House viewings

[frostyfingers]

We are trying to sell our house and being driven mad by what I call "sight seers". We have a tricky layout upstairs which we know won't suit lots of people so along with the floor plan we have it written in the description. So why do people come along and then say they don't like, didn't realise we had a walk through bedroom?

It doesn't bother me that they don't like it, but it is so frustrating when you spend time cleaning and tidying then as soon as you get upstairs with them they go "oh......"

Is it worth asking the EA to check that people are aware of this before they come, or should we just put up with it?

Tricky. If you ask the EA to make people aware of it, they will have to point it out especially and that might make buyers think "hmm, it must be a big problem". So might put off some people who were aware of it and wanted to look anyway.

But you could go half way, for example ask the EA to email a floor plan to everyone who asks to view?

Yes, difficult one. With something like that, people might think that until they see it in the flesh they wouldn't know for sure that it would/wouldn't be an issue for them. We had similar issues when selling our place in that all the negative feedback was based upon things which were glaringly obvious from the floor plan eg. "they don't like the fact that the family bathroom isn't on the same floor as the master bedroom"; "the bedrooms are too small"... etc etc. Bloody annoying but at the same time I think I've been the same when viewing houses!

Isn't it just a case of when the Ea asks for feedback from viewers who didn't like a house it is easier to pick the obvious flaw? I could see myself doing this as I would not particularly want to insult the vendor, it gets the EA off my back and means I don't have to give the answer much thought. I will in future however try and be more constructive (but not if I think the vendor will be hurt by my slagging off what they have done to place) :) Good luck with your sale.

Having just been through this ourselves, I think you need to suck it up (sorry).

I agree that it is maddening to get this kind of feedback. I have small children and the effort in tidying up was substantial. Our house is a terrace on three floors. It has three bedrooms but the second largest is in the basement. Feedback like "I don't want the downstairs bedroom" and "the property has too many stairs" should be obvious from the details. However, EAs tend to be "flexible" in their pitch to buyers because they need to get a certain volume of viewings, in order for you to think that they are doing their best for you. So it's not always that the buyers are time wasters but also that the EA is under pressure to get people round.

Anyway, good luck. We have just sold so we did find the right people in the end.

I think it might be that people need to see the house before they can tell whether they mind.

I got so fed up when we were selling, with people saying "no, it's got too many stairs" (the three floorplans on the details were a clue to that, I think) or "ooh, the railway is too close". We did get the EA to check that people realised that the garden backed onto the railway.

But now we're looking for somewhere to buy. There are so few houses on the market that we're going to view anything that might be remotely suitable in the hope that we'll see it and love it. So the last lot of feedback I gave, I heard myself saying "no, it was too open-plan" and realised that those vendors hate me now!

I think that a lot of people find it very hard to read plans and the descriptions (which are always written in EA gobbledygook), and just go by the photos. There was someone on here who hadn't realised a place was a flat rather than a house, once...

The thing is that if the house is nice enough, in a nice area and the right price, I would overlook a through bedroom but you don't know if the house warrants it before visiting!

Yes, I think I'm being a tad unreasonable really! It is hard sometimes to get a feel of what somewhere is really like from a plan, but it is really frustrating. I don't know what it is about house buying/selling that turns people (including myself) into monsters of a sort!

I'm just getting tired of trotting out the spiel for the same result all the time I suppose.

Yes, I think if the house feels right it that sort of thing doesn't bother you, but if it feels wrong you've got to think of something to say iykwim

Or rather you feel you ought to think of something to say

Well, (as someone who has worked as an EA) it is quite astonishing the number of viewers who will subsequently say they aren't going to offer "because it has a downstairs bathroom" when the property details, the floor plan, and indeed the Agent themselves has flagged up that fact before booking the viewing. There are always sightseers in the buying and selling business. Lots of people think its perfectly reasonable to "go and out and get a feel for the market" - quite a few of them even post on this here forum!

It amazes me how many people seem to have the time to sight see - I'm an avid watcher of the market and vsit websites alot, but I wouldn't dream of actually going to look at a house unless I wanted to buy one!

Me either!

But people can be very odd.

I know what you mean....we are selling our home and it's a conversion with our layout being a town house style. Floor plans and description make this totally obvious but we have had the "too many stairs feedback!"