Irritated with EA - Should we be ?

Dan-Dan

Evening all

Just wondered others thoughts , we are selling our bequthed ? (inherited) property , we live in it , and we are eager to move on.

We enlisted an EA who offered us a good deal (.75%)of sale price , mainly because the house we want (and still is) with the same EA , so we fell for the "were desperate to do two sales at the same time) line...anyway , when we had the meeting with them , we really stressed that we want proceedable people only to view......when the house went live , we had lots and lots of viewings , now , as the house has been on 8 weeks , when we get viewers now , their position is "unknown"

So , fast forward to feedback , and its starting to be things like , they LOVED the house but their own house is not on the market yet , we have had that one twice now , the worst one , which is making us angry , is someone came to see yesterday , the EA saw my wife as the viewer departed and my wife was coming back to the house , he told her he was on his way to the viewers house to take pictures , as they LOVED the house and were now putting their property on the market ..

We get a feedback call this morning from a girl in the EA office , she says the viewer yesterday has applied for planning permission for something at his house , if he gets it he wont be moving if he doesnt he wants to buy ours...!!

we didnt mind viewers who had their house on the market as they could come under offer at any time but now starting to see viewers who basically are just `having a nose` is starting to really get on our nerves...

We intend to call the EA (if we dont hear from them sooner) and tell them they must do their best to qualify the viewers , as in , at least find out which house theirs is if on the market , and we do not want ANYONE who isnt in the above positions

Is this unreasonable ?

Also , we have a 12 week contract , we know what we would take , and we are comfortable doing viewings , its only now after the EA is shoving anyone through our door that we feel we might as well use house network or similar and do it ourselves........any thoughts on that ?

Gettong stressed now , just want to get sold and get on in life

Cheers

Mobeer

If the EA is sending these sort of viewers, how do you know there are any "serious" buyers interested in your property? Would you be happier to have no viewings?

Dan-Dan

Mobeer wrote: »

If the EA is sending these sort of viewers, how do you know there are any "serious" buyers interested in your property? Would you be happier to have no viewings?

We would be happier with serious proceedable viewers and if none of them then yes none at all....to get your hopes up time and again for no reason saps your spirit

ognum

But one of these viewers could become proceed able in the next week or two, if you have refused than access to your home but they have seen others you may have lost a buyer.

frankly, unless anyones home sells quickly it is always frustrating!

Dan-Dan

ognum wrote: »

But one of these viewers could become proceed able in the next week or two, if you have refused than access to your home but they have seen others you may have lost a buyer.

frankly, unless anyones home sells quickly it is always frustrating!

perhaps...but its just so annoying to have gawpers round who havent even commited to marketing themselves

motherofstudents

Don't get too despondant, I know it is frustrating but you just never know who will become proceedable. A few years ago we had a couple who came to view and said they liked our house so they would put theirs up for sale. We didn't expect anything to come of it but they actually had an offer on theirs in a week. They had made an offer on ours after viewing which I told the estate agent was useless as they were not proceedable. Anyway, they bought ours and we moved on. I was annoyed at the time and fed up but now I can see that it all worked out in the end and I hope it does for you.

ValHaller

Dan-Dan wrote: »

We intend to call the EA (if we dont hear from them sooner) and tell them they must do their best to qualify the viewers , as in , at least find out which house theirs is if on the market , and we do not want ANYONE who isnt in the above positions

Is this unreasonable ?

It is your house to sell, so it isn't unreasonable for you to insist that your viewers have 2 first class stamps on their foreheads.

The trouble with insisting that your viewers have their house on the market is that you are committed to a certain mental model of the market. It may be that there is a potential viewer out there who would buy yours, but would not want to have their house on the market before finding the house they want (ie yours) for fear of theirs going stale over the time it takes to find yours.

If yours is a bog standard 'commodity' house, then your position will not hinder you. But if yours is in any way unique, then you may cramp your marketing by insisting on your pre qualification criteria

gazter

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Evening all



we didnt mind viewers who had their house on the market as they could come under offer at any time but now starting to see viewers who basically are just `having a nose` is starting to really get on our nerves...


Cheers

Ours wasnt on the market, we looked around, wanted to move. Came across a beautiful property. Within ten days our house was on the market, within three weeks it was sold subject to contract. We then put an offer in for the house we liked which was accepted...

phoebe1989seb

I agree, it is very frustrating and quite understand you becoming irritated.

A couple of years ago we were in a similar position, but unlike motherofstudents the people that viewed our house who were yet to market theirs didn't manage to achieve a sale.

I'm sure I've told this story many times before, but long story short we'd also instructed our EA that we only wanted *proceedable* viewers as we were hoping for a quick sale, yet the couple they sent round on the first day were not even sure they wanted to move :mad: Our house apparently attracted them as it was a one-off period place and TBH we thought they were either nosey-parkers or else fake viewers dispatched to make a good impression........

However, they made all the right noises and instructed the same EA to market their house. They actually put in an offer - which our EA told them we couldn't accept due to them not being ready to proceed. It really peed us off as we thought we'd made our position clear to the EA from the outset. Fortunately for us a genuinely proceedable couple came along two weeks later and the rest is history

The first couple took their house off the market as soon as we'd exchanged.......the only house they wanted to buy was ours!

Whilst it wouldn't make sense to *burn your bridges* and refuse and viewers that were not in a position to proceed - as motherofstudents case shows - it is mighty annoying that despite your explicit instructions, the EA appears to be sending all and sundry round to view.......and whilst I agree that it would almost be preferable to have no viewings than viewings by what appear to be time wasters, I guess that if there is even the slightest chance that a viewing may convert to an offer it's best to bite the bullet and let them continue Hope a proceedable offer comes your way soon!

lessonlearned

Definitely don't burn your bridges. Just let the viewers come. They can go from non-proceedable to proceedable within 24 hours.

Even if they are unable to make an offer, they can register their interest and you can keep them simmering on the back burner until either they can proceed or you get a firm offer from someone else.

Friends of mine went out to buy a car one Sunday afternoon. They didn't see a car they liked but did see a house they fancied.

The house had a sign up saying "For sale, apply within". They knocked on the door, the vendors apologised for the house being untidy but let them view anyway. My friends loved it. They explained their house wasn't yet on the market but could they make a verbal offer there and then subject to the sale of their own property. A price was agreed on that basis.

That's what I call an impulse buy!!!!

The next day (Monday) my friends put their property on the market, it was sold stc on the Tuesday. Six weeks later all parties concerned were happily settling in to their new homes.

Denying viewers access because they are not yet proceedable is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Yes it can be frustrating. However, if you keep your house so that it can be "viewer ready" within an hour it's no big deal to allow someone to look round. Your property doesn't have to be glossy magazine perfect - just neat and tidy.

"You have to let the dog see the rabbit".

Moonraker71

Agree it's frustrating but kind of agree with the others. I viewed the place I live in now before I was on the market myself. I loved it and offered the full asking price there and then (this was back in 2002 when things were crazy). The guy was reluctant to take me seriously but said he'd give me a week before taking any more viewings. I put my flat on the market the next day and it sold that same day to the first person who saw it. Six weeks later it was all done and dusted.

Now I'm on the market again too - with House Network –!and the great thing about them is that before each viewing you get an email with a summary of their position, so you always know in advance what to expect. Eg, tomorrow morning I have four viewings, one FTB with an AIP, one cash buyer, someone who's under offer who's also a cash buyer and one buyer who is not on the market yet. Clearly the last one is not proceedable yet, but knowing the position of your viewer in advance helps to manage expectations. I can well imagine that finding out that info after the event is a real let-down.