Estate Agent and Viewings.

dinofabio

Hi All,

My property has been on the market for a few weeks and I've had a few viewings.

Now I understand, with the exception of the south east of England, that it's a buyer's market, and selling a house now is not easy, but my estate agents seem to be sending ANYONE around to view!

To date, I haven't had anyone view that has been in a position to move forward eg they haven't sold their own property, no finance in place, one was let-to-buy (not buy to let!) who hadn't a clue how this all works, a builder who was talking about a 'self cert' mortgage, and another couple that admitted they had seen 'dozens and dozens' of properties over the last few months i.e A way for them to spend time noseying around other peoples property with no intention of ever buying.

Now, by nature I'm a patient type. But, my weekends seem to be taken up with preparing the house and conducting viewings with people who are in no position to even make a serious offer. My patience is beginning to wear thin with the sort of people the estate agents are sending around to view.

Can I ask the estate agents to be a bit more selective with the sort of people they arrange to view? i.e People who are genuinely interested in buying a house and have thought about how they are going to finance? Or have I just got to put up with this??

jjlandlord

dinofabio wrote: »

Can I ask the estate agents to be a bit more selective with the sort of people they arrange to view? i.e People who are genuinely interested in buying a house and have thought about how they are going to finance? Or have I just got to put up with this??

They work for you. You tell them what you're looking for and you give them instructions.

evansmummy

I understand your frustration. We've had viewers who haven't been in a position to move either. They've all offered but it's completely irrelevant to do so until they've sold theirs.
Saying that the last set of viewers hadn't sold but explained they were looking so that when they had offers they knew how much they would need to accept on their property so they could buy ours. It makes a sense really.
It's a long slog when you have to prepare your house for viewers, especially when you have two rowdy toddlers like me, but be patient that next person through the door could be your buyer.
If you get really hacked off with it you could always state to your EA you only want viewers who have sold their property. I wouldn't say this is the best idea though as your cutting your potiential buying market by half at least in this current market.

dinofabio

Also, my estate agent annoys me when he starts telling me about the numbers of viewings they've arranged for me - as if it's a good thing!

I'd rather have one serious viewer every couple of months, than 2 viewers every week that are totally non-starters!

sonastin

Trouble is you never really know what a "non-starter" is. Your unproceedable viewer today might be proceedable tomorrow. If they've viewed your house and loved it, they'll make you an offer as soon as they can get going. If you've been obstructive and not let them view and in the meantime, they've seen something else which is just as good as yours, guess which one they'll make the offer on.

You have to decide where your priorities lie - a relatively quiet life which is only interrupted for serious viewings, accepting that you might miss out on potential buyers that way but its worth it for the peace...
or allowing all and sundry to come and view as and when they feel like it in the hope that one of them turns out to be your buyer once they are ready to proceed and just going with the flow in the meantime, accepting all the hassle and frustration that it brings in the knowledge that you are doing absolutely everything possible to get your house sold as quickly as you can.

DannyboyMidlands

The most annoying are the ones who make an offer based on a fantasy future sale price of their own place. Waste of everybodys time.

nomoneytoday

It's a numbers game - more viewers = more chances of finding a buyer (even if not today, they could sell their place tomorrow)

googler

As has been said - the viewer who isn't proceedable today may well become so tomorrow.

You could always get the agent to do the viewings for you, or find another agent who will?

Are you only viewing at weekends? What if someone wants to view during the week? Could the agent do daytime weekday viewings?