Taking photos at house viewing?

Davesnave

There are other more substantial issues the camera helps with. For example, not all agents provide floor plans, so it's sometimes difficult to piece a house together without a few visual cues, which can then be questioned. I can remember looking at one rambling property 120miles from home, where later we wanted to know if it could be easily sub-divided. The pictures of inside & outside gave us an unequivocal answer.

DRP

mk_78 wrote: »

I'm going to be viewing a property soon, it's a resale shared ownership property and there are no photos or even room sizes on the HA website! By using streetview I've found what looks to be an identical house a few doors down and found an old rightmove ad for the identical property with photos so am fairly certain that the room sizes/layout is what I'm looking for, I know the area is good.

Is it rude to ask the vendor if I can take photos (just on my phone) as I'm viewing so that I can get opinions on whether I should go for this particular house as I'll be going to the viewing on my own. I realise that it's their home so not sure if it's rude/weird to ask to take photos?!

Given there are no photos on the website, i think it would be essential to take photos.

As others have said, just be polite and ask in advance .

googler

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I don't really get the point of photos personally. I'm just planning to view houses with a notebook and biro with me .....

In reverse - I'm probably not the only vendor who would wonder why someone wanted to take a photo .... estate agent will be doing all my viewings for me anyway (with instructions to tell me if any of the viewers whip out a camera - all the better to judge them as people by...:rotfl:) ... but I'll be searching for every little indicator to see who might be a decent/honourable buyer and who wouldnt and you take what "evidence" you can get to work that out if it comes to a choice...

Again, you seem to have your own view of what's required as a seller of a product; do you REALLY want to sell for £145,000 to the person whose personal habits you approve of, when the pain in the a*se whom you rejected is willing to pay £155,000?

It's not a question of you weeding out a 'nice' person for 'your' house, it's merely a question of selling the darn thing, for the best price you can get.....

dotdash79

googler wrote: »

It's not a question of you weeding out a 'nice' person for 'your' house, it's merely a question of selling the darn thing, for the best price you can get.....

Damm straight I would sell to Hitler if I was selling (and he had the finances in place)

jonathansmith

I think you should ask the landlord before actually taking the snaps. Nowadays vendors do not have as such any problem, but you need to go sage by asking him.

Glasgow_Al

Of course the polite thing to do is to ask first, but as long as you are not deliberately taking photos of clearly personal things, it is a perfectly reasonable request, and I can't see why anyone would have a problem with it.

marathonic

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I don't really get the point of photos personally. I'm just planning to view houses with a notebook and biro with me - and will be writing down points as I go, eg "sitting room - artex ceiling!" "dining room - patterned carpet" etc to then go back and mentally price up how much I would have to spend on the house to get it the way I want.

In reverse - I'm probably not the only vendor who would wonder why someone wanted to take a photo of their home and feel a bit "privacy invaded" about it. The estate agent will be doing all my viewings for me anyway (with instructions to tell me if any of the viewers whip out a camera - all the better to judge them as people by...:rotfl:). If I were there and they asked me - my feeling is that they wouldnt even try to notice the fact that my "agreement" to photos had been said through gritted "Don't they have any manners? One black mark against their name as a potential...". So - they'd have my "agreement" - but they'd still get that black mark against them (may not matter to them - but if I landed up getting two exactly equal potential buyers and one had "asked" for photos and one hadnt - I would accept the one who hadnt asked). I might be wrong in thinking they would possibly be the more considerate/better-mannered one - but I'll be searching for every little indicator to see who might be a decent/honourable buyer and who wouldnt and you take what "evidence" you can get to work that out if it comes to a choice...

Thinks - vision of a little tickbox list as to how to choose which buyer to take:

- asked for photos or no
- wiped feet on entering or, better still, asked if I wanted them to take their shoes off (yep....THEY would definitely get high priority buyer status if they asked that....)
- asked if they could open a kitchen cupboard, rather than just grabbing for the handle and doing so

What sort of market do you think you're in? In selling a house, you should have absolutely no criteria (except for how they could potentially finance the purchase).

In fact, I would go so far as to say you should have no criteria whatsoever if you have an estate agent that you can trust. Their aim is to maximise the price they obtain for the house and do this in the minimum time possible. This is the only criteria that matters.

Would I care if it turned into a party house or a brothel in years to come - not in the least!!!!

sinbad182

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I don't really get the point of photos personally. I'm just planning to view houses with a notebook and biro with me - and will be writing down points as I go, eg "sitting room - artex ceiling!" "dining room - patterned carpet" etc to then go back and mentally price up how much I would have to spend on the house to get it the way I want.

In reverse - I'm probably not the only vendor who would wonder why someone wanted to take a photo of their home and feel a bit "privacy invaded" about it. The estate agent will be doing all my viewings for me anyway (with instructions to tell me if any of the viewers whip out a camera - all the better to judge them as people by...:rotfl:). If I were there and they asked me - my feeling is that they wouldnt even try to notice the fact that my "agreement" to photos had been said through gritted "Don't they have any manners? One black mark against their name as a potential...". So - they'd have my "agreement" - but they'd still get that black mark against them (may not matter to them - but if I landed up getting two exactly equal potential buyers and one had "asked" for photos and one hadnt - I would accept the one who hadnt asked). I might be wrong in thinking they would possibly be the more considerate/better-mannered one - but I'll be searching for every little indicator to see who might be a decent/honourable buyer and who wouldnt and you take what "evidence" you can get to work that out if it comes to a choice...

Thinks - vision of a little tickbox list as to how to choose which buyer to take:

- asked for photos or no
- wiped feet on entering or, better still, asked if I wanted them to take their shoes off (yep....THEY would definitely get high priority buyer status if they asked that....)
- asked if they could open a kitchen cupboard, rather than just grabbing for the handle and doing so

See, this is why I called you insane. Every time you post it just screams fruitcake.

guesswho2000

marathonic wrote: »

Would I care if it turned into a party house or a brothel in years to come - not in the least!!!!

Indeed, but that's in the future; when they're viewing, it's still the seller's house, and they should treat it as such!

Even if I was selling my car, I'd be pretty p*$$£d off if a prospective buyer climbed in getting mud everywhere for example.

sinbad182

guesswho2000 wrote: »

Indeed, but that's in the future; when they're viewing, it's still the seller's house, and they should treat it as such!

Even if I was selling my car, I'd be pretty p*$$£d off if a prospective buyer climbed in getting mud everywhere for example.

No-ones talking about setting up a brothel whilst the owner is still there, or trapsing mud through the place.

Old nutbar up there, despite being in a static market (their words) is saying they would penalise a potential buyer for taking photos of a house they could well be interested in buying.