Viewings Without an Agent

[themumfrombrum]

Hello all :)

We've just decided to go with Purple Bricks for our house sale, but are now wondering whether we made the right decision to go with "attended viewings" as they call it. The agent now just wants to run an open day next weekend, so we'll have been up on the market for a week before there'll be any viewings.

I think we can get the extra back we paid for the attended viewings as long as we cancel that part of it before the advert goes live, which will hopefully be happening this afternoon.

Have any of you had any experience of viewings a property without an agent present?? Is it weird to have the home owner be the one to show you round?

Most of the houses we've viewed have been with the vendor not an agent. I did all the viewings for our house and it was fine. I actually preferred (most of) the viewings with the vendors (except the one where the guy was really pushy and annoying and really did not understand the need to let people look at his house properly). The EAs usually didn't know anything much about the house and always wanted to ask for feedback and thoughts as we went round/immediately after we were finished, which I really didn't like.

Some people hate viewing with a vendor, some people prefer it with the vendor. You will never hit on a way of doing it that pleases everyone.

Do you feel that you'd be comfortable doing viewings yourself?

I think I was more worried that it would be just me and my 2YO son in the house with strangers coming round - we're in a nice bit of a slightly dodgy area, if that makes sense, so we could have literally "all sorts" turning up to view.

I'm sure I could handle the viewings though, I've run tours of theatres I think I can manage my house lol!

It would give us more freedom in terms of what time people can come round and things too.

I'm pretty disappointed with the agent actually. He'd been great up until the point where we said we wanted attended viewings, and then he got a bit snippy with me. I think that might be making me rethink that decision too.

I wouldn't be bothered about having an agent there for viewings. I sold my late father's house last year through an online agency and met all the viewings myself. It was very good to meet prospective buyers, deal with offers etc myself and know who I was talking to about the house. I was also able to give an in-depth knowledge of the area, schools etc as it had been our family home. I wouldn't expect the agent to know much about the area if they're online tbh. They'll probably just be drafting in someone who's available for the day anyway.

I hate first viewings with the vendors, it really puts me off and I don't feel able to check out storage properly or discuss with DH as we are walking round what we might change. I admit it was helpful for a second viewing as the agents don't always know the answers to questions but on balance I'd prefer no venders. And worst crime of all is agents and vendors, if you have an open day and agents running it please please take your children out!!

Thinking about it, I think I'd be ok, but my husband gets a total case of verbal diarrhoea whenever he talks to strangers. If I can keep viewings to when he's not here I might be alright.

I think I'd rather offer the flexibility for the potential buyers to view when they want to rather than having to stick to an online agents schedule.

When I did viewings, I very quickly showed them where everything was and then left them to wander round on their own. I said I was happy to answer questions. Everyone had a look round on their own and then came and asked some questions. I figured friendly buy hands off was the way to go.

It was useful getting to meet the viewers, and helped us to decide whose offer to accept.

When I've been viewing properties, I didn't feel comfortable making comments to DH with the agent there. They seemed much more interested in trying to get us to say what we thought than any vendor was. Mostly the vendors we've dealt with took the same approach as me and mostly let the property speak for itself.

There was one lady who I think must have been nervous. She kept jabbering on about nonsense and demonstrating stupid stuff to us. She said she'd let us look round but then followed us around and kept talking to us. At the end of the viewing DH and I had to hold in giggles when she started explaining how the (totally standard) extractor fan worked to us as if we were aliens who'd never seen such a thing before. 'And if you move the switch to 2 it goes a bit faster...'

The only truly awful vendor viewing we had was with an absolutely insufferable man who had turned what would have been a lovely house into a nightmare. He was so overbearing and patronising. He'd obviously modelled his viewings technique on QVC and it was so awful. He kept giving us erroneous information (what the worktop was made of, etc) and completely unnecessary information (we don't care about the lightbulbs). It was like his personality covered everything and he didn't want to give you a chance to see the house outside of him at all. His tour went on so long we had to cut it short to go to another viewing and he was obviously annoyed that we weren't going to let him take us out to have the hot tub demonstrated and listen to several boring stories about how he got the best deal because he knows the right people etc.

I don't imagine you'll do either of those things though OP.

Haha! stepaway that poor woman! Nerves do get the better of me, but I work in Customer Services so I should be able to put my "smiley helpful" mode on and be fine.

I think I'll take your approach, show them a bit and then let them mooch.

We had an agent like that - the house really wasn't what we were after, the area wasn't right for us, but he'd arranged 4 viewings one after another so we agreed. He kept opening kitchen cupboards and telling us what he'd use rooms for. He was a NIGHTMARE. The other viewings had been cancelled by the time we got there too, so it was utterly pointless. He phoned for feedback the next day and we said it wasn't for us, and he got really pushy! He ended up telling the vendor that we hated the place too. It wasn't an awful house or anything, it just wasn't the right one for us.

I dread having any further viewings with him, but it's a major estate agent so I doubt we can avoid them :(

Thanks for your help :)

Ooo, my username change came up but I thought it would do previous posts too, lol! I'm the OP, sorry!

I prefer to do viewings myself. When we bought this house, the agent who showed us around let slip that there had only been 2 viewings since it went on the market months and months earlier. It meant that we were in a very strong position and put in a cheeky low offer.

When selling, it meant that I was able to SELL the house, not just show them around. I've a background in sales so not shy about doing this, and was able to tell the details of the work done on the house.

We have our first viewing tomorrow. I'm really nervous as never sold a house before. Following for tips.

when i was viewing houses only 1 was with the estate agent, the sellers showed me around, answered my questions when i asked but also volunteerered information before i asked eg why they were moving etc

have to say the the viewing with the estate agent was a repo and they knew nothing, to a point embarassed about the state of the place

imo if you are doing the viewings yourself you can give the personal touch

Have you read the reviews on purple bricks?

Most of our viewings were with vendors, only a few with EAs and that was mainly empty properties. I would say the reason EAs are preferable is that once they've shown you things, they tend to leave you alone to have a potter and a chat which most vendors don't feel able to do. So if you're showing as a vendor, I would suggest showing the viewers round downstairs, taking upstairs and then leaving them to have a look round and a chat and offer to answer any questions when they're ready to come back down. The vendor of the house we are buying said he'd do this but then kept popping back up with more information which was a bit disconcerting!

OP here, just a follow up - we sold our house in a week. Only had 4 viewings, but had 3 offers!

PB generally were, and still are, a bit pants - the "local expert" has been a nightmare to get hold of, but we have sold our house to a lovely family, and I don't have to have many more dealings with PB! Woo! Just glad we didn't decide to go with the agent who was going to charge us 2k more for the privilege of making a few phone calls, and hosting a viewing.