AIBU to think we should be able to view a house even though we aren’t selling?

[HolidayHun2020]

So a house has come up for sale near us, we’re in a position that it’s not the ideal time for us to buy BUT for the right price and property we could make it work. Our house isn’t on the market but if we wanted to go for something we would put it up straight away. We plan to look at selling and actively trying to move within the next 6-12 months. I want to go and see this house as I saw it a couple of years ago and fell in love with it. It’s come up again, but the estate agent has said that we can’t view it unless we proceed with putting our house up and then if it’s a no from us on the house we are viewing we would then need to get out of the contract to sell our house!

AIBU that this is ridiculous? We just want to see this one house on the off chance it’s the one? If we offer and they say no under the circumstance fair enough. Should we just walk away until we are definitely ready to move.

How's the market where you live? For the last couple of years sellers/agents were calling the tune, where I am the market has changed and people are having to be a bit more accommodating. Market forces I suppose.

Just tell the estate agents you are putting it on with another agents and you'd still like to see the house. If they say no, ask them if that's in the vendors best interest and whether they'd be happy for you to talk to their compliance officer about that. They are supposed to be representing the best interests of the vendors, not of their business after all.

We made the mistake of looking at houses before our house was ready to be listed and to this day, I still say we missed out on a house that we could have been happy in (apart from the fact it was on a dual carriageway).

The estate agent selling it did say he would take ours on and sell it for us so we could buy the other house. But there was already an offer on the table from someone else and I didn't want to get into a race to sell/bidding war, so didn't list straight away.

Still drive past the house occasionally and wonder what could have been 🤔

We bought last year with a windfall. We haven’t sold our current house and now own two houses (I know lucky me). Two agents locally said I couldn’t view houses unless I was marketing mine despite me saying I was a “cash” buyer because I owned a house they needed me to be on the market - didn’t matter how much I explained I was a cash buyer able to proceed at any point - you would have thought it was a fairly common thing!

I'd also drop a note in to the vendors and let them know what has happened.

This sort of thing needs to be reported: it's not in the vendor's best interests

You have already viewed the house in the past and you know the neighborhood. Surely this gives you enough information to decide whether you want it or not.

Asking for another viewing makes you appear like a dilly-dallying time waster. Sorry.

As others have suggested: if you are COMMITTED to purchasing this house, work with the owners and their estate agent, and do your utmost to get your own house sold in double quick time.

I think it's ridiculous tbh. When we bought our house 5 years ago we were in the situation where we were thinking of moving but in no rush, it was very much "if the right house appears". We saw one we liked the look of, looked round, offered on it that day, then put our house on the market the next day and we sold in less than a week (multiple above asking price offers). Limiting to people who have already put their house on the market feels incredibly short sighted.

Last time we looked we weren't allowed to view some houses as our house while for sale hadn't hadn't got an offer yet.

When we did get an offer it was very short time frame - we'd done some scheme with all the paper work and they were under pressure from their buyer - it could have gone through in 6 weeks - we pushed it out to 8 weeks.

We we moving to new part of UK and didn't want with kids to move twice - to we need to buy quickly. We got a lovely house but houses that hadn't let us see prior to offer we didn't bother with. We ended up move in here and those houses till on sale.

It was annoying as a seller as I felt we had a stream of not really serious buyers and a lot of wasted time - but houses with restricted viewings we couldn't even consider in the end.

I guess it’s a rule to stop people just booking viewings of houses out of nosiness who have no plans to actually buy.

I disagree with most of the posters on here. You might fall in love with the place, put your house on the market, get an offer the same day and then offer on that house. All the while they don’t receive any other offers. You aren’t speculating.

a few years ago we were looking to move. We had sold our house and scraped every penny we had to come up with our maximum budget. There was a house liked but we were quite far off the asking price still. I called up the estate agent and explained and asked could we view anyway as the sellers might take an offer. The estate agent was so snooty about it and said ‘the owners wouldn’t even consider it’. A week of so later an even better house (although in not a good condition) came up. Similar situation and I called and they were really eager for us to view and the seller had found her dream property and so was open to offers. She took our lower offer and we moved into our forever home. All the while the other house remained unsold and we watched as they reduced their price down and down until eventually they sold for less than we were prepared to offer. I’m still a bit smug about that! I’m just illustrating that sometimes saying you will only let viewings happen under strict circumstances means you miss an offer in the longer term.

My grandparents many moons ago used to occupy dull days doing exactly this!!

It depends where you are, in Scotland it's pretty normal to view/offer first and then market your own property. Obviously at a closing date, a seller can choose between offers and that might be something they take account of, but it is normal.

I imagine it must be fairly common, we are in our 60s and looking to probably downsize a bit, we have money from pension lump sums and inheritance to do this and then when we do sell our house it will replace the money, this must be fairly common. We don't want to feel rushed and can sort out the new house then while still in our old house.

My understanding (from friends/family/our immediate neighbours who've completed sales over the last year or so) is that this is just the way it is now, in what seems to be an off-shot of the pandemic. Proof of funds (cash buyer) or your home valued/on the market before viewings can proceed. Our neighbours sold the middle of last year and were told they needed an offer in writing on their home before they could proceed to view the house they wanted to look at.

They had several offers after the first viewing and sold well over asking so wasn't ultimately a problem but I remember them being a bit perplexed as they initially only really wanted to view some homes and make a decision on whether they actually wanted to move at all as they'd been in the house 25 years so could well have been a huge waste of time if they'd decided against it.

It is what it is, I wonder if it's something that will stick or change again over time.

I expected my agents to have done significant due diligence in relation to potential purchasers before viewings. For example, were they ready to.proceed. You are not. Therefore YABU.

It’s not going to be a sellers’ market for much longer, round here the tide’s already turned. Our house would be problematic to sell - very old, very quirky - and I’d never refuse a viewing. We’re clean and tidy enough not to need much notice.

When I was looking to move about a year and a half ago every estate agent I spoke to (various areas) refused to show any houses until I'd got to, at least, the exchange stage with the sale of my own house.

I think some of it was driven by covid and all the restrictions around showing houses at that time and the fact that houses were selling so quickly that it wasn't worth their bother to show to anyone who wasn't in a position to make an offer immediately.

Not sure I’d agree it’s dramatic to want to avoid potential time-wasters. If I found out my buyer had lied at the outset to secure a viewing, I’d honestly pull out the sale so to avoid that possibility and so I’d do all the due diligence beforehand. Had my fingers (and finances) well and truly burned by dishonest buyers so I’d not leave myself vulnerable again.

Getting a house 'viewing ready' is a pain in the arse.

When we moved years ago I would have to clean, store away the kids toys so it didn't look cluttered, if it was a day off I'd have to make sure I was out walking the dog when they came, if it was a work day I'd have to find someone to have the dog for the day.

There is nothing more disheartening than doing all that and it be for nothing. I know there always the chance buyers are just going to not like the house, but we had people say they weren't interested because they wanted parking, when it was clearly stated in the brochure that it was on street parking only.

Sorry, off on a tangent there but I wouldn't want to sell again if I change help it 🤣

I sold relatively recently and wouldn't let viewers round who weren't on the market. Life is too busy to be readying the house for people who might just be carpet-treaders. Surely the Rightmove info tells you enough to get on the market or not?

Also it's to stop the people who like to view houses for the fun of it - yes, it is a thing especially with large houses.

I am with you OP. I do understand that sellers don't want time-wasters, but there must be a lot of people who only want to move if they find the right house, they don't want to put their house on the market for the sake of it.

Just as "it might takes ages to sell your house", well "it might take ages to find a house to move to" as well!

Someone who wants to sell can theoretically* find a rental while they look. But you can't do it the other way round if you only want to sell for the right house.

*I know there is a shortage of rentals which is why I used the word theoretically

I shy away from saying anyone on this forum is BU… but having recently moved myself, I have decided that all the carpet treaders that traipsed through my house were U. And I was not.

Pregnant, with two kids, living in a show home. Viewings are a nightmare. Every time we had one, I’d have to load up the car with washing baskets full of junk that doesn’t have a permanent home. Then put the kids in the car with their iPads. And go and sit in the Waitrose carpark for 45 mins.

I set my expectations at “viewings only from people that are proceedable” and tbh the estate agents didn’t follow that too closely. Had a lot of people that were “interested they just need to…”

In the end, we were asked to wait a few days for an offer from someone that was not in a position to proceed. We were assured it would be asking. We did not wait, and instead negotiated and accepted an offer just below asking price, from someone with funds. It is important to sellers.

Our buyers knew we had “chosen” them for being upfront, proceedable and serious about moving. And then when our onward purchase fell through, they gave us a few extra weeks to secure something else. Which we did.

Buying and selling is a merry dance and it’s good to go into it all squared up and ready. I do get that it’s a pain though. The second our house sold, we were out doing viewings! We missed a gorgeous house whilst we were waiting.

We have ours on the market and I think I would be a bit annoyed if we tidied, rearranged our schedule, got ourselves and dog out the house for a viewing and then found out the person wasn't ever going to be able to proceed. It is alot. I also wouldn't be turning down any viewings in case they came to something so would be trusting the estate agent. Were not intending on looking anywhere until we have an offer on ours.

I am very pleased at how many people are saying what a huge effort it is to prepare your house for a viewing as I thought we were just messy.