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 moved quite often and always prefer the agent as an intermediary, both as viewer and seller. I don't like being shown by the owner, posted before about two occasions when the owner thought viewer equals sale. Though a lot depends on the accompanier...in the Cotswolds posh agents use "viewing ladies" who don't know a thing and every question has to be referred back to the office. On the other hand, I can remember some agents very bright and proactive in discussions about alterations (with the vendor well out of the way!)

I do not like viewings with the sellers because I feel uneasy. But when our house was for sale, I did one or two viewings and one woman stayed 1.5 hrs and asked me to walk with her round the village in case she heard any noise from the retirement home.

I think one of my main issues is the EAs filtering out the tourist type viewers. In the end, I asked them to allow viewings for those who had their houses for sale, not sold but at least showing a serious commitment to moving.

I was then contacted by a buyer whose viewing was refused because her house was not SSTC but was not only for sale but a property we would have potentially downsized to. We were told we would have one named staff member dealing with the sale but so many people got involved, loads of errors were made from the EPC not being done when we were told it had been done and so on. I took it off in the end.

To her credit, the only decent thing about our EA was the viewer. Lovely friendly lady who did her best. Too good for that Agency.

As a seller I think it's a bad idea - some can't help but be a bit too honest 'we're moving because we want better schools' 'there's no storage' 'it's really noisy at night' - you'd be amazed how they can point out any flaws. And conversely they lie 'oh the neighbours are lovely' when they have an ongoing feud about the parking or what have you. And as a buyer I don't like it as I find I can't have a proper poke around and talk to whomever I've brought (usually a builder) about what I want to do.
But a bad estate agent who knows little about the property and is basically just holding keys ( looking at you Purple Bricks) is the worst of both worlds.
While you are being a bit ageist about the fellow who showed you around - his age or whether or not it's a 'retirement' job is irrelevant. Usually it's a bright eager person only employed on a Saturday. I believe if you are in the business of selling you should know the market inside out, and EAs don't seem to in a shocking amount of cases. I always seem to know more about the area and what houses generally sell or rent for after doing my research and looking for a couple weeks. .
I'd be giving feedback to any agency about their poor performance on your viewing.

@ClimbingHydrangea, I disagree. When you’re buying a family home in an area that people move to specifically for the outstanding schools then it really matters. These schools are always mentioned in the particulars so the agent should make it their business to know which houses fall in which catchment.

As someone who's just been through the process of picking an estate agent, a reason I picked mine was that the estate agent knew the immediate area really, really well and would probably be able to answer lots of questions far better than I could. And she asked me lots of questions about who my neighbours were and when the boiler went in etc, so she'd be able to be useful at viewings. They also made a point that they don't use Saturday type staff, and if they couldn't do a viewing, they'd ask me instead.

I viewed a house myself on Saturday, where I don't think it was a part-timer, but it was definitely a weird estate agent that I found it a struggle to communicate. The house wasn't in great condition and she was easily as defensive about it as a vendor would be. I was literally standing there wobbling the broken bannister and pointing at holes in the doors and she was trying to convince me that completely needing to replace 3 bathrooms counts as "just cosmetic". I came out thinking that there's no way I'd have picked that agency to market my house.

But most schools don't have a 'fixed catchment' - the distance from the school the furthest pupil is will vary year on year.
Much as they would like to, no estate agent can say you will get into X school if you buy this house.

@NewName24, I’m a teacher so know how it works. There are fixed catchments but no guarantee that everyone within that catchment will get a place especially if it’s a popular school. For some schools, they’re able to take kids outside the catchment.

Every LA holds details of the furthest house offered a place at a school. Therefore, when a senior school is heavily oversubscribed with an on paper catchment stretching 5miles but the last 3yrs the last place has been no further than 3.1miles then that info is readily available and if the house I’m looking at is 2.5miles out then it makes good business sense for them to share that info.

I could be viewing a house with another agent that’s 0.6 of a mile further away-still in catchment but clearly taking a chance. They surely want me to know this? That’s their job. Of course they cannot guarantee but this information could get them a sale over another house I’m considering when on paper both are officially in the catchment.

If I was an EA I’d be all over this info, especially when selling a family home to a family in an area that people move to for the schools.

If vendors' situation is tricky, I think it's best if the EA does it. I've been taken round by an EA when one of the vendors (who did not want to sell) insisted on being there and did the glaring act at us. Had the other vendor taken us round (they stayed out of the way) I suspect it would have been far worse.

We always did our viewings too. Any we viewed the owners showed us around. Definitely for the best I think!

@NewName24, I’m a teacher so know how it works. There are fixed catchments

There may be where you live, but it isn't a thing everywhere.

@NewName24 - agree - ours have changed a few times in the decade I’ve lived in my town.

@NewName24 every school in the country has a catchment. These may change year on year in some areas (unusual for it to change every year) but must be published in time for each round of admissions. In many areas they effectively don’t mean much as many kids officially in the catchment area have no chance often due to new housing developments etc. However, all addresses fall under ‘a catchment’ on paper at least. This refers to England and Wales.

@montysorry - sorry but this is just not true. I had to move because my old house in England did not fall within a catchment for a primary school. I am going to stop discussing this now as it’s not relevant to the OP but whilst you may be an expert on catchments in your area you are not correct for the whole country so please stop spreading misinformation.

Have had my house on the market this past summer. The EA viewings were worse than useless! They sent someone around who had never seen the house before. I asked her if she had been clued up about everything, and she said, "Yes. Joe gave me the full run down on the property." So I said to her, "In that case you know about the communal drive, off street parking, that all rads and boiler have been replaced this year, you know about the loft?"
"Er, no..." she said, "I wasn't told about any of that."
I sent her back to the office and did it myself. The next weekend, same thing happened with someone completely different coming to do the viewing. Gave the EA notice, took it off the market for the winter and will be going back on this spring with a new agent, and me doing the viewings and I'll see if I can negotiate a lower commission.

It’s always going to depend on how good your EA is. As a buyer I’m much more interested in being able to have a frank conversation with an EA re my thoughts on a house then I am in asking in depth questions about anything. I tend to have done lots of research on a house/street/area before viewing so don’t rely on the EA that much and know any unanswered questions can easily be remedied afterwards. Personally I find viewings with owners pretty excruciating.

Many years ago when we bought our house it was all sellers that showed us round unless the property was already empty . Very helpful as they knew the house and area inside out , and could tell us everything we needed to know . For example cost of bills , what is dormant in the garden when you view , when work was last done , surrounding area etc .

By comparison when my daughter bought her house we were shown round by the estate agents every time , and none of them could answer any of the questions we had about any of the properties . Topped by the fact they always seemed in a rush , one allocated 20 minutes for the viewing and arrived late , rushed us round and out in super quick time and seemed like she was looking at the property details for the first time ever with us . There was also a distinct lack of coming back promptly if at all with answers to the questions raised .