Viewing houses as a hobby - rant

[Ideasplease322]

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.

How did they manage to get a viewing? DD had to provide MiP and proof of deposit to view anywhere!

@Ideasplease322 there is also a special place in hell saved for people who don't even turn up.

I remember once having a viewing scheduled on a Saturday, waited with bated breath until Monday to ring the agents for feedback only to discover they hadn't turned up. Also annoyed the agents hadn't bothered to tell me at the time.

It's so discourteous to vendors to book viewings if you are not strongly considering buying the house.

Hope rest of the process goes better for you.

It’s so much work prepping for a viewing, even if you’re naturally very clean and tidy. I’ll never forget prepping for ages, taking time off work to do the viewing and the fucking neighbour comes in to have a look as a “prospective buyer” which was clearly bollocks. I was fuming but so shocked I actually did the viewing.

I’d be annoyed too! And it’s people like that that are contributing to the current problem (I know Covid too) that means we cannot view until we are under offer!

YANBU. When we were selling I had to walk my three under threes around the block for a 7pm viewing (not to mention spending a day of cleaning and tidying.) The couple didn’t even turn up! I was so upset. After that we said we would only do viewings on Saturdays and Tuesday afternoons I think.

Where we live, the Estate Agents won’t let you view a property until you have an offer on your own property.

I'd be looking at a new EA. And ask for only those who actually have intentions to buy to be shown around in future!

That is incredibly out of order.

I do wish estate agents would include garden measurements on listings. I went to a lot of unnecessary viewings before buying my house, I wanted a reasonable garden, had a low budget and just found it difficult to judge from photos the actual size of the garden. They were mostly open house events though.

Ask your estate agent why the hell he didn't tell you before they viewed rather than afterwards. And indeed why he hasn't banned them already.

@Walkingthedog46

Where we live, the Estate Agents won’t let you view a property until you have an offer on your own property.

We didn't have to have an offer but had to be "proceedable". So either a cash buyer, or show proof of mortgage in principle and have own house on market (if you needed to sell it).

Watching Kirsty snd Phil there is always couples who do this, it’s not a hobby it’s just they want more than they can get in their budget and are too scared to commit, or one of them is. And then they get on an endless round about of viewings where nothing suits.

Amazed they managed to do that. I had to jump through fiery hoops to get viewings recently - show AIP, talk to the EA linked brokers too.

They went on about the need to do this because of Covid cleaning, which I understand.

I am shocked too! We are looking to move but can't view anything until we are under offer and have an AIP. Your Estate Agent should be checking these things first.

We’ve recently moved house and when people were going to view it took time and effort to really present the house in its best light, clean it to sparkling standards etc. Then, in a pandemic, after they had been, a massive disinfect of every door handle, cupboard door, light switch, anywhere they might have touched. Such a pain.
Your EA should have been weeding out the the time wasters. OP, I have every sympathy

I can never understand people that do this, I would find viewing a house I wanted a bit of a chore let alone doing it to pass the time! And the work you had to put into it for nothing too, you wouldn’t mind if there was a genuine possibility that they were interested!

It's so annoying, OP. We told our agent to block-book on set days in the week to minimize the prep. Anyone keen enough will fit in with that, and if they genuinely did need a different slot the EA would confirm their proceedability first.

I also find it annoying when viewers ignore requests for feedback. They've been round someone's home and had someone's time, answering a quick phone call with potentially useful feedback isn't much to ask.

YANBU OP there’s a lot of effort into prepping the house for a viewing, a good couple of hours. I’d have been really annoyed too.

I used to get annoyed when people viewed one house we were selling and said “lovely house, shame about the area” like I had advertised it as being in a different area and it came as some sort of shock when they arrived at the described area. What was more annoying as they generally wanted to be close to the train station. i.e. in the area drove me nuts!

When we sold 5 years ago our agent told us that if they got hobby viewers they would use a particular sentence when ringing us.
Can't remember the phrase now but it was code for timewasters and we would reply that we would get back to them as we had an interested viewer.
It meant the agent didn't have to lie but we could.

Oh I would have been utterly livid. Shame on your EA!!

And @starpatch I fully agree re garden measurements!

The fault lies entirely with your EA here and I’d be having very sharp words. We’ve just sold and the only buyers allowed in had been vetted to make sure they were serious, were proceedable and had viewed the virtual tour etc.

I don’t understand why they told you they knew they were time wasters but let them view anyway? Agree they are time wasters but the only reason they were able to waste your time is because your EA let them.

Estate agents round our way will barely let you view unless youve got an mip or practically sold your house. I phoned for a few viewings before mine went on the market and i was refused so had to put it on the market quickly

@tcjotm

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 😂

Having had experience of buying & selling in both countries, Australian open days are such a weird concept. There’s no way these days I’d be keen to have 50 people traipsing through in a 45 minute slot.

OP I feel your pain - we had one set of viewers spend 45 minutes poring over a 2 bed flat at dinner time whilst we stood outside in the cold & dark during lockdown. They then didn’t give any feedback except it “wasn’t for them”.

Urgh I remember this happening to us when we sold our tiny house. Kids in the car eating sandwiches for tea with my husband as the rain battered down. Broken my neck cleaning up for the viewers coming. “Oh no we aren’t buying we just like this area and fancied seeing what the houses were like”