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Original poster

Viewing houses as a hobby - rant

55 replies

Ideasplease322 · 28/04/2021 09:16

I am selling my house - sale agreed now.

I know this is a minor grip but I had a couple come to view. On a Thursday morning - only time that suited them. I had to prepare the house, reschedule a meeting, get out of the house so the estate agent could show them around.

I rang the estate agent afterwards and he said they had viewed over 100 houses, they have no intention of ever buying🤬.

So angry at estate agent for not telling me this first - I would have said no.

But what type of people do this??? I understand going to show houses or vacant houses, but arriving at someone’s home, buying them to that inconvenience when you have no intention of every buying.

Estate agent says they are well known for it and they will be blacklisted. Bloody annoyed at estate agent - but what a selfish couple.

And rant over.

OP posts:
name674398 · 28/04/2021 09:31

Were their names Kirstie and Phil by any chance...?

In all seriousness, totally Jack thing to do, I'd be pretty livid at the EA too.

user648482729 · 28/04/2021 09:33

That’s really selfish; I love looking at houses online but I’d never waste the time of the estate agent or home owner by arranging viewings.

LaBellina · 28/04/2021 09:36

I’d start looking for another EA in your shoes.

Clownpanda · 28/04/2021 09:36

My mum used to do this with show homes, she loved to have a look round when they did the open days for new build developments even though she had no intention of buying. She'd never have done it to homes where someone was living though.

I'd be seriously annoyed too OP, especially with estate agent! Can't believe they knew and let them come anyway!

Orgasmagorical · 28/04/2021 09:39

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Original poster
Ideasplease322 · 28/04/2021 09:40

Thank you - I was starting to think my anger was irrational.

I know it’s only one viewing - and if it had been in a slushed with other viewers it wouldn’t really have mattered, but they requested a specific slot - there were already offers in which they knew about and they still presented themselves as potential buyers.

My house is a standard semi detached. It’s nicely decorated - but nothing special. There is nothing they could have sen in person that wasn’t in the many photos online.

I had locked away valuables, and I always take my laptop etc with me. But I did do a quick check of everything because I am puzzled by their motivation

OP posts:
Dramstam · 28/04/2021 09:42

If the estate agent knew that then why didn’t they tell you first so that you could decide whether you wanted to show them round or not. I have a friend who is a bit like that, she does want to buy somewhere else but is under no time pressure so likes to go and have a look at all the houses in her preferred location. She’s been at this for 5 years or so now

Corneliusmurphy · 28/04/2021 09:47

Found this so frustrating when we were selling, not least because whenever we asked for a viewing we had to practically give inside leg measurements to get through the door but our estate agent seemed to let anyone in.

LaBellina · 28/04/2021 09:47

Your anger is not misplaced OP.
I am a very private person and I absolutely hated strangers walking trough my bedroom when our old home was put up for sale.
It’s part of selling your home but I would not have been happy with anyone who isn’t the EA or a serious buyer coming in.

AlfonsoTheTerrible · 28/04/2021 09:49

YANBU, OP. That was selfish and thoughtless behaviour on the part of the EA and the snoopers.

Original poster
Ideasplease322 · 28/04/2021 09:50

Exactly - estate agent should have told me.

My house is in the first time buyers bracket where I live - under £250k - so it’s not like it’s mansion that people would love to explore.

OP posts:
WeevilsAreEevils · 28/04/2021 09:52

I was worried then that my love of online house viewing was somehow causing difficulties!

YANBU - this is actually creepy on the part of the couple and they should be stopped from booking further viewings unless they demonstrate a willingness to proceed, such as a mortgage in principle, simply because it is a waste of everyones time.

@Clownpanda - that feels very different to this - they are open viewings where no-one's actual home is being walked around. Its a commercial entity and no worse than window shopping in that sense.

WakeUpSchmakeUp · 28/04/2021 09:54

Agree that your anger is justified OP. Did you say to the EA If you knew this about them why didn’t you impart that information to me?

They really do need to be blacklisted. It’s not a joke.

mummabubs · 28/04/2021 09:54

Agent definitely should have refused to schedule a viewing if they were at all aware of it being a pattern for them! Were they seemingly a bit naive/ftbs (ie someone who hasn't had to prep a house for viewings before?) I agree it's thoughtless behaviour.

My DH went through a phase when we were house hunting of wanting to view properties "to get a feel for that style of house" even when we knew the location/ some other aspect wasn't going to work for us. I think the big teller here is that he never got our house ready for viewings, that was all me. He did strop a bit when I refused to go and view houses that we knew weren't going to be right for us but did reluctantly get it when I explained why- for him it was less about the effort of prepping the house but he did remember how he used to get his hopes up that we'd receive an offer after every viewing and got that this wouldn't be kind to raise someone's hopes unnecessarily.

takemetomiami · 28/04/2021 09:55

Your agent is an idiot. It's their job to check if people are serious before putting you to the trouble of a viewing.

MiddleClassProblem · 28/04/2021 09:59

It sounds like the agent didn’t realise who they were until showing them around.

Original poster
Ideasplease322 · 28/04/2021 10:00

I was a bit taken aback to be honest when the estate agent told me, and I was also dealing with offers and trying to make sure I secured my onward purchase (which is also handled by the same estate agent).

I think I said something like that is very annoying - I had to reschedule an important zoom meeting to accommodate that couple (and windolene every fecking window, mirror and shower, clean the kitchen, pack up all work papers and remove my ‘kitchen table office’). That’s when the estate agent said they would be blacklisted In the future. But I don’t think I directly said why the hell didn’t you tell me this first.

Regret that now.

OP posts:
jay55 · 28/04/2021 10:01

I thought it was the estate agents job to filter out time wasters.
After all we've had threads of people not being able to view because their house isn't sold yet etc.

Pyewackect · 28/04/2021 10:02

There are some very strange people around.

I knew somebody who , periodically, put their house on the market but had no intention of actually selling it. She said she liked to, " test the market" ?.

But then I've known firms advitise jobs that don't exist and Motor traders promote cars the don't actually have. I guess they must have a reason for doing it.

Osrie · 28/04/2021 10:02

Estate agents knew but didn’t tell you!

RainingBatsAndFrogs · 28/04/2021 10:17

Really irresponsible of the EAs.

Most are ‘vetting’ anyone who wants to view, checking that they have a house under offer or an AIP for a mortgage, to stop time wasters going into people’s homes in a pandemic.

I would not be impressed. You can’t have a cup of tea indoors with your Mum but the EA let idiots like this wander all over your house.

Rainbowshine · 28/04/2021 10:25

If you want to you could go back to the estate agent and say that you have had some time to reflect on what happened and in future you’re expecting them to be checking viewers and eliminating time wasters or at the very least discussing the viewer’s ability to realistically proceed given that you have offers on the property. I do know of one EA local to us that pay commission to their employees based on the number of viewings, this was pre COVID. Guess what - lots of annoyed buyers being asked to view unsuitable properties and annoyed sellers like you!

TillyTopper · 28/04/2021 10:32

When we sold our house I actively asked the agent each time for details about the viewers - just to see if it was worth my time or not. I made it clear I'd be doing this when I engaged the agent. I said I'd rather group viewings so I could tidy on a Friday evening and go out all day on a Saturday for example. We only had 2 viewings that weren't on a Saturday - both had already sold and were in a position to straight away.

It does take a lot of time to prep, tidy up, get out the house etc so I don't think it's unreasonable.

Onandoff · 28/04/2021 10:34

They probably only told the EA when they were doing the viewing, or afterwards when they called for feedback. When we were looking EA generally asked for our address and our position but there are no checks further than that. People can lie.

tcjotm · 28/04/2021 10:37

That’s bad if it was a special appointment for them,

But in Australia we generally have open houses on Saturday mornings, they’re about a 30-45 minutes and fair game for potential house buyers and neighbourhood stickybeaks. It’s quite good fun looking around hearing the comments of the other twenty or so people looking. One time I viewed a flat with ocean views and there were about forty of us. It was quite weird shuffling around the bedroom with about ten other people 😂