom etc.

I agree about the photos. I viewed one house and there was a huge hole in the ceiling which weren't shown on Rightmove. The seller wasn't prepared to fix it.

ShirleyPhallus I get what yours saying. But those are all things that were unclear in the listing. We are talking about things, like a downstairs bathroom/bathroom through a bedroom, that is clear from the floor plan.