There seems tobe a trend for vendors to do the showing of their property. Is this instigated by the vendor or the estate agent?

[pernickety]

We're living in a rente dhouse having sold our house in March, so we've looked at around 15 houses so far, and only twice have we been shown around by an estate agent - those were two ex rental houses.

We even went to look at another rental house and the tenant showed us around! And one of the times we were shown around by an estate agent we acted inerested and mentioned an extension only to have him shake his head and talk about the woes of waiting for planning permission for his own extension.

Have Estate agents got out of the habit of actually selling? Is it them expecting vendors to show potential buyers around or is it that vendors want to be the ones in the driving seat?

Do you prefer the first viewing to be carried out by an estate Agent or the Vendor? I prefer to be shown around neutrally by an estate agent. Some of the viewings we have had have taken up a lot of our time, and other times the vendor has not had the knowledge about a house's potential that I would expect a good estate agent to have.

Well, I'd prefer a knowledgable estate agent but those are few and far between, so in reality the vendor is often best as they know the most about the property.

An estate agent showed us round one house on Sat and his tour was very much "and here's the kitchen"...oh, really?! There was a bus stop right outside and he didn't know which route the house was on. Local knowledge was very much lacking.

Then we looked at another house and were shown round by the vendor, who could tell us all about the work that had been done on the fuse box, what the neighbours were like, and could find the key to the shed!

So, it depends on the estate agent and vendor really. The worst situation is when the estate agent shows you round but the vendors are there and everyone just feels awkward.

Around here (North East) the viewing is generally done by the vendor unless it is being sold as vacant posession and the owner has moved away, eg.

Like you I would much prefer to be shown around by an EA, and as a vendor I found the prospect of conducting my own viewings daunting (although must have done something right as we sold to the second viewer!. The house we have just bought, the couple were so obviously over-eager to sell, they literally had verbal diarrhoea. telling us so much info we just did not need to know- soilpipes, where they bought the fire from...I tuned it out after a while.

For the second viewing we took my mum as a distraction so they could natter and DH and I could look round in peace. it worked to our advantage as it was so utterly obvious from their behaviour that they were desperate to sell that we got 10% off the price (a lot for here).

We chose an agent who showed the veiwers around. IME round here most of them do it for you if you want.

the only times I have ever been shown a house by an agent have been when the house was vacant (that's 16 years ago and 10 years ago)

IME, a good agent does the showing. A lazy agent makes the vendor do it. Having said that some vendors feel that everyone is a thief so won't let the EA show people around.

Being shown around by the EA is good because they'll just let you wander around and you and partner can have quite an honest chat. The vendor meanwhile may be able to give local knowledge and if they're nervous they might divulge more than they should.

The worst combo is definitely both at the same time because you can't look around at will and no one is indiscreet. The best combo is vendor just leaving as you arrive with EA, so you have the briefest of chats with vendor and see the whites of each others' eyes IYSWIM?

Very unusual for EA to show round here (East Mids) unless house is vacant.
I do like it when the vendors leave a set of keys with EA to let people have a look round when they are work, it is much easier to view with noone watching you.
Ok, you can't see their body language to know how desperate they are for a sale but a good EA should be able to get this info for you and also ask them any local info/house specific detail you want to know.

Farly common here in NI for most viewings to be taken by the vendors too.
We have sold 3 times, and the only time the EA were around was the one time that we did an open house type evening.

We have also been looking for rental at the moment, and have been shown round badly by the current tennants. They were telling us stuff like the gardener hardly ever comes, and its impossible to get a taxi etc (it was semi-rural but only about 4 miles from a large village).

Vendor showing is mostly done because it cheaper. Estate agents are trying to cut costs with so few houses selling and have sacked a lot of staff so will offer this as a way of reducing commisison fees to a client. Sending an agent out costs money and for a fairly low value house with only perhaps a 25% chance of selling after a lot of viewings the cost to the agent of sending out an agent to every viewing is too high given the commission they will earn. Its as simple as that.

IME a vendor showing an relatively expensive house is a bad sign and shows the vendor is not that serious and usually just 'testing the market'. In those cases, the agent often know sthis and is not willing to waste the cost of sending agents out if they know the vendor is noy yet really serious to sell. They will only really get involved at a second viewing or negotiation stage if the vendir has already received an indicative offer that interests them enough to enter into negotiation.

One of the things I don't like about the vendor showing us around is not being able to exchange negative comments with my husband. We're far too polite. The best type of vendors are those who show us around and answer our questions, and then suggest we go and have another look around by ourselves.

We wanted the EA to show people round but they always managed to be too busy/ unavailable. made me that's what you pay them so much money for.

Having said that, we gave up with that lot and the second agent sold the house to the first lot of people he took round.

When viewing a house I would rather go with an EA that the vendors. It's embarrassing all round, especially if you know when you walk in that you don't like the house.

i htought ht opposite
more EA doing them

Where I live you have to pay more for the EA to do the viewings, so most people show the properties themselves.