Do viewers not read the brochure?

thunderbird

Chinkle wrote: »

Sometimes its the EA persuading the buyer to see something that doesn't meet their original brief. Sometimes I think the EA doesn't get any/constructive feedback from a prospective buyer and makes stuff up.

I've viewed a few properties where the EA hasn't called me at all for feedback, so I wonder what they've said to the vendors.

I've also had them persuading me to go and see houses that I'm not interested in, saying 'what have you got to lose'. Obviously, nothing, but it doesn't seem fair to get the vendor's hopes up and also for them to have to go through the cleaning/tidying routine for nothing.

harrup

LandyAndy wrote: »

So you'd rather viewers lied to vendors and EAs than told the truth?

If you were selling would you prefer to hear 'It's not quite what we were looking for' from a few viewers or 'It really is £20k overpriced'? Which feedback do you think would be more helpful in the long run?

No, that's not what I meant at all.

Lies are futile...but insulting the OP was surely pointless, never mind totally below the belt.

House Prices are totally screwed up in going up and down at random through the years. No one KNOWS what a given property is worth. Could be 200 K one year and then 350 a few years later and then it's back to 270K and so forth. A few years ago a property, any property, was a sure fire high return investment. Now it ain't looking so rosy.

THAT is the inherent problem - we are all so deeply uncertain. How much to sell it for or how much to buy one for. Its all a guessing game which is then further influenced by a plethora of other things.

Some seemingly overpriced houses go for way more than their modest size or exterior suggests. But maybe they are close to a great school, or an area of natural beauty, they are in a nice neighbourhood/ close knit community, or have other "valuable" amenities, etc, etc.. And vice versa.

It ISN'T an exact science. Meaning none of us can say " this house isn't worth ££££"....merely "this house isn't worth the requested ££££ to me" .

LittleMissAspie

wodgerdodger wrote: »

I do think though that the use of wide angle lenses for interior and exterior shots by our agent and most others do give a very false impression to prospective buyers so whilst the measurements are on the web or leaflet the shots flatter to deceive .

Yes very true. We saw a few houses that looked great in the photos and when we got there it looked much smaller and we were disappointed. The house we've bought looked smallish in the photos and when we got there it was bigger in real life and we were pleasantly surprised.

We had one estate agent who wouldn't send us details of houses before he took us. This was when HIPs were still around and he would take people to the houses before the HIPs were ready. So we had no idea what we were going to see other than number of bedrooms and which village. Half the time he didn't even tell us the price beforehand. I wouldn't have booked a viewing for any of them if I'd seen details first, and I didn't like any of them when I got there.

Milliewilly

Google street view is your friend.

You can admire online the pylons in the back garden before you bother driving 40 miles to view.

googler

Milliewilly wrote: »

Google street view is your friend.

You can admire online the pylons in the back garden before you bother driving 40 miles to view.

Yup, buyers have never been in a better position to view their selected neighbourhood and property from afar.

Zoopla, ourproperty, nethouseprices, ourhouseprice etc for pricing
Google Street View
Google Earth (if available)

You can also research schools, planning applications for the area, crime rates, community activities, everything - from the comfort of your own home. You can also view the inside and outside of the house on an internet listing or two. A straightforward google search for the street name or address sometimes yields 'interesting' information about the house and its occupants.....


Whereas all you used to get (not that long ago, too) was a couple of sheets of headed paper with a basic description and a 4x6 exterior photo (printed the old-fashioned way, with 35mm film sent to the lab) glued to the front.....

girleight@

We viewed a few houses that didn't quite meet our criteria to see if the advantages they did have would be enough to let certain things go. Sometimes you have to see things that are not quite what you want to decide what you really must have in a house. Especially for FTB.

avenida

Was a bit annoyed but dear knows when I will get another viewer, patience plays such a big part in selling especially in the current market, property on for one year at the end of this month and still not sold

Horizon81

Can't believe how stupidly polite some people are. If viewers think that it's overpriced then they should just say so rather than lie and make up silly excuses. It doesn't help the vendor. At the end of the day it's a business transaction - whoever talked about upsetting the vendor needs to man up a bit. As long as you're not rude about it there's no harm in telling the agent that you're being deterred by the asking price.

People shouldn't be embarassed about putting in offers for what they value a house to be worth. Personally I'd look at comparable houses in the vicinity and what they've actually sold for recently, not what the current vendors are asking.

avenida

Horizon81 wrote: »

Can't believe how stupidly polite some people are. If viewers think that it's overpriced then they should just say so rather than lie and make up silly excuses. It doesn't help the vendor. At the end of the day it's a business transaction - whoever talked about upsetting the vendor needs to man up a bit. As long as you're not rude about it there's no harm in telling the agent that you're being deterred by the asking price.

People shouldn't be embarassed about putting in offers for what they value a house to be worth. Personally I'd look at comparable houses in the vicinity and what they've actually sold for recently, not what the current vendors are asking.

Yes I would rather people vendors tell the truth, the agent said price is correct compared to other sold properties, you see I live in northern ireland so there is no internet site that will tell me sold prices which is wick should I ring other estate agents and ask them what other properties sold for maybe?

Orpheo

harrup wrote: »

It's true...we've done the same. It just seems terribly rude and insulting. Whatever the prospective buyer may say or think in private, there are (mercifully perhaps) few who'd candidly say, even just to the EA, " £XXXXX for THAT? In yer dreams!"

An occupied house isn't an impersonal object - it's someones home. And most people are mind and respectful of the owners feeling.

You are clearly "nicer" than I. I don't give two hoots about the vendor's or vendors' feelings, they are utterly insignificant next to the wellbeing and future financial security of my family. If I think a house is overpriced I will say so, if I think a house is rat-hole I will similarly vent my point of view.

The OP should be grateful for the viewings. I've lost count of the number of houses I've viewed and left irked that my time has been wasted.