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

What? A £10 tin of paint and re-arranging the furniture could be the difference between getting an offer close to asking price, or it sitting on the market for months only getting lowball offers. Surely the small bit of effort is worth it

Firstly, its not going to cost £10 and you know it. To paint throughout a house or a few rooms is going to cost more than £10. You also need dust sheets, masking tape, and all the other bits aswell as the paint. You have to move all the furniture, and then move it all back again making sure no paint gets on it or the carpet/floors. This also involves having the time and the physciality to do it. If you are disabled or have mobility problems you will have to hire someone to do it and that will cost even more.

Secondly, every EA I have asked has told me there is no point re-decorating a house that looks ok because buyers will only re paint it ANYWAY. The only time I can see this helping is if the rooms are really really awful looking in which case it might be worth it.
I have been told by many an EA that sellers will rip out kitchens or bathrooms to re-do them for sale, only for the new buyers to rip that one out because they didnt like it and put a new one in anyway.

AlexisCarringtonColbyDexter

Exactly, redecorating a house isn't a £10 pot of paint job.
Surely if a bit of paint and redecorating is so easy then any potential buyer would have no issue buying a property because it would only need a little bit of paint?

Then again I hate looking around very staged houses. A generally tidy house without too much clutter shows a house that's lived in and works for a family. If I see a family house all staged like nobody lives there then it puts me off and the cynical part of me wonders what they're hiding.

A £10 tin of paint

Where do you find such a bargain?

It is £40 a tin for a good white emulsion and if you have to do the whole house it will start to add up. Also then there is rollers and brushes and if you have done the walls then the skirtings and door frames and doors will need doing.

I can understand not wanting to do everything. Once you go down that route it doesn’t just cost £10 and in the case of my house which is up on the market atm I have spent thousands on the place and most just want to knock it down and build on the plot so I might as well have not bothered.

Exactly, AlexisCarringtonColbyDexter and LolaSmiles it is a waste of time, effort and money. It achieves nothing. And yes, as long as the house is tidy ie washing not all over the place and kitchen clean etc, then that's all you need, you don't need to re-decorate or move furniture it and out. That's ridiculous. And I thought these floor plans gave you the idea of the size of the room? So they know what size it is, and will naturally know better than to be deceived by furniture because that furniture (unless part of the sale) won't be there when they buy it. It seems floor plans don't help after all then, if potential buyers cannot visualise the room without any furniture in it.

@AdobeWanKenobi

I don't understand this. What on earth could the seller possibly do to change it? If the 'feedback' or whatever it is called is that rooms are too small

Remove furniture, paint it lighter, put a smaller bed in if its a bedroom, remove blinds from windows. Just a handful of things a seller can do to make a room look bigger.

It doesn’t matter how big they look if they’re too damn small.

It maybe that they think they can change something but when they see the house they realise they can’t.

Using the downstairs bathroom as an example..... I wouldn’t like it, I’d want bedrooms and bathroom on the same floor. Couldn’t be arsed going through the whole house at 4am for a wee, or going upstairs in a dressing gown to get dressed. But might still view if location and price are right to see if for example I could convert a bedroom into a bathroom or squeeze in an en-suite, but once I saw the house realised this wasn’t possible.

Just an agonising process which I want over as soon as possible! (As we all do!) it's just a waiting game really

Now you know how homeowners waiting for news on the council’s planning decision on their proposed works feel.

We have just been house shopping, offer now accepted and I admit I viewed houses that I wasn't sure about but had redeeming features that might mean I could overlook the negative. We ended up buying the one close to the pub because everything else was perfect

unfortunately i don't think you will ever stop people being shown houses the re inappropriate for them ,i mean we had a massive bungalow & massive garden & we little old ladies being brought to view !!which as i had two very small children at the time made me so disheartened i mean look at the plans!! but i think actually the agents are to blame for lots of the problems& we pay them enough don't we !! there will be someone for your home .

Back in the 1960's (we finally sold just before Christmas 1969) my parents had this couple come visit every other weekend or so to say how much they liked the bungalow my parents were selling. After about the 6th visit my dad asked them direct - are you going to buy the place - to which they replied - no. Turns out they were only coming for the rose garden they admired so much - and the bouquet of roses they left with on each visit.

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.

I would do a drive by of any property I was interested in just to make sure there was nothing about the location that would put me off.

Estate agents do only present the positives (who knew?!😀),we drove past a house yesterday by chance that is seen the online particulars for,it said lovely rural views to the front,what it didn't say was the front door was right on the edge of a thin pavement next to a very busy road with a small area of grass on the other side!😀...
I always look at floor plans,map etc but you can't really get a feel until you are there.
Saying that,there are many time wasters.I do hope you have a sale soon op,good luck

I agree OP

I can't understand how people can't use RightMove or any of the other sites to bar places they wouldn't dream of buying. You can see what you're getting, local schools and the street view and even google the local crime figures and transport links.

having said that I bought in an area with loads of downstairs bathrooms. You have to look at where the downstairs plumbing is so you can estimate the ease of moving it upstairs and what space you would lose there.

It is harder if you're moving to an area you don't know or don't have contacts in. Research is your friend.

If you do live close to the desired property I've always been advised to see it during school days and rush hour and late at night. But that requires time most of us don't have.

Having said that I bought our family home without even seeing inside.

I agree with jojo in the above post

YANBU everyone knows you have to prepare your house or at the very least stay in for viewers so it's rude not to do a bit of research to avoid wasting people's time. That said some people have a hobby of travelling around viewing houses when out of nosinesd when they aren't even thinking of moving so I guess this isn't as bad as that.