Estate Agents showing houses vs vendors

[BG2015]

We have viewed 2 houses today.

The first house we were shown around by an elderly man whose obviously part of the estate agent team but working on a part time /retirement type job. He was lovely and did his best but couldn't answer half of our questions. I then had to ring the estate agents main office and ask them some questions initially and this afternoon have compiled yet more questions I've put into an email. Not an ideal situation.

The second property was done by the home owner. Really pleasant guy, explained their circumstances, talked us through all that they had done to the property. Told us about the garden. Spoke highly of the neighbours and just basically talked about their house honestly really well.

I know the consensus on MN that EA should aways do house viewings but today was a definite reason why they shouldn't.

If my house was being shown to potential buyers by the elderly guy who couldn't really tell me much, I wouldn't be happy.

I've been involved with selling and buying 4 houses, and never have I ever managed to get any estate agent to do any viewings. It's just not even a thing here in the East Midlands.

Same in Scotland. Always the home owners.

I preferred to show people around ours, we could answer all the questions. And frankly, you knew when people didn't like it too, so it meant we knew who might offer and who definitely wouldn't.

We have had our property on the market last year and the agent couldn't do the viewings so my husband did. Every person who viewed said how informative he was and all made offers. Unfortunately our onward sale fell through but we will still do our own viewings as agents don't always know the answer but on the flip side, some vendors hover and make you feel uncomfortable 😂 all depends who the agent is and who the vendor is.

I’ve had the weekend job estate agent and I agree they were useless but I’ve also had really awkward vendor viewings and on balance I’d rather the useless estate agent and have to follow up.

One house we viewed the couple were divorcing and the woman didn’t want to sell (fair enough) but she led us around in silence standing in every doorway glaring at us. It took over a year to sell that house. Another one the vendor started making himself a bacon sandwich and we ended up stuck talking to him in the kitchen. He didn’t even offer us one - the cheek of it

I used to work for an estate agents and the accompanied viewers were great for empty properties and we would try book them out for a whole day of viewings if we could, unfortunately they don't know everything which is why they would lead you to contact the agents.

Same if I were to do a viewing, I would try my best to answer any questions but we always had the misdescriptions act hovering over our heads so if I wasn't 100% sure on a question I would say I will find out and get back to them, I would rather have the full facts than be took to court!

For someone who has bought and sold properties I've always done viewings on my own house and much preferred viewings where the vendor is showing me around, as you say you get a bit more information.

I am an agent in Portugal, and when I visit a house I spend over an hour with the owenr, asking all the questions I would ask if I were a buyer. I possibly end up knowing almost as much about the house as the owner. It drives me mad when agents have trouble opening the front door, not knowing which rooms are where in a house, don't know the size or age of the property, nothing about the neighbours, whether it has gas etc.

My son recently sold his apartment, and I spent a reasonable amount of time with the agent (as my son was at work) going through things like building permissions to open a door into garden instead of the existing window, how to open the door as the key was a little unusual, for example. It worked perfectly well, but was an unusual lock. He assured me that HE would be doing the viewings. So we went with that agency. In the end, they sent round different agents each time. We sent written instructions on how to open the front door. The first one arrived five minutes late - after the viewers had arrived. The agent could not open the door, and my son ended up having to help her. It made a terrible first impression, and when we saw an email of questions from the viewers, it was clear she had given no information to them at all. Fortunately, the apartment has been sold, but it was an extremely irritating process, and I would rather we had done the viewings ourselves.

That’s why I would choose n agent who spends time getting to know the house and can answer the questions. In my experience, that’s generally smaller, local chains with about six branches.

I'm in the East Midlands and always had an estate agent show our house and the houses we viewed.

When I sold my last house I had the estate agent do the viewings. My husband had died and I did t want to set foot in it again. I just wanted it sold and it was a sellers market at the time so it sold very quickly over the valuation.

When we sold our last hours 4 years ago tge estate agent did the viewings mostly but we did only one.

A couple came for a second viewing after the estate agent had shown them around. It had been a new build when we bought it so I was telling them about the upgrades we had chosen (it was only coming up to 5 years when we sold) the work we had done to the garden etc and the wife said that she would obviously never have known these things without my viewing and they actually bought the house!!

I agree with PP if the EA is going to take the time to get to know the detail that's great but imo they didnt

Estate agent viewings isn't really a thing round here either.

But yes, we didn't offer on a house when the vendor told us her husband had put the house on the market, and she didn't want to move!

I've looked at LOADS of houses over the last 3 years (2 different dc buying as FTBs).
The occasional properties where the owners were there was all really awkward. Felt like you were personally intruding into their home. Felt like you couldn't have conversations about odd layouts or potential of changing X, Y, or Z without it sounding like you were criticising them.
Give me an EA show round any day.
The EA's would even suggest things "You could do this here, like that one you looked at earlier had" which were really helpful to my dc.

I've told my EA that any viewings whilst I'm at work they can do, but I want to do any viewings at the weekends.

I spoke to an agent recently and she couldn't answer most of my questions as she said she doesn't leave the office.

I 💯 agree with you OP.

I sold my last place... I wasn't in a rush and thought I'd have a go... It was an absolute doddle to sell it myself.

I would never let an EA do viewings again on my property.

Another pro as a vendor is you get to eyeball the buyers.

The "best on paper" buyer was in reality a flaky indecisive man (his, dad AND and grandparents!!!! came to view THREE times)
the alternative buyer/ offer was less good as a chain but she was a super organised alpha female who did zero pissing about and was a fab buyer (with an amazing solicitor - much better tham mine 😅)

When we were buying the EAs couldn't answer a single question even sometimes questions I later found answers to on the sodding listing!

I much preferred it when the vendor did the viewings when I bought my first house.

As a seller, I'd use an estate agent for one reason: they are professional liars who are there to sell your house anyway they can.

i had this when we were looking for this house. When the EA rang for feedback early the next week I said I wasn’t ever going to buy a house if the agent couldn’t be arsed to even find out when the property was built or what the school catchment was. Fundamental stuff that just makes them look shoddy. I liked the house a lot though so put a note through the vendor’s door telling her why we wouldn’t be putting in an offer.
It’s a disgrace that they charge commission yet actually do sweet FA to earn it.

I much prefer dealing with agents, but it’s annoying when they are the part-timers who don’t know anything about anything - especially when you’ve also been dealing with their colleagues who are really clued up. My recent experience has been of really good younger (20-50) agents and poorer older ones, across different agencies.

A sensible vendor can give a really good viewing, but it’s so hit and miss I’d always prefer an agent.

Yes, but I wouldn't rely on an EA for that information if it were important to me.
I'd be doing my own research about anything that was important enough to make a difference as to whether I bought it or not.

I've lived in the area my dc were looking in all my life, and have heard EAs say all sorts of things that were their own version of the truth.

Same here.

@NewName24, of course I wouldn’t rely on it but I want them to know it nevertheless. I knew exactly which houses were in which catchments and how far out from particular schools the last place was offered going back 5yrs. But it’s still shoddy that they didn’t know basic information.

@montysorry - I would expect estate agents to know about the property, the owners situation, large local projects but I wouldn’t consider school catchments basic information they should know. It’s specific to only a certain group of buyers and in my town at least pretty complicated and forever changing.

When we bought our house, the daughter of the elderly seller was always here with the estate agent.
It seemed great at the time, as she knew lots, but unfortunately, she told us a lot of bullsh*t too, which ended up costing us a lot of money in the long run.

Be careful as they may just trying hard to sell their house

I have worked for an estate agency and yes Saturdays are a busy day for viewings so you sometimes have to get part time staff in. It’s a personal decision but I often observed that buyers can be more honest with an agent than with the owner and we did have occasions where potential buyers put pressure on vendors who had shown them round. Better to have that go between, buyers can always get more info later if they’re interested.