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.

I know. Its almost like panic buying. Having said that as an ex Londoner..... London prices ae crazy and always have been (bar my parents generation who managed to get on the housing ladder with ease (two people working) and then stayed put and watched their asset increase in value massively. Having said that you have to live somewhere.

Hopefully as you are moving out of London you have a fair deposit.

The really silly priced houses are sticking and so they should do. Its easy now to check how many times a house has been off and on the market. In the old days you would take it off, leave it a few months and put it back on and most buyers would be none the wiser.

Actually, I think exiting a part of London that's getting worse is not helping us.

We are headed to somewhere outside of London, much greener and prettier .....if we had done this a few years ago, it would have been better. I am still stunned at the price of houses in London but now I think the market for flats is very realistically priced and dropping.

I am sympathetic to both sides, firstly the questions - we had someone say our flat had no storage, having failed to notice a full wall of cupboards/wardrobe.

then the reality of seeing stuff as opposed to seeing a picture or Streetview. It's good for spotting bus stops or whatever, but last week we viewed on a B road that was really busy and noisy and the flats weren't' as set back from the road as they appeared from the picture.

it's a 4 hour round trip to view so we really try to get all the info before going.

It is kind of annoying when you try to sell a small house, keep getting it in a viewable state, and the viewers feed back on repeat "it's a bit small". Yes, it's a terrace and you can see it's small in the photos! I reckon it's just that and the vendors are fed up.

Wouldn't put me off- maybe they have had problems with time-wasters and want to make sure you are serious.

You will forget about all of this if you like the house and you are happy in it. It might annoy you for a while but it will all be forgotten. Focus on the house and whether you would like living there or not, the rest is just noise.

I was selling my second floor London flat a few years ago. The listing clearly said the building had no lift. People came and viewed and then gave feedback that there is no lift. Duh!

Sounds like you'll be their perfect buyer OP!

It also sounds like the vendors have had a bellyful of time wasters and have asked EA to screen viewers first

We've just sacked our estate agent for basically refusing to show people the house they got some reason couldn't be bothered to. I suspected it so a friend of mine volunteered to mystery shop and they were really negative and pointed out all the work that needed doing and told her unless she was good at diy and gardening don't bother - it's over 100 years old and sits on 1/4 acre of land.

gogohm they may have been putting people off on purpose so that one of their mates could put in a really low offer. Then because you've had no other offers they can pressure you into accepting

@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

That would be a problem because you will always be setting yourself up to be offended. The estate agent really wasn't being rude.

estate agent is a muppet. Surely they have floor plans with measurements, and photos on their site? so if you want a viewing you've already seen what it looks like and how big it is and done some basic decision making before choosing to make an appt.

Not like you want to waste your own time let alone theirs.

No, that's what a SENSIBLE buyer would do - not what the MAJORITY of buyers do!

Wouldn't put me off. We had a problem selling our old house because it was Edwardian but had no original features such as ceiling roses. This was stated on the details but people clearly didn't read them. I wasted my time cleaning and clearing the house to be told that this wasn't what they were looking for. I then asked the agents to impress upon all prospective buyers that there were NO original features.

No, it wouldn’t put me off.

[quote Anon2136]@Pepperama so sorry to hear that about your friend[/quote]
We've got a bus stop opposite our house and I hate it....when the offices down the road knock off at 5pm there is about 20 people stood there and having a nice gander.....

When we had our first open day - the feedback was the same 'wonderful house, perfect location but just a bit too small for our needs'. Agent thought that was 'good' feedback! Really annoyed me as it was clear he wasn't wasn't asking basic questions to understand the requirements and manage expectations of the buyers before viewings. Turns out lots of people had 4 kids, multi-generation households etc and a 3.5 bed house was never going to work!! Made a cheat sheet for the agent to follow to gather answers about their situations before bookings and instantly - we had the right people viewing and offers immediately. Some agents just play the numbers game which is just a huge waste of time for everyone! It may have come accross as a bit blunt to prospective buyers but keeping a home on show home condition is a nightmare and after a few viewings it's easy to get complacent and things slip and miss the right buyer.

Having recently sold a property I agree with the need for vetting to avoid the nosy time wasters. Swear house hunting is a hobby for some people! I think the agent is just drawing your attention to the more obvious drawbacks as you can’t assume everyone is capable/willing to look at a floor plan for instance - same people who leave critical reviews on pieces of furniture saying “smaller than I imagined” as if size was subjective rather than bothering with a tape measure 🤯!

Sometimes it is the agent's fault and sometimes the seller's. My son was looking for a house at the end of last year and I was doing the initial viewings. With on house the agent did not get back to me on a very simple issue which I asked about twice so in the end my son bought another one in January (which in fact I prefer as it is bigger and has more light so it was fine in the end). He might well have bought that first one had the agent bothered to answer the questions.

We were selling our house when I was pregnant, parenting a toddler and working 4 days a week. We had sooo many viewings and every time would clean the place from top to bottom, tidy away all the junk, make ourselves scarce etc... and then we’d invariably get feedback that the kitchen was too small. One woman just walked in and straight out again! It was very frustrating when the floorplan was there on the listing for all to see. I was hoping our EAs would tell people up front instead of dragging people round as it was all very stressful. We are actually uncomplicated, accommodating, flexible people when it comes to buying and selling the houses we’ve had, so I would say it shouldn’t cause alarm bells. Good luck! :)

I think you should go ahead, this house sounds ideal for you. The owners have had feedback so they're fed up of people knowing both are small, rocking up and then moaning the lounge and garden are too small! Good luck.

Odd normally the agent would be asking if .
You have anything to sell ?
Then questions re your borrowing etc?
sounds as if they have had a buyer drop out, maybe an idea to
ask how long has it been on the market ?
are there any current offers ?
etc etc
the market now is still really hot ,so its worth finding out why its been re offered /relisted
My guess is that the vendors have had problems with previous buyers
in which case , if its has no major issues with price ,freehold, structure etc .Depending on the vendors plans going forward it maybe be worth assisting on a view, if you like it try an offer less than asking.
good luck .
Don't be fobbed off just incase the agents mate is an interested party !
shit happens .

Being an old cynic I would wonder if the agent has lined it up for someone once it's reduced to a price . That happens sometimes in my neck of the woods

We have just spent 11 months looking for a house and have viewed close to 25 (finally moved in last weekend, yay!)
A couple of times the agents were similar about certain properties. It could be that the vendor is so sick of getting their hopes up and showing ppl around (especially during a pandemic) only for their hopes to be dashed when the feedback is always about the "small garden " etc .. if you are ok with the dimensions , fine.. never go by the pics, they seem to photograph them with these weird fish eye lenses which can be v misleading.

After so many wasted viewings, I asked my agent at the time to be very clear with potential viewers.

It was a small, 2 bedroom terraced, with a back yard. So much feedback about the size and it it ‘too small for us, as we have 2/3 kids’. Others saying - I wanted a garden or it’s on a main road.

After 2 offers fell through because people couldn’t be bothered to get a mortgage in principle, I insisted that this was in place and they could price this with the agent first.

I just didn’t have the time to have idiots viewing my house, who had not bothered to see that it was a small terraced house, with a yard and on a main road.

There really isn't anything wrong with an agent filtering out viewers.
We sold last year and went with a good agent already selling in the area. Agents are supposed to check if people can afford to buy the house anyway, and we also said that we wouldn't have viewings for people who weren't "proceedable" - i.e. their houses had to be under offer or sold. We lived in a very attractive house and didn't want people viewing who had no real intention of buying or who couldn't afford the house.
The agent never put our house on any websites and only showed the house to serious buyers - we had just four people viewing, turned down two offers and sold at asking price.

Don’t really understand your question/issue? You don’t seem to have even viewed the property. Ignore EA attitude it’s unprofessional their job is mediation! Sure they need to fend off time wasters but that’s part of how good they are at their job. I had a flat purchase fall through some years ago through no fault of my own ( surveyor found a possible serious fault and vendor couldn’t provide required documentation ). I got same EA showing me round the next flat and he sulked through the whole process would barely look at me. Guess he lost expected commission. Never mind I lost surveyor fee! If you like the house proceed! No commitment until change of contracts and your solicitor is there to check all is good. Sorry don’t understand your problem? Good luck