Viewings-home owner or estate agent?

[Pastnowfuture]

Looking for opinions on whether it's better to conduct our own viewings or whether we should let estate agent do it. My husband would like to let estate agent do it but I think buyers might be put off if they don't get a chance to speak with us? When I was buying I preferred to hear directly from the vendors about neighbours and why they were moving etc.

The house we were hoping to buy (looks like it's falling through) we did 3 viewings (1 pre-offer, 1 post offer and what that was supposed to be pre-exchange ) and the owners have been hovering around every. single. time. The first time I went with the agent but they were there and then the agent hasn't come to the last 2. It's been really annoying to be honest, especially the first viewing. My DS actually said when he came along that he struggled to picture it as our home because they were all over it. We loved the house and that's not why it's falling through but it was weird to think that moving day would have been the first time we'd been there without the current owners.

The viewing of my house was absolute chaos. Vendor was in but in the utility room trying to contain two unruly loud large dogs. The vendors had also had a purchase fall through so the second utility and the second bedroom were full of boxes and the garden couldn't be accessed. The agent was inexperienced and couldn't answer any questions. We were the first of 7 viewings in 2 hours. I was going through a lot personally and I was trying to keep my emotions in check. We'd been round all the other agents that morning and I'd been told by several they didn't have anything to compete with what we were viewing.

Despite the chaos I fell in love with the place when we viewed it and made a full asking price offer on the spot. Round here the market is moving quickly and when you know you know so how a viewing is conducted was irrelevant as a buyer.

Different story when I was selling. I couldn't handle watching people banging on walls and opening all my cupboards for some reason so I insisted agents did it.

I've never done a viewing, nor attended a viewing with the owners there. That's only 6 moves, but each one done by an agent with owners not present.

My DS actually said when he came along that he struggled to picture it as our home because they were all over it.

Same. I also want to be able to open cupboards, doors and drawers (I’m very realistic that they might be stuffed full) to see if things are still in good condition, what make they are etc. It’s incredibly hard to do that with an owner hovering.

We looked at a house last weekend that seemed lovely and in great condition from its ad but when we got there, we realised the owner had been painfully faithful to its Edwardian heritage and deliberately maintained all of its more pointless outdated features to the extent you’d need to start again with the electrics & kitchen plus it was very dark. She did the viewing and kept pointing out all of her very favourite decorative things that whereas the house should have been marketed on its bones and location.

Obviously all we could do is say how nice it was, but if it was an agent we would have stopped after 5 minutes and not wasted anyone’s time. The house hasn’t sold despite being on a great road so we weren’t alone it seems.

How would you react or feel if a viewer ripped your house apart and basically said they wanted to change everything?

It's awkward for viewers to be honest when the owner is there. You are paying a lot of money to an agent, get them to do the graft for you. Try and get an open day going so you only have to leave for 1 day.

Agents let them earn their commission

We did our own viewings as we used an online agent. We had 15 viewings in 3 days, 8 offers & sold above asking in less than a week .. but we are pretty quiet, calm people. We showed them round and pointed out the cupboards etc and had a brief chat about the area, neighbours, schools. We took the viewers lead 100% on that, if they didn’t want to chat then fine! We left them on the top floor (3 story house) & told them to make their way down in their own time & we’d be in our ground flood office when they were done. Most couples took their time coming back downstairs & you could hear them chatting away so hopefully they felt comfortable!

The house we bought was owner viewings as well & they approached it in the same manner. We were left upstairs to make our way back down in our own time! I never felt uncomfortable 🤷🏼‍♀️

You are paying a lot of money to an agent, get them to do the graft for you.

That is another matter, of course. I did six viewings over the course of a day, which to me would be equivalent to about £300. I wasn’t offered any reduction for doing my own viewings though. I didn’t haggle as I was keen to get on with things, but I thought it was a bit cheeky.

My agent agreed to a slightly reduced fee if I did the viewings

I lived in my house for nearly 30 years. But having decided to leave, I wasn’t so “emotionally invested” that I was sobbing over people viewing. Obviously if you can’t handle it you should let the agents do the viewings.

Bit of a triple jump sized leap there. No-one has mentioned sobbing

We had to do some viewings ourselves because agents were too busy to show our home. It was ok. People just walked around and asked couple of questions.

Our current house there was owner showing the house. I knew when I stepped in that this is the house we want. Luckily we clicked with the owner and chatted a lot. They accepted our offer and I think we got a bargain.

We viewed several houses and it was bit annoying when the agents didn't know how old is the boiler etc.

I quite like meeting the vendor, it's a good opportunity to ask why they're selling to gauge whether they're motivated sellers or whether just testing the market.

When I'm selling and needed to do viewings, I tend to let the people in and invite them to look round themselves.

We'd done it ourselves in the past, but decided to let the agent do it last time, as we were often 100 miles away sorting out the one we were moving to. We made a book for them, room by room, so they could check details if necessary because we wouldn't be there to ask. e.g. boiler last serviced, that sort of thing. I think it was far better than if we'd done it ourselves. Agents tend to prefer it.
The one we bought, there were legal issues with the vendors, so it was agent-only. The agent got some facts wrong, like age of boiler, etc, but nothing major, it was all sorted out before we actually bought it. In the circs, it was also better than the vendors being around. (One of the vendors threatened our surveyor when she went to do the survey.)

Prefer owners because agents don't know the answers to any useful questions and some even made up answers (that clearly weren't true if you had any common sense) and you can also get a feel for what kind of sellers they are going to be.

However the best owner viewings would give us a quick tour then retreat to allow us to walk around on our own.

There were a few good agents but many who put us off through arrogance, annoyance or incompetence.

@Pastnowfuture

I guess a bit of a mix. Estate agent doing first viewing and us doing a second seems like it could be a good compromise.

I think this is the best compromise, as you can get more personal with your remarks in front of the EA, then on second viewing you'll have thought of the queries that the first viewing triggered and can ask the vendors.

Also my EA told my buyer that there was a parking permit scheme when there wasn't (and there was a 7am-7pm parking restriction outside). I was most annoyed that I didn't know he'd said such misleading things and couldn't correct the false impression he'd given the buyer. What if she'd pulled out of the sale because of it?! I was livid...