What has been your worst viewing experience?

shebanjoed

Strangest viewing so far has been a single guy living in a 2 bed semi.

As blinds were closed we presumed he was out. Got to our viewing time and decided to give it a try. He was in. Very muggy at the moment in Glasgow so the house was suffocating. Blinds closed, heating on and a 72" tv on the wall blaring. It was a tiny living room. He launched into "what you see is what you get, I didn't see the point in painting as the buyer will do that anyway". Could see that.

Keeping an open mind (myself, partner and 4 year old daughter) we went upstairs, opened the master bedroom door, to find ourselves looking back at ourselves. My daughter says "mum, is that a wardrobe?". Closer look revealed it wasn't some strange parallel universe but that the guy had installed a large mirror edge to edge, wall to wall and round the outside window (including removing the sills to edge the mirror closing to the window) "to create the illusion of space". Eh, no mate, its just creepy.

Out we ran never to look back.:)

googler

traceynurse wrote: »

Some years ago we were selling our house, we had both been working nights and were in bed asleep one sunday morning (it was around 10am), we heard a noise downstairs, my husband flew out of bed and found the Estate Agent with 2 people standing in the hallway, they had let themselves in for a viewing as they had a key, they said they had tried to contact us but couldnt get a reply so thought we must be away! Needless to say we were not happy, sent them away, and have never given an Estate Agent a key since!

Whose fault is this, then?

The EAs? They tried to get in touch with you.

Or yours for not telling the EA your working schedule and outlining when you could and couldn't accept viewings?

ab7167

liubeliu wrote: »

About 5 years ago we viewed an renovated house on the former Cottesmore Hunt kennels/stables in Ashwell Rutland. The viewing went well and whilst standing in the garden we heard a faint rumble, the owners face quickly switched from smiling to looking very nervous.

Within seconds we were deafened by 2 harrier jets flying overhead. We didn't go back for a second viewing despite house being lovely. I would now as RAF Cottesmore no longer has the Harrier fleet.

We had this exact same thing in Black Bourton with a VC-10 taking off from RAF Brize Norton. House was perfect, ticked all our boxes on a very long list, we were whispering excitedly about how much we could offer etc. - then we stepped out of the front door and a VC-10 took off about 600 yards away, and they can make a hell of noise at full throttle! I could just see the EA mouthing obscenities - if we'd been 2 minutes quicker we'd have been gone before it took off. We didn't buy it. Brize still has the VC-10 fleet, although I believe they will be retired in a couple of years... We did eventually buy in the area, but with due regard to the flight path!

scrabbly

As a landlord I recently completely renovated a 2 bed house - usual white & magnolia. New tenant installed all fine. came to inspection time and all fine but thoroughly messy. clothes everywhere; child sleeping in with mum & dad; garden full of old furniture. Still, all acceptable really - if you want to live like that - its not my problem !
But then I get a call - could they redecorate in neutral colours? what do they think magnolia is? and how are they going to get to a wall to paint it ???? Its heaving with stuff !!!
She would be better off putting some stuff in cupboards instead of worrying about painting !!1
Nowt so queer as folk !

Kernow_Kid

We went online to look for a house for sale, and saw our newly single neighbour's had just been posted. Being nosy we looked at the pictures and her bedroom was a surprise - she had 3 sextoys on the bedside cabinet and sexy underwear and clothes spread around her room. You would think that if they had posted 10 photos they could have left this one out :O

The_Palmist

Kernow_Kid wrote: »

We went online to look for a house for sale, and saw our newly single neighbour's had just been posted. Being nosy we looked at the pictures and her bedroom was a surprise - she had 3 sextoys on the bedside cabinet and sexy underwear and clothes spread around her room. You would think that if they had posted 10 photos they could have left this one out :O

the rightmove link needs to go on have a look at this thread ;-)

Blackpool_Saver

shebanjoed wrote: »

My daughter says "mum, is that a wardrobe?". Closer look revealed it wasn't some strange parallel universe but that the guy had installed a large mirror edge to edge, wall to wall and round the outside window (including removing the sills to edge the mirror closing to the window) "to create the illusion of space". Eh, no mate, its just creepy.

Out we ran never to look back.:)

what on earth did it look like from outside?? oh yes, closed blinds, FREEEEEEEEAKY :eek:

CDC2011

When we bought our first house, we had a few gems...

1) Very small house with wrought iron spiral staircase and a brown bathroom suite with yellow walls and a yellow carpet as there were no windows so she'd 'tried to make it bright'...oh and a hole through the ceiling where her son had used the loft and put his foot through. In addition to this, she also took quite a fancy to us as buyers and said she would give us any of her dead parent's furniture that we wanted as part of a sale...

2) Graffiti on the property, bailiffs knocking on next door on one side and the other side having a very loud and clear domestic, plus rubbish all over the communal areas. Needless to say we raced back to the car to make sure we still had tyres and told the EA no thanks before she could even show us round.

3) Through some genuine confusion over listings with the EA we ended up seeing a bungalow that hadn't even been put on the market yet... The previous owner had died there and the house hadn't been cleared out. Kim and Aggie would have been shocked to say the least...I half expected to find the body still there under piles of rubbish. I refused to look at the bathroom and after spotting a massive crack down the wall which also went to the outside we legged it.

Froglet

Originally Posted by traceynurse
Some years ago we were selling our house, we had both been working nights and were in bed asleep one sunday morning (it was around 10am), we heard a noise downstairs, my husband flew out of bed and found the Estate Agent with 2 people standing in the hallway, they had let themselves in for a viewing as they had a key, they said they had tried to contact us but couldnt get a reply so thought we must be away! Needless to say we were not happy, sent them away, and have never given an Estate Agent a key since!

googler wrote: »

Whose fault is this, then?

The EAs? They tried to get in touch with you.

Or yours for not telling the EA your working schedule and outlining when you could and couldn't accept viewings?

Totally the Estate Agents.I work for one and we NEVER turn up at a property,along with the clients,whether we have keys or not,without giving prior notification and obtaining permission.

The EA was totally out of order and I am not surprised Tracynurse was angry.

Milliemoodle_2

I've got a few!:

1) When we were looking for our first house we viewed a tiny 2-bed house which must have had about 10 people crammed into the living room. It was so full we could only stick our heads round the door to have a look. A woman was cooking something foul-smelling in the kitchen. We couldn't even get into the second bedroom as there was a single bed in there and so the door wouldn't open properly.

2) We also viewed a house where the owner had created a "wet room" off the dining room (?). It was covered entirely in brown tiles (think public toilet style) and smelt awful.

3) We saw a house which had been bought by a builder and refurbished. It was lovely. However, when the EA mentioned that the house had been gutted by a fire and the old man living there had died, :eek: we couldn't get out fast enough.

4) When our house was on the market this time we had a lady that came to view and insisted I showed her exactly how the extractor fans worked in the bathroom and downstairs toilet. We even had to stand there once I had switched the light off and wait until the fans went off too, to prove they worked. Bit awkward standing in the bathroom in the dark....

And finally, I've got a friend who's an estate agent and he went to do a valuation recently. On the wall going up the stairs were photographs of a naked lady, which turned out to be the homeowner's wife, who was also present at the valuation.....Ewww...