Worst feedback you've got from a viewing?

[ChickensLoveMarmite]

Our estate agent just called to let me know that our viewers on saturday won't be buying our house because a) there would be too much work to do in replacing our bathrooms (house is only ten years old, but they could do with being updated), b) the garden was untidy (this has INCENSED me!! I am a keen gardener, but it's JANUARY! BTW, no junk in the garden, it's just dormant) and c) we have housing association homes behind us. Apart from the garden issue (grrrrr), the other two points are fair enough reasons as to why someone might not buy a house. However, does the estate agent have to call me and just basically say 'Yeah, your house is a bit shit. Bye!'. Its so demoralising, and doesn't actually help (I can hardly move my house, or demolish my neighbours housing association places, can I?) So, cheer me up. Tell me your tales of feedback woe.

[StellaLovesPotato]

When we were selling our house, I bought some nice incense which smelled like cakes baking, as that's one of the homely smells that apparently help to sell a house.
One old lady came in and said, "what's that smell of burning?"

[secretskillrelationships]

I could come up with a whole raft of daft things Estate Agents have told me.

There was the agent that showed me a 'family' home which turned out to be next to a very busy main line (28 trains an hour and that's just the ones that stop!). The noise was terrible and you could not continue a conversation when a train was going past (never mind hear a baby cry!). I was not impressed 'but it's very reasonably priced' was her response.

Or the agent who suggested I could easily just knock out a wall in a very oddly designed property (it was load bearing).

Or the agent that wanted me to get my H to see a house I'd viewed just in case (I'd rejected it on the grounds that the ceilings were all about 6'4" high and being over 6' he was likely to feel claustrophobic.

Or the agent who 'sacked' two prospective buyers because they said my house was too big (in 2008, and one was in rented and a cash buyer!).

Or the current one who's trying to persuade me that house prices are rising round here and a 30% rise since the sellers bought in 2004 is more than reasonable (even though they've done absolutely nothing to the property since then, not even when water has been coming through walls or ceilings).

Glad I've got that off my chest. God I hate the whole estate agent bit of buying and selling.

[havoc]

15 years! And I thought that my IL house was taking a long time to sell!

[FuriousGeorge]

I knew a lady who had been trying to sell her house for 7 years with no luck.She told me that people kept saying that the garden was putting them off,and asked me to come and see if I could suggest how she could improve it.[I'm a gardener BTW].

It was a big 3 storey Victorian terrace,with off road parking,but the garden was about 10 x 20ft,so small for the size of the house.Right in the middle of the garden was a big old rotten dead tree.So I pointed out that she should have it removed,as it was taking up a lot of space and didn't look too attractive stuck right in the middle of a smallish plot.
'Oh I couldn't possibly do that.' she said.When I asked why not,she replied that she was a druid and believed that a spirit was living in the dead tree and therefore it could not be removed.

She did eventually sell it,last year,15 years after it first went on the market.Whether or not the tree is still there,I don't know.

[audley]

My mum was put off buying a house because of the many photos of naked women with torsos wrapped in cling film!

[fanjolina]

pmsl at not buying a house due to the owner having a parrot on his shoulder!

frosty - you only wash your towels weekly

[TheElephant]

"For example one couple complained that the house was not in St Albans.
"

ROFL
my dad once didnt buy a house as the owner had a parrot on his shoulder.
Mum was abraod and FURIOUS

[frostyfingers]

UQD - I take issue with your point on dogs. When we sold our last house we spent a lot of time keeping the house clean and fresh. I hoovered the carpets before every viewing with dried lavender, the dogs were washed every couple of days (it was summer) and they were always kept out of the house when we had viewings. Not one person commented, so either they were too polite or it wasn't noticeable. I'm paranoid about doggy smells in my house - beds and towels are washed weekly, or more if they're grubby!

We went to a viewing years ago for a lovely old house which we were really keen on. Then we looked over the farmyard at the back and the owner said "they have told you about developing the farm buildings haven't they?" Of course the agents hadn't, and the poor woman was mortified and furious - and we were dead embarrassed too.

It amazes me that people can't or won't see past things like decoration and furnishings and turn properties down because they don't like the colour of the walls. Obviously not everyone wants to redecorate, but it is something that is easily changed, and it would never put me off buying somewhere.

[FiByTheIcySea]

we've had offers on our flat £25000 below our bargain asking price too.. as it's all they can afford . but the best funny ones we've had are..
There was no direct access to the garden from our flat.. err did our address not give it away.. 1st floor..
The other was..
There's no lift.. erm it's an 1890's building.. even if there was one i'm not sure i'd have used it!
Oh and the best.. nearly forgot..
Where is your loft?! err we don't have one as the 2nd floor flats are upstairs

[zisforzebra]

When selling our one bedroom, second floor flat in 2003 we had some crackers.

We had a shared garden and took it in turns with the people in the flat below to mow the very tiny lawn, they mowed for one summer and we'd do the next summer. It was so small that it took no more than half an hour each time but the couple viewing "didn't want to do any gardening"

A man said he really wanted a two bedroomed house.

One woman said she wouldn't be making an offer because she didn't like heights.

People will make any excuse when put on the spot by an agent.

[Amapoleon]

When selling our studio flat many years ago, one man said " Too small for dinner parties"

When was the last time you threw a large social gathering in a studio flat, hahaha

[elvislives]

When we sold our last house we had no central heating. We asked the EA to explain this fact on the details, and tell people before they came round. We had an endless stream of visitors asking "where are the radiators?". There aren't any. That's why the house is £7k less than the other identical houses on the estate

This time we've been told that our 3 storey townhouse is "too big" (for a couple, and a single woman)- shouldn't the room sizes on the internet have shown them that? We've also had an elderly woman who couldn't manage the stairs; several couples who wanted to be on the other side of the town (address not enough of a giveaway?).

UQD if you live with a dog you can't smell it. When I went home having been away for 6 weeks yes the smell of dog was so bad I gagged, but the family said no they couldn't smell anything. When you have cleaned and cleaned and cleaned (including the dog) and everywhere still smells, what can you do? It's looking like the only way we'll sell our house is to have the dog put down (tried rehoming to no avail), which seems a bit extreme.

[justagirlfromedgware]

We had umpteen viewers of our semi who complained to each other (in loud whispers) that we had "too many bookshelves". .

[TopSop]

When we sold our last house we had one lot that complained it was in the corner of a cul-de-sac (clearly shown on the photos) and that would cause them problems with parking (never did with us in the 3.5 years we lived there!). The best one though was the couple (him 5'9", her 6'4"!!!) who seriously discussed the fact that the bath (standard size double ended) was too small for her to lie down in and maybe they could knock through from the bathroom into the main bedroom to put in a bigger one... needless to say they didn't offer.

[docmartin]

Our 400 year old house was for sale and a viewer saw a brick pillar in the lounge which clearly holds the ceiling up and has done from the start and she said 'oh i will have to knock that down straightaway' ! Well good luck to you love but you would end up with a blardy bungalow.
twat

[fothergill]

Some Hyacinth Bucket was concerned that our flat's kitchen diner couldn't comfortably cater for more than 10. Did she ever find that one bedroom flat in West Norwood I wonder?

[KurriKurri]

We had a large under stair cupboard in our first terraced house. One woman who visited said 'the trouble with these cupboards is people fill them with junk' cue her opening the door and all my carefully crammed in junk hurtling across the living room.

Same house - another couple said 'It's very near the football ground' - yes it is the clue is in the address 'Carrow Road'

[sunnylabsmum]

when selling our house one viewer commented that there were too many cupboards in the kitchen and she could never fill them! I thought it was impossible to have too many cupboards so I guess I learned a lesson there!!

[mumof2222222222222222boys]

We bought a disgusting smelling wreck of a house. Stank of cat, dog, pigeon poo and cigarettes. Must have been mad...or so everyone thought. The estate agent told me she HATED showing people around.

Now we have a fab little holiday house.

Saw a house last night, and the first thing the agent said was, "how do you feel about trains?" Apparently a lot of people have looked at it and the train ahs been the deal breaker...we're thinking about it!

[BigusBumus]

Ex-H and I used to live in a flat in North London and when we sold it an arty type woman came in, looked around without a word then exclaimed, "Oh yes, there it is! This is the ONE"! We nearly jumped out of our skins. She then told us she believed in symbols and omens and had asked the spirits for the sign of a Unicorn if the flat would be right for her. She had then happened to see a tiny unicorn symbol on a piece of equipment in DHs recording studio. Mad woman! Then she was gushing about its beauty and sharing her life story with us. We accepted her offer, but she pulled out a few weeks later as there was a tiny patch of damp in the bathroom.

Then a few years later we had a Victorian terrace which had had really rubbish floor boards. Big gaps between them, broken bits, terrible old woodworm etc and wouldn't strip properly. So we put down a new floor at great expense (£2.5k) - solid wide plank oak. When we sold it we got some feedback that the viewers had said it would be too much work for them to pull up the "cheap old laminate" and strip back the original boards. Needless to say we sacked the agent that same afternoon.

[ChickensLoveMarmite]

Yes! We had a couple view our house, and then say that their budget was twenty thousand under our asking price. Now, if we were living in a half a million pound house, maybe. Our house is up for 150k

[UnquietDad]

I was incensed by the couple who looked round our first house... (counts) 14 years ago. It was on for £56k. This was at a time when everything was starting to go for the asking price or even over. They offered £50k and said apologetically, "it is our budget."

So if your budget is 50k, why are you looking round 56k houses, you twonks??

It didn't help that my mother, when we told her about it later, did the cat's-bum face and said "ohh, I think you really should have taken that" (in that "pitying" tone).

[UnquietDad]

I love the Beech Cottage story.

I do sympathise with the doggists though. DW and I went to look round a house which would have been really nice, and right for us, but it stank of dog and there were dog-hairs everywhere.

I don't think doggy people really give any thought to how thus can appear to non-doggy people. We came out gagging.

[thedollshouse]

We had a cash buyer interested in buying our house for his 18 year old daughter. He made an offer but wanted all the furniture included and even wanted some of our personal possessions such as artwork that we had on our walls that had been collected on our travels. We agreed to leaving some of the furniture but not all of it as we needed some and some items were bought as presents. He got really angry and came knocking on our door saying that because he was a cash buyer he should be able to have what he wanted. Our neighbours got a lucky escape!