why do estate agents park on the drive?

tomstickland

As a viewer I wouldnt park on the drive of the house I'm about to view.

Why not? You're viewing the house, it has a driveway, use it.

adouglasmhor

longhotbath wrote: »

This has turned into an interesting debate:D

I just wondered if it was standard practice.

We are trying to move because my son is severely disabled and we need to create downstairs space for him. The estate agents we have seen know this, but they always park on the drive. At the house before the rainy one, it took 10 minutes to get him out of the car, into the wheelchair and to the house - the traffic was awful. Needless to say we didnt go for that one - the estate agent was parked in the drive, and it would have been far less stressful for us - my son was screaming after 5 mins. She even stood at the window and watched us (I knocked on the door when we arrived and said that we needed to get him out).

Personally as a buyer, I would like to park on the drive, and experience what it would be like for me to come home every day - how much space there is around the car and whether there are any steps etc.

As for the 'status' car - Mine is lovely and shiny and bigger that the minis that estate agents round here drive.

I take back thoughtlessness and raise it to inconsiderate, selfish and stupid in that case.

MissMotivation

irn_bru wrote: »

MissMotivation, surely as somebody providing a service to your customers you would want to go out of your way to be curteous to them and give them the best experience possible.

Apparently you would rather inconvenience them by making their parking more difficult and then come on here and moan about them. I'm afraid late customers are a hazard of your job and if you don't like it you should do something else.

The OP represents your customers so perhaps you should take their view on board. It may help you sell houses

Perhaps wrongly, I was trying to prove a point...obviously the thread has kind of gone off topic.

You are quite right, and I hope that my clients view me as being differant than your run of the mill EA. If I knew that parking was an issue and that by me parking on the driveway would put a potential purchaser off buying the property then, of course, I would park on the street.

Your comment about maybe trying something else if I don't like my job made me laugh:D I love my job and part of the reason I post on here is to try and show people that all EA's are not the same. I have taken on board the comments on this thread and will take them into consideration when advising my staff as, fortunately, I do not do accommpanied viewings anymore.

I get carried away on here as the majority of threads that have EA in the title invariably turn into an EA hating frenzy.

MissMotivation

adouglasmhor wrote: »

I take back thoughtlessness and raise it to inconsiderate, selfish and stupid in that case.

Agreed.....especially if the EA's knew that disabled access was needed....shocking!:eek:

tomstickland

Why have loads of people said that they'd "never park on the drive of a house that they're viewing"?

ILW

Horizon81 wrote: »

That's a hilarious response from an EA, especially when teamed with a dig at buyers turning up late. In my experience it's usually the EA that arrives after I do! As for parking on the drive, it seems most EA's do but I find it really inconsiderate. How is the buyer supposed to judge what it's like to pull onto the drive and how much space there is to open car doors if the EA's car's stuck there. Of course you can ask them to shift it but why should you. I don't see why you should inconvenience me in the first place - after all, who's keeping who in business!

Is anyone that anal that they need to do that. Wouldn't occur to me if I was viewing.

[Deleted User]

Milliewilly wrote: »

Should the vendor move their car off the drive to allow the viewer special access?!?!

If I was selling I definately would move my car prior to viewers arriving. And if an EA then parked on the drive I'd be a bit cross with them!!!

Horizon81

Milliewilly wrote: »

Should the vendor move their car off the drive to allow the viewer special access?!?!

They shouldn't do it as a matter of course but if the buyer asks then I think it's a perfectly reasonable request, for purposes of checking space and manoeuvreability.

longhotbath

ILW wrote: »

Is anyone that anal that they need to do that. Wouldn't occur to me if I was viewing.

Didnt realise that I was, but I cant easily use a drive thats narrow, steep or badly lit from a parking and removing passenger point of view.

Cissi

Milliewilly wrote: »

Should the vendor move their car off the drive to allow the viewer special access?!?!

Actually, I think that might be a good idea - at least, living in an area where parking is at a premium, I certainly would whenever I could. I only realised later that the vendors of our current house must have parked in the road when we came viewing as the drive was nice and empty for us to park on. As a result, it was only after we'd fallen in love with the house that I fully realised that although there is plenty of parking space for several cars, the first part of the drive is very narrow and whoever is last in blocks everyone else in. By then that didn't matter much any more, but it might have done if it had been the first thing that had struck us about the house.

It's a bit like decluttering - why not live with the inconvenience while you're marketing your house, for the sake of giving prospective buyers the impression of oodles of space? Don't rub their faces in the fact that there is only parking for one car and that everyone else who comes to the house will have to find a space in a cramped road, park accross a busy road or whatever. Make the buyers feel welcome by making their arrival at the house as uncomplicated as possible - it's even better if they don't even realise that an effort has been made. A competent EA - who should hopefully have had some form of sales training - should surely have enough common sense to realise this even if the vendors don't!

Oh, and on the subject of time-keeping: the reason that the drive was nice and empty when we viewed was because not only had the vendors moved their cars, but the EA that we had the appointment with never turned up... This was after making a big thing on the phone about how he wanted to show us round himself, rather than letting the vendors do it. The owner came out of the house after we'd been sitting in our car on the drive for 10 min, said "he's obviously forgotten the appointment again - not the first time" and offered to show us round herself, which we much preferred anyway. And yes, when we contacted the office it was confirmed that the appointment had indeed been forgotten about so it wasn't because of inconsiderate viewers elsewhere being late!