Are viewings meant to be awkward?

[CatMad90]

I had my first viewing on my house last week, I've never done one before so didn't really know what to do. I found it SO awkward. I've viewed houses before and felt a little awkward, but actually hosting one felt so much worse.

They were here less than 10 minutes and had very little to say. It was awful!!! Is this normal?

I've got more booked next week and I'm dreading it now.

We are in the process of selling (SSTC) and we had to do a mix of EA and us for viewings, because EA were so busy and we didn't want to have to wait for viewings. They are generally 'socially awkward'. Usually we would let them in and give them a brief description of the house (age, layout etc) and then let them wander and say 'come and find us in the garden when you're done if you have any questions' and then leave them to it (and hide any valuables!). Much preferred EA led viewings though were we would go and sit in the cafe across the road for 30minutes!

We’ve always done our own viewings, apart from the last house we sold. We decided to make life easy and let the EA do them, while one of us was out and the other in the garden.
What a shambles! They employed part time ‘viewing reps’ who knew nothing of the house details, let alone the area. They asked us for a briefing before the viewing. We ended doing them ourselves and built up a lovely relationship with the purchaser.
On the other side, we once viewed a house where the EA didn’t have a clue and couldn’t find the garage, that was in the particulars. We found it later, some distance up the road!

It’s normal in Scotland for the vendors to do the viewings and I much prefer that. Only time I was shown a house by an agent was when the vendors were away for family event and the agent was clueless and couldn’t answer any of our questions.

Things will be different with Covid, but usually I’d show people round the whole house, then get out their way and let them look round by themselves, tell them to take as much time as they want and remove yourself from any room they’re in.

I’ve always tended to take quite a bit of time for viewings, as vendor or buyer. The second last time I viewed - second viewing - my DS ended up watching football on TV with the husband drinking hot chocolate the wife made him!

It's standard here for owners to do viewings, and generally it was fine. Exceptions include people watching telly while you're trying to look round, and teenagers lying in bed! Everyone except the person doing the viewing should go out. And let the viewers look round on their own.

When I have shown people around, i just try and chat ,let them walk into room before you, sometimes you can say something about the room, like its a working fireplace and really lovely in winter, or this bedroom has a lovely view over countryside or we are leaving all appliances in the kitchen etc etc make small talk about if they have travelled far, at the end i ask if they would like to look round by themselves or have any questions but if you're comfortable you could just ask if they want to look round by themselves straight away or better still get the estate agent to do it and get them to work for their money! It will get easier and some people will be easier to show around and chat with than others.