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

@AlexisCarringtonColbyDexter

It is a massive commitment and it’s not like a house is cheap (well it’s not for me anyway) so don’t want to buy the first thing I see. I want it to be right. Sorry if that makes me a massive pain

Being cautious and taking your time to find the right house is NOT what people are referring to at all. That makes you sensible and not a pain in any shape or form.
We are referring to people who take the time to book a viewing, look round a house ( -in the middle of a pandemic mind!) and then use one stupid thing that THEY ALREADY KNEW ABOUT PRIOR TO VIEWING as a reason not to buy. Eg "Its rural, I dont like rural houses away from town!"- WTF did you view a rural house away from town then???
"Its only got one bathroom- thats such a dealbreaker for me!"- WTF did you view a house which clearly stated it had only ONE bathroom then???

THAT is what is annoying.

Quite often that's people being too polite to say they just didn't like it! Or something personal put them off it.

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

This. "There might be circumstances under which I'd be willing to overlook a longer commute but this house doesn't seem worth it" holds true of a lot of situations- plus the awareness that some things are going to come across as rude, however truthful.

Quite often that's people being too polite to say they just didn't like it! Or something personal put them off it

Yes, its simply not possible that some people could just be plain stupid is it? if lockdown has shown us anything, its that the british public are all highly intelligent, sensible and deeply perceptive 🤣

You mean a deal breaker. Deal breaker bad, showstopper good

I once tried to sell a perfectly acceptable, spacious, 3-bed semi. We never had any interest from viewers. It was a few months before I thought to "hide" our pet rats in the car, with a towel over their cage, before viewings. House sold a couple of weeks later.

@iswhois

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

I completely agree with you.

There were so many I discounted by just looking and reading properly.

For example, I was looking for cottage/old, lots came with separate gardens/courtyards. It was quite easy to decipher this my looking and reading properly.

I certainly didn't want to or have the time to waste time viewing properties that didn't tick the boxes I wanted ticking.

YANBU.

I had this -two years ago and it still pisses me off- . A couple came for a viewing, then a second viewing, then told me they didn't like the area. They lived in the same bloody town, 5 minutes walk away! They knew what the area was like before they came!

Quite often that's people being too polite to say they just didn't like it! Or something personal put them off it.
That's also true.

One house we disliked because the photos looked good, we knew the area and it ticked lots of boxes, but when we got there the quality of a lot of the big work on the property was a bit shit, especially in the extension they'd put in.
We'd have rather buy a smaller house in the same area and do our own extension than wonder what's lurking under their renovations. We said something vague to the estate agents because 'we think the quality of your DIY is terrible and we're worried your property would be a money pit' would have been rude.

@Jenila You don't need to apologise. You are doing absolutely the right thing. I think some people further up the property ladder might have forgotten what a HUGE commitment it is, signing up to a loan, not for £5000 or £10 000, but £100 000 or £200 000. Anyone who does that without getting a real feel for what options they have and what is really important to them by viewing several properties, is a fool, IMVHO.

I think you’re being a bit sensitive - it’s a very strange process which doesn’t involve a lot of truth! Sometimes you can’t fully assess/visualise things until you’ve seen them. Layout/size can seem different in reality and when you see things with furniture in. Sometimes you’re just trying to be open-minded about whether something really is a showstopper or not. Sometimes it’s a really vague reason about not having the “right feel”, but you feel awkward about being that vague with the estate agent. Sometimes the real reason sounds quite rude (eg “it’s so badly decorated I wouldn’t even know where to start”) but you just go with a bland reason. And saying something incontrovertible, such as the location of the pub, means that the agent won’t keep hounding you.

My pet hate is houses that overstate bedrooms. 3 downstairs reception rooms does not = lounge plus 2 more bedrooms unless it is a bungalow of cause! I have just put mine on market and deliberately chose agents with what I would say as honest descriptions. What surprised me was the internet only agent asking for a higher % than two with high street shops and the “posh” agent I thought would’ve pricey was the best value.

happyhappybunny
When we were house hunting there were lots of so called 5 bedroomed houses. On reality they'd either done a downstairs extension and we're counting the additional reception room as a bedroom, or partially converting the garage into what would be at best a man cave/teen hangout space/media room and then calling it a bedroom. Who actually believes a 5th bedroom is accessed from a door in th utility room?

worse is I would expect the surveyor to do proper research on the internet.

Just had a survey done - value come back surprisingly low (local market buoyant - location suddenly a lot more desirable due to covid/ proximity to expansive green space). I challenged.

He had based his value on a house sold two years ago admittedly on the same street which is considerably smaller - it doesn't have the third public room, only has a single garage and the master suite doesn't have a dressing room. It also has a much smaller north facing garden.

Admittedly houses don't come up very often but there was one the same floorplan as ours which sold 3 years ago for 100K more than the smaller one which I found easily on google.

Grr.

We had to move the (internal) fall pipe to fit a dishwasher in our kitchen. It's not always a case of losing a cupboard, although it was in a previous house.

I had a viewer who wanted me to drive 8 miles to pick him up, because he didn't know how to get to my house on public transport! Reader, I declined.

Also had people who wanted a big garden - it didn't! Or didn't like the area

We had this when selling my late in-laws place. We priced it below market value, stated on pretty much every paragraph that it was a "fixer-upper" (although perfectly livable in whilst you were doing it, just really dated in places) and had photos of everything. We had several viewings and they all said "Oh, we didn't realise it would need any work..."

OP is not being unreasonable in expecting research that could take only a few minutes.

@ruabon1 I think it's shorthand for "I viewed in case the compromise was worth it, and it isn't".

Perfect house, imperfect location might still be the one, or great location, internal issue we could solve in time might also be worth buying.

You can't tell if you're going to love a place until you've seen it!

Hahahha

Yup, we had this too - downsizers who were put of because of the small garden and lack of off road parking - why even come to look then!!!

We fell in love with and put an offer - accepted -in on a house recently. (FTB)

After many viewings, we realised that of our three criteria (square footage, outside space and location) we would have to compromise on a few bits.

The house we're buying is in our wildcard location, and has the tiniest yard I've ever been in. The interior is actually bigger than we hoped for budget. But it felt right, is the main thing.

But if we'd hated it, it would've been the nonexistent outside space, or not being the right area, or no off road parking (all apparent from the listing) that we'd state, even though it would more likely be about feel of the property.

I am struggling to understand criticisms as it seems like buyers need to up their budget by 100k to get the things they want

Well....yeah. In the ideal world, I would like a 3 bed detached, in the town we rent in now, on a quiet cul-de-sac within 15 mins walk of the train station. That is about 500-700k, and our budget is only around 350k, so obviously we will have to forego at least one of those things! However if we don't like the place on viewings, we will give the trait that it lacks as feedback, even if it was obvious on Rightmove.

@BeijingBikini

I am struggling to understand criticisms as it seems like buyers need to up their budget by 100k to get the things they want

Well....yeah. In the ideal world, I would like a 3 bed detached, in the town we rent in now, on a quiet cul-de-sac within 15 mins walk of the train station. That is about 500-700k, and our budget is only around 350k, so obviously we will have to forego at least one of those things! However if we don't like the place on viewings, we will give the trait that it lacks as feedback, even if it was obvious on Rightmove.

Why? You’re allowed to say “It’s a perfectly nice house but it’s not for us”. It’s pointless making stuff up, it doesn’t help anyone.

Believe me viewing houses is hard and tedious for those looking for a new home as well. I'm quite open to downstairs bathrooms or typical bathroom accessed through second bedroom but if the house doesn't feel right there's nothing you can do. My main thing was off road parking and older style property. I had details for one before lockdown that looked fab, even the tiny galley kitchen didn't phase me. No off road parking no worries if the house was right. But when I eventually got inside (June!) there was one thing I couldn't get past the back fence went off at an angle to edge of the kitchen extension which meant the back room (dining room in 2up, 2 down) window was in next doors garden! This did not show on floor plans or pictures. Viewed lots of houses, many that needed work again didn't faze me but not right. Got woken in early hours few weeks ago by phone buzzing, right move house email. Looked, booked and buying. It's not got everything I wanted but it "felt"right. Probably viewed 10+ houses and met some lovely owners but they were just not right for me. Good luck, next to a pub would suit my stbxh perhaps I should tell him 😉

OP is not being unreasonable in expecting research that could take only a few minutes
Depending on what the reasons are the OP could be reasonable or unreasonable.

For example, saying "it has a downstairs bathroom" could be totally valid if the potential buyer was willing to make that compromise on the grounds they could reconfigure the house in due course. It would also be reasonable if the house was appearing to tick several other boxes on paper, but on viewing the house they weren't happy that the overall house made that compromise worthwhile.

But I'm not making stuff up. If I had to compromise on one of the above criteria and we viewed, say, a 2 bed terrace close to the station on a quiet road and didn't like it, I might say "oh it's only 2 bed and terrace isn't ideal". Or a 3 bed semi on a busy road, I might say, I don't like the busy road. The ideal house is unaffordable unless you're a hedge fund manager, you'll always have to compromise on something, and if you don't like the place it's usually because the thing you're compromising on isn't made up for by the rest of the place. If the place feels right then you're willing to overlook things that aren't exactly what you wanted.