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.

Nothing wacky but the usual "It's a bit small" when selling a one bedroom flat. The room sizes and floorplan were clearly listed with the property ad.

I know not everyone can visualise what that looks like in reality though, especially with EAs using wide angled lenses.

Looking through people's drawers and using their "mess" as a reason for not offering is bonkers!

Selling late Mil bungalow.
One viewer complained that it was facing the wrong way.

Are you always so insufferable?

We had similar, came and looked round, said they didn't like the location. There is a map on the listing as to where the house was and the people lived about 3 roads away!! if you are not sure on location, take 5 minutes to drive past before wasting everybody's time!! Others said the bedrooms were too small, again all dimensions were on the listing - so frustrating!

Previous house we sold had no drive or garage (Victorian street but was sort of on the corner with a newer street). This was clearly indicated in the property description and photos.

One viewer called up the estate agent after her viewing - did we know we in fact did have a drive and garage? Apparently she had peered around the street corner and caught sight of the neighbour's property and become convinced their drive/garage belonged to our house, but somehow we'd not noticed for all the years we lived there

Prepare it by moving it further from the viewer's mother's house you mean?

Hehe I wonder if here mum finds he a bit trying...or ahe could of course be equally batshit 😅

We had a sale fall through (as in months down the line) as they didn’t like the bins. The council issued wheelie bins.

It was to far to his gym. The family invested a lot of time and 4 viewings one with a builder…..offered..then pulled it because on consideration the drive to his gym was to much.

Wow! I mean, that’s special.

Selling my late mum's house which was an absolute wrench. Very well maintained and much loved mature garden, massive compared to pretty much every house in the large village. Sales particulars very evident of the size, 5 or 6 pics including aerial view.

Had 31 viewings in a week. Maybe 7 or 8 said the garden was too big. Seriously?!!

We had a few viewers of our 2nd house who said they were downsizing.

One then said she didn't like the fact that she wouldn't fit her dining room table in. A strange hill to die on imo.

One complained that the garden was too big

Ah @Ohmygodthepain maybe you had the same viewers!

I sold a house backing onto a large cemetery. It was quite clearly marked on the map and gravestones were visible in the background of one of the room photos (ie through the window). This was in London too, so you don’t just miss a bloody massive patch of undeveloped land on an otherwise densely-built google map.

Obviously there were several people who said they’d not have viewed if they’d know the house backed onto a cemetery.

I do think that the relentless prompting for ‘feedback’ can be pretty pointless tbh. Unless it is something like clutter or mess which the EA may have been too shy/ thick/ inexperienced to mention, but is pleased to have an excuse to point out, what are you supposed to do about other people’s opinions ( because that’s what many of these are). A friend is selling her house of 23 years and was getting very agitated about ‘ stupid’ reasons that the EA had extracted from people who didn’t want to buy it. But IMHO sometimes people do come and look at the less than ideal house, because a) the ideal doesn’t seem to exist, and b) you don’t always know it it has that special something which will make you overlook the layout, or the size or whatever.

I bought a house with a useless tiny ancient kitchen ( we eventually converted the garage) because once we had walked onto the balcony and seen the view, there was no way we were not going to live there even if we had to live on takeaways!

PS Friend has sold her house to someone who complained that it didn’t have enough utility room space, but then two weeks later realised that the washing machine could go upstairs…. Sometimes you just have to chill ( though it can be fun to indulge the five minute rant).

Not selling but we do get people like that moving to our area and complaining about tractors on the roads, asking why they can’t get an uber or just eat and how do you book a taco to the airport or home from the pub on a Saturday. Just hilarious.

ODFOD. The contents of a free standing chest of drawers is NOT even part of the property.

Honestly, the way some posters will streeeeetch anything just to be able to get a dig in at an OP is ridiculous.

We had someone view our house who was obsessed with plug sockets. The viewing took ages while he made a detailed drawing of the floor plan, marking where they all were and then decided there weren’t enough (daft as there were multiple sockets in each room! )

Townhouse - front door, 2 rooms on ground floor (inc access to garden), plus a shower room; living room plus kitchen dining room on middle floor; master en-suite on top floor.
someone viewing subsequently put in a v low offer ‘because they wouldn’t be using the downstairs rooms’.

We were selling a detached 4 bed in a wide, quiet road with no other houses at the end of the garden.. The complaint was that the bedroom windows, at the back and front, faced the wrong way.

My viewer wanted my DHs number so he could bypass the estate agent. When refused he snidely told the EA that the area was shit, he knew what it was like and didn't want it... and still put in an offer £20k under the fixed price it already was.

We had great satisfaction in turning the offer down.

Back in the olden days when I was in this Estate Agent 35 years ago I would’ve physically stopped anybody opening drawers in a property
I don’t know what’s wrong with this current lot. They’ve got absolutely no backbone whatsoever.

Sounds like you've been very unlucky OP.

I had one who "hated Yorkshire" - so why come to look at a house here?