O/T House Viewing Advice

I really didn't know where to go to ask this and I couldn't seem to find the right terms to Google.

We have found a house on Rightmove that we may possibly want to buy so the husband phoned up to book a viewing. They said they had Friday at 2pm (which we can't do because of work) and then May the 5th (!) at 11:30am as they won't do evenings. Is it just me or is that weird? I'm certain the house is going to sell before then but obviously I don't want to make an offer without even seeing the thing. We seem to really struggle to get house viewings and I don't know if I have an unrealistic expectation or if all the estate agents around here are just crap. The other week we phoned up to book a viewing at a different house and they said they would have to check dates/times with the owner and would call us back the next day. They never called so we phoned up the day after and they said it had sold. They'd never even got back to us to tell us and give us a chance. We've also had a house we looked at and offered ever so slightly under the asking price sell, again without anyone informing us until we phoned back up a few days later for an update (all different estate agents). The worst one though was when we had an offer accepted, had appointments with a mortgage advisor, phoned back up to pass on the details and they said the owner had decided not to sell. Surely that merits a phone call? In regards to this house, I'm tempted to go knock on the door and ask them if we can come and see it before the 5th but I don't want to annoy the owners or seem intrusive for not going through the correct channels.

I'm just wondering what the general consensus is really on what is normal and to be expected.

 

I'd have thought anyone selling a house would be more than welcoming even if you knocked on the front door. Does sound a bit odd, unless the one you mentioned had to do it when the owners specified they will be in residence...

(Either that or they have clocked on that it's you and don't like your forum posts...lol - only kidding)..

 

Send them a letter they'll get it the next day. I'm not sure I'd like someone randomly knocking on my door .

 

It's my husband who does all the phoning - I'm starting to wonder if he starts the conversation 'Oi, F*ckface!' or something

When we have been shown around the estate agents have just stood their silently and if we ask them anything they never know the answer or anything at all about the property. We even had 3 where it was just the owner who showed us around without an estate agent even there.

 

Yes, I was considering posting something, if nothing else to make them aware that the estate agent doesn't seem to be trying very hard to shift their property.

 

Might as well crack on then .

 

I would knock on the door, provided your journey is not too long to get there - I'm assuming you're buying in L***s near to where you live now? Either they'll let you in, or at least they'll let you make an appointment to come back. If they're not happy with you knocking it's tough, you've already knocked. You'll hardly have to meet them again, even if you buy the house, so it won't really matter very much if you annoy them.

Your account of the customer service provided by the estate agents is sadly very similar to my experience. They are simply useless, they hardly ever return calls, they never know what you've talking about even though you've discussed it with them several times before, and their phones are always engaged. Pathetic level of service from most of them over the years.

Good luck, hope you both find what you want.

 

I think if someone knocked on my door asking to look around I'd just think they were nosey buggers .

 

I agree if that was the first contact but if they'd already been in touch through the agent (supposedly) I'd think it was OK. But on reflection maybe the idea of dropping a letter in would be a good compromise.

 

Maybe they won't do evenings because they have something to hide? I.e noisy neighbours? Just a possibility?

 

We sold our first house to a bloke who knocked on our door. He said he was just driving around looking for houses in the areas he was interested in, and had happened across ours. Admittedly, he was an off-duty policeman and had his ID to prove it, otherwise we might have asked him to make a proper appointment. He went away saying good things about the house and put an offer in the next day,

I'd go for it - Sometimes if you don't ask, you don't get.

 

It's about a 2 minute walk away so distance definitely isn't an issue! One of the reasons I'm so keen is that I already know the area really well. At least I know it's not just us who are getting the shoddy service then, I guess they don't have to try so hard now houses are in such high demand. A letter is probably going to be the way to go I reckon.

 

We recently sold our house in Germany, so custom and practice may be somewhat different there of course. We used an agent, who put a board up. Immediately we started getting cars pulling up, and driving off when they saw the curtains twitching! We then started getting knocks on the door, which we were initially pleased about as it meant there was a lot of interest. After a while though, the number of people calling started to get on our nerves, but we did want to sell the house so we put a notice on the door with my English mobile number (to discourage timewasters) and asked people to call that number if they couldn't get any sense out of the agents.

I got just 1 call on my mobile, the other callers either called the agents or just drove off. We did eventually sell the house to one of the original families who knocked on the door.

I realise this doesn't really help you, but it's our view of the same scenario from the other side. Once again good luck.

 

Depends who does the viewings.

If it's the agent, then they generally only offer office hours for viewings (evening viewings will cost the vendor more money).

If it's the vendor themselves, they'll probably want to do evenings to work round their own work - they won't be able to do office hours.

My hunch is that the vendors want the agents to do the viewings- hence the office hours. And agents are generally lazy so will try and book block viewings - firstly because it means they dont have to go to the property more than they have to and secondly to create competition if loads of people turn up.

 

If they’re saying an evening isn’t possible it’s probably because its a viewing with the agent rather than the homeowner. A letter might not do much good. If they can’t be bothered to do an evening viewing it’s probably because they’re not short on interest.

This might sound cheeky but if you’re really interested it might be worth taking some time off work.

 

I can't take time off work as I work in a school and so the set holidays are the only times I can be off work. Will's holiday allowance has just reset though so he may be able to. If he hadn't worked at home a few times recently whilst we had to wait for the gas engineer he could have done that and snuck off for a cheeky viewing around lunch time.

 

As an estate agent I can honestly say we're not all lazy (at our company if we don't sell we don't get get paid), we detest block booked viewings as it's just a messy free-for-all and you can't create any rapport with anyone, we also offer viewings 7 days a week at no cost to the vendor. I'm sure there are agents out there that don't act professionally though.

By and large, if weird **** happens at our place it's down to the vendor being a weirdo. We had one today where we had an offer on the table but they just decided not to sell, no explanation, no feedback, just "we want to withdraw"...

 

I agree with this. There is no custom thay says you have to go the agents. If its a sellers market because demand is high then it will sometimes be a case of snooze, you lose. As has been said, if you annoy them, so what - they are not your friends or even acquaintences.

If you are concerned about the face to face meeting then go for the letter / note but put your number on it and offer to come round any time. I would also post it in person given that you are so close. With a bit of luck you'll get a call before you even get home.

 

Not a great idea purchasers and vendors swapping details... Always ends up messy with pestering phonecalls from one end or the other.

 

Reminds me of when, after having an offer accepted on a house and after we had started to spend money on surveys, the vendor told us that they had had someone knock on the door and offer 10 grand more and do we want to match it. I was gutted because I really wanted it but my missus smelled a rat immediately and told her to stuff it and sell to the other person. Several hundred pounds wasted. Of course, this person never existed.

2 weeks later we found a different house, the one we are still in, which we much prefer, and it took this woman a further 14 months to finally sell her house, for 7 grand less than we offered.

They say things happen for a reason - still makes me smile to recall that event.