Why would a vendor insist on being at viewings?

[anyname123]

Just that really, seen a house that looks great, with an EA. Called to book a viewing, was told that viewing's are between 5-6pm only as vendor wants to be there, consequently I can't view the house. Good luck to her, she may well sell the house to someone more flexible, but why would you insist on being there? I'm looking to buy a house, not make a bloody friend!

I'm Australian and the system there is better too. The English system is mental and seems to exist only to keep conveyancers and surveyors busy.

1. Some EAs lie about having done viewings to keep you on the books. I've had this happen: "What can you do to market our place more, we haven't had any viewings" "Oh we've generated a lot of interest and had two viewings last week" "sorry, when were these viewings?" "Wednesday" "erm, I was in all day on Wednesday, you most certainly did not"

1. The EA may not be providing them with any useful feedback, some EAs are just really positive and don't pass on the negatives because they don't want to piss off the vendors (some do take feedback awfully personally, but it doesn't help the people who actually want/need feedback if they're over cautious"

1. Security, it's still someone's homes with their valuables, some EAs supervise viewings well, but having been a buyer I know that some unlock the door and leave you to it while they stand in the hall on their phone - this usually happens when the EA themselves can't be arsed to do the viewing and have sent the receptionist or letting agent with the key, and they get no commission/extra for doing it.

1. Probably other reasons too, but there's some valid ones for you

on the flip side I've been on some awful viewings with the vendors present. In one the husband had altered an original feature, not beyond redemption so I asked DH if he could restore it and he said yes no problem, it'ld be a small job…. husband came thundering in from the other room and told us that if we don't appreciate the house as it is then we couldn't have it! He then rang the EA when we'ld only gotten as far as the car park (so still chatting to EA ) to rant down the phone about him having brought "rude" viewers who didn't appreciate his handiwork!

That's interesting OP.

we've recently had a few properties that ticked all the boxes for us but the agent said that only the vendor would do viewings & only at a certain time on certain evenings.

Weekends were also v narrow time windows.

We both work full time & have a toddler so it's quite restrictive!

In the end we just gave up on those properties and carried on looking at others.

Funnily enough, a couple of them are still on the market from last summer.

We just figured they weren't that keen to sell.

When DH sold his place, he let the agents take over and do all the viewings- let them do something for their %!

To be fair he no longer lived there- I guess maybe there was no emotional attachment, purely a business transaction etc

I hate viewing houses with the vendor there. Very off putting and has put me off buying a house a vendor was a bit too in my face

I wouldn't buy a house without meeting the vendors.

I wouldn't have strangers walking around my house either. I also don't think EA's sell a home quite like the people who own it. I needed to be there to keep my dogs out of the way.

You don't sound that flexible yourself OP, so it may be you who struggles in the future to view houses. Not many people can show a house within office hours - many of them need it to be after.

I don't know of any houses that have gone for the asking price because my direct experience of working in the field is the exact opposite.

I was responding to a comment about my own experience, so I responded with my own experience.

If you'd read what I wrote, you would have noticed that I mentioned houses going for both over and under the asking price. As you say, the systems and practices around those systems are quite different including the weird 'offers over' thing in Scotland that I really don't get. Really sorry to let the facts get in the way of a Scottish superiority lecture though.

Oh dear, Francis. I thought it was obvious that the level of offer (over or under) was relative to the asking price. What else did you think it related to? Or were you determined to nitpick?

No superiority here - just curious about why you are quite so intent on dissecting a post that was so clearly about my own experience, which does not happen to include Scotland. It's a little strange.

I think 'offers over' is weird, sure, though the Scottish system has other benefits. Why not just have an asking price? I think the English system is fucked up. I think the Australian system has failings. I don't think nationality makes anyone inherently better or more realistic on how they price their properties.

HTH.

Is this aibu?
Let's all just accept the Scottish system, while not without flaws, is better than the hell of chains that seem to happen in England.

I am very glad I live in Scotland when it comes to buying and selling houses.

Most of the time Estate Agencies are not even involved.

No chains, no gazumping, no pulling out of purchases at the last minute.

Unfortunately pulling out and gazumping does occasionally happen here in Scotland. It happened to us. Offer accepted, paid for a survey, sold our house, mortgage approved etc.
1 week before move in date the people selling the house we bought pulled out allegedly that the rental place they were due to move to had fallen through. Their estate agent/solicitor didn't believe them. (Said as much in the letter they sent to our solicitor)
Found out later that someone offered them a higher cash in hand deal for the place. But karma got them as this other party then pulled out on them.
It turned out good for us too as the neighbour next door to the house got raided by the police a few months after, for running a brothel !

Oh and to answer the op, it's normal in Scotland for owners to show potential buyers round. Most places it's Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon for 'open viewing' . Out with those days you can call owner direct to arrange viewing.
You can ask the owners questions while you view as well.

Must be very different systems then Francis - here there is generally a reasonably strong correlation between offer and final price, and particularly whether they are over or under asking price. How confusing for there not to be a strong relationship between the two!

I'm Scottish too and have always shown my own houses. I hate it on the rare occasion an EA shows a house - they never know the answers to all my questions.

When selling my last house viewers did all sorts of weird stuff after I'd left them alone to have a look round.

One person went through my (freestanding) wardrobe and drawers.

One couple lay on the bed.

One couple broke something (and didn't mention it).

One couple removed all the cushions from the beds and window seats in every bedroom and put them on the floor.

One woman fed her toddler chocolate and I just caught his smeary little hands just before they hit the hall wallpaper. She said "isn't he adorable?"
I said "would you like a baby wipe?"

One couple let their children play on the garden playset (without asking) after their viewing (which I didn't mind) but they stayed so long that they were still there when the next viewers arrived and the DH was furious. He accused me of deliberately staging things so they'd see each other.

He was even more annoyed when I pointed out that he was my 4th viewer that day and that I had another 4 to go. In order to fit everyone in they each got a 40 min slot. That rather took the wind out of his sails.

My favourites were the terribly naice older couple who had a massive, really loud sweary row upstairs for 15 minutes and then walked downstairs holding hands and chatting away as if nothing had happened.

And then there was the woman who hopped up on the kitchen counter while chatting to me.

Seriously- who'd want to let the EA have all the fun and miss out on the drama.

I would certainly be wanting to do the viewing myself. Since we have always sold really quickly, with several people wanting it the potential viewer would be the one to lose out if they refuse to view because they didn't like it! Last time the EA wanted to do it so we let them get on with it, but we were there too.
I much prefer the vendors showing me around- they are the ones who know the house and can answer questions.

We have got above the asking price the last 2 times so it has been perfectly OK us doing it our way- which is to be there. If viewers don't like it they have no need to view.

In my experience people who insist on being around during viewings are either hiding something and want to make sure viewers don't see it, not used to buying and selling and don't understand how off putting it is to viewers, or neurotic about having people in their house. I avoid like the plague.

Ah, I see - I should have been more explicit that I was including accepted offers. At any rate, here it would be quite unusual for a house with offers over the asking price to go with one that was under. It happens, but it's unusual. Houses that I've missed out on have always gone for above my offer, except for a couple of cases where the vendor refused our offer because we didn't adequately fawn over their decor. As you say, Scotland is different - this is my experience of southern England.

Now if I can just figure out the relevance of the Scottish system to the question of whether the behaviour of vendors in England in my particular English examples was reasonable (the discussion you commented on), all will become crystal clear.

Oldestmumaintheworld- I agree!
Ours is on the market - we've had 4 viewings so far, I've been out for three of them. One was short notice so I had no option but to be in but I sat in the office out of their way!