Is this rude or am I just old fashioned?

[KnackeredBack]

We're on the market now - terrible sellers market where we are and we've dropped our price hugely to try and generate some interest, after being off the market for 6 months. We've had about 8 viewings in 2 weeks and 2 of them have been second viewings (one 10 days ago and the other 3 days ago). Neither second viewers have come back to the EA - no contact, despite chasing. Is this rude, weird or what? I remember only doing 1 second viewing and that was for the house I now live in, but even if you don't like the house, surely you'd tell the EA that?

No one in their right mind goes on to an agent about loving it,😂

Well yes, it could be that, but it could also be that OP may need to reduce again at some point? I wasn't actually telling them to reduce 🤦

As an agent I always follow up. Once, five years ago, I followed up on a couple who seemed to have loved the house but did not come back with an offer. I waited a few days, then called them. They answered the phone and said that yes, they did indeed love the house, but they could only afford 550k and the house was priced at 625k and did not want to waste anyone's time! They have been living there for five years now :)

These people did, unless my agent was lying, which is possible I guess but why bother? They literally phoned the agent back themselves the day after the second viewing to say, they wanted it, they had to sort one thing and they'd be calling back to make an offer that evening.
Then they disappeared. Fair enough - they don't want it. But why all the nonsense?
Obviously by 2 days later, having heard nothing we realised they didn't want it. But it did leave us hanging.

I agree. It's a business transaction - they considered buying, they decided against. They don't owe the EA or you anything.

Giving feedback is optional, it's not their job to help you sell your house.

Estate agents do lie. Shocking, I know.

They want you to think that they're on the verge of selling your house, and bringing interested people through the door. Of course they do!

But someone speaking to my estate agent doesn't make all that effort go away.
I'm doing the house cleaning for my own benefit, to maximise the chance of someone falling in love with the house, not because I'm super nice to the potential buyer.

I was also surprised by that post, the poster wrote it like they were doing viewers a favour. Not trying to sell their house, if you’re selling you want it to look good, you want viewers, you’re not doing them some massive favour letting them in.

Yes, tidying for viewers is 100% done out of self-interest. It's not done to benefit them in any way, it's purely because you want to sell the house. It's a business transaction, not hospitality.

I think its more common courtesy - for example, when we were tirelessly doing viewings and would accommodate a potential buyers schedule and be out of the property over our child's nap time, lurking in a local park with a tired toddler etc, it just felt a bit frustrating if people couldn't answer the phone and say "no sorry not for us"
I guess people are right in that no one owes any one anything but if we all stomp around with a "screw you" "i don't owe anyone anything" attitude then the world is going to become a pretty nasty place.
I don't think there is an issue with feedback culture as many PPs have mentioned on this thread. Has no one ever read a review of a product/hotel/restaurant that has helped their decision on whether to consume that product or visit that place?

I've mostly seen fairly sensible comments tbf and good comparisons made with similar local properties on for less, granted there is always one who thinks a buyer can't see past there not being a hanging basket out front 🤣

OP, from reading MN I have gathered that a lot of people have no manners or communication skills and they think that’s fine. On the flip side, I always give agents feedback ( eg I might say I would want to re do the bathroom and at the price asked I wouldn’t have the budget) but often as soon as I say anything negative the agent can’t wait to hang up and move to the next potential buyer. Most estate agents are TERRIBLE. I doubt much genuine feedback ever makes it to the seller.

It takes a second to answer the phone and say "not interested thanks"

That would be true if that were genuinely the extent of the conversation, but it never is. It’ll be all “Hello Mrs X, how are you today?” and then some social chat designed to soften you up and then when you say you’re not interested, you’re not going to get away with “Oh, Ok, bye”: you’ll get more tiresome nonsense that they taught them at the ‘how to make a sale’ training sessions.

We're in a similar position- we've now had 3 sets do second viewings and want the loft ladders down etc and zero feedback. I know they don't owe feedback, but a 1 line email to the agent to say 'Thanks but we've decided no' would be polite. I would do it. You might also want the agent to show you something else before it comes to market in which case it pays not to be seen as timewaster.

Also then surely it stops them phoning you.

We're also pretty sure we're priced reasonably- lower than an identical house on our street in similar condition. Market just sucks.

I also did wonder if some people are keen but can't get the mortgage approved which I guess might be embarrassing for them?

I think maybe some of these responses are from people who are just disappointed the second viewers didn’t buy, and ghey are a bit pissed off about it.

@Zone4flaneur same. We had 2nd viewers who wanted to go up the loft. Was a massive pain tbh BC our loft was a mess we had to clear it out before they came so they could get up there (it's obviously a job we'd have had to do at some point anyway ) and then nothing.
It IS rude. Plenty of people saying they wouldn't bother either, well fair enough. Doesn't mean it's not rude though.
I don't expect feedback from a first viewing though really. But a second? Especially if they'd made a special request - we had one that asked the estate agent to show him docs for something, which again we had to dig out and take in for them to scan and then NOTHING. Why can't people just say, no?

I wondered when I was posting this whether I'd get a load of 'yep, just rude' comments, and am genuinely surprised that the majority seem to think I'm daft expecting even a 'nope, not as good second time round'.

It's absolutely not a bad thing though and has made me feel a whole lot better about NOT getting back anything from both sets of second viewers. I'll show this thread to my DH later and see if he feels better too, although I suspect he may go off and mutter about it with our DD19, who also thinks that everyone is 'just fucking rude...it's a second viewing FFS!'. Thanks all, even if I don't agree with you all, it's been entertaining. x

Yes I don't expect feedback from a first either (although actually we have got a fair bit from 1st viewings but none from the second). Although when we are viewing ourselves we give it on the spot.

We've also had 3 or 4 no shows which is VERY rude in my view unless you've been taken ill on the way. We obviously don't mind an intensive clean but I don't want to do it for no reason.

I mean whatever, they don't have to buy the house but I just think it's odd.

I don't think you are daft at all @KnackeredBack. I've seen a lot of sellers on here get really over emotional about their sales and behave rudely in response to comments. You haven't done that.
Personally, as I've already said, when I have sold, I thought it was my responsibility to be as flexible as possible and to present the house well because I wanted to sell it. If I got feedback, great. If not, they weren't interested.
Secondly, most feedback is not very helpful because British people are not good at being frank and hate to talk about money. I have once give feedback to an agent that I thought the house was too expensive but I softened it by saying 'compared to other houses we have seen, the price seemed too high'. In this example, other people did too because it didn't sell and came back on the market 10% lower the following year.

I am also wondering if there is a slight difference in procedures in different parts of the UK which also come into play here. Where I live it's the norm to have open house viewings every Sunday 2-4pm. So for about 3 months, we viewed houses every Sunday. We viewed so many houses and there is no way we could have given feedback on all of them.

I still don't judge anyone for not giving feedback at any stage though. To the pp who described opening up the attic as a 'special request'....um, it's part of the house, the thing you are buying, the thing that will be the most expensive thing you ever buy.

And yes, preparing for viewings is a faff but it goes with the territory. I imagine living in rented accommodation and having to clean regularly for landlord inspections is a faff too.