What has been your worst viewing experience?

olias

Milliemoodle wrote: »

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...

Reminds me of when I worked as a copper. We regularly used the same boarding up guy when a window got smashed at night. He used to turn up in his van and when he opened up the rear, plastered all over were pages out of 'readers wives' magazines containing snaps of his wife which he would proudly show off! Now these were not what you would call 'soft' !!!!!!, but all out gynecological (and proctological!) shots.:D

Olias

MessyMare

Worst viewing....got bit by one of the owner's dogs. Still bought the house though

runmichellerun

1. Went to a viewing of a very cheap 3 bed house. Each room we went into was filthy, cluttered and in dire need of renovation. The EA was very optimistic, verging on the delusional. In the tiny lounge, he mentioned how roomy it was. In the third 'bedroom' the current owners had a baby's cot in there - and there was no room for anything else. I suppose a cot is a bed, but to call it a 3 bed house... The best bit was when we walked into the second bedroom at the back of the house where myself and my partner were both stunned into silence. Out the window was a MASSIVE graveyard as far as the eye could sea. The EA noticed the silence and filled it with "It's a very quiet area..."

2. Walked in to a house and was instructed by the EA to take our shoes off at the door. Apparently, the family whose house it was insisted on it. We were more than happy to do this until walking around the kitchen which had a filthy lino floor! It was so dirty our socks were sticking to it.

Needless to say we didn't buy either of the above houses

sumsup

Froglet, I'm glad to learn that some agents dont conduct viewings without explicit permission. My worst viewing,we were desperate to see a what appeared to be our perfect place at a great price - but there were tenants who said they were " sorting things out" and could not let anyone view for a couple of weeks. The agent said, come at 2, they will be at work - the house was, as expected, a mess, but also had a lot of structural issues that the photos cleverly hid. So we said, not for us and went home. At about 6pm, I could not find my mobile phone, so called it from land line, could not hear it. Early the next morning, we got a call from the EA, I had left my phone in the loo at the property and the tenants freaked when it rang! EA very sheepish to them, and the freeholder, and I had to drive 30 miles to collect my phone!

LydiaJ

1) When we were looking to rent, we saw a house whose owner had gone to work abroad. He'd done the house up before he went - all very tastefully decorated, perfectly tidy and spotlessly clean.... until we got to the kitchen. Again, everything was beautiful, except that there was a thing on the worktop - more or less cylindrical with pointed ends, a foot or so long, shrink wrapped, and containing a foul-smelling greeny-yellowy semi-solid-semi-liquid substance. We eventually worked out that it had once been a cucumber.

2) When I was looking to buy, I saw one house with DS accompanying me. Nicely maintained house, delightful elderly couple, wanting to sell because she was beginning to find the stairs rather difficult. They stayed downstairs while the EA took us up to look at the bedrooms, which saved me a lot of embarrassment. We got into the master bedroom to find that it was decorated in an in-your-face girly pink colour, with matching pink bedding of a frilly-flouncy kind. The EA and I were agreeing how lovely it was to have the double aspect outlook and the big south-facing window, and DS loudly asked, "Mummy, where does the male sleep?" I said, "In here. This is the master bedroom. They both sleep here." DS wasn't having any of it. He said "A man couldn't sleep in here. It's much too pink." The EA was very good about it. She explained kindly "If you love your wife very much, you would be willing to sleep in a pink bedroom if it would make her happy." He wasn't convinced, though.

3) My kids and I also viewed a house that the owner had obviously spend a lot of money and effort on doing up. Sadly, he wasn't at all competent. The kitchen floor had very up-to-the-minute slate tiles... and grouting that was crumbling away and came out in big lumps. It had shiny black splash back tiles that weren't straight on the wall, and because they were so shiny it was really obvious that the reflections were coming from all different angles. The conservatory had condensation between the layers of double glazing, and so many wasps that I can only suppose there was a nest somewhere near. A wall had been demolished part way across the garden but the base of it hadn't been removed so it looked like something on an archaeological dig. The landing and stairs had brand new carpet, except that the bit on the stairs wasn't long enough and didn't cover the bottom step. Finally, we were shown round the garage (which was integral to the house and below the second bedroom), and for some reason there was a drain pipe (of the sort you usually see connected to external guttering) running down the inside of the garage wall and then disappearing out at the bottom where a single brick had been removed to make space for it - a round pipe going through a rectangular hole obviously leaving a lot of space on either side. It was a great size and location, but it wasn't priced to leave any money over for doing work, and anyway I didn't fancy spending the next 10 years finding more and more things that had been bodged.

jjlandlord

Not the worst viewing experience per se, but one thing which is really a per peeve for me when visiting fairly recent properties:

Everytime we get to the 3rd "bedroom", which is usually 2m x 2m max. in those houses, the agent manages to keep a straight face and cheerfully say "and here is a good size single bedroom!".

googler

sumsup wrote: »

At about 6pm, I could not find my mobile phone, so called it from land line, could not hear it. Early the next morning, we got a call from the EA, I had left my phone in the loo at the property and the tenants freaked when it rang! EA very sheepish to them, and the freeholder, and I had to drive 30 miles to collect my phone!

How on earth do you leave a phone in the bathroom at a viewing? You weren't using the bathroom, were you?

Craig_Grant

Some 5 years ago, when I was looking to buy a house with my now wife, we viewed a small 3 bedroomed house on a large housing estate. The place was beautiful and the owners, a husband and wife in their 40s were lovely. Anyway, we didn't buy the house in the end after my wife walked in to the bathroom and stepped straight on to a pile of human faeces. We'd taken our shoes off at the front door !!

Judith_M

Many years ago we went to view a 1930s semi. We like original features and this looked promising from the outside. Going in through the front door the hallway wall on the left that should have been there had been completely removed and what had been the hall now opened straight into the front room.
The owner proudly pointed out the 'feature' of the room - which we had already noticed. It was.......... The Antler Bar.
A full size wooden bar filled one side of the room with a row of stools, optics of every size and kind, the lot - including several sets of antlers. "The neighbours just love coming round here" he told us.
We said nothing as we didn't want to appear condescending at what was obviously his dream room but the strain of not bursting into hysterical laughter was overwhelming. Must be some people's dream to have a bar in their living room, not ours. We didn't buy.

sumsup

Googler, no I wasn't using the bathroom during a viewing, but my 3 year old needed to go, so no choice really!