Too cynical?

We sold last year and I truly feel for you. The whole thing is a nightmare, but try your hardest to stay positive, eventually someone will love your house just like you did when you bought it. I spent far too long worrying about what people said, thought, didn’t think ....... it will sell, for your sake I hope it is earlier rather than later. Chin up!

I totally believe the agent made those people up. It might have been because they hoped to have viewings and wanted to "book" your time rather than find you'd gone out just when they wanted a viewing.

Yes CW52, I was in Australia with my son recently and we looked at a couple of houses that way. Seems a good idea to me for selling...at least you know which day you have to keep the house tidy! I think 'conveyavers' was a very appropriate spelling!!

Nonna when you go on holiday don't tell the EA that is why no viewings. Have another reason, visitors or illness etc. It is not good to advertise empty places. EA can mean many people know and they could tell prospective viewers.

I mentioned open house viewings to the EA, and he said they preferred not to do them, as he could not keep an eye on everyone and would not like to think people might be looking through our personal belongings. When he put it that way, I saw his point.

Well we are off to do some viewings ourselves tomorrow so look8ng forward to that.

Thanks for all the comments and encouragement everyone.

It does seem strange. I was lucky because my SIL was my EA. We had 74 viewings. Five sales fell through and it took two years to sell. Our house was immaculate, contemporary and waterside with amazing views. We didn’t get any no shows though despite all the other problems. If it keeps happening, I would be very suspicious and change agents.

We sold a couple of houses in the US and they operated open house afternoons/mornings. We were warned to move any small ornaments as the agent could not be with all people at once. We had books go missing, agents failing to lock up afterwards, and several long distance phone calls made to numbers we didnt even know. We also had a lock box on the house which meant any other realtor could turn up whenever they wanted with or without prospective buyers, it was a total nightmare.

we sold our house to the second person who viewed it 2 years ago.The house we were buying had been on the market for 4 years !It needed upwards of £25 thousand spent o it to bring it up to date,but it would have been perfect for us as it gave us a seperate flat for MIL and space for my son and his daughter ,After offering over asking price and and having the offer accepted the seller"changed his mind" and pulled out .We're still in our house and were very sad to let down the young family who wanted it.I dont have the stomach to look for anything else as thats the second time that happened to us .

Having sold a number of properties over the years I came to the conclusion that until the prospective buyer/s stood on my doorstep and myself or DH showed them around that the words of an estate agent should be taken with a pinch of salt. One thing that really rattles my cage is in the description of the 'for sale' when it states 'needs updating'.For what I ask.?
Does one have to fetch water from a well, lighting by candles . cooking over a fire, your only toilet a hole in the ground ? that to my mind is the need for up dating.
Not as one friends daughter found out that the agent she used idea of 'needs updating' was, that the four bed property she was to view had no en suite just ' one
bathroom. A separate toilet although space was adequate if one wished to install an additional one in the bathroom.There was a toilet and hand basin facility on the ground floor, but the property lacked fitted units
Wasn't that by choice?
Water from a well, candles for lighting cooking over fire .
isn't that'needs updating'.




description however failed to state all windows were triple glazed, and a new roof recently installed on the double garage or that planning permission for an extension of the property was in progress.

Framilode I agree about the price being right - we believed an over-inflated price from one agent but ended up selling at the lowest estimate from another agent.

It took us ages to sell our house, we accepted several offers which were then withdrawn, one after some months. I agree with others that many viewers are simply time-wasters, very irritating when you've spent quite a lot of time and effort sprucing the house up.

I took trouble to make sure that the (reputable) agent knew all about the house, but Saturday viewings are often done by part-timers with no previous knowledge of the house. I heard one them tell the viewer that there was no ground floor loo - untrue, and off-putting for a family with young children.

I also know that at least one local agent was prone to pushing a sale if he was going to be handling the buyers sale transaction too - commercially astute but not very ethical.

Imacmum
You could be right about the state of the market as I managed to catch an item of news that refered to London as being the worst.Not that this will affect the rich.

In our area, North Surrey, the market seems to be stagnating. Houses in our road are usually snapped up in the spring, but that has not happened this year and prices are being reduced by those keen to sell. Various theories abound, Heathrow expansion, Brexit, bad harvest of moon dust ?

We have moved house 11 times and agree with what Framilode says. I would also say that we made the agents work for their money, asking them to accompany viewings, there's more honest feedback without the owner present, and ask for plastic overshoes because many dirty feet tramping round your house can be messy, particularly when it's wet. Most potential viewers do a drive by so it's important to have the front looking as smart as you are able.

We once did something awful (by mistake.) We arrived far too early for a viewing appointment so drove round a bit and saw a for sale sign and thought we might as well look at it so we stopped and knocked on the door. The lady said we could come and look but it was a tip as she was getting ready for a later viewing. The furniture was pushed aside and the vacuum cleaner was out, the beds were unmade etc. We thanked her and drove off . Then later we went to our appointment. You've guessed -it was the same house. We didn't dare knock on the door but we did phone and explain -she didn't sound too pleased!

Well another viewing and so far we can but say it all went well.Lots of questions asked and answered.
The road we feel might be holding back our viewers from not preceeding was no problem,where they live in a lane in Kent their road is non stop traffic.
Pleased to say there were no loud cries of praise but what I would say just thorough intelligent house buying.
We are one of 4 properties on their short list...........more nail biting time.
Another viewer booked in for Monday......all recently are actually cash buyers from London/South east looking for a complete life change .
Fingers crossed Nonna...........

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

If your sale is straightforward it might not be a problem. Ours wasn’t and we got no help. If fact the comment from the company we used was. It wasn’t there job to spend all day talking to solicitors. Be prepared to pay extra for accompanied viewings we did them ouselves. We also used there recommended solicitors again to save money. An expensive and stressful mistake. Use a local solicitor that you can pop in and talk to. We have moved many times and this was one of the worst. Not entirely the estate agents fault but they were no help at all.

Sorry I was talking about online estate agents. Didn’t make myself very clear.?

Vendors can be difficult as well.

When we bought our present house, a year ago, we were living in Spain. We had had an offer accepted but then the vendor took it off the market. We had sold our house in Spain and exchanged contracts and were starting to panic. We knew the area we wanted to buy in but nothing seemed to be available that met our requirements at a price we could afford.

I found this house one Sunday on Right Move and we made the offer over the phone the next day. My daughter had a quick look for me and everything started to go ahead.

When we came back to the UK a few weeks later we asked for a viewing of the house and were refused 'because the solicitor hadn't proceeded as quickly as promised'.

We did get to look at the house shortly before exchange and moved in just before Christmas. There seemed to be rather a lot of rats about in the back garden and, on investigating, found that the previous owners had dumped the contents of their freezer at the bottom of the garden!

They also kept turning up and dumping pieces of furniture they no longer wanted on the drive.

Settled now, though, and happy.

All I know is theres nowt so queer as folks !!

During the 18 months it took us to sell and move I was amazed at both our viewers and estate agents. The number of no shows with no call to say they weren't coming, or those who came professed to love the place and were never heard of again !!!

I wish you all the luck in the world ( I think you'll need it) , I for one am NEVER moving again!!!

Franilode is absolutely right.
I wouldn’t have a large chain estate agent. We found smaller local ones, with half a dozen branches were much better. The one who sold our house really got to know it, did the viewings, gave us constructive feedback and ensured the sale didn’t flag.

We had some shockers prior to that though and they were large chain agents where the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing. We sacked one crew and even their manager agreed they had been rubbish.

I think it’s easy to assume that the valuation is the price you’ll get, but it rarely is. Being realistic and basing your next purchase on the lowest, rather than the highest estimate, could avoid disappointment. A house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay.

We always did our own viewings. That way we could answer questions about locality and services nearby. I’ve often found when buying a house that the EA didn’t really have a handle on the area.

Try not to get wound up about it, choose a good estate agent and either have a couple of viewing days or escorted by the agent, if it is priced right it will sell.

Remember mostly you are buying and selling in the same market, maybe larger or smaller but you will also try to get the best deal.
Never turn down a fair offer from a keen buyer.

The last house we sold I put a mirror over the fireplace, laid the fire and put 2 bud vases with a fresh rose in each overlapping each other. A white sheepskin rug infront of the fire completed it. A young engaged couple came to look and decided there and then to buy it. We were amazed as it was a 5 bedroom ex council house. They are still there now 20 yrs later with 4 children. It was only our 2nd viewing too.