Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

382 replies

HolidayHun2020 · 06/02/2023 15:39

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.

OP posts:
WhoNeedsSleepNotISaidMyBody · 06/02/2023 17:16

cyclamenqueen · 06/02/2023 16:28

Having sold subject to contract is no more proceedable than having no offer. No one has made any commitment that can’t be broken.

our estate agent said that a person who really wants your house and is prepared to put theirs on the market to buy it is likely to be a much better bet than a random who has sold sstc and just needs to offer on something .

the only time we have been let down was by someone with their house already under offer, they weren’t really committed and found something else. If someone loves the house they will pull out all the stops regardless .

@cyclamenqueen totally agree!

I had no problem viewing 3 houses last summer, when mine wasn't on the market.

Mine can be ready to go on the market in a few days, but I'm not putting it on the market until I've found something. I have several things that it has to have, which only rarely comes along & I'm not putting mine on the market until one does.

to me it's just as bad giving buyers hope as it is sellers, so damned either way.

nothing much is selling here, so IMO people would be daft to refuse a viewing if they actually want to sell. 🙅🏻‍♀️

greenshirt06 · 06/02/2023 17:18

YANBU. Viewed my dream house & put an offer in when mine wasn't on the market. Stuck mine on the next day and it sold to a cash buyer on the second viewing. If it's meant to be, it'll be.

trilbydoll · 06/02/2023 17:19

We viewed our current house without ours being on the market. They accepted our offer as long as we sold within a week - and we did, thanks to the estate agent moving at the speed of light and getting 15 people through the door on an open day.

But I think it had been on the market for a while and the agent was confident they had buyers waiting for our old house.

PizzaEater54 · 06/02/2023 17:19

My mum has just been through the buying and selling process and when viewing houses EAs wanted her to be sold before she could view any properties.

Another stumbling block for her was she was selling the house herself to her neighbour's son. Some EAs agents didn't see her as a viable option as she didn't have an estate agent selling for her.

Cocobutt · 06/02/2023 17:20

I’ve never heard of this.

I guess it’s a way to stop time wasters and those just wanting a nose around but if you were rich or had won the lottery then you would look at homes before selling your current one.

LemonPledge555 · 06/02/2023 17:20

If my house was on the market, someone viewed and then offered but was as vague as 6-12 months (not yet on the market) I wouldn’t accept the offer. Not a chance. If my house is on the market, I’ve somewhere to be going and that is just too long.

OriginalFloorboards · 06/02/2023 17:21

I only let people view my property who had sold. It was on the web and was too much time to present for selling for people who hadn’t sold or weren’t on the market. Ours was an equestrian property though so I had all the stables/feed rooms etc to tidy in addition to the house. Even so, when selling my small cottage years ago with no horses / land etc I would still only allow viewings from those who had sold. My time is too precious to be messing about for people not in a position to buy.

dogdaydown · 06/02/2023 17:22

Cocobutt · 06/02/2023 17:20

I’ve never heard of this.

I guess it’s a way to stop time wasters and those just wanting a nose around but if you were rich or had won the lottery then you would look at homes before selling your current one.

Which is totally different to this scenario. It would be the same if you were purchasing a buy to let.

You're not dependent on the sale of yours, so it's totally different.

MadMadMadamMim · 06/02/2023 17:23

I'm only interested in showing strangers around my home if they are able to offer to buy it.

You don't have the money. You don't have your house up for sale. You can't go ahead with a sale.

Therefore I'm not interested in letting you waste my time by looking round my house. It's not ridiculous. It's purely practical. Other people who do have the money/ability to buy it are welcome to look round.

antipodeancanary · 06/02/2023 17:25

Seriously though if you really wanted to view it you could. I recently viewed a house I thought I might be interested in saying I was viewing on behalf of my son who was a first time buyer working abroad. That was true and I did view houses for him, but this one I viewed for me.

BreadInCaptivity · 06/02/2023 17:25

I might be in a minority but I agree with you OP.

Re: our last move we had very specific criteria/location that might have taken years to come on the market.

Had we put our our up for sale prior to finding "the one" we would have been time wasting potential buyers for our home or facing a move onto rented for a considerable period.

We viewed our current house without being on the market but made clear to the EA that based on the details we were very interested and prepared to put our house on the market the same day as a viewing assuming there were no show stoppers (and from the details and a prior "drive by" we didn't think there would be) - and did just that.

It helped that our previous home was in a desirable location, finished to a high standard and to secure the new property we were realistic about pricing (all of which we made clear to the EA).

Similarly I've never vetoed viewings on the basis that a potential buyer isn't on the market yet on the basis I see no reason to reduce the number of people who might make an offer.

IME the EA's have been pretty good about sniffing out property tourists/time wasters from people in a similar position to that I've described above.

mrsbyers · 06/02/2023 17:26

I instructed my estate agents to do the same and only allow serious viewers

it’s an incredible effort to get a home ready to show and often wastes chunks of weekends - you’re being unreasonable to just fancy a nose

RingRingRingGoesTheTelephone · 06/02/2023 17:26

You sound like a time waster, your house isn't even on the market and you think you can just book viewings because you might like the house then you miiiiight put yours on the market? My friend has hers on the market at the moment, her offer on another house wouldn't even be considered until hers was under offer, you haven't even got as far as having yours valued nevermind sorted out marketing, who has time to wait even on the off chance you liked it and wanted to offer. You aren't anywhere near being in a position to proceed with a sale.

If you were a cash buyer and don't need to sell I'm sure you could tell the estate agent this, you aren't though.

PupInAPram · 06/02/2023 17:28

cardibach · 06/02/2023 15:41

It takes time to get a house ready for a viewing and then to have it happen. You’ve seen the house already. Don’t mess people about. Go for it properly or don’t.

This.

GimmeBiscuits · 06/02/2023 17:28

I'm unclear from your post whether you mean that you would be able/willing to put in an offer and proceed with selling your house IF the one you want to view was 'right'.
The problem is that unless you can commit to buy theirs within a set time frame (dependent on their already likelihood of being in a chain) then it's not worth anyone's time getting you involved as you won't be able to move things fast enough.
If you can buy theirs and then sell yours without needing to market yours first, then you need evidence of this, I think, to persuade the estate agent and seller that it's worth their while.

Yfront · 06/02/2023 17:28

I'm so glad I live under the Scottish system. The kind of house we want is really unusual, we've been looking for a few years. If and we when we find the right place and have an offer accepted, we'll market and sell ours. It would be totally impossible for us to do it the other way round though.

It is a different system here though.

KezzM · 06/02/2023 17:29

LillyBugg · 06/02/2023 15:42

I ended up not letting people view my property who hadn't already sold. I wouldn't even let those who were on the market and unsold. The vendor for my dream house was keen to go and so I needed my house sold asap. Messing around with people who aren't even in the process yet would have been a total waste of time. YABU.

So you hadn’t sold your house but presumably viewed and put an offer in on another house but wouldn’t let others do the same?

CrazyLadie · 06/02/2023 17:33

TheNoodlesIncident · 06/02/2023 16:10

You need proof of funds, like a bank statement with ££££££ in it. It's not complicated.

Show quote history

I just bought a house a few months ago and I didn't need to prove I had money to view the house or be accepted for the mortgage. I needed to prove to my solicitor that I had the funds and where it came from but I'm in Scotland and I know things are a bit different

Adviceneeded200 · 06/02/2023 17:37

Drop a note through the door and give them the story and your phone number. Let them decide!

I would say you'd be looking at the price they are on the market for though. You say right price, if you want to knock them down you need to be in strong position which you aren't.

shard5 · 06/02/2023 17:39

It's the same around us. We wanted to view a property but we're told unless ours is already on the market they couldn't allow it.
The thing is at that time houses on our street were selling in just 48 hours of the board going up and the estate agents were aware but the homeowners had stipulated and they wouldn't budge.
We didn't view it in the end and then decided to stay and extend
So glad with how everything worked out now.

DalaiLlama · 06/02/2023 17:39

I don't see the point of getting cross about this sort of thing. Their house, their call. Yes, you might miss out if you're not willing to put your house on the market, and they might miss out on you as a buyer- that's the decision you're both making.

unsureatthispoint · 06/02/2023 17:40

No. The political context is dire with all the woke and bekinders out in force

unsureatthispoint · 06/02/2023 17:40

Sorry - wrong thread😊

Cocobutt · 06/02/2023 17:42

Which is totally different to this scenario. It would be the same if you were purchasing a buy to let.

You're not dependent on the sale of yours, so it's totally different.

That makes sense.

You’d probably need to prove you’ve got the money still too.

Notaboutyouthistime · 06/02/2023 17:43

Maybe you can show proof of funds? You couldn't do anything without being able to do that. I think it's reasonable that people aren't willing to wait while a random buyer gets into that position. However it's odd that they can't have a group viewing you could tag along for.

There are so many people who view every house and treat it like a hobby. It must be very frustrating for agents.