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.

You don't have to have sold but lots of people require you to be a serious buyer with your own property up for sale. It saves a lot of time with people just day tripping

Lucky for you that your vendor didn't apply your petty rules otherwise you wouldn't have got it. Are you incapable of seeing that such a rule would cause the market to grind to a halt?

I’d have encouraged my toddlers to be sick on them too !!

When we sold our flat we had lots of time wasters! It was really frustrating having to tidy, exit the house and arrange viewings around the dog- when so many people clearly couldn't afford the property or weren't in a position to buy!

I’ve done this each time I’ve sold. It’s not petty, its protecting your investment.

Exactly this.

We live less than an hour from London. 72% of all 4 beds go to London incomers (my friend works at a leading estate agency in the town, the data comes from her). Two agents in the town use a preferred buyer system, you have to join a list and wait to view. The precived richer people get first dibs. My husband and I were denied a viewing due to withdrawing from a sale two years ago. Almost blacklisted. We had to offer a lower price after the survey due to the condition of the house. We had nothing to sell and had to prove our funds before any viewings. AIP, deposit and one even asked me to show him my employment contract to prove I could afford the stamp duty. The last two years have made people rude and greedy. Perhaps you can ask the agent to value your house but make it clear you will only sell if you can buy the other one.

For us it was simply the case that we only wanted to move for that particular house.

It is odd it's like these type of buyer no longer exist in some people's minds.

We could downsize or move closer to work once kids move out but we like our current house wouldn't do it for just any property.

It is the seller house though and if that's what they want then that how it is.

No, it’s about thinking of the vendors with their house on the market who have to wait for an offer before they can offer on anything else.

I would probably let you view, especially in an open house type situation because it could help drive good offers, however, I wouldn’t accept an offer unless you had accepted an offer on your property and had a firm mortgage offer.

Why is it not reasonable to view a house that you are potentially genuinely interested in making an offer on? Especially on an open house day when a few extra people makes no difference. The vendor can then make an assessment of all offers received, including the position of the buyers, before making a decision.

Blocking a potential buyer from viewing who might be your highest, or indeed only offer, seems like cutting your nose off to spite your face.

I’m actually curious as to what I’ve said that’s me not reading the room 😂 you’re ridiculous.

Vendors are within their rights to limit viewings only to buyers who can proceed. This is fairly normal.

She’s just taken a disliking to me, ignore her 😂

This is fair enough!

The point is that it's still a sellers market. Agents want to put the best potential buyers forward to get the deal done. That means cash buyers first, those with houses already sold second, those with house on he market third... and so on.

They will sell the house within the first two groups. So you're not a good investment of their time as you're not ready to buy.

If you're house isn't that desirable, think about how you're going to sell it and how long that might take - and crack on with it so you're really ready next time.

Petty rules ? Your put your house on the market. You are serious. You probably have a property in mind, or if not, you have a list, but you don’t view because you haven’t got an offer on your own, so can’t offer on anything else. If you allow people to view who haven’t even got their property on the market, you have nothing to gain. So you instruct your EA to only send people who are in a position to buy - either because they have accepted an offer and are in the process, or have the cash to buy. That’s how it works.

When we sold our house almost twenty years ago three different agents told us to find the house we wanted before putting ours on the market.
We were told that houses like ours(three bed terraced) were being snapped up and we could find ourselves having to pull out of a sale because we had nowhere to go.
We viewed three houses and offered the asking price on the third one after explaining our situation to the vendors.
We had a few time wasters of the 'oh I'm not buying,I'm viewing on behalf of my friend' variety but our house was sold within two weeks.

Where we live most people won't even let you look at a house even if ours in on the market. You have to have no contingency at all or you can't even look.

Meh, I'd allow you to view. This nonsense of weeding out people by a phone call with the EA is a waste of everyone's time. Serious buyers come in all packages, and just because someone has cash and ready to go doesn't mean that they're not time wasters.

Tbh OP I'd invite you to view - but only because you've said you love the house and are genuinely interested...so you could create a race between you and another buyer to drive up the offers. Or you give me asking, I'm in no rush so we all go away happy. The system has overcomplicated itself.

I think people would be more understanding if you'd not already seen the house!

And as for those who said they would pretend to be a millionaire if they wanted to visit a childhood friends hope etc, words fail me, how inconsiderate can you be?!

You're right, @cyclamenqueen

The house buying process in England is awful.

But yes, someone like OP who may genuinely be looking at one specific house is no more risk than someone under offer.

What if you had your house valued, lots of estate agents will offer a free evaluation with no obligation.
Then you can also speak to the EA in regards to a realistic selling price and what they know about demands for homes in your area.
Then I would drop a note to the sellers with your details

I mean, if you were genuinely interested in buying it and the vendors had no problem with it. Sure, why not! 😊

If it’s the estate agent blocking you and the vendors have not made a decision about either you individually or whether they want to have people who aren’t proceedable viewing, then you have a good point. But it is a common position for vendors to take because waiting on someone to sell their place is not at all attractive and many people are not interested in the risk and uncertainty involved.

Having experienced a very different system in another country I had my eyes opened to how dysfunctional the whole chain experience in the UK was and the compromises it pushed people into. When we last sold we didn’t accept anyone who was in a chain at all, whether they had a buyer for their place lined up or not. Too many risks and compromises attached and it slows everything down too much. We sold quickly and went into a rental while we found our ideal place - which we were able to move on fast and whose vendor, fortunately, wasn’t in a chain either.