Your WTF Moments As Sellers

[Smokeahontas]

First time seller here, it’s about to go on the market. To prepare myself a little, what’s the most WTF question / demand you’ve had as a seller?

House went on the market and 20 odd viewings within a week. Several offers. One couple tried to justify there 6k below asking price offer as the front door handle was tarnished!

"their"!!

@yomellamoHelly

Intense conversation between a couple viewing and the estate agent who sheepishly asked to talk to us. Couple eagerly followed him and stood 1m behind and then talked over EA. They wanted us to know how much they loved our house - absolutely perfect for them, nothing they would change, but we needed to understand they were first time buyers and the house was far too expensive for them Would I consider [some ridiculously discounted price]. I flat out said no. We'd already had ?5 offers that day (Saturday, first day on market, loads of people through door) all for asking price. They tried to argue the point. They tried to persuade us. Had been looking for ages .........

This is nuts. My dream house is out of my budget too. I imagine most peoples are. I wouldn't dream of going to look at them and insist that the seller drop the price to my budget.

Sold three months ago. Had a random call from the old utility company the other day asking me where the gas and electricity meters at the property were as the current owners apparently couldn’t find either

I had an elderly couple with the husband in a wheelchair arrive for a viewing of my 200 year old house with steep stairs. He unsurprisingly stayed downstairs and the feedback afterwards was that the first floor bedrooms weren't suitable- no shit

I've just bought a flat as a FTB. I really hope I was not too much of a pain. The only thing I stipulated was that I can't be contacted by phone from 8am - 4:30pm during the week, but EA could always email or text and I'd get back to them. They had my parents' number anything super urgent.

@Greenandcabbagelooking - so you couldn’t be contacted for the majority of the working day, had mummy and daddy on standby (why?!) but hope you weren’t too much of a pain...?

@Greenandcabbagelooking

I've just bought a flat as a FTB. I really hope I was not too much of a pain. The only thing I stipulated was that I can't be contacted by phone from 8am - 4:30pm during the week, but EA could always email or text and I'd get back to them. They had my parents' number anything super urgent.

I'm currently in the same situation. I hope I'm not the nightmare FTB. I offered asking price, wholly understand my 100 yo terrace to be will need some work. Having already had a sale fall through through no fault of my own I already had mortgage/solicitors/surveyors lined up. Hopefully I'm in before summer without any real fuss.

[quote Lettuceforlunch]@Greenandcabbagelooking - so you couldn’t be contacted for the majority of the working day, had mummy and daddy on standby (why?!) but hope you weren’t too much of a pain...?[/quote]
Most things can be dealt with by email as long as you respond as soon as reasonably possible - within a few days is usually more than fine. Parents were on standby incase something unexpected and urgent came up while greenandcabbagelooking was at work. Sounds totally reasonable to me.

I had our buyer's solicitor knock on the door (we knew him slightly) and ask us why we were still there!
It turned out that our solicitor had sent all the info about completion, and the keys to our new house, to the new address.

Another thing worth mentioning was the single man who turned up to view a house, whom I showed round alone, as DH was running late. I got the creepiest vibes from, especially showing the bedrooms. When DH finally turned up and called out, I couldn’t get downstairs quick enough.

Our neighbour was interested in buying our house so we gave him a tour. He asked to borrow our kitchen knife to scrape back the paint on our living room wall to see if we'd painted over wallpaper. We hadn't, it was a recently built wall so it was paint on plaster. When we said no he said he'd just do it when he bought the house (spoiler- he couldn't afford it and offered 80k under asking price). We had a going away BBQ and invited him as well as some other neighbours and found him scratching the paint back on the wall!

@Bythemillpond

I had a buyer ring the estate agent to say he couldn’t proceed with the purchase as he was dead

😯 Best reply award!

Selling a house through probate, accepting an offer. He asked to return which was fine, then said as we couldn't answer the very specific things he asked, he pulled out. Things mostly about the village, we lived 300 miles away so hadn't a clue. Back on, another offer was accepted, he then found my husbands number from somewhere and called up demanding to know why we had taken an offer 5k less than his, demanded we pull out abd give him another chance.

@alaksnsm

I'm never selling to a FTB again. Our house went to best and final offers as a lot of interest, sold in 6 days. FTB offer was accepted. Requested multiple visits, measuring things, showing extended family around several times etc. We were always accommodating despite a heavily pregnant me having to take the dogs out for a walk every time. Had a survey done. Nothing major highlighted, house only 13 years old, garden wall possibly needed rebuilding in the future (not urgent) and some pointing around the roof. Checked with buyer they were happy to proceed etc. Got to day of exchange and suddenly they wanted over 10% off the house price because of things in the survey. They had apparently had a friend quote and it was tens of thousands of pounds of work that needed doing. We told them no. Got our own quotes for the garden wall which was the only bit they could maybe have had a genuine concern with and they came in at a couple of thousand. We offered this amount off the price, or we would get the wall repaired but they refused and said they still wanted the full value off that their 'quote' said and we'd probably want to just agree to that quickly as 'we can see you're pregnant and need to move.' We told them to sod off and put it back on the market. It sold again within 3 days, for more money. And we managed to move to a lovely house before I gave birth 😂

😲

@user1471538283

I had FTBs who wrote a very long email explaining Brexit to me and as my house was old it would need ongoing work (I had just refurbished it), the bedrooms were small (they were standard doubles) and how they could get a new build cheaper. Their offer was so insultingly low. I refused. They then wanted a second viewing after I had sold.

Ìve had viewers insult my home, how their home is so much nicer, they want more bedrooms, a bigger house, they could get bigger for cheaper. As if I'm interested in their critique.

They wanted a second viewing AFTER you'd sold?!? Did they not know it was off the market?! Also how did you respond to the Brexit lecture?! I'd have responded with "I wasn't born yesterday you patronising cow! 🤣"

When we were selling our flat, the EA sent a buyer on their own to look. We were ok with it. It was Saturday afternoon when he knocked on the door.
He said he likes the flat and said he wants to put offer right this minute. We said it has to go through the EA on Monday. He sat in the kitchen at the table and would not leave until we would say we will accept his offer.
He sounded very unhinged, started saying he has the money on him ( the asking price which was 180k) so he wants to buy the flat here and then.
We could not get rid of him, he would not move from that chair.
In the end I said I’m gonna call police if he won’t leave immediately.
That worked and he finally left after 2.5 hours!
Madness!
Wtf!

Oh to add, he was still roaming outside our flat for some time..

I've just bought a flat as a FTB. I really hope I was not too much of a pain. The only thing I stipulated was that I can't be contacted by phone from 8am - 4:30pm during the week, but EA could always email or text and I'd get back to them. They had my parents' number anything super urgent

This wouldn’t make you a PITA. Lots of people work jobs where they can’t answer the phone between certain house - teacher, nurse, driver etc - and they still manage to buy houses without incurring the wrath of their vendors. Unless you are buying in 1972, then I don’t see how this is an issue.

[quote Lettuceforlunch]@Greenandcabbagelooking - so you couldn’t be contacted for the majority of the working day, had mummy and daddy on standby (why?!) but hope you weren’t too much of a pain...?[/quote]
What a nasty, vile post. Why on earth do you have to be so callous?!?

You beat me to it @CervixHaver re @Lettuceforlunch's nasty and unnecessary post!

Selling our last house, a family came, said they loved it, asked us what we’d accept, we told them, they said they’d like to offer that, shook our hands. Next day, estate agent rang and said that family actually lived further up the road and weren’t the ones buying, they were looking round on behalf of the bloke’s brother. The brother looked at the particulars and apparently said it’s too small as he has 6 kids and the house was a tiny 2 bed?! To this day I’m still like wtf!!!

We sold to a woman who following acceptance started wanting everything on the survey fixed, but it was done that it was daily and it was always a new small thing,.

I went with it for a few days But eventually started to loose patience a S started getting really irate .

It was a hundred year old house, I’d had other offers, and she was doing my head in, it was things like the guttering needs repainting, the fence needs repairing at the bottom, the bushes need cut back, and other random shit.

I kept getting the work done like an idiot, because it was all quire minor, and after about a week I told the very embarrassed agent when he called with another request “ put it back on the market, she’s taking the piss, I’m not selling to her”. He agreed and said he’d never seen anything like it. It was a constant daily stream of stupid piss taking demands.

Anyway they told her the sale was off, and basically she begged andpromised to not ask for anything else and the sale went through without a peep from her again.

@krustykittens

I had one buyer request I give her one of my dogs as part of the sale as apparently she had 'bonded' with him when she viewed the house.

That is absolutely bonkers!

This wasn't a sale that I was involved in, but an acquaintance that I'd met at a baby group asked me if I could look at her garden. She was trying to sell a large 3 storey house that had a tiny garden,and wanted some advice on how to make it look larger.
I turned up to see about 12ft square of concrete,with a very large,very dead tree in the centre. I told her that the dead tree should be the first thing to go. She informed me that it couldn't as there was a spirit living inside it,so it had to stay. That house was for sale for years. Long after we lost touch,I used to drive by and see the 'for sale' sign still up.

Selling a family house through probate. It was at the top of a hill, and was a well maintained, recently refurbished house that had been in the family for over 60 years. We knew the full history of the house inside out. Our prospective buyer contacted us a few weeks before the sale was to go through demanding we reduce the price by 30% because it was on a flood plain and there was a risk of flooding. Totally ridiculous. We asked for the report that suggested this, which couldn't be produced.
Then they asked for a sizeable discount as the house had subsidence. Again, total fabrication. Nothing of the sort according to our own surveys. This time they produced a letter from their "builders", which on further investigation turned out to be the guy's brother playing a fast one.
We turned them down as were in no rush to sell, and got the full asking price a year later