Owners being present during a viewing

[lboogy]

General question - for those of you who stay in the house when there's a viewing , why do you do it?

I always leave the house when there's a viewing . I find it awkward personally. I'm selling myself and I always leave for viewings. If I see the owner is in the house it stops me from lingering and looking around properly

I also hate when the owner tries to sell me the house too

I'm in the north and I've never had a viewing with an agent, it's always the owner. Most give you a quick tour and then leave you alone to explore. Seems fine to me.

I saw a house last week and the tenant was on her computer in the lounge. I felt really uncomfortable and didn't want to linger.

We've bought and sold a few times now and have never been present for a viewing, and only once had the owners present as we looked. That was weird.

It does amaze me the pride some owners have in their houses when there's a lot of work needing to be done

That’s your opinion though. I was very proud of our house, I liked it. Not flash, but clean, tidy and functional. First thing the buyer commented on was all the “work” they’d have to do. Everything was perfectly clean, functional and serviceable, they just were a bit kirsty and went about discussing walls needing knocked down.

I think both have advantages and disadvantages.
I did the viewings when we sold our old house and it certainly didn't do us any harm - we had 3 days of back to back viewings and all but one couple put in an offer. We went to sealed bids and agreed a sale by the Friday.
When we bought we did a mix of owner and agent viewings. Owner viewings give you an indication of why people are selling and can answer questions immediately.
Agent viewings it's easier to be candid if you don't like something. Although I admit we tended to keep our opinions quiet until we got back in the car.

It’s the norm in Scotland, in my city anyway. They asked me all about parking, schools, the garden and I could show it and answer questions about when the kitchen went in etc far better than an agent. I also would want to have that final check it’s perfect and the toilet is flushed, so wouldn’t fancy just handing keys over to someone else.
But I accept it’s different in other places. I usually sent the dcs out but the times some people wanted to come at, it wasn’t always possible.

I thought it would be awkward too until we kept being asked lots of questions estate agent couldnt answer and decided to just do the viewings ourselves

When we last our house on the market the fee between us doing and the agent doing was massive. If we done it our self we would've been charged 0.75% or of the agent done it then it was 2%.

I stayed in or my ex did because our viewing agent was beyond terrible XD we were able to give more information that way too.

These days with the internet, EAs do relatively little - it's the sales progression where they earn some of their fees imo. I prefer them to do viewings in order to get some value for money.

However, I don't have a problem being shown round by the sellers and would do a viewing myself if the agent couldn't. Most sellers show you round then let you go round on your own and can answer any questions immediately.

We have always stayed in/ been at the property for viewings.
This is irrespective of our home or business property.
I think just on that count I can sell it better than the estate agent.