Buyers - control your children

Mayflower10cat

You have to watch the inlaws, too! When viewing a modern three bed terrace my mother in law opened the wardrobe in the master bedroom, (the agent was with her and I was on the landing) and she called out to me to 'come and look at this!' She dragged a sparkly evening dress out and held it up against her......... I was horrified, the agent was horrified and I had to make her put it back. She seemed to think it was quite OK to root around during a viewing. Not only that, she then inspected the toiletries in the bathroom and even started to take the top off a perfume bottle for a sniff. Father in law, meanwhile was loitering downstairs, and even he seemed to think it was fine to take a book off a shelf and sit on the sofa reading it..... I must confess I was mortified!

Errata

DRP wrote: »

all the ones i've offered on : which will be at least 3 or 4.

It would be daft not to check as much as possible imo. :money:




^^ and this type of thing is why i do it!!!

Fair enough, but what exactly are you looking for when you shift sofas and rugs around? What do you expect to find?

mollythewestie

Our house is on the market currently, and our first viewer came with a toddler with her. The child was fine downstairs, but as soon as they were upstairs I could hear her charging about, jumping on my daughters bed and playing with her toys. Her mum didn't say a word, (apart from saying how "weird" things were and how should would rip out half the kitchen )

We have been taking our (almost) 4 year old daughter with us on viewings and I wouldn't dream of letting go of her hand or letting her touch anything at all. Nor would she even attempt to open cupboards, or bounce on someone else's bed.

Hermia

Errata wrote: »

Fair enough, but what exactly are you looking for when you shift sofas and rugs around? What do you expect to find?

A blood stain and the chalk outline of a body?

DRP

Errata wrote: »

Fair enough, but what exactly are you looking for when you shift sofas and rugs around? What do you expect to find?

Damaged/stained floor or carpet
Knackered floor/boards/joists
Damp spots on the wall


When I do a viewing I examine anything that would affect my decision on whether to offer for the property. Isn;'t that what you're there for?

Hermia wrote: »

A blood stain and the chalk outline of a body?

well, I am looking for the equivalent in property terms, yes!

Tinkaf1

I never even thought to look in cupboards for mice droppings, or under rugs for carpet stains. All these things can be changed and to be honest are only important if you are viewing 2 identical houses next to each other.
For me, it is simply
Where is it? What is the layout? How big is it?
I am just interested in the stuff that can't be changed.

As for children I like to leave mine behind whenever I can. But if they have to come with me, they stay with me!

witchy1066

the sellers children can be just as bad

a viewing we went to recently the 2 children were horrid , one of them, a beautiful little girl of 6, starting screaming so loud my OH had to go outside, I asked what the problem was ," oh " said the obviously use to it mother, "she doesn't like anyone to go in her room" then on entering the 5 year old boys bedroom , he kicked us and told us to get out

I had lost interest by this time and couldn't get out the house quick enough

and to top it all the dogs that had been tethered in the back garden ,never stopped barking for the whole time we were there ,

which was basically 10 mins

it was one of the most stressful viewings I have ever had.

just for the why move the furniture people,
one of the houses we viewed had a big lump in the middle of the floor , we couldn't get the carpet up to see what it was but it was definitely something coming through the floorboards , EA had no idea and was as concerned as we were , the house was not occupied but still had some furniture , a chair had been situated over the "lump"

phoebe1989seb

When DS was young we never took him to view any houses we were thinking of buying - I usually arranged viewings during school time or (before he started school) he went to my parents' house. I do remember him embarrassing me when we were selling our house and he was about six though -

I conducted a viewing whilst DH was at work and my parents were away so unable to babysit. DS had just started learning the piano and insisted on *entertaining* the guy that was viewing by practising very loudly in the living room. He then proceeded to *interview* this prospective purchaser by asking him all manner of questions relating to what he thought of the house I think the bloke couldn't get out quick enough - although surprisingly he did make an offer, but it was too low so we declined......

IIRC I don't think we ever had anyone view with kids in tow in the four properties we sold before our last house, but last time we had a couple of experiences of note -

A couple brought their two young grandchildren - why? - on a first viewing. These kids were about 5 and 7 and seemed reasonably well behaved. At the end of the viewing we let the couple (and grand kids who had taken a particular shine to our to Persian house cats) have a wander round on their own.

One of the kids decided to open an upstairs bedroom window and unfortunately one of the cats got out and could easily have been run over after she succeeded in climbing down the side of the roof (which swept down to single-storey height) and jumping off into the front garden

Same house sale we had a second viewing from the couple that went on to buy the place. They had originally viewed with only their month-old baby, but brought the two older kids - 11 and 13 - to choose bedrooms etc. The boy (11 year old) came equipped with a video camera with which he proceeded to film inside the property, but more particularly, our possessions!

As his mother had already told us her life story - if this was to be believed, she had worked as a female bouncer and gun-toting bodyguard to some Z-list celebs (;)) and knew some rather suspect types - we were more than a little concerned as to what his purpose was.......Fearing a possible burglary was on the cards we had to query it - and the mum's response was that she admired our Arts & Crafts artefacts so much she wanted to search out similar to furnish the house once it was theirs........;)

googler

Errata wrote: »

Fair enough, but what exactly are you looking for when you shift sofas and rugs around? What do you expect to find?

Things that the seller is trying to hide.

bylromarha

exarmydreamer wrote: »

I have 4 children of which the three boys have ADHD and Autism, so every viewing I have been on have been DH and I (no children at all). We as the parents always look ahead at behaviors outside of our house and would not 'put stress on others'. I even shop and have food and clothes delivered instead of taking them, something as important as house buying is not for children. We are paying for a house not the kids, who would rather be at nan's anyway.

We will be house hunting shortly again, some 7 yrs after buying our present house and will be looking whilst kids are at school or babysat. It isn't fair on the seller or us as we need to view not be watching what they are doing. I hope viewers of my house are as considerate, as my children don't like their 'stuff', touched or moved.

Thank you - you can view my house.

As I said in the OP, the kid in my viewing moved several things from one childs bedroom to the other and vice versa, so may be best to prep your kids to come back and be prepared to see that change may have happened in their rooms.

Buyer in the OP is not going to put an offer in, so we now only have a ruined silk cushion cover (which we bought in Cambodia, so not easily replaced) Thankfully shoe marks have come out of our duvet.

FWIW, my kids come on our viewings. They go behind us. They are 6 and 8. They walk. They look with their eyes. When I took the then 1 year old on viewings with me in 2006 when we bought this house (no other option) - he held my hand, then I carried him when he was getting bored and talked to him about the things we saw.

And as a buyer, I look in cupboards. I want to see if they're overflowing, how far they go back, how many shelves, if there are random pipes making them unworkable...I need to know these things. Not deal breakers, but make me think through the livability of a house.