Feedback on house viewings

[nightfeedtime]

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!

Oh and no lift. There was 28 steps from outside door to my parents flat.

It is

Had you included in particular which way your garden was facing?

shit agent

But they viewed your property because they wanted to see what they thought was a pre requisite for them could be put aside if it ticked every other box

I don't take the feedback as advice about what I should do to improve my house, I take it as a reason someone didn't want my house. Which is just good to know for my own curiosity although a bit annoying when it's something they could clearly see on Rightmove. Reasons given for my last house- living room too small, not enough storage. Fair enough. It sold after 5 days for asking anyway.

The balcony viewer actually asked where the balcony was and when told there wasn’t one said they expected a balcony.

They were also the lift viewer and asked why there was no lift. The flat was 28 steps from front door and the building is only 3 stories. No flats in the area have lifts.

@Ursuladevinia82 didn’t know that was a thing people did, but echoing what others say why not say it’s not for me than something you can do nothing about. It just made me giggle as it came as I was reading the thread

You didn’t know what was a thing?

We only viewed three houses before buying the one we're in now,the owners of the second place we looked at were very keen to get feedback because they'd had dozens of viewings and no offers.
All of the internal paintwork had been painted in a colour I can only describe as 'vomit',one bedroom was so cluttered we had to view it from the landing and another bedroom doorway was partially blocked by the attic stairs(actually a glorified ladder).
There was also the small matter of the owners trying to sell us their bed and wardrobes on the grounds that "If we try to move them they'll fall apart".

I just told the agent that the house was much smaller than we'd expected and maybe some de-cluttering might help.

If I rule out a property, I don’t spend any time on my feedback… I just say first thing that comes to mind! Why? Because I really don’t give a fig whether or not the vendor sells or gets the price they want. It doesn’t work for me so I’m not going to invest a nano second in feedback!

Charming attitude

😂

@Ursuladevinia82 i didn’t know people put down with way the garden faces. I let the estate agent write the blurb.

Basically if your house faces South or West it should be mentioned (& a good agent will write it into the details). If it faces North or East it shouldn’t be mentioned as it’s not a positive so you hope people don’t notice or don’t care.

For the green fingered and garden lovers… having a south facing garden is often important.

My garden bathed in sun during summer as south facing

I look at all floor plans in detail before viewing and sq footage as I know for a fact anything under a certain size won't work - and that's just for higher end rentals!!

I think the thing is OP that people who a few years ago could get an extension or loft done for £50k are now realising it's more like £150k so are mentally factoring that in - there is also a tendency now for wanting these big bi fold door live in kitchens / family rooms and many older houses won't work that way unless they already have an extension and people don't want the mess or todays cost of doing one -

I do think agents can be a bit pushy in trying to force feedback and want more to tell the owner than “it’s not for me”
Although I did see someone who came to see my first house which was a tiny 2 up 2 down.
Wanted a three bed with two reception rooms so wasn’t interested…
WHY BOTHER

Your family viewers at the end OP reminded me of one of our viewings - last minute booking so it was a frantic full tidying abd cleaning of the house while I was 30 weeks pregnant, with a 3 year old and a dog (whose stuff I had to pile into our car to hide it!). The family who came to view were there less than 10 minutes before the agent called to say we could come back... They'd said the house was too small for them as there were 7 of them. Ours was a two bedroom townhouse, with all measurements on the floor plan. Virtually no garden. On for £220k. We were moving because it had got too small for us... No shit it wouldn't have fit 7 people very well! I cried after that one. 😅🤦🏻‍♀️

Oh, and if it makes you feel better @nightfeedtime, you say you have a tape measure? I had an excel spreadsheet with room dimensions in it. 😂 So there's at least two of us!

The garden aspect will have been obvious from Google Maps! If the aspect of the garden matters to you, it's something you can easily check before you arrange a viewing. They just couldn't be arsed to look.

Feedback is pretty much always going to be useless, because it will almost always be about something the vendor can't easily change. If it was something that could quickly/cheaply be changed then the viewers wouldn't be put off by it.

Sometimes people need to see something in person to decide whether it will work for them. For example, I viewed houses with gardens that I considered slightly on the small side, because you can assess more clearly when it's in front of you. It's not something the vendor could change though.

I do think some peoples are unrealistic about vendor homework. (Though 7 people in a 2 up 2 down is ridiculous!)

When I was viewing homes, location was most important to us so I viewed every 3 bed house within 1.5miles of the station, then switched to 4 bed when I realised 3 beds meant “2 and a box room”. I didn’t look at garden orientation or open plan ness or anything like that, cos I wanted to book several appointments on a Saturday and just go and look. I still would have said “didn’t like the layout” or whatever as feedback, because estate agents want you to say something.

probably just the first thing that popped in to their head when asked.

I’m like the PP, if I’ve ruled out a house fans then I’m asked, I’m not going to spend more than a second on it. I will just blurt out anything swiftly followed by… “do you have anything more to show me today?”

Exactly.

And I like to keep an open mind ie the way the garden faces is not a pre req, but then you turn up and see that this particular garden is not only north facing (and you’d seen some north facing ones that you were fine with) but due to bushes / tree / another reason… it’s really dark.