Question about accompanied viewings

SuzieSue

Greymarl wrote: »

Very true. I suppose it affects what sort of offer is made if any to some extent, rather than the difference between offering and not. I wanted to highlight that it doesn't need anything doing as it's an older property, more than anything. I think I am overthinking this!

I don't think you're overthinking it at all. Unfortunately, there are lots of bad EAs around. When my friend was letting a flat through an agency, he ended up completely re-writing the advert on their website as it missed out important features such as an allocated parking space and CCTV. The agents were fine about it - they just put his version up on the website.

Greymarl

SuzieSue wrote: »

I don't think you're overthinking it at all. Unfortunately, there are lots of bad EAs around. When my friend was letting a flat through an agency, he ended up completely re-writing the advert on their website as it missed out important features such as an allocated parking space and CCTV. The agents were fine about it - they just put his version up on the website.

I have no doubt I will be tweaking too!

Thanks for the advice, everyone. It's been very helpful to have other points of view on this. I had assumed that for a FTB property which is pretty old people would want reassurances that little work needs doing (like the roof, rewiring etc) and that things won't need replacing soon/bills would be reduced, but obviously things like room sizes and location are going to count for a lot more.

It was a good point about taking the EA's views on what matters on board too, thanks.

I have this morning instructed one (got them down to 1% too :j) and one of the things I liked was the description of the accompanied viewings and the knowledge of the staff who would be doing it.

I'll perhaps update when I've mystery shopped them and let you know how I get on.

alezzandro

grimsalve wrote: »

If I was selling my house I'd want to do the viewings myself so I can highlight the good bits (and steer potential buyers away from the bits I don't want them to see ).

I don't know if I would recommend this. I once viewed a house this way and it was quite weird. First, it was difficult to discuss about problems and issues with a person who was clearly in love with their own house (no, this brand new and colourful wall paper is not a plus, because I will spend money to rip it off!).
Second, it was not clear whether it was even worth doing it (if we liked the house we would have talked to the EA, I guess). Third, during the viewing it seemed like we were invading their privacy.

I am sure we would have overcome all these obstacles if we had liked the house, but it would have been like: "I'll put an offer DESPITE the owner, rather than THANKS TO them".

FYI, the EA was not convinced this was a good selling strategy either.

grimsalve

alezzandro wrote: »

I don't know if I would recommend this. I once viewed a house this way and it was quite weird. First, it was difficult to discuss about problems and issues with a person who was clearly in love with their own house (no, this brand new and colourful wall paper is not a plus, because I will spend money to rip it off!).

Agreed, I think there's a bit of a knack to it - first thing I'd do is try to highlight the best features to the buyer eg. if they have kids in tow then mention local schools, privacy of the garden, etc. if the buyer has a flash car or comes across as a bit of a petrol head then talk about the secure parking, size of the garage.

I never mentioned cosmetic stuff like the colour but sometimes this seems to be all the buyer is bothered about

At least I know that if I'm the one that's messed up the viewing then it's my fault, better than the EA messing it up but not being able to do anything about it.

dehydrato

When we sold our last house I 'interviewed' 3 EA's.
I showed them round the house then before we talked about money etyc I asked them to then sell the house to me as if I was a viewer. They were all crap but it did show me who would be the worst! I did the viewings myself in the end.

stormCat99

I'd definitely second the mystery shopper idea.

Although we eventually sold through HouseNetwork, we were on with a local agent for a while. Got someone to ring up for us enquiring about properties. They couldn't have described our house better if they tried when they set out their requirements to the agent.

What did the agent do? Say they hadn't got anything that fully matched what they were after, but did have something in the next village?!!!

So it's definitely worth doing as you might be surprised.

googler

dehydrato wrote: »

I showed them round the house then before we talked about money etyc I asked them to then sell the house to me as if I was a viewer. They were all crap ....

In what respect?

They didn't 'know' your house? How could you expect them to, on the basis of a quick walk-around with you?

How does the actor prepare for the play without a chance to read and absorb the script?

SuzieSue

boots_babe wrote: »

I'd definitely second the mystery shopper idea.

Although we eventually sold through HouseNetwork, we were on with a local agent for a while. Got someone to ring up for us enquiring about properties. They couldn't have described our house better if they tried when they set out their requirements to the agent.

What did the agent do? Say they hadn't got anything that fully matched what they were after, but did have something in the next village?!!!

So it's definitely worth doing as you might be surprised.

Interesting. Did you confront the EA about this?

stormCat99

SuzieSue wrote: »

Interesting. Did you confront the EA about this?

TBH this was the last straw in a series of problems we'd had with them. So rather than bang our heads against a brick wall we just didn't renew our contract. I did tell them about the mystery shopping call though, as I was interested as to whay they would say. But they just shrugged it off and weren't interested

We'd mistakenly thought a local EA would perhaps be better than an online only one. But overall we tried 3 different local ones and they were all terrible (one in particular was very underhand and untrustworthy). So now I would go online only every time.

Doozergirl

Greymarl wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, everyone. It's been very helpful to have other points of view on this. I had assumed that for a FTB property which is pretty old people would want reassurances that little work needs doing (like the roof, rewiring etc) and that things won't need replacing soon/bills would be reduced, but obviously things like room sizes and location are going to count for a lot more.

Whether or not someone likes your house the most is going to be a deciding factor on whether they offer or not, but I still think it's important to point out that you have spent money on the house and where.

People don't always think about these things, there's a lot to take in on a viewing; but you should plant that seed because it might swing it if you were up against another house. It also helps you justify your asking price - that you are offering better value than a similar style house.

People might look at kitchens and bathrooms, but their surveyors are going to comment on the roof, the age of the fuse box and boiler etc. Most of the value of a house is in behind the paint on the walls. Lots of people don't realise that.