Would this put you off? Re: buying a house

[Anon2136]

I’ve had my eye on this house for a while now but not sure if I’m BU or if normal. Please help! It is literally my dream house and in our budget.

phoned up estate agent 2/3 months ago but got interrogated with questions like what job does husband do, what job do you do. Can you afford it etc. Etc. I left it and went to viewings with another agency that were lovely and still am with. The initial agency just put me off viewing it and made me feel uncomfortable.

I then noticed yesterday the house was reduced! I phoned up again and this time they didn’t interrogate me and booked a viewing. Couldn’t sleep as I’m stressed right now so checked phone and there’s an email from estate agent saying “owners are asking you to be 100% sure you are happy with the living room dimension and garden as they don’t want to waste their time showing you around if it’s not a comfortable living arrangement”.

It’s made me really angry. I already told estate agent we are looking for a small garden as we don’t have time to maintain and the garden is actually bigger than we have right now!

Is this normal or a sign of more problems to come if we go ahead? We’ve walked past this house many times and I love the area and can see us being very happy there.

What kind of problems can difficult owners cause? The house we living in we had no issues. Went to view it in a Saturday and put offer in following week. it was so easy and hassle free.

You are not going to have a long relationship with the EA or vendors but you are going to have a long relationship with the right house. Don't be put off by their manner. They are there for the transaction. If the house is right you will forget about the buying process.

The ‘interrogation’ from the EA is totally normal here. They are just trying to understand if it’s affordable for you. They don’t know it’s within your budget.

And the questions about whether you are happy with the dimensions must just be because they have had that feedback a lot. We have sold recently and the amount of people who viewed but then said they weren’t interested because we hadn’t extended the side return was ridiculous. It’s so stressful making your house ready for viewers (we have two tiny kids so it’s basically impossible) so incredibly annoying to sort it for a viewer who then says they don’t want it for a reason they could have seen on the floor plan

What's the position with your property op?

I think this is fine and not rude too. I wonder whether you can take the emotion out of things, remember the estate agent isn't daydreaming about a dream home, it is just every day routine business for them.

We are viewing a real potential later today so I'm awake feeling tense.

[quote Anon2136]@redtshirt50 interesting the way you’ve written that. How do you draw the line between just matter of fact and being rude? I really struggle with that generally.[/quote]
matter of fact:

"owners are asking you to be 100% sure you are happy with the living room dimension and garden as they don’t want to waste their time showing you around if it’s not a comfortable living arrangement”.

rude:

"owners want to be sure you're not another ignorant slob who hasn't checked the dimensions of the living room and garden. Take a look at the listed dimensions, and if you're ok with them, then we'll go ahead with yet another troublesome showing; otherwise piss off, you bleedin' trollop!"

btw -- no, their email wouldn't put me off (as it does seem apparent why).
I would be so happy to go and love it even more than I had anticipated, and buy it, making myself and the sellers happy!
And snag it at a reduced price, no less!

I'm looking forward to your happy post, after the showing.

I don't think the EA has been particularly intrusive, around here you would not be permitted to view until you can at least show your house is on the market and/of your finances are in place.

I also think they've had a lot of time wasters and have asked agent to sift more. A lot of people are nervous of catching covid, particularly if they are vulnerable. They will likely want to limit numbers to only those serious and weed out the day trippers.

When we sold our last flag we had really annoying feedback like "we don't like the shared garden" - it was very clear in the listing that it was a shared garden. "The lounge is too small" - the dimensions were on the floor plan. The EA is just doing their job.

I wish more estate agents would do this. I've had people coming round my house and say to me, oh we were looking for a flat really but the EA thought we might as well just pop round anyway. I had a small baby and a young child and had tidied up for this time waster!

When we were selling our house recently the estate agent let someone keep us on a string for ages without doing a survey. I think they had no intention of buying it at the price set, they just wanted to drag it out in the hopes that we'd drop the price eventually.

If I was selling again I wouldn't allow anyone to come round who hadn't at least got an offer on their property and/or had a mortgage offer and had shown evidence of this to the EA.

Just weeding out the time wasters. When we brought our house the vendor said there were only 2 serious buyers out of 10 viewers.

It does sound like the EA might be part of the reason it hasn't sold yet. Hope it's all you wish for and that you can buy it. It sounds lovely.

I agree that it sounds like the EA is weeding out time wasters and has been to the point rather than rude.

Several years ago we were selling a 4 bedroomed semi. We got a lot of viewers coming through saying "but I wanted a detached". I asked the estate agent not to send anyone who had requested a viewing of a detached property.

I think you are being a tad oversensitive.

I agree with PPs sounds like they are fed up of time wasters.
When we sold our first house people moaned about the dimensions of the 3rd bedroom which was very annoying as they were on the plan.
They are probably sick of getting the same feedback from people.

That just suggests to me previous feedback has been on these two points specifically. So owners don't want to waste their time or yours.

I definitely think it’s this. We sold our house recently and the estate agents made it abundantly clear on the listing that it didn’t have off-street parking (in common with all other houses in the same price bracket in the area). Despite the listing being explicitly clear on the issue, you wouldn’t believe how many people we got coming to view it saying it was a lovely house but they didn’t realise it didn’t have off-street parking, so we asked the EA to draw it to people’s attention before booking viewings in.

Some people don’t look at the listing properly and just go to viewings for fun. So no, it wouldn’t put me off at all.

I sold a house with a railway line at the bottom of the garden. It was fine and never bothered me. It was a long garden! I got so sick of rushing, tidying, going out with kids so that idiot after idiot could come round and say "Oh but it's very near the railway line".

Same with my flat on the main road. FFS look at the particulars first!! (Not you OP - my viewers!! )

Viewings are stressful and agents are under pressure to keep viewing numbers up, buyers often see it as a leisure activity but for sellers they are a necessary evil. It's in everybody's interests to keep them productive.

One of the worst parts about selling is the time wasters. The looky-lous who just enjoy looking around other people's houses (although online particulars have cut a lot of that back), the people who can't comprehend floor plans, the people who don't read the listing details, the people who don't check Street View for anything even though they have a long list of exacting requirements, the people who don't actually have the finances to buy your house but fancy looking at it anyway.

These vendors are just trying to cut down on the number of people who they've had to tidy up for but will not be putting a serious offer in for the house. It's not personal to you and not intended to be offensive.

The buying and selling process is SO stressful, especially when so much of it is out of your control and you don't know if the other party are going to be decent or turn out to be total arses who muck you around. It makes sense to try to cut out some of the unnecessary.

My in-laws are selling their house, they already have a beautiful house lined up. The original buyer went awol. Every single other viewer bar one has said the 4th bedroom is too small, despite the dimensions being advertised online and the pictures being very clear.

Its infuriating.

They're just fed up.

No wouldn't put me off in your situation. You are a perfect buyer. Good luck!

Doesn't sound like a problem at all, its just that there must have been feedback about the garden and living room. I would get in there quickly as it has now been reduced and get your offer in.

Remember the EA is working for the vendor who have clearly have become annoyed with time wasters. I don’t know why you think the email you received was rude, they don’t have any personal feelings towards you so why do you think they are being specifically rude to you? Hope the house is everything you are looking for and your offer is accepted :)

Street view is good, but lots of areas in my county don’t have street view as an option. I can only think vendor may not be motivated to sell, this would worry me, I would be asking EA about vendors plan etc. But having recently moved, I can see how getting ready for a viewing takes time, sometimes people just make the obvious excuse why they don’t want to purchase. As it just isn’t somewhere they can see themselves living. Good luck OP, I hope you find a lovely home soon.

It wouldn’t put me off entirely, but I would slightly at ‘100% sure’ type language. It’s a bit like ‘first to see will buy’ in car ads. I don’t find it rude exactly but it is presumptive.

Thing is, sometimes you do just have to see something IRL. I wouldn’t know whether I’m happy with room dimensions until I’ve set foot inside said room, regardless of how many measurements and photos there are. EA photos are always devious in some way or another, either through perspective, lens use or lighting.

Also months on the market in this market and a reduction sets off bigger alarm bells to me than the agent’s attitude, to be honest.

I think it’s good to acknowledge that their handling of this so far has made you angry. You don’t have to like the estate agent or the seller/vendor but you do have to do business with them. And anything that makes that more stressful is just going to be unpleasant.

I think it’s actually a very good sign. Means they mean business and want to sell. Just keep your wits about you and make sure you arrange full surveys. They will probably pressure you every step of the way so you may need to toughen up a bit.

I don't think this is rude either and will do the same when we look to sell.
We tried to sell our flat 4 years ago. It's an unusual duplex flat so lots of people wanted to look round, we kept getting feedback of 'no outside space' 'no balcony'. Things that should be obvious from the pictures.
It took me hours to get the flat ready each time, hide toys, clean, tidy and make it immaculate, there's no way I want to do that again just to give some people a nosy round our flat.

You are overthinking this. What is the problem? If you want it, view and offer. It’s that simple. What the agent says and what the vendor says should not get under your skin. It’s a transaction. And they haven’t said or done anything wildly unreasonable.

Honestly, my expectations from EAs are generally zero. That way you can't be disappointed.

Just go see the house if you are interested, don't buy it if you don't want it. Impossible to say without proceeding whether its the owners or the EA being weird or if the owners have had problems selling. If they have reduced the price it could be both if its a good house in a good area, unless it was originally over priced.

That just suggests to me previous feedback has been on these two points specifically. So owners don't want to waste their time or yours.

This.

Remember, you're not buying the EA or the vendors, you're not even seeking to be their friends. As long as they aren't acting illegally/immorally/suspiciously, if the house is right for you and your money is right for them, you have a deal - a deal that will buy you your beautiful new home, but until the sale has gone through, you're just two parties exchanging commodities.

Time-wasters are so infuriating, so I don't blame them for wanting to weed any out at the earliest stage. Just like people will buy a clearly-labelled 'BROKEN iPhone - SPARES OR REPAIRS only' on eBay, being sold for far less than a good condition fully working one would ever be worth, and then later complain that it doesn't work - likely blaming YOU for 'lying or trying to scam them' - you do need to spell it out extremely clearly in advance to some people, and you don't know beforehand who these kind of people will be.

Unfortunately, houses that are for sale bring out a lot of nosey people/fantasists/dreamers from the woodwork - it is a standard part of a good EA's job to make sure that anybody they proceed to a viewing with is actually seriously in a position to buy, should they like the house; it isn't enough for somebody to fall in love with the house if they will never be in a position to buy it!