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

We almost didn’t view our current house because it had one of the ‘show stoppers’ that’s been mentioned here a few times and was outside of the area we’d been considering. However, there wasn’t much coming onto the market so I booked a viewing anyway. As soon as I walked in I knew it was the right house, and decided I wasn’t bothered about the show stopper after all and although it wasn’t an area we knew we actually loved it.

We had viewed some other houses with show stoppers, but upon viewing there wasn’t anything about them to make them worth putting up with. It’s not time wasting, it’s something you have to do. I hated being on the other side when we were selling though, the pain of getting ready for viewings was awful.

Not in my OED - only the positive definition is given.

Maybe not in your (concise) OED but the negative sense is given in the OED so the OP is officially Not Wrong bangs gavel

@YesINameChangeEveryDay

A showstopper means an amazing thing. I was so confused reading your op

I've never heard it as a positive. I'd only use it in the way the OP does and frequently did in the context of househunting

Weve seen ads in our local paper for houses and one took a pic of the pretty grounds of a church opposite sort of implying that was the garden, ignoring the fact it's on a busy junction with the road in between. Another new development of flats had an artist's impression showing lovely grounds but the very overpriced development is actually right under a high speed rail bridge, and opposite a supermarket

@Hardbackwriter

Not in my OED - only the positive definition is given.

Maybe not in your (concise) OED but the negative sense is given in the OED so the OP is officially Not Wrong bangs gavel

Two-volume Shorter, actually, but I concede to the full text. Having free access to OED online is honestly one of the things I miss most about studying.

In high tech and manufacturing a showstopper is a critical defect that means the product cannot be released until it is fixed.

Ooh, but having a two volume on the shelf is still nice! I was so relieved to discover I still have e-resource access when I switched from an academic to a non-academic job at a university - partially because I do still do some academic writing and it makes that a lot easier but quite a lot because it means I can still use the full OED to be pedantic!

In high tech and manufacturing a showstopper is a critical defect that means the product cannot be released until it is fixed.
This.

I've never heard it as a positive. I'd only use it in the way the OP does

I am amused at the image of you watching the Showstopper round in the Bake-Off and wondering why everyone is working so hard to make their cakes good

@IsaLain

Showstopper doesnt mean what you think it does.

A showstopper is something awesome; so good it beats everything else.

You're looking for deal breaker.

I think someone in your office started using show stopped because they forgot the word deal breaker and the rest if you have just gone with it.

@IsaLain - nope.

OPs usage is very common. As a PP has posted, the dictionary definition confirms.

I am amused at the image of you watching the Showstopper round in the Bake-Off and wondering why everyone is working so hard to make their cakes good

Ha, I've never seen Bake-Off. It would have confused me though. I spent an hour in a meeting with developers this week discussing which bits they weren't going to be able to deliver in time and which of those were the showstoppers, the ones that without which the "show" could not go ahead.

There’s always room to put one in. You just lose a cupboard

Well yes, if you can loose the space and not miss it, and deal with the plumbing.

And I’m surprised at the amount of folks trying to be superior about the ops perfectly correct usage of rhe term show stopper and cringingly getting it wrong.

EA really push for feedback, and a lot boils down to “it isn’t perfect enough to compromise on the bathroom/parking/road noise/price/luminous pink carpet/whatever.”
My “ideal” house would cost 3 or 4 times what current house is worth... everything is a compromise.

@VinylDetective Haha good point! I reckon they’ll kick themselves when they do need to move again! I moved into here when I was 39wks pregnant with my first, we didn’t use the top floor for about 2yrs 😂 Problem solved!

We finally completed on my DP's house today but lost count of the number of people who asked where the dining room and utility rooms were. Ummmm, maybe check the floor plan? it's a small bungalow which has neither of those things. One of the bedrooms could easily be made into a dining room if not needed as a bedroom - but people didn't seem to be work that one out by themselves either.
I've just put mine on the market with an 'offers over' format. Everyone that has viewed so far doesn't have anywhere near that amount to spend yet think I'll make an exception just for them.

We're spending huge amounts of time researching areas and floor plans before even calling the estate agent to view. Really don't understand why others can't do the same in return.
We did call to view one where the agent asked me 3 times if I was sure what I was viewing as they've had so many time wasters.

@VinylDetective

I’d not be happy with somewhere with no dishwasher or room to put one in

There’s always room to put one in. You just lose a cupboard.

@VinylDetectiveThat was what I thought

Yeah YABU but it's stressing selling a house so will let you off

@catfeets if someone offered the “offers over price” would you accept? We offered said price (house has been on market a while, but recently reduced) and they wanted another £10k. Annoyed us, as if they wanted that price then say offers over that price, not £10k less. Just felt like a waste of our time and we’re not interested in playing games.

@VinylDetective

I’d not be happy with somewhere with no dishwasher or room to put one in

There’s always room to put one in. You just lose a cupboard.

Not true actually.

There is literally nowhere to put a full size dishwasher in my friend's kitchen.

It's 3mx3m so fairly small but not 'tiny' but there's not one single place it can go. She's squeezing in a slimline (and that's a real push).

Lots of smaller kitchens would not have space either By the time you have sink/fridge/oven And take into account corners & doorways, there's often not a spare 60cm for a dw.

People complaining about viewers asking about parking, hasn’t it occurred to you that some properties without their own space have decent on street parking and some don’t? If buyers are going to go to the effort of going to the street to check, then they may as well look at the house and ask someone who lives there at the same time. It’s normal.

@HazelWong

We viewed at least one house with a downstairs bathroom which we rejected for that reason. We were open to loving the house enough to look past it but we didn't.

I think this post from @HazelWong sums it up. You may well view something that you KNOW has something on you le 'no' list, in the hope that the rest of the house wows you so much you no longer care.

Definitely worth the chance, but obvs a very long shot.

@iswhois

Oh come on, you can't leave us hanging!!

What is your showstopper deal breaker?!

I rejected the house we eventually bought based on a major issue (for me) for about three months until DH persuaded me to do a viewing when we couldn’t find anything else that fit the bill.
Went to view full of negativity and determined to hate it- saw potential- offered next day and been living here six years now.

I feel your pain OP. Viewings are a nightmare to keep constantly ready for.
But equally if your EA over highlights the showstoppers then it might put off viewers who would love the house for other reasons so much that they don’t take a chance to be persuaded

How about you ask your EA to group viewings more so you can just evacuate on a Saturday each week and they do several viewings one after the other?

I too thought a showstopper was something amazing and couldn't understand the initial post.

Having bought in a dry market recently, i can see that sometimes you hope to fall in love with a place such that you are willing to compromise on some things, so you view even though you know it won't tick all of your boxes. But i can also admit that that is naïve and unfair to sellers.