What’s the most bizarre reason someone had discounted your property on?

[Peteryourhorseisheree]

One viewer had looked inside a freestanding chest of drawers in dds bedroom. Bedroom was otherwise tidy and neutrally decorated. But she’d shoved a load of clothes and random bits in the drawers, as teenagers sometimes do.

The feedback to the estate agent was that the mess inside the drawers “showed our characters”and indicated that we had probably hidden structural issues in the house.

One viewer who I showed around stated properly having a go at me as my house was too close to her mums. I asked her why the hell she had come to view it then, it was hardly a surprise where it was situated. She told the agent she wasn’t interest in the property as I was rude to her.

Someone else started bashing the walls as he walked around taking about blown plaster. The entire house had been renovated two years prior and all taken back to brick. Every single wall and ceiling was new plaster. He insisted that he was a builder and it was still the original 1930s plaster hidden by lining paper. There was no lining paper on any wall at all, it was all painted plaster. I pulled up some photos on my phone of the house all back to brick two years prior - he told me that those photos were AI generated He did put in an offer, 15k under, as “the house needs to be completely gutted and re plastered”. The estate agent said she was actually embarrassed telling us.

A friend of mine had someone who said they would put in an asking price offer, if they emptied the house of all furniture and belonging so they could see it empty. Funnily enough, she told them to jog on.

Between those viewers and the two sales that fell though, I was very glad when our circumstances changed and we didn’t have to sell after all. I honestly don’t think I could put myself though it again.

I went to view a house in London once. We walked up from the agency with the EA - she was on crutches, which I hadn't realised ahead of time. We arrived 5 or 10 minutes after the specified appointment time.

The vendor opened the door to us, said "You're LATE!" and proceeded to tear a strip off the EA like I've never seen before. Think John Cleese in full-on apoplectic mode, but worse, and for real. He was red in the face, absolutely ranting. We tried to stand up for the poor agent, she was nearly in tears, but he was having none of it. Eventually we left because he wouldn't let us into the house.

Needless to say, I didn't rearrange the viewing!

In defence of some of the random feedback, having been a buyer as well as a seller I can sort of see how it might happen. When we were looking, the estate agents were so desperate to shift properties that they were pushing us to view all sorts of unsuitable houses. They'd phone up and say "we've got a lovely 3 bed about to come on the market on so-and-so road. Shall we book you a viewing?". We'd always prefer to scrutinise the details first and, because we've always stayed local, have a drive down the road first and do a recce. We ruled out loads this way due to, for eg, unsuitable room layouts, potential dodgy neighbours, not having an essential feature that we wanted, busy road, etc. So I see how the less discerning purchaser could be sucked into doing viewings on houses that were missing features like a dining room, second lounge, long driveway or were too close to an estranged mum (!). The first time they realised would be when they turned up to see the house. I guess it's a different way of house hunting. By the time we booked a viewing, we'd already done some serious filtering and those we went to see were serious contenters. Whenever I've sold, I had the impression that half the people who came to view had no clue what the house was like before they arrived!

Always a blamer isn’t there

More like… skeptical

Honestly, on a thread about bizarre feedback from house viewings, the fact that someone extrapolated from a teenager's messy cupboard to structural problems really doesn't stand out as being the most batshit!

Not bizarre as such but made me very curious...they were very interested but then a message came from estate agents that they were no longer in running as they realised they knew who the downstairs neighbours were!!

Made me want to know what they knew about them and what their view of the issue was. I had some guesses but will never know.

Selling my painstakingly renovated, Grade II listed Victorian farmhouse; buyer passed, because ‘a house like that needs decent double-glazing and it would cost a fortune’.

The first house we sold we were told that the conservatory roof needed urgently replacing by a viewer, it had been done 6 months before and was perfect but apparently they knew better. Second house we were selling buyer wanted me to photograph and list every garden pot that I was leaving. Most recent house we bought seller decided that they wanted to take all the carpets but if we gave them £10k extra they would leave them, we said please do on moving day take them all up as we would not be paying, unsurprisingly they did not fancy that so left them.

We had buyers discount our 1st house because it was just the same as all the other houses in the street. Ie it lacked character.

Sure but it was part of a small estate of roads built in the 60s ! If they wanted character they could have looked at the cottages on the high street- which were much tinier and 2x the price.

Another chap snootily discounted our 2nd house because of location 'its somewhere you go through to get to somewhere else'. Fine, but why waste everyone's time doing the viewing? The location is the only thing you know about. Twat

That's funny! I feel like locations like that you need to do 2 weeks in an air b&b to see how you manage and only then even begin to consider whether it's right. (Unless of course you are used to country living)

Not us but next door (semi detached). Cottage is thatched, almost the entire village is thatched. Practically all the village is listed and a conservation area. You either love that sort of thing or you don’t. There’s plenty of tiled roof options in neighbouring villages and new builds in town. But this village is “chocolate box” and bloody expensive as a result.

Buyer rejected the house because “they can’t sleep without a proper roof and didn’t realise you couldn’t change it”.

How on earth did you get to this?

sceptical

Yes, because I would spend my time making up quite boring things. It’s funny how some people’s minds go straight to that rather than just taking it for what it is.

There are some really fucking odd people in the world, and when you are welcoming in lots of people to your home, to basically scrutinise it, you are bound to meet some of them.

We decided to stay in the end as our situation changed and we decided to extend. so I am sat here, covered in brick dust, waiting for the builders to get back with loads of timber, and thinking how lucky I am not to have to go through that madness again for a long time.

Oh there is always someone. Yes, my teenager shoving stuff into her bedroom drawers must mean my entire house is a shithole that should be bulldozed.

we had this with our first house. Some 30-35 years ago it used also to be a thing to 'sell" something like a shed, carpets, etc as part of the purchase price in order to reduce the price for the actual house and minimise stamp duty. I have no idea whether it ever actually worked.

I’d be furious if someone was snooping around my drawers. Nothing wrong with opening kitchen cabinet doors (although I personally always ask) to check if they’re working but a freestanding drawer?

Older couple who arrived to view our (two storey) house - wanted something without stairs. So, a bungalow then.

Multiple people who moaned there was no 4th bedroom - again, clearly listed as a 3 bed.

Drove me bloody mad!

Really 😮 op needs to prepare all her drawers in case strangers want to root about her smalls.
Don't think so!

Friends had people look around and complain there was no garage. Err, didn’t you look at the house details before coming to view.

we had that one too. Our garage has been converted to part of the house. It’s very clear on the photos and on the floor plan that it’s been converted. There is no mention of a garage.

We still had someone ask about the garage.

I can confirm that it did work! Bought a house for £63k in the late 90s. At the time Stamp Duty kicked in at £60k so we said we were paying £3k for the carpets and curtains, and the sellers were fine with that.

Detached house! I wish we could have hung on to that house, but we had to move out of the area a few years later.

We were selling a very small 2 up 2 down in not the best area of town. Key selling point was that, unlike most houses in the area, it had a garage and off road parking. Priced to sell, so at the lower end of prices for houses in that area. All very clear from photos/descriptions on rightmove.

• One viewer I showed round repeatedly told me that I should have 3 bedrooms as I had a garage. 2 bed houses never have garages, so why didn't I have 3 bedrooms.
• Several complained about the location (clearly stated at the top of the rightmove description. One knocked on the door to tell me they would not be coming in to view as arranged because of he location, moaned that I had wasted their time and informed me that I must instruct our EA make sure any other potential viewers knew the house was in a bad location, as the inside photos made it look like it could be in [posh and pricey part of town].
• One viewer said he was probably going to make me an offer, but could the outside of the house be painted white? EA asked me and I confirmed that I was not aware of any restrictions etc that would stop him doing that and in fact some of the other houses on the street were white. He came back to say no, I'd misunderstood, he wanted me to paint the outside white so he could see what it would look like before he decided whether he wanted to make an offer.

We were sent to view one house by an EA and as we arrived the new owner was moving in!

Selling a house advertised with a big garden, potential buyer said it's a big garden, couldn't cope with that. Selling a three bedroom house guy arrives looks at the outside and says I thought it was one of those four or five bedroom houses, me no it's as described three bedrooms, and then he says no good to me but might as well have a look since I'm here as he walks in, wish I'd told him to b*** off.

MIL’s house was a bit too ‘old lady’ for them. The sales details said it was built in the 60’s and had one owner since new, the photos were of empty rooms so the magnolia paint and hessian feature wall were prominent so it was indeed quite ‘old lady’.

Didn’t put the next viewers off who came back with an over asking price offer.