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.

Just resurrecting this thread because I've just had feedback on mine "absolutely perfect but we really want an extra bedroom" WHY VIEW IT THEN?

I'm also interested because several of you have mentioned hearing the ridiculous comments yourself but both the estate agent I went with and the other ones who came to do an evaluation were all pretty insistent that they wanted us to leave the house for any viewings, which has been a faff tbh. Is that not normal?

I understand this though

Your property looked and ticked so many boxes. So despite not having the extra bedroom they thought they’d view on the off chance that it was so perfect t in every other way that they’d give up the extra bedroom requisite.

They viewed it. They loved it. But not quite enough to give up the extra bedroom idea

I've bought and sold a lot of properties, and I’ve been showed around a hell of a lot by agents.

Most are completely disinterested and just stand in one spot giving you one word answers. The others tell you a whole load of bullshit. I’ve always preferred it when the owner shows me around.

You can also be a lot more flexible with viewings. An estate agent might not want to show someone round at half seven on a Friday night - but you can.

When we were selling this house and I heard the comments I mentioned, I had recently had back surgery. So I couldn’t leave the house if I wanted to. I also couldn’t go up and down the stairs, so the agent did viewings while I was here with them (the rest of the family were always packed off).

I am glad I was as well as I had to pull the agent up a few times when they told the viewers absolute shit that they had just pulled out of the air.

The first offer we had, they told the family that there were no infant schools nearby - there are two within a 5 min walk and another three within a ten min walk! thank god I was there to point that out - they put in an asking price offer (although they had to pull out due to mortgage issues), but it made me think how many people would just walk away!

The agent wasn’t even fussed, she just said, “well I haven’t got kids, why would I know?”

And no, we didn’t change agents after that, we couldn’t we were in a contract with them. We got a second offer very soon after the first fell through.

How come you have bought and sold a lot of properties OP?

I find the process so labour intensive and that was with two properties that sold on day 1 and the process was very smooth! The packing up, the unpacking all the…. Upheaval! Especially when children are involved

I’m 46.

I started buying/refurbishing/selling properties with my ex husband when I was 18. We did a lot of them over about 13 years.

We also bought and sold 3 family homes in that time.

This is the second property I’ve owned with my current husband, although, we are now staying put for a bit.

I don’t find it stressful. With my first husband, quite frankly, we were loaded, so we just stayed somewhere else while someone else came in and packed up the 3 family homes we sold and went to the new place when it was all unpacked.

I’m far from loads now, but when we moved into this house, we stayed with the in-laws to minimise disruption during the moving days.

Woah
That makes me shudder just thinking about it

18? at 18 I was first year university and barely knew how to make cheese on toast! 😆

What was the contractual obligation with the EA? Ie you have to pay them for costs incurred if you moved EA?

No, it was Connells, 6 month contract as a sole agent. If we broke their contract, we couldn’t have out it on with another agent in that time.

We knew this house would sell fast though, and it would have, save for two buyers having to pull out for their own reasons.

What??! That is dreadful and must be region specific.

I am in Kent and went with Connells and it was sole agency with a 28 day notice period. So only 28 days before you could instruct an alternative.

6 months? That is outrageous and I would say an unfair contract term

It was cold.

Estate agent phoned me at 2.30 when I was shopping to say a couple wanted to view at 3. I rushed home, and got the house presentable. Heating wasn't timed to come on till 3.30.

Feedback was that they said they weren't interested as "the house was cold".

The rest of the agents here aren’t great though. Absolutely awful feedback from friends who have used them. This Connells branch were great to deal with when we bought this house from them, we had a bit of a nightmare with it, and they were completely on the ball. We also sold my dad’s house through them when he died and they were brilliant then. So the agent who turned up one day and made the stupid comment about there being no schools was a shock, although, she didn’t seem to work there long.

Like I said though, we knew it would get offers fast, so 6 month contract didn’t really matter to us, we just didn’t anticipate two buyers having to pull out due to their own issues in those 6 months!

Oh god, I remember viewing a house with my ex husband, years ago, and his mum came along. It was just what we were looking for and his mum kept saying it was “too cold” and that it would be a mistake based on that.

It was an empty cottage. In the middle of nowhere. In January. It was snowing outside.

I mean, yes, you’d expect it to be fucking freezing.

Love this kind of thread.
Why are you moving? asked the female of the couple i was showing around. 'We've been here 12 yrs and our family has grown and we'd like a bit more space". It was a 3 bed new build, small rooms which were fine when the kids were infants but now quite cramped. Dimensions and everything on the listing with Right move and the estate agents, clearly advertised as 3 bed.. 'BUT THERE ARE OF SIX of US!', shouts the woman visibly annoyed, eyes boring into mine, WHAT SHOULD WE DO? I'm visibly shocked at her outburst and open the next door, 'And here's the kitchen...'

Some people are just nuts.

Reminds me of the couple who came to view our quite large pre-war 3 bed semi, they were childless and they said they didn’t want it because they thought it would be too small when they had teenagers, what 15 years down the line?! I thought it was hilarious as the family we’d bought it off had brought up
5 kids in it.

We had buyers that did this too when the SDLT threshold was 250k. They paid 250k for the house and a further 10k for an aga. We assumed they were paying 260k and going to take the hit with the extra SDLT, but then they insisted on meeting with us for a pub lunch to "discuss the move". At which point they handed us the 10k cash in a brown paper bag! We were flabbergasted and in hindsight it was obviously not legal, but we didn't want to lose the sale, so went along with it.

It happened again actually, although that was nothing to do with SDLT as we sold the property in question for 585k, but it predated (iirc) the need to list items you'd be happy to sell/prices you'd like on the TA10 form. We agreed a price of around 5k for some antiques etc and they gave us a cheque.

They complained that there was no sun in the back garden. It was March in Manchester, and it was pouring with rain on the day they viewed.

7 people in a 3 bed semi? Bloody hell, I bet that wasn’t the Brady bunch.

There wasn’t a local Gail’s Bakery 🙄

You literally say **because I live in a shithole” and don’t care on another thread!! @Peteryourhorseisheree 😆

We're selling our tiny one bedroom holiday cottage.
Like the experience of so may others, our last viewers arrived and acted surprised that the clearly advertised property had only one bedroom.
🙄

Makes me wonder if they had stipulated to their agent they were looking for a 2 bed, they were on a viewing with said agent and he said he thought he had a property they might be interested in….. but didn’t tell them only 1 bedroom.

It happened to me. I said future property HAD to have a minimum of 2 bathrooms. We were in a viewing and when we left the agent said he had keys to another property we might like and would we like to view…. We said yes. We assumed it would have 2 bathrooms so was surprised when…. It didn’t!