Scottish property sales - viewings

BigAunty

It's the first time I've sold a property in Scotland whose buying system is more efficient than England, in my opinion, simpler, speedier and less prone to gazumping/gazundering.

However, I am shocked at the amount of viewers the estate agent are sending round that aren't ready to proceed, whose own properties are up for sale but have no offers on them. Only 2 out of 7 viewers to date had offers on their own properties or weren't sale dependent.

When I declined a viewing by a lady whose own property wasn't yet on the market, the estate agent got stroppy and said that it was normal for some owners to only put it on the market once they've found somewhere they wish to buy. She strongly advised me to accept the request to view but I still think it's a bizarre practice to view property when your own isn't even marketed!

Also,she said that around 50% of those enquiring about viewings weren't directly proceedable but that we should always permit viewings (though I'm finding that it's closer to 80% in my experience).

Is it because the time span from offer to sale is speedier than England the reason why the majority of my viewings are by people who can't proceed? Namely that they want to act fast if they do get an offer so browse upfront when they can't realistically proceed in order to have a firm short list?

nomoneytoday

Why would you limit the buyer population?

IMHO more viewers means more potential buyers - They may not have the cash today, but could tomorrow

Peterward2008

Not really that bizarre.

We did the same. We intended to go on the market and move city but wanted to make sure we had something we could put an offer in on at the other end so viewed a few properties (some of which we missed out on) in the city to which we were moving.


Once we found a shortlist of properties (two/three) we put our place on the market and we closed within a week and we had an offer accepted a day later on the place we wish to move to. (Obviously with an decision in principle from a lender). In a fast moving market (such as Edinburgh is, where we are moving to in Dundee not so much), people will view before marketing their property as closing dates and dates of entry can be very short and to not have anything is risky.


You can become proceedable very quickly so cutting off viewers, IMHO may not be a great idea given that they can move to marketing, selling their property and putting in an offer quiet quickly. Note also that offers and acceptance up here are legally binding...

scottishblondie

It's really quite common up here. My brother and his wife offered on their current house before the previous one was on the market. Once their offer was accepted they put theirs on, and it sold a couple of days later. I wouldn't restrict viewers based on this.

rpc

Because we don't have chains, the sale and purchase aren't directly linked. We have always bought (or rather offered to buy) before advertising our own properties with a long settlement date. In one case, we were selling two to buy one and we had moved about a year before the second old house sold.

With open viewings, more viewers means more potential buyers. Appointments might be another matter. I've never bothered to check. Either you get a note/offer or you don't.

googler

The dominant trend in many parts of Scotland for many years has been for the owners to do open viewings, where anyone can turn up without prior agreement with the agency. Typically a couple of hours on Thursday evening, couple of hours Sunday PM.

It's universally accepted that some of the viewers won't be in the market at all. Some will just want to nosey around other people's houses, etc etc.

Annie1960

BigAunty wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. Based on this, and the estate agents insistence, I have allowed all viewings. I even showed a couple round that just knocked on my door when passing who saw the For Sale sign as I thought 'well, its not like the agent does any kind of filtering or checking'.

There is the personal safety issue. Remember Suzy Lamplugh? I wouldn't let a casual caller in without going through the EA first.

http://www.suzylamplugh.org/personal-safety-tips/free-personal-safety-tips/selling-your-property/

googler

Annie1960 wrote: »

There is the personal safety issue. Remember Suzy Lamplugh? I wouldn't let a casual caller in without going through the EA first.

http://www.suzylamplugh.org/personal-safety-tips/free-personal-safety-tips/selling-your-property/

Yet Scottish sellers have routinely been opening their doors to anyone for 2 hours on a Thursday evening and two hours on a Sunday afternoon...... for many, many years.

Peterward2008

Thats a shame.

We were obviously very lucky in terms of price point (very good for first time buyers) and location (Edinburgh). So our viewers were serious as a rule.

By comparison, for where we are moving to, Dundee, we have had agents chasing us on noted interest (indicating little interest on some properties we viewed).

Hope you sell at the price you want.

Anatidaephobia

BigAunty wrote: »

My partner hosted a very long viewing in our big house by a couple expecting a baby who were living in rented accommodation and claimed to be proceedable to our agent. The chap was at pains to explain how it fulfilled his need to do some DIY at which he excelled and wasn't deterred by the defects listed on the Home Report. In fact, it was great because he really wanted a 'fixer upper' but his missus had put their foot down as she didn't want to live in a building site so it was the best of both worlds. They identified a room suitable for a nursery and spent their time cooing over the features.

The agent was then unable to get any feedback from their viewing from them but subsequently found out that shortly after, they made an absurdly low offer on a small flat nearby that was on sale for £160,000 less than our property. This his means they were short on their budget by around 60% when they charged round our place stating the things they liked or intended to change.

We also hosted another lengthy and detailed viewing by a young couple living in a small flat in one of the cheapest areas nearby that were thinking about moving to a house but hadn't yet put their property on the market. As they left, they said they were very interested in the property.

Funnily enough, they then came back to say the changes they would want to make mean they wouldn't offer anywhere near the asking price, transferring the fact that they belatedly realised they couldn't afford it onto blaming us for wanting to achieve the valuation price, a valuation based on its current condition, not the desires of the new buyers to install an additional bathroom and refit the existing suite.

I wonder if your EA is encouraging this sort of viewing?

When we were viewing houses in Scotland last year, there were a number of EA's who didn't seem to care what our budget or requirements were, they just seemed desperate to get us to view their houses anyway, even when they knew we definitely would NOT buy the house. They regularly sent us emails and left voicemails telling us about houses that were £50k+ over our budget. Some of the houses they told us about were three times our max budget. When we reminded them that those houses were not suitable for us, they would say things like "well, go and see the house anyway!" Their attitude was very much "what have you got to lose, just go and see every house we've got up for sale".

We didn't go and view any house that we couldn't afford but I can see how others might get swept into it if the EA's behave like this and give them the impression that it's normal and acceptable to view a wide range of houses that you're not even going to consider buying.

Anatidaephobia

BigAunty wrote: »

Are you in England/Wales? Up in Scotland, people are telling me that buyers here can't get mortgages in principle and can only request a mortgage check with the lender when they have a property in mind and can give them the address.

Hmm, I don't know if it's different now with the new mortgage rules, but when we bought our house in Scotland last year, we got a mortgage in principle first, before we had a specific house in mind. Each time we wanted to make an offer on a house, we called our mortgage advisor and gave her the address and she confirmed (in a 2 min phone call) that it was fine and told us to go ahead. None of the EA's questioned our mortgage in principle either.