How are working people meant to view houses these days?

[Clare1207]

Just a bit of a rant really, so sorry in advance for the long post! I'm just so frustrated over this situation.

My husband and I are looking for our first home, FTB with a full 10% deposit, AiP, Solicitors on standby, just trying to find the right house. The biggest hurdle we're facing in finding a house is we live in a different city to where we're wanting to move so can't just pop out of work for an hour as it take over an hour each way to travel and the estate agents are being so ridiculous with the viewing times.

I spoke to one estate agent the other day asking for a viewing and the latest time they do is half 2 in the afternoon! What? How do these people expect to sell these houses? Are they all just hoping landlords go for them? Another one, when I phoned them to request a viewing of a house they'd just had to reduce in price, said I can't book a viewing over the phone and have to request details through rightmove and someone would phone me back, which no one ever did.

I can't book time off work to do viewings as I work Term Time Only so don't get standard holidays and have to wait until the school holidays for time off and even when I do have time off, we tried to block book viewings during half term last month and it was impossible! Almost every estate agent was fully booked and could only do the following week when we were back in work except for maybe 3 we were able to look at, spread out over the week we had off, couldn't even get them for the same day. The earliest we can get to the city we're looking at is 5pm and barely any do bookings that late and none we've come across have the option for the seller to do the viewing instead.

The houses near where we want to live seem to sell in a matter of days, unless it's massively overpriced or needs a lot of work doing to it, so it's not even like we can book weeks in advance either.

Even when we manage to actually view somewhere we like, we put an offer in recently for a house that we were literally looking at as an 'it will do for now' and got told that someone else had made an offer 'way over asking price' which we weren't willing to do because it was already overpriced for the area it was in. One house we actually managed to get an offer accepted and then we got the survey and it easily needed about £20-30k worth of work up-front and we just coudn't afford that straight off so had to walk away. Every single place we actually manage to view needs so much work, all seem to be elderly people who have passed away. Are families not selling anymore?

It's all just so frustrating and disheartening. We have pressure to move because my mum isn't very well and needs us much closer and it's just so difficult to arrange anything. It's really getting us both down and just can't see an end to it unless we get very lucky.

TLDR: estate agents are being so difficult with house viewing bookings and makes it near impossible for working people to actually view a house these days!

Is anyone else having issues like this at the moment? What is going on with the housing market that estate agents feel like they can just completely ignore prospective buyers willing to view houses?

Sounds like it's very much a sellers market where you are looking so they can pick and choose when they are willing to have viewings, and if the houses are selling really fast you are at a huge disadvantage living out of the area. It also sounds like you are only just about able to afford that area so can't take on a project which might be harder to sell.

Good advise to do most of your looking on line you will probably reject 90% straight away as too dear, or too much work, too much or little garden, no on site parking, or just don't like it. If you find something you love 'beg' the agent to ask if the vendor would let you do an evening viewing, or Saturday or Sunday, be really charming and insistent and emphasis that you are really keen and looking to make an offer. Last resort you could just knock the door, when we were selling my MILs house a few people just came to ask about it having seen the for sale sign, a bit cheeky, but you never know.

I think you need to ask to swap your ppa time to a weekend if you're a teacher, as a one off

Right, having bought and sold in two peaks of the London property market, I will kindly advise that you need to change your mindset. There is nothing whatsoever about this that relates to ‘fairness’, ‘greed’, ‘convenience’ or your need to get a place to live in the first place. It is a free market pure and simple. Think of a traditional market seller shouting out ‘three oranges for a pound’. They don’t care who buys the oranges, they don’t care if you are teachers who can’t visit the market in the daytime, they just want to sell the oranges. But if they like a regular customer, they might keep an extra juicy orange back just for them. The estate agent is the market seller in this situation.

Have you physically visited the estate agents in their shop and actually spoken to them in person? They need to remember you and be willing to phone your number over and above the twenty other people sending in emails or online enquiries. Turning on the charm can help.

Do you phone them every Monday morning and ask them what’s coming on the market that week? You need to be both their new best friend and a fly in their ear.

I suggest going there for a week at least during the holidays and visiting the estate agents every single morning. Be keen, friendly and show them that you are ready to go on a viewing there and then. That will probably help. Good luck!

A perfect example of what I'm (admittedly) moaning about is one specific house I've been trying to arrange a viewing on for over a month now. I must have telephone 4 separate times over it, just had to resort to their live chat because I can't get in to the office as they close before I can get there. Each time being told they are only doing a Wednesday early afternoon to view it which I can't do until I'm off work for summer. Last week they reduced the price but 10k because clearly it's not selling and despite that they're still only allowing the one afternoon a week viewing. I'd have happily paid the original asking price for it as it is exactly where I need it to be and meets our needs. I just can't view it on a Wednesday afternoon because of work. Would they (including the vendors here) really rather lose money on the house rather than just expand their viewing times? That seems so counter productive to me. It's not about the price of things which everyone seems to think is what I'm talking about here, although that is a separate issue in and of itself. It's about the awkward times and excluding a potentially large portion of your potential buyers, it just doesn't make sense to me!

Have you asked if the vendors are willing to do a viewing themselves? I’m surprised the EA aren’t biting your hand off if the property hasn’t sold. If it’s the vendors who are stating that Wednesday afternoon is the only time available, have the EA told them of your situation? Ie teachers who can’t get time off. Also that you don’t have a property to sell and have the money agreed in principle? This sounds very frustrating for you.

And yes, most things go really quickly in the area, mostly to landlords from what I can tell it's not the best of areas but there is a high demand in rental properties, but that doesn't mean people should feel they need to pay over what has been assessed as market value to secure somewhere to live. I know I'm not owed anything from these people, my entire point was just I don't see why they seem to purposely exclude a massive chunk of people who want to buy, surely more competition is better for them?

The last time I spoke to the estate agent over this house specifically, they couldn't get me off the phone quick enough. Told me I had to request a viewing through Rightmove and someone would call me back, which no one ever did. Hence why I've just resorted to their live chat to try and get someone to contact me over it!

I’m surprised the EA aren’t biting your hand off if the property hasn’t sold.

I strongly believe these EAs are the reason some houses I am attempting to view have been sitting on market for months tbh...
Ery much same experience as OP, but mainly with houses which are not exactly flying off market

What is "market value" though? Property is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

Where I live now is a sellers market, properties routinely go 20% over asking and always to best and final. That made searching for property there much harder when I was moving 150 miles to get there, yes it was annoying but its just how it was and I had to adjust my mindset and my availability accordingly.

More competition, as you suggest, would push prices up not down.

@BadSkiingMum has given you the best advice on this thread.

Did they explain why the only possible time for viewings is a Wednesday afternoon? It's extremely unlikely that the agents have dictated this - it's much more likely that the vendors have. Agents want to sell as they won't get their commission if they don't. Some vendors are really awkward about making the property available for viewings - they might not be in a huge rush to sell it, they might have someone living there who has significant disability/health needs, who knows. Ask the agent, ask them to go back to the vendor to see if they would agree to a viewing at a different time. If you are serious buyer they should consider it. And as a last resort, if the agents are really that useless, you could always send a letter in the post (directly to the property) and address it to the owner.

Also have you asked agents if they can do a video tour? It doesn't beat an in-person viewing but it's better than nothing. You can get quite a lot from a good video tour.

Where I live vendors do the viewings themselves and that is evenings and weekends.

(Scotland)

Honestly are you sure you haven't been blacklisted?

Happened to us, the agency was dodgy (but a very big name national one) they basically get forced by the company to upsell 'extras' so they make people use their 'suggested' third party valuers, mortgages, surveyors etc... (not a suggestion though, they FORCE people too or blacklist them and refuse to show any houses to them) who pay them for every referral.

I have had no issues with any other EA but that one was so messed up, the black listed us after we cancelled a mortgage advisor appointment they booked for us without permission... we are cash buyers. They also booked our rental in for a valuation without permission, we don't own it we rent.

I also know someone who was blacklisted for missing a viewing once because they where given the wrong time, the agency refused to let them book any future viewings on any house.

Once you are marked by an EA thats that, they will just ignore or blank you and you won't be shown anything on their books. If you don't live anywhere near but phone constantly trying to book lots of different house viewing and are being demanding about out of hours timings etc... they might think you are a chancer, dreamer or time waster.

This has gone through my head as it seems like every time I call they're trying desperately to get me off the phone as quick as possible. However, this is the only house I've ever spoken to these specific agents about. Unless it's literally to do with my first call where they gave me one option of a viewing (a Wednesday at half 1 in the afternoon) and I said I couldn't do that due to work is there any other times and they said no, that is honestly the last time they actually engaged with me about it. Maybe my inability to drop everything has put a mark against me. Might try to get someone else to phone them to see if they fare any better!

I honestly thing having a break for a few weeks and starting again when I actually have time off in mid July - mid August is my best bet at the moment. When we can actually go see something any day of the week.

Thank you everyone for your comments, hopefully I'll have a bit better luck going forward.

The problem is that it's unlikely there will be many houses on the market in the school holidays. It all goes very quiet.

I think May half term would probably have been the best time but that's over now for another year! October half term maybe.

When you go to the area find this house and post a letter though the door - if you can find the full address you could post one now.

Let them know that you have tried to book a viewing with the agents and they have not been willing to look at options for you.

Tell them you are keen to view/it is in the area you want/ you are chain free/ agreement in principle etc.

If you view/buy the seller could dispute paying the agent the agreed % as they have been obstructive to arranging viewings (unless thus Wed afternoon only thing was on insistence of sellers). It might be that someone the agent knows wants to buy it so they are obstructing competitors.

The house my mum lives in now she was refused a viewing as she hadn't yet sold her house. She contacted the owner direct. The owner was downsizing and bought my mums old house. The agents eventually phoned my mum back to ask if she would still like to view and she told them she was already living in the property (30 years ago).

Oh, we really tried to book things in the May half term! I phoned about every house we were interested in the week before. 'oh we're fully booked sorry, we can do the following week if it's still available' was pretty much the response I got. I ended up only managing to book in 3 houses that entire week and even that wasn't all on the same day and had to do them over 3 separate days.

That's what house hunting is like I'm afraid. As I already said, your best bet is to find a job and rent there first - you don't have much to lose since you're renting atm.

Please re-read my post above. You need to be prepared to travel there and be in the local area, even without a viewing having been arranged. Do it this Saturday! You can spend the time visiting the agents, walking around the streets in your target area and getting to know the local amenities. I suspect that until they have seen you, they probably won’t take you seriously.

Another option is to book a Premier Inn nearby for the first week of the school holidays. Don’t wait, as otherwise everything will slow down as people go off on their holidays, just leave school on the last day of term and travel there as soon as possible. Then visit the agents at 9.15 every morning.

The other problem you'll be facing is estate agents themselves take time off around and during holidays. Last time I tried to book a viewing for a bank holiday weekend the agent was tearing his hair out because he had so few staff and sounded really stressed.

I swear the same bloke has shown us 5 houses over a 15 month period. It's like they only have one man who actually shows houses. Last time I saw him he said they'd asked him to come in on a non-working day just to show 9 sets of people one particular house the following day (which was very realistically priced and likely to fly off the market, which it did).

I just don't think EAs have that many staff these days.