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Original poster

Feedback on house viewings

102 replies

nightfeedtime · 14/02/2023 06:45

My house has been on the market for two weeks and we so far have had 6 viewings.

Two separate people provided feedback that the house needs an extension. I find this one very tricky to understand because our floor plan and room dimensions are on the sale advert, so it's clear what the room sizes are. In my road, a handful of houses have had a downstairs extension, most have not, so it is a possibility.

I was asked by another viewer why I hadn't extended. Our house has always suited our needs but we're relocating and had always intended to in the future (we've lived here for 8 years). I didn't wish to disclose this to the viewer either but we inherited money from the death of a relative recently, making our move possible. An extension was never something we could have afforded on our salaries before.

Another viewer(family of 3) said they were looking to spend £500k on a property - mine is up for £400k - so was too small for them. I find it difficult again as to why they viewed when floor plan and room sizes are on Rightmove. FWIW, I live in a fairly desirable town in Essex and £400k doesn't get you a sprawling house and neither does £500k.

Very difficult when the feedback isn't really things we can act upon!

OP posts:

Suzi9989 · 14/02/2023 06:53

Pls don't take to heart
Buyers are looking for something they can love straight away without the work where you are parting with something you worked for years and served your family well

If upsetting get the agent to deal with feedback, they also need to see there's opportunity to extend! They can put their mark on the place

Good luck with the move

AnyMucca · 14/02/2023 06:56

Time wasters. The EA should be fielding these idiot questions with "you could extend as a lot of the other houses have” . Is it priced to reflect lack of extension? If so I would ignore.

Merrow · 14/02/2023 06:58

From the buyer's side I think it's hard to give feedback that can be acted on! We gave feedback on a house that the bathroom was too small. Obviously we knew from the floor plan the size of the bathroom, but what I actually meant wasn't that we expected the bathroom to massively change size but that the rest of the house didn't blow us away in person to accept the compromise of a small bathroom. Also estate agents know all the tricks to take photos so the room size is hard to gauge, and some people really struggle with conceptualising room size from floor dimensions.

Twiglets1 · 14/02/2023 07:04

Take no notice. We’ve bought & sold a lot over the years and you always get these people who make negative comments about the property after viewing that were 100% transparent from the estate agent details.
I think sometimes as a viewer the estate agent pushes you to give a reason for not making an offer. You may actually just not like the feel of the house or road but feel obliged to give a tangible reason so say something silly like “ the smallest bedroom is on the small side” or “ I was really hoping for an en suite” when you already knew the house details before viewing it.

ISaidDontLickTheBin · 14/02/2023 07:05

Sometimes (most of the time) the reason you don't offer on a house isn't something that can be acted on though, like basically you just don't love it enough to want to live in it. People saying yours needs an extension might really be saying that they think it is priced too high for them to be able to extend, or they don't quite love the rest of the house enough to want to do the extra work on it themselves.

It is frustrating when it's something that's obvious from the floor plan, e.g. we had people reject our last house for not being open plan on the ground floor, which was very obvious from the photos and floorplan.

donttellmehesalive · 14/02/2023 07:06

Sometimes the feedback isn't the real reason but they are sparing your feelings or don't want to piss the agent off.

Sometimes they can see from Rightmove that it isn't exactly what they're looking for but think it is worth a look, especially if there isn't much coming on in your area.

The buyer with £500k may have been considering buying yours for £400k and extending.

The buyers saying it's too small and needs to be extended - well, sometimes you need to stand in a room and imagine your family using it. Maybe they're mentally addding the cost of an extension and thinking it makes the house too expensive.

CantFindTheBeat · 14/02/2023 07:07

Sadly, sometimes the real feedback is 'it's just not for us'.

It's the Estate Agent's job to get proceedable people to view your house. They can't make them love it or want it.

It's almost always with taking a chance on allowing viewers where the spec isn't exactly want they want on paper, as the number of people who buy something they didn't think would appeal to them is worth the punt.

It's hard not to take feedback to heart. Be impressed you got some - that's not easy, either!

Devonhousehunter · 14/02/2023 07:09

How strange. I am looking for a house. I know we need at least 3 beds and a total width of at least 4.5m
There's too many new builds that are 3.66m wide and it makes me feel claustrophobic (shit exeter persimmon mainly!).

I wouldn't view a house that's too small. What a waste of your time :(

Sorry OP, people are dicks x

I love a house that's for sale but they've covered the floor in 2p coins and cemented it! I almost can't be arsed to view it because its a big job to remove the coins and replace. Who does that??

donttellmehesalive · 14/02/2023 07:11

I mean, there's very little feedback that can be usefully acted on except 'it's too expensive.'

Nobody will be put off by minor things like an untidy garden or a cluttered bedroom - if it's easy for you to sort, it's easy for them to sort.

How many people buy the first house they see? Even though photos, video tours and dimensions are available online there is no substitute for standing in a house and imagining that you live there.

Twiglets1 · 14/02/2023 07:15

Devonhousehunter · 14/02/2023 07:09

I wouldn't view a house that's too small. What a waste of your time :(

Sorry OP, people are dicks x

I love a house that's for sale but they've covered the floor in 2p coins and cemented it! I almost can't be arsed to view it because its a big job to remove the coins and replace. Who does that??

Bloody hell - who does do that?? Weird.

donttellmehesalive · 14/02/2023 07:15

Sometimes it's a list of smaller issues that, added up, will take too much money or too much time, and you don't love the house enough to bother. But any one of those small things would sound trivial as feedback.

If feedback annoys you, don't ask or get the agent to manage it.

Ursulaursula82 · 14/02/2023 07:17

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines - previously banned poster.

Persipan · 14/02/2023 07:19

I need to see a link for the 2p coin house...

With size it's so tricky to judge from photos. I know people gripe about wide angle lenses but in reality you need to use one to get a picture of a room and not just a corner, but then inevitably the room looks more spacious in the photos than in real life. I've definitely viewed properties before where I knew the dimensions were tight but thought the house was worth a look, and then the reality confirmed for me that the size wouldn't work. I find 360 tours really helpful for that, but they're still less common.

PleaseJustText · 14/02/2023 07:36

Ah I remember the 2p coin trend from Pinterest a few years ago! I've never seen it done in real life.

It's hard to give useful feedback sometimes but estate agents really want something to say to the owners. I viewed 5 houses and only 2 of them were right for us. I didn't have anything useful to suggest for the other 3. They were lovely in their own right but had small compromises on our wish list. The rest of the house didn't quite make up for the compromises.

Original poster

nightfeedtime · 14/02/2023 09:57

I think the EA are being a bit useless. I've done all viewings myself except the one.

My house is the cheapest on the market in the area of its kind. 2x EA told me to market it at £425k but I never thought I'd get people through the door with that price.

OP posts:

8misskitty8 · 14/02/2023 10:01

Devonhousehunter · 14/02/2023 07:09

I wouldn't view a house that's too small. What a waste of your time :(

Sorry OP, people are dicks x

I love a house that's for sale but they've covered the floor in 2p coins and cemented it! I almost can't be arsed to view it because its a big job to remove the coins and replace. Who does that??

That coin trend was from one of those home makeover/renovation shows about 5/10 years ago.
Cant remember who hosted it. Thought it was crazy when watching it.

Ursulaursula82 · 14/02/2023 10:08

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines - previously banned poster.

Yarnosaura · 14/02/2023 10:30

A few years ago I had someone come to view my very ordinary 3 bed semi who wasn't interested as she was looking for a bungalow

DogInATent · 14/02/2023 10:41

nightfeedtime · 14/02/2023 09:57

I think the EA are being a bit useless. I've done all viewings myself except the one.

My house is the cheapest on the market in the area of its kind. 2x EA told me to market it at £425k but I never thought I'd get people through the door with that price.

Being the cheapest listing in the area may not work in your favour. You'll get people with marginal budgets for the local market looking to sneak in with a bargain, but with high expectations because, for example, they'll see the listings for already extended/larger properties in the area. And people (such as your £500k family) thinking they can save significantly on their budget and still get what they want.

Raise the price to not be the cheapest, make sure the description is very clear that there "may be an opportunity to extend subject to PP", etc.

Ursulaursula82 · 14/02/2023 10:41

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines - previously banned poster.

GasPanic · 14/02/2023 10:44

The viewer doesn't have any obligation to give you helpful feedback.

If you do get feedback from them that you don't think is acceptable, you are entitled to ask for your money back.

LadyMargaretDevereux · 14/02/2023 10:49

People don't usually like to say 'just didn't like it that much' as feedback and that's usually what it is. I never really like feedback when I'm selling a house because it's usually things you can't do anything about but it still gets to you. Do they want to buy it or not? That's all the feedback you need.

Colgatetoothpaste · 14/02/2023 10:50

I find it difficult to assess size unless I'm standing in the house. 360 views are very helpful. I viewed a house last year which had a similar square footage to what I was renting, the downstairs layout was slightly different and the different layout made a huge difference - the house needed an extension and I couldn't have coped living in it until we could have afforded the extension. The house was also on the market for £25k less than next-door had sold for a few months earlier which already had been extended so it was overpriced (feedback we gave the estate agents). I expect this is what your prospective buyers are thinking too.

DP ruled out the house we bought when I sent him the listing as he thought the kitchen and garden were too small but the location was fab so I insisted on viewing it. He wasn't as bothered about the kitchen in the end as the bedrooms were some of the biggest we'd seen and location won.

Littleloveydovey · 14/02/2023 10:55

Op people go look at houses to see if when they go in they like it or love it. When asked for feedback they lie. They won’t say I don’t like it. Or it’s a shit hole. Or it’s shabby. Shit taste (I’m sure none of these things) but often they just try to find a non offensive reason why they don’t want to buy.

The feedback is all similar, it tells me the house is smaller than they thought, so I’d wonder if your pics were misleading.

on a separate note, if you want honest feedback, stop doing the viewings, most folks dislike it intently for the first viewing, as you feel you need to be polite. Have the agent do it.

Snugglemonkey · 14/02/2023 10:58

We knew where we wanted to move to and what we wanted to buy, but it just wasn't there. So we started looking at compromise houses. Yes you might be aware that something is small, but then you see it and realise is really is too small and you cannot compromise. We bought a compromise house. We would like more of a garden, but there is everything else that we want and a few things that make us love it. So worth the compromise. They just don't love the house enough.

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