Vendors with an agent - would you be annoyed by this?

[Eppia]

We are need to change location in the summer. Our house is sold STC to a first time buyer, so we are now ready to go.

Unfortunately, we can only visit where we’re relocating to every other weekend, as it’s a long way away and commitments in the week make it very difficult to travel except at weekends.

There are three properties we like, which the agents have told us we can’t view because there is no agent is available to take us round! I don’t care if the agent is there or not, quite frankly. I just would like to see the houses.

Some of these properties have been reduced and have been on the market several weeks.

I’m annoyed and I wonder if the vendor found out, whether they’d be annoyed too at a potential lost sale? We can meet the asking prices too!!

We do have a family member there though, who could drop a letter there tomorrow asking whether we could view and to call me if they are happy to do this? (Agents are busy showing potential buyers around other properties, so it’s not a case of a full open house).

What would this do to their relationship with their agent? Don’t want to rock the boat and make things difficult but equally, these houses are nice and presumably the vendors want them sold!

The vendor might be insisting on agent accompanied viewings and lots of agents only work Saturday and some only the mornings. Might be worth a note to explain your situation as nothing to lose and you’ve given the agent the chance.

Good point. Thanks for replying. The things is, I wouldn’t mind at all if the vendor was present and the house was a mess. I know it’s different when it’s your house, though (having people view ours was dead stressful!).

I’ll think about a note. We need to move as quickly as possible (the aim is to be able to make an offer on a house this weekend) and it’s such a shame to count out these houses just because an agent isn’t available. We’re only seeing two others at the moment.

Sounds very stressful I’m about to put mine in the market and not looking forward to the whole process. In you position I’d just be a little bolshy if they know your position and that you’re able to proceed quickly it should work in your favour. Good luck!

We had this problem and in the end rented locally for 6 months to give us time to view properties.

We had this!!! We were used to agents in the south east and discovered town living in the north west have different estate agents.. no floor plans, don't work Sundays, Saturday fully booked weeks in advance.

None of them ever did establish we were cash buyers and very serious buyers at that!!!

It’s certainly very frustrating. I wish we could afford to rent and move our stuff twice, but that’s not an option at the moment (unless of course everything goes pear shaped!)

I just know this would really annoy me as a seller. Our agent has been really on the ball. We accepted an offer in the early evening and he was even round at 6am to attach the sold sign to our property. I get the feeling he would have done extra in order to fit in potential buyers in our current situation. I won’t begrudge him his commission based on how he’s been so far.

You just have to change your commitments to fit in with the EA, we had to do the same or we'd have lost the property we later bought.
The sellers weren't bothered as not in a rush to sell and had plenty offers anyway.

When we sold our last house we were happy to show people around if the agent was unavailable - our agent just asked if we’d be willing (the prospective buyers did not contact us direct). I would ask the agent to approach the vendor and ask on your behalf. The agent should be very happy to do this as they want to make the sale so they can be paid (and whether the owner or their agent shows a buyer round won’t change this).

The only problem will be whether or not the owner is happy to show you round themselves as some owners are not willing and only want the agents to show people round.

If you are really sure that some of these houses could be the one then its probably worth taking a friday off work to go up and look. Buying a house is the most expensive thing you will buy - why not give yourself an extra day to look?

Thanks so much for the advice. The reason we’re currently not travelling on days other than weekends is the fact that I’m a teacher. Booking time off in term time is not an option, especially at this time of year when my exam classes need me.

In addition, I also have to get DS to and from school (which is a significant drive away) - there is nobody who could take DS to school in my place. In any case, DH and I would really like DS with us when we view, as we ideally want him to feel included in the decision-making process too. So weekends work well from that side of things too, as no school is missed.

Obviously, I’m aware that we could lose out this way. We do have a couple of lovely looking houses to see already, but we wanted to fit in as much as possible as it’s a big journey and, as has been pointed out, an enormous purchase.

Another annoying thing (albeit understandable from the vendor’s perspective) is that so many houses now hold open days rather than ad hoc viewings, so it’s not like I can try to book in advance to secure a Saturday slot on a chosen date.

Can your family member look round for you and report back?