What's with all the ghosting?

[Itsrainingten]

Why do people do it? I don't get it. I would absolutely never just go quiet and stop answering emails or phone calls. We have a buyer who said they really wanted our house and were going to put in an offer then radio silence. And you hear it all the time on here with people in a chain almost at exchange and then someone disappears! Why do people do this?
If I so much as view a property once I'm happy to give the agent a yes or no. Surely that's just polite!!

I think it’s pretty rare for viewers to actively contact the agent after a viewing unless they’re actually making an offer, even if they did make positive noises at the viewing: often they’re just being polite and aren’t really interested. If you want the firm “no”s and feedback then you need to push the agent to contact every viewer for it. It feels personal because it’s your home; but how many times have you said “I’m going to think about it” to e.g. somebody in a shop when you had no intention of thinking about it and didn’t go back to give shop owner a no? It’s just business, try to see that way and not invest early.

Yeah fair enough @ComtesseDeSpair I get that might be the case when it's just at viewing level (although I still think it's a bit rude if the agent calls for feedback and you intentionally avoid answering!) but what about once the offer has been accepted and the sale is going through? Every day I read about people getting super stressed about sales potentially falling through because someone on the chain has just decided they can't be arsed to actually answer something or even acknowledge and everyone is waiting on them!

I have dealt with an agent recently who has been so bad from a buyer’s perspective that once we finally got our foot in the door for the viewings with the absolutely dreadful person who does those, I said to my OH ‘that is the last time we ever view a property through them, even if it’s my dream home.’

I actually usually almost immediately voluntarily give feedback because it’s kind: this time, I did not.

They finally called me a week later to ask how the viewings went.

I have never come across an estate agent less bothered about selling houses - houses they have already over priced by up to 25%.

I wouldn’t assume it’s a one way thing and that all buyers are bad people. It’s a two way street when there are agents involved. Perhaps they are pissing buyers off so much that they are being ghosted to return their level of courtesy. I am annoyed that I answered the phone, as I would prefer they get absolutely nothing from me.