What has been your worst viewing experience?

angelsmomma

When I was selling my two bed terraced house, The viewers arrived in two large cars, all 12 of them. They piled in the front door, mum,dad, granddad,grandmother, uncle x 2, Aunt, and five children. They split up and opened every cupboard and draw in the house.

They then asked me to open up the loft area to see if it could be converted while offering me £15000 less than my asking price of offers over £60000. This was 5 years ago and it did sell for £62500 a week later so was very reasonable.

k3lvc

2 bad & 1 funny experiences for me

1) We'd just arranged relocation to the other end of the country and found the 'perfect property' on a website. Arranged a viewing at 1pm on Sat afternoon and made the 5hr drive. Turned up on the doorstep with a rather sheepish estate agent who then declared that the property was only on the market as the current owner couldn't get rid of the squatters and we couldn't get in as they'd changed the locks :eek:

2) Our current property had been on the market for 2 years starting at £400k and dropping to £275k - we were moving back home (after the relocation above) and fell in love with it. I did the first viewing alone and it was obviously a divorce situation - 5bed house with woman and 2 kids rattling round in it and she made no secret of what a !!!!!!! the ex was. Arranged a 2nd viewing to take OH with me and was accompanied by the owner of the Estate Agents - it turned out that the ex husband had worked for and been sacked by me 10yrs previously which had been that start of the slippery slope in their relationship. She recognised my name but she'd since changed hers. All turned out well eventually - got the house for £250k after 9 months of wrangling and court cases over ownership

And the fun one

Turned up for a viewing at a property being sold as the owners had emigrated and daughters had moved away. Loads of lovely family pics on the walls - a real, genuine family home until I went upstairs to find that one of the daughters was obviously using it as a crash pad while parents were away - all the other rooms were pristine but the parents bedroom had been turned into a scene from a !!!!!! movie - handcuffs on the bed, sex toys everywhere and the remnants of last nights passionate encounter all over the bedroom floor. Went to view the bathroom and by the time i got back onto the landing the Estate Agent had seen the room, scooped everything up and under the duvet and was making a big play about how nice the view was from the bedroom :rotfl:

Blodwen

natmid wrote: »

The lady we bought our house from was obviously going through a divorce as in every room she made a comment about the ex. In wine cellar, this was the wine cellar until my husband left me and took all the wine with him. In the bedroom, this is a seven foot bed, not that I need it now my husband has left me. Was so awkward!

This reminds me of one I went to see with my mum when my parents were moving- the woman showed us round and kept saying 'that's where Mr Right kept his train set' or 'Mr Right used the garage as a workshop'. We were a bit confused as to who this Mr Right was (a fantasy boyfriend perhaps?) until she started telling us about how the person who turned out to be Mr Wright left her for another woman and she now refused to call him by his first name! :rotfl:My parents didn't buy the house but bought one in the next village and now, a good 6 years on, when we pass it my mum still refers to it as Mr Right's house!

Matt1977

In late 2003 after a bit of pestering by the Estate Agent I went to view a 2 bedroom ex council flat. I quite liked it as it was a large flat and had views of countryside south of Norwich. A friend of a friend lived in the same complex and having been invited to his house warming party some months previously, I was impressed by the flats already.

I turned up at 5pm. The female vendor answered the door and said that they were expecting me at 5.30pm. Could I have made a mistake with the appointment or did the EA make a mistake? Anyway, she was happy to let me in for the viewing. Noticed her partner on the phone to someone in the kitchen. Noticed a few child' toys, etc around so put the reason down to their selling to wanting a house with a garden.

Viewing went OK but towards the end as I was talking to the woman in the living room, her partner finished her telephone call. He was standing just behind her giving me a rather dirty look as if I just swore at him (I didn't). I started feeling very uncomfortable. It was probably down to me turning up half an hour earlier than expected (rightly or wrongly).

The EA never bothered to call me back to find out what I thought of the flat. I never got to ascertain if I had the appointment time wrong or if it was the vendors' error. I wonder if the vendors were pushing the EA to get them more viewings and just sent me round on a whim.

The EA no longer exists and a different EA operates from the same premises, so they were obviously inept at the business they were in. The flat I went to view doesn't show up on any of the sold house prices websites so I wonder if they are still living there now with one or two pre-teen children there :eek: or just renting it out?

Davesnave

An old farm in Wales comes to mind, then on the market at £450k, but from the details I figured it might come within budget, as it was clearly overpriced.

The vendors didn't inspire confidence; both being ill, hacking and coughing everywhere, but also chain-smoking the whole time. It was 'all too much' for them, and I agreed, as the entire ground floor had been covered with snot green and brown ceramic tiles which would have done justice to Fungus the Bogeyman's pad. It was certainly too much for me! The place was filthy, but the tiles could have been clean.

We met all nine of the vendor's dogs, each of which had to jump up after having followed us, barking, around the muddy yard. We lost count of the cats. We also met the vendor's teenage children, but received such cold stares we never actually ventured into their rooms. By that stage we were beyond caring anyway, especially as we'd picked-up on a rather worrying witchy occult theme running through the decorative items in the house. Yes, it was old and fairly original, but all in creepy style.:eek:

Outside, we were shown the land, which was nice enough, but not terribly practical with a bog running through the centre and a steep slope to one side. We were shown the shed where the vendor's brother had lived for a number of years and also, the very new and well-equipped sauna which sat, inexplicably, in the corner of a field. The vendor mumbled something about his Norwegian roots. All in all it was extremely strange.

We waved goodbye to the two vendors, who seemed almost too weak to wave back and, still feeling very sorry for them, almost lost the front of the car to a huge lorry as we tried to exit their hideously-placed driveway. Shaking our heads at the deluded fools with their weird, dirty & ridiculously priced house, we headed for some other property....

The house went under offer about a week later and the sale completed. The EA went bust shortly afterwards. Meanwhile, we lost our sale and remained on the market for another year.

Life is full of surprises.:)

bluebluecow

We had a fun experience lol,we had viewed the house several times (daughters house mum selling as daughter had emigrated) like the house and made an offer that was accepted. I then asked if I could show the house to my mum and dad, got there and the chain was on the lock, estate agent jokingly say " maybe she has lodgers in". 10 mins later scruffy lad opens door and guess what he was a lodger on a 12mth contract, needless to say we didnt buy it.

saw 3 other interesting houses, on was owned by a builder, so expected it to be nice, wires hanging out of walls missing floor boards etc, another one was a great house lovelingly done shame that the gypsys had set up camp right in front of the house. And the third was a 2 bed terrace with 4 bathrooms, lol, it had the old down the bottom of the garden loo, a new one of the kitchen, being used but no windows just holes, one normal one upstairs and then on in what must of been the airing cupboard

firstaspect

We went to see one house where we were shown around by the husband while the wife was asleep in one of the bedrooms as she had worked late. So we had to be really quiet and then wait while he woke her up and moved her to another room so we could look in that bedroom.

devotee

ceridwen wrote: »

You've started - so you've gotta finish;):rotfl:

Go on - put the details up on the "Have a look at this" thread....

Agents are wise sometimes, no interior photos!

tyllwyd

I remember viewing one house which had a covered over passage between the house and garage, which had a washing line strung across it so that we had to fight our way through a forest of black lacy underwear to get into the garden.

no.1swimmum

We had a couple of strange visits to houses we were viewing - sometimes my Dad would come with me as hubby worked shifts.
Dad and I went to one house when taken into the Master bedroom, we were told 'can't put the light on as partner is asleep, works nights', but he was so obviously not asleep - Dad reckoned there was a great big hole in the ceiling or something!!!

Another had a snake in a cage - not glass but what looked like a cage on the kitchen table:eek:, also the master was in the loft and we could only stand up with our heads out of the windows!!!