To expect people to have manners when viewing a house

[Woobeedoo]

So house is on the market. It’s taken a lot of work (decorating, decluttering etc) to get it to how it is and I’m really proud of how it looks now to how it did.

DH, child and I went away for a long weekend Friday am, dropping keys at agents on the way. They had block viewings for Friday and Saturday so we thought we’d just let them get on with it.

We got back a short while ago and immediately I spot a big red juice spill on my previously clean doormat. Going through the house I discover dirty/greasy hand drags on almost every wall, a gouge out of the wall 7ft high (how?!), a cracked dressing table where someone has either sat or leant heavily on it, scuffs on one bedroom wall and the most filthy bannister hand rail - when I wiped it, it came away grey. Don’t people wash their flipping hands?

I’m not asking for people to wear silk slippers, cotton gloves and tip toe through the house not daring to even breathe but a little bit of respect for someone else’s home is a given surely? As the home owner I shouldn’t be expected to have to fix furniture and re-paint walls after just 10 house viewings.

Urgh. I probably need to be more zen during this process but I’m not impressed right now.

Apparently it's quite common for estate agents to let themselves into houses that they know are empty, for hookups or crash pads.

That's awful. I hated selling my house; strangers wandering around my garden uninvited for a nose when they thought we weren't there, friends looking it up on rightmove. The thought of the sleaseball agent we had letting himself in for a shag on top of all that makes me want to vomit.

@SarahAndQuack same here ref people letting themselves in my garden. I found one woman in the back, who looked really put out to see me emerge, asking if I could help her, as if I were invading her space. Staggeringly rude!!

I think part of me felt compelled to buy our house because my daughter left a greasy hand print on one of the walls
No it is staggeringly rude. I think it comes from the arrogance that some people feel you need when house shopping to really drum in that you probably won't put an offer in.

That's out of order, OP. YANBU and good luck with the sale.
(Oh, and the spilt juice has unruly kid who can't go without food or drink for 5 minutes, written all over it).

You definitely need to complain, they shouldn't be letting people in the house with open food/drinks and they shouldn't be touching stuff (other than to perhaps opening doors to check dimensions etc)

The bannister and dressing table comments... I can never understand how some people break things so easily. You see the same comments from people with holiday rentals and in those programmes about evictions - people who in a matter of weeks or months seem to break beds, smash sinks and tiles, pull doors off their hinges... how do they do it?!

I’m fairly low impact so perhaps I don’t get it, but my partner is clumsy and also heavy footed and yet has never broken much other than wine glasses and dinner plates. We manage to leave holiday places as we find them and have never knowingly left any trace after a house viewing. This genuinely baffles me. And worries me since we’re planning to sell soon.

That's unacceptable.

Given you were away for so long, I'd be asking the neighbours what they saw in terms of comings and goings.

Round here, you can always tell when a house is on the market even if they don't have a sign up because the estate agents loiter like dodgy men in suits outside waiting for the viewers to arrive. I'd imagine a gathering for a party would look quite different.

I’d be asking your neighbours too, just in case the EA has lent your house to someone whilst you were away.

That sounds like the house was used by someone over the weekend.

Checking with the neighbours is a good idea.

@Porcupineintherough

My dh once trampled big muddy footprints across a bedroom carpet when house viewing (we'd come from another viewing which had a muddy garden and the fool didn't take his shoes off because they were polite and said "no need"). Utterly mortifying, he had to go back the next day w flowers.

We did end up buying the house though so at least it was eventually our carpet.

Bit of an extreme example of “you break it, you bought it” 😂

But yeah I’d be expecting the estate agents to be doing some serious grovelling and paying for and fixing the damage

I totally sympathise with you @Woobeedoo.

Years ago when we were selling, one viewer on hearing a squeaky floor board started jumping up and down. He was over 6ft and quite a unit. Broke a floor board! He later proceeded to tug on a vertical blind which was fitted adequately and pulled it off it’s fixing! We told him not to worry we’d sort it. Why did we do that 🤷‍♀️

Agent has stayed in the house or lent it out. Thats not damage from a viewing.

A while back, when showing our old home, we had a couple pick apples from our tree and then proceed to eat them on their way around the house. I found that (and them generally) incredibly rude. It was clear, by the end, that they were just being nosy and had no intention of buying.

I’ve never, before or since, wanted to physically throw someone out of my house as much as I wanted to with them!

Not taking shoes off to go upstairs is another bugbear, particularly if it’s been raining. Some people look at you like you’re insane if you suggest it, whereas I will always take mine off, even if the owner is being polite and not requiring it.

Sorry for lack of response - was v busy yesterday.

In answer to questions:-

Absolutely lovely agent, totally trustworthy. I hid items within the beds (so I’d know if beds were used) and all were exactly as I left them.

One person brought a small child and as all hand prints were between knee and hip, clearly child related - also the juice spillage which won’t come out 😡 so will be raising that with agent. I’ve already sourced the same mat online as replacement and fixed all the other issues.

One of the viewers wasn’t the nicest of people apparently and tested everything (wants to come back and test every electrical outlet. Oh do feck off love) and was hostile to my neighbours about our differing driveway sizes.

I left a big pack of shoe covers as the weather was awful and all viewers - except child - wore them so I guess it could’ve been worse! The agent normally insists people remove shoes but then I thought some people may have stinky feet and I don’t want that soaking into carpet.

Some of your viewer horror stories are shocking. Why do people think they can behave that way?

Selling your house has to be one of the most awful things. We've only done it once but I'm never moving again!
We had a viewing where the couple brought both their families and when they left there was a crack and finger marks where they had pushed in the plaster at the top of the stairs. It was underneath a huge painting that we'd had up since we moved in and we assume they were fiddling with a slight crack the picture hanging had made and in "testing" it they made it so much worse!
The picture hanging had been put up by a previous owner and we had lived there for 15 years so it had never been an issue for us. We ended up getting it replastered but these were supervised viewings so you do wonder what the agent was doing at that time.

I was away for a few weeks while selling a flat. I came back to all 5 light bulbs blown on a hallway chandelier (seems agent left it on for a long time) and a dirty stinky toilet. Agent denied everything.

In the 80s we put our house up for sale and a couple who noticed the board outside knocked on the off chance we'd let them view.

The woman was carrying a very young baby and while talking to me he tipped forward and vomited a load of milk all over our brown fabric suite.

Sounds like you're managing it well OP, but I'd still be cross such a lovely and trustworthy estate agent didn't at least give you the heads up.

Horrible estate agents round here are known for being coked up and having 'parties' when left with keys and know they wont be disturbed.

I sympathise greatly, OP. I had people walk dog poo in; on every stair it was and it took me ages to get it out. Estate agent left my back door unlocked twice, left the gate open so the dog legged it ASAP, someone broke one of my kitchen cupboard doors and someone also left the fridge door open when I was away for the weekend with a bunch of viewings booked in. One of the viewers leant on my car, chatting to the agent, and I found a big scratch on it, like you might get from the metal rivets on a pair of jeans.

Hi OP,

I would definitely complain and even consider switching estate agents.

If you feel up to it it might be better to be around for house viewings going forward- that way you can make sure people use hand sanitizer and either put shoe covers on or take shoes off. As well as ensuring people don't nosily look through cupboards.

We recently sold our house and our estate agents tried to get a really good gauge of how likely someone was to actually buy our house before letting them visit i.e. checking the exact area they were looking to buy in, their motivation for buying, their budget etc. so maybe also ask the Estate Agent to be more selective as well- people who actually want to buy your house for a good/reasonable offer tend to be more respectful.

How did the estate agent explain the gouge in the wall 7ft up? And the dressing table?

The agent wasn't supposed to allow anyone in with their shoes on, but they did - and the original floorboards which had just been refinished were ruined by someone's stupid stilettos. It took a LOT of ironing to remove the damage and some puncture marks never did recover. Some people are so bloody selfish!