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Original poster

Viewing houses- surely everyone does this?

277 replies

Sophieagain1984 · 28/09/2022 14:01

We're house hunting. Whenever I view a house, I always knock on the door of the next door neighbour, pretending I've got the wrong house- I like to know what the neighbour is like and sometimes they even give you useful info.

DH says no one else does this and it's weird. WDYT?

OP posts:
sotired2 · 28/09/2022 14:03

I've never done it and when neighbors for sale I've not had anyone knock on my door.

whoruntheworldgirls · 28/09/2022 14:04

Never done it and never had it done to me

LoveBugBride · 28/09/2022 14:05

Surely the house that is for sale has a sign on it, you probably look a bit silly pretending to have the wrong house.

Original poster
Sophieagain1984 · 28/09/2022 14:06

Ah, maybe DH is right then 😭

Very few houses for sale have signs up round here.

OP posts:
mrsed1987 · 28/09/2022 14:07

I've never done that and never would. Bit odd if you ask me!

ChicCroissant · 28/09/2022 14:07

I have never done that.

Presumably you don't do it when there is a for sale sign outside the house? They probably see right through any 'pretence' too.

America12 · 28/09/2022 14:08

How embarrassing

Plantstrees · 28/09/2022 14:09

I knocked on the next door house to ask about the wifi in the area - some areas around here are really poor. The neighbour was really helpful and they were a lovely elderly couple so was really happy to buy. I would always find an excuse to knock - its a very big decision to make and if the neighbours are dreadful I would want to know about it.

Chemenger · 28/09/2022 14:09

Never done it, nobody did it when we were selling (our neighbours would have told us). Mind you our neighbours on two sides were sheep.

scrufffy · 28/09/2022 14:10

That would creep me right out.

Original poster
Sophieagain1984 · 28/09/2022 14:10

Mind you our neighbours on two sides were sheep.

Ha ha

OP posts:
GoldenGorilla · 28/09/2022 14:10

Never done it. We’ve bought and sold loads of properties. It’s unusual. It’s actually pretty inconsiderate as well - imagine if everybody did this, we sold a house not long ago that has 38 viewings over the first week, neighbours would have been pretty annoyed by constant nosy potential buyers.

FlounderingFruitcake · 28/09/2022 14:10

If you’re going to do it then at least be upfront and say you’re viewing next door and would they recommend the street etc. To pretend you can’t read door numbers is a bit cringe!

AnnaMagnani · 28/09/2022 14:12

Never done it.

If I'd done it at current house, both sets of neighbours would have come over as sweet lovely old ladies. OMG they were both nutters once I'd moved in.

UngratefulDead · 28/09/2022 14:14

Are you our new neighbours??

At the beginning of the summer DH answered the door to someone asking for Sarah. DH said she had the wrong address and there was no Sarah here. They got chatting and she asked lots of questions. DH thought she was totally batshit

Last month newbies moved in next door and it was the woman! DH recognised her straight away as it was such a strange encounter.

He now thinks our new neighbours are nosey and weird and even commented 'who does that??'

I guess we found out!!

crochetmylifeaway · 28/09/2022 14:17

Never done this.

In my old house when next door was for sale the buyers knocked on our door the day the sign went up. We ignored it because we were busy. They persisted and we kept ignoring. They turned out to be complete nightmares. Wish we had answered and fine something to put them off to save the street having to deal with them

Original poster
Sophieagain1984 · 28/09/2022 14:18

UngratefulDead · 28/09/2022 14:14

Are you our new neighbours??

At the beginning of the summer DH answered the door to someone asking for Sarah. DH said she had the wrong address and there was no Sarah here. They got chatting and she asked lots of questions. DH thought she was totally batshit

Last month newbies moved in next door and it was the woman! DH recognised her straight away as it was such a strange encounter.

He now thinks our new neighbours are nosey and weird and even commented 'who does that??'

I guess we found out!!

PMSL, no but she sounds great!

OP posts:
ILoveMyBlanket · 28/09/2022 14:23

When I was waiting for the EA to view the house I'm moving into soon I asked the neighbour when she was getting out of her car if I could have a quick chat, she was lovely and gave me lots of info.
Knocking on doors is a bit strange

eurochick · 28/09/2022 14:28

Nope. Never done this or has it done to me.

Tealpoppy · 28/09/2022 14:29

I once had a knock at the door when I was tits deep in a kids birthday party

it was a woman who was looking at buying next door and wanted to know about the neighbours

i explained that we where all very nice and friendly etc but she suddenly snarled at me that she expected ‘peace and quiet 24/7,I don’t to hear any noise-EVER!’ (you can imagine the noise with a child’s birthday party that was going on behind me)

she left and didn’t buy next door-she would have been a nightmare to live next door
to-some noise is normal-the party was a one off-but she would have been better off living in a house in a field with no neighbours-not in a row of houses with other families and traffic going past

We lived in a lovely area but it just wasn’t for her-we often heard noise from other people-we lived near a pub and two parks which she would have spent her life moaning at

passport123 · 28/09/2022 14:30

can you imagine how annoying that would be if your neighbours were selling and everyone did that?!

Bobshhh · 28/09/2022 14:31

How would you know if someone was normal / not a total psychopath from a brief doorstep conversation?

nightbulb · 28/09/2022 14:32

FlounderingFruitcake · 28/09/2022 14:10

If you’re going to do it then at least be upfront and say you’re viewing next door and would they recommend the street etc. To pretend you can’t read door numbers is a bit cringe!

This

SheWoreYellow · 28/09/2022 14:32

You really want to knock on next door but one and ask about the immediate neighbours.

BloodyHellKen · 28/09/2022 14:32

I've never done that but we did once knock on the next door neighbours to a house we viewed to ask what the street was like to live on (and because their house and garden looked like a wreck and we wanted to see if it was being done up or not).

It turned out they weren't doing the house up, they did in fact use the back garden as a dump for old furniture. They were 'in between jobs' and they had about 6 kids.

We didn't buy the house.