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.

We had a woman who ranted on and on about our electric shower and how she doesn’t understand why people put them in rather than mixer showers. I said she was perfect free to change it when she bought the flat.

She then put in a low ball offer at closing date (Scotland) and then came round to have a major rant at us about the Scottish bidding system and how she kept missing out on flats. She actually wanted us to decline the best offer and take hers!!!

Nuts. Not to mention illegal as we had already accepted it. Not sure why she felt we should be subsidising her to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds. 🤔

Tbf to them I saw neighbours tiled back being a pool quite often so I think that's a valid concern. Hard to prove you have proper aet up unles you empty a barell in front of the buyer

I think what I would think is that you had never experienced a flooded property, not that it never could happen. I wouldn't want to argue about it but I still wouldn't buy!

Yes we had buyers do this. They paid £250k for the house and £10k for the garage to avoid the stamp duty threshold. Seemed to be legal as it all went through. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I just had one viewer tell the estate agent that they did not like the fridge....I am moving into a newbuild with appliances in, so I had offered to leave the fridge if anyone wants it, or it can be removed by me if they do not. But apparently they did not like the silver fridge and the freezer section was too big....

Some people are wappy.

Of course. It was a Victorian house, had never flooded in 100+ years. Still hasn't, since I sold it, more than twenty years ago. The question was 'the most bizarre reason', not whether people were expected to buy despite that reason!

Currently selling, all feedback has said “it’s too close to the road” or “can you plant a row of leylandi before I offer”. To be fair everyone has said it’s a beautiful house.

No, no trees going in to help you buy it. I can’t move the road. It’s literally right there on the map, next to an A road.

Price has dropped twice, I’ll be lucky to get what I paid for it 😭

but I don't think it is bizarre

I'm sure you're right....drains ARE overrated.

When downsizing: Repeated people trying to get our five bedroomed, two bathroomed, three reception rooms plus massive kitchen and massive garden in a very desirable postcode for the same price as a three bed council house in a far less desirable area. They got upset and complained to the EA who suggested they should be looking for homes they really could afford. Then there was the family who moaned the single bedrooms were too small to easily take a king size bed plus all their associated furniture. The details did include all room dimensions in the detailed plans.

And the one where they complained the massive garden, which had been divided into five garden areas was just too big for them. They came to see the house because we had a huge garden…….

The house sold for what I wanted.

Edited as I think I may have misunderstood your post. But I think the EA fed it back because they have to feed this stuff back if it's said as a reason for offering under the asking price.

I've also had one who gave feedback saying it was messy inside my freestanding wardrobes (I'd chucked everything in there, as the viewing was extremely short notice and I'd had to do a quick tidy up). He was also annoyed that when he opened the oven door, without asking, I'd got a chicken roasting in there (last minute Sunday afternoon viewers). When I asked him to please close it as I was cooking our dinner he said he'd wanted to see how clean it was. He then practically ran up the stairs, leaving his wife, who had problems walking, to push in front of me and block my way from getting up the stairs after him, as it took her ages to get up there. All the time I was stuck behind her I could hear him opening and closing cupboards and wardrobe doors. When the estate agents phoned me the next day they were full of apologies. Apparently, this couple were notorious for Sunday afternoon viewings, it was a hobby to them and they had no intention of buying. The lady who had been working on the Sunday was cover staff and hadn't known this. Then, when I bumped into my next door neighbour he said they'd actually knocked on his door first and when he said it was the wrong house and they wanted next door, he said they asked could they have a quick look round his anyway as they could then compare them!

Well if I was showing some round my house and they opened a drawer I'd have shut their fingers in it and told them to leave.
I had someone tell me all my windows needed replacing as where they rented the windows were like mine and we're very drafty. It had had new windows fit 5 years previously, so I just said, well these arnt drafty, but if you buy it and want new windows thats up to you, I'm not reducing the price.

huh? that seems quite a reasonable decision. A Victorian farmhouse presumably WOULD benefit from any type of insulation to keep it warm.

Double glazing doesn't have to mean shiny white UPVC plastic, there are lots of companies specialising in fitting it in historic properties, including wood options etc.

It might not be what YOU would choose to do but essentially he was thinking about liveability, comfort, and cost - all pretty solid criteria for choosing a home! It's hardly along the lines of some of the other examples on here.

presumably it was only when he got the survey back he was advised of this though?

I don't blame him. His contract to buy it was subject to being satisfied with the survey, they weren't able to do a full survey so fair enough if he didn't want to take quite a big risk.

We had a viewer say that she loved the house and especially the wooden floors but that she thought they would be a bit dusty because she couldn't be bothered to Hoover often. That was why she wouldn't buy it.

The best part is she was already living in Yorkshire

Wow!!! That’s madness.

🤣. You think it’s the OP’s fault that the person looking around the house was rude enough to start rifling through bedroom drawers and commenting on the contents? 🤔😵‍💫. Alrighty then!

We had a proper charlie when we sold our last house. He went round glaring sceptically at everything and making little ‘hmmmm’
faces; they also brought their three kids. She (not him, he was too busy hmmming) spent the whole time grabbing at them and giving them low-grade rows (I said I didn’t mind if they sat on chairs or wandered about or whatever, the house was very child-friendly and my own kids were elsewhere). The vibe was so weird that I was sweating by the time they left. We had a load of viewings over the weekend and two offers on the Monday morning. We took the offer from the people who were in the best position to proceed and that was that.

The following day Mr Sceptical’s lawyer rang up to make an offer and was told we’d already done a deal. The wife turned up at our door about an hour later, without notice, knowing we’d accepted an offer. She said she loved the house and really wanted it then got pissed off when I said I was sorry but I couldn’t let the other people down.

No idea what all that was about. I suspect he’d heard the old-fashioned advice of not seeming to actually want to buy the house but the whole tyre-kicker routine was just really pointlessly ill-mannered, as was trying to get me to bump the other buyers. I’ve been shown round some proper houses of horrors and been nice.

Another belter, another house, another man, said in an incredulous manner -
‘So this house only has one bathroom?’
Me: ‘that’s right’ (it was a three bed, not a mansion)
‘And it doesn’t have an ensuite?’
Me: ‘Nope.’
‘It’d be worth more if it had an ensuite.’
Felt like saying yeah good point we’ll just quickly chuck one in then 😂 They also bought it in the end.

So you didn’t move to the end OP…. But surely all the reasons for you wanting to move in the first place are still applicable? @Peteryourhorseisheree

My younger daughter passed the 11+ and got into the grammar school half an hour away like her older sister.

We only had the house on the market incase she didn’t pass as we don’t like the local secondaries. The second lot of buyers pulled out due to their buyers pulling out (the 3rd ones to do so), the day the results were out. She got an amazing score, so we knew she would get a place. So we took it off the market all together.

There is no point in moving now she’s in a good school.

So..,. If you’d sold before she got results?

The second lot of buyers pulled out due to their buyers pulling out (the 3rd ones to do so), the day the results were out.

Presumably you’d have done the same and perhaps they too were waiting for results day!

One woman turned up 8 hours late. I said it wasn’t possible now and she said ‘that I couldn’t possibly understand how hard it was to get out the house on time with 2 kids.’

I said she was quite right as my 4 kids plus husband and 2 dogs had gone out for the viewing ON TIME.

She tried to push past me and was INCREDULOUS I stopped her and said ‘she was going to report me to the police as it was illegal to put a property on the market and not have viewings’.

I laughed a lot and shut the door. The estate agent got a massive earful from her saying how I’d prevented her buying, was clearly a scam etc etc 😂😂😂