Damn people not turning up for viewings

[Cabhag]

Just need to vent about people not turning up for viewing. It is so frustrating. They book in, you go to great effort tidying and preparing your home to look its best, arrange (often in the middle of the working day) to make take yourself off somewhere, and then they don’t bloody turn up. No call, nothing.

It’s so fucking rude. If you knew you weren’t going to bother, call the estate agent so I can stay at home and crack on with my work- rather than sitting in a Costa for an hour like a fucking lemon.

This is the second one to do it. House selling is frustrating enough without these time wasters.

Yeah I feel you! We block booked all our viewings over three days so we weren't endlessly cleaning, it's such a faff. Of course our buyers now want another look so gearing up for one final clean (hopefully the last!)

That is so annoying. I feel for you, the make the house look like no one lives here is no joke. Hope you sell soon.

I have done it. We arrived at the property and saw that something very prominent had been airbrushed out of the photograph. We just left. I was wasting my time so I let them waste their time.

Ok, for clarity my photos aren’t airbrushed and there aren’t any hidden surprises.

Agents should blacklist viewers who don't show up. Alright, in the old days maybe if you were caught short and couldn't find a phone box in an emergency, fair enough. In 2025, nope.

How many has it been? I remember when I was looking cancelling a viewing the day before- tried calling the agent on the only number I had, left a voice mail, also emailed him direct. No response. Whatever. Got a call from his colleague the following day asking why I hadn't shown and the vendor was very annoyed.... apparently the person I was dealing with was out of the office so hadn't got the message. I did point out that that wasn't my problem as he hadn't left alternative contacts and/or indicated he was away... Anyway, my point being it could be your agent being crap.

It’s happened twice. This one the estate agent stayed at mine for half a hour waiting and both him and the office tried a couple of times to call the viewer who didn’t pick up- so I don’t think it’s the estate agent being crap.

I have also dealt with estate agents who aren’t great at answering the phone, but these guys always do- so I doubt the viewer left a message that wasn’t picked up.

It’s rude. I honestly think the whole system needs an overhaul.
its run very differently in other countries and we could learn a lot from them.
The fact that buyers can pull out up until they day of the move is just wrong.

I’m an estate agent and this happens every single day - without fail. It drives me insane. Our system sends emails confirming and a reminder text the night before and people still don’t show up. I will make a point of calling them when I’m at the property and 9 times out of 10 they don’t pick up and I’ll never hear from them. If it’s a genuine mistake, people will apologise profusely. I keep track of no shows and never book them for an individual appointment again.
The attitude of a previous poster of showing up and intentionally wasting a vendor’s time by leaving because they see something they don’t like is ridiculous and unfortunately the entitled attitude I see all the time.
Buying and selling houses is hard enough!

The bitter, vindictive part of me is delighted that you won’t make bookings for them again. I’d be thrilled if my agent confided that they took the same approach.

I’m used to my time being wasted but it really annoys me on behalf of my clients when they’ve gone to the effort of getting the house ready. If a previous no show contacts me again, I’ll only book them in if I’ll already be at the property! Hope you get sold soon, hang in there!

Some agents do. There is one agent local to me, if you don’t show up or let them know you can’t make it, they won’t let you view any further houses.

My daughter and I were inadvertent timewasters the other day. We went to the house she's buying for a second viewing, waited and waited for the EA to turn up - no sign. She rang him eventually and he said 'oh, no, the vendor is showing you around, not us.' So we were half an hour late, but we didn't mean to be.

Fortunately nobody took it badly but the EAs texts to my daughter had definitely said that they were showing us around and would be there. So sometimes it's just poor communication.

Just as bad, last time we sold I had a couple of calls around 5.30pm from agent saying they'd got someone who was desperate to view in next 20-30mins. You work around it if you know in advance, but at that time you're already cooking DC or family tea.

If you are referring to me then this was the fault of the estate agent for altering the photo. It was something like a pylon, higher than the house, dominating the view. It had been completely removed from the photo of the front of the house. The vendor and estate agent should not waste my time. I would not have been the only person just leaving.