Estate agent cheek?

[peachypetite]

Just put house on the market at the weekend. Had an email from the estate agent saying there are two people interested in viewing at the weekend but he is on holiday so would we want to show the potential buyers ourselves. I find this a complete piss take?! I'm annoyed since we chose them due to their good reputation and they are a small independent not chain, so I hope I won't end up regretting this. Just doesn't seem like a great start.

Ask him can he not get a colleague to step in?

I have emailed saying we have enlisted them to sell our house and do not want to be involved in the viewings, I just think it's a bit of a piss take!

I would have expected a colleague to be covering for him - surely weekends are the busiest times for house viewing?

Sometimes EAs have viewings staff who just work weekends. Ime they tend to be a bit shit and not know much about the houses.

I hope they offered a discount, bloody cheek.

We also don't want to be here since we know people will feel awkward and not look around properly. You can't be critical when the owners are there.

I’d just show them round myself. I don’t think it’s a big deal tbh.

Up here in Scotland we mostly do all our own viewings, in fact I think it would be odd to have a stranger showing someone round your home! They couldn't possibly sell it as well as you could.

You don't literally follow them around when they view. You invite them into your favourite room first then show them around the ground floor and then invite them to look around upstairs on their own. You hang about in the kitchen and then move into the hall when they come for another look around the kitchen and garden. You can obviously tell them all the good points about your house, the recent boiler/kitchen/good neighbours/schools.

I quite enjoyed selling previous houses and never had any unpleasant viewers at all. You can usually tell really quickly who is going to offer just by talking to them.

I'd rather do it myself.

Ive had EAs blatantly lie to me about the property theyre showing me round and I've had to then leave messages for vendors to clarify details for me. At least if the actual vendor is showing you around you will get the information you need along with loads of really useful information too.

I just dont trust the EA to give accurate factual details because above all else they want a quick sale. Exaggerating about the property theyre showing might mean they get that sale much quicker and who will notice if they tell a few little white lies to potential buyers?

I'd rather do it myself and make sure the information given is accurate and to make sure no one steals my french knickers/vase/jewellery.

Presumably he is reluctant to get a colleague to cover because they will get the commission of either viewing leads to a sale?

*if

We had this and the EA’s viewing team were useless, they knew nothing about the house and admitted that they were given 15 mins per House, to show it.
We sold to a couple who we had shown round. They particularly like the family feeling in the house, vibes that I think we gave, as the owners.
I hate showing prospective buyers around my home, but I do think the personal touch sells a house.
We viewed a house with the E.A., when we asked where the garage was the E.A. didn’t know there was one and certainly didn’t know it’s location! ( at the end of the garden).

We live in a tiny two bed so whoever is looking round won't really be able to have any privacy - we would be able to hear everything being said. We will be paying them a fee if it sells so I'd rather they worked for their money!! Especially since it's the first viewings and we won't have had any previous feedback or know which things to address.

I know what you mean about it seeming like poor value for the EA fee, but as a prospective buyer who's had some really frustrating viewings recently (particularly at weekends) with EA staff who know nothing about the property, I'd welcome the opportunity to meet a seller face-to-face.

Yes, buyers will be more polite than they would be with an agent, but you may be able to gauge more from their reaction than from a lot of vague agent-filtered feedback.

As long as the seller isn't pushy and gives me a bit of space to look around (and it doesn't have to be a lot: just not shoulder-hovering constantly), I would really appreciate being shown a property by someone who can answer technical questions instead of just banging on about 'lovely light in here' and not being able to answer basic questions, like 'is that a working fireplace'.

Obviously, an agent who pockets the fee and does absolutely no viewings is another thing, but with a reputable agency I don't think it's a big problem to do a few viewings yourself.

Yeh if any of them want a second viewing I wouldn't mind but we are new to selling and it's the first views.