Vendors who don't seem to want to sell their places!

AdrianC

We viewed one place where the vendors were on holiday, and had left a key with the EA. Except they'd ONLY left the front door key, and had locked damn near every internal door in the house...

Still, what we did manage to see was more than enough to put us off!

Davesnave

We viewed a few empty places in Wales where the agents just gave us the keys and let us visit alone.

These might have been properties they'd given-up on.

One I remember had received a sort of make-over, but ants had built a nest inside the front doorway, and were swarming, inside and out. Getting it to open over all the earth was difficult.

When we did gain access, the new kitchen looked a little worse for wear, because a spring had opened-up in the floor, either natural or from a leaking pipe, warping the floor units. That was bad, but the adjoining barn actually had a stream running through it, making access impossible without wellies.

Then there were the smallholdings where elderly owners had been told by their kids that they must retire, give up the hard life and buy a bungalow in town. They might have put their place on the market, but it soon became obvious that they'd no real interest in leaving, and the price usually confirmed this.

In one, the owners hadn't been upstairs for over two years. Out of curiosity, I looked it up recently to find that it did sell, three years after we viewed, and for only 2/3 of the original asking price.

pinkshoes

We viewed a house that had been on for about 16 months. Getting a viewing was a pain - she only allowed viewings when she was at work as was I.

The house turned out to be in quite a state with SO much work that needed doing. We based an offer on an almost identical house that had sold which she turned down.

Turns out they're getting divorced and once the house sells, she'll have to give up her £450k house for a budget of half that.

we decided it wasn't worth the effort!

moneyistooshorttomention

Yikes to EA's just loaning out the keys! I've never heard of that happening...and there was me thinking "Well..I really did plan on selling last house and even a privacy-lover like me gave the EA's a set of keys".

Better not do that then if I change my mind and sell this house on ever...damn..wonder if that's part of why vendors often do their viewings here..I thought it was the EA's here being lazy...

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Better not do that then if I change my mind and sell this house on ever...damn..wonder if that's part of why vendors often do their viewings here..I thought it was the EA's here being lazy...

Those houses were empty.

But yes, the agents in your neck of the woods are, on the whole, laid-back and lazy, though more affable than in many places, and sometimes disarmingly honest!

For example, we were once told: "Well, it's been on the market for quite a time, and we've had lots of viewings, but nothing has come of it. Mrs Jones is tired of it all and just wants rid now."

moneyistooshorttomention

I can think of one EA here who is pretty honest (ie keeping to that code to tell buyers of any problems they know of) and there was a litany of "that house has a major roof problem", "that one is in a problem road". The bit that amused me most was their 100% accurate character analysis, which boiled down to never having even seen me in person at that point I was told "Out of the 2 locations you are considering, THAT one is the one that is most 'you' " and they were bang on, but I had to buy in the other one in the event, because of greater convenience.

Another one, on the other hand, did actually stir their stumps and deliberately take me to visit a property they were/still are trying to get rid of. The second I spotted it I counted about 6 potential boundary disputes and a potential landslip at first sight:rotfl:. Shame, as I actually quite liked the house, but no chance...

So bought a house that turned out to have one boundary dispute (currently halfway to solving) and might possibly, potentially, be better value-for-money than I thought somewhere along the line once that has been sorted out and the neighbours might be kicking themselves for bringing that fact to my attention...

Habibiboo

:wave:

I think it's possible that the issue of keys can sometimes be down to experience the vendors have had in the past.

We trusted estate agents with keys on the sale of our home once although we also accommodated viewings when we were at home.

The person who then put in an offer turned out to be someone who worked in their offices as a weekend agent. He demanded to be able to move in quickly so they pulled out all the stops to find us a suitable place for our own purchase, so of course we ended up going ahead with one which was on their books. However, just on exchange, their guy pulled out of the purchase on ours ... but they insisted that we should go ahead with our own purchase through them! Seriously, they just couldn't seem to understand that we needed the sale to complete the purchase! They then got really angry with us for having to pull out from the house we were buying (as it turns out those vendors were also buying through them). We found out that when they spoke to other parties' solicitors they blamed us for the breakdown of the chain, even though we'd have happily proceeded if their guy hadn't pulled out.

This was the point at which we decided to remarket our property through a different agent, so we asked for our keys back and it was discovered that they were 'lost'. It took them another four weeks to arrange for a locksmith to come and change the locks for us, during which time we had to arrange for someone always to be at home in case something underhand was afoot!

I've never let agents have keys since but have always tried to arrange viewings to the prospective buyers' convenience. House buying / selling is kerfuffle enough, without problems getting in the front door! I feel for you OP but I do understand why some vendors might be reluctant to hand over keys! Hope you get to see it soon.

jc808

happens a lot when horrible old bats sell up

TwistedPsycho

I am going through the problems on the other side of the buying process.

We have had offer accepted, the vendor seemed keen to move and the EA assured that a good solicitor was in place... their in-house company (I could hear myself grown at that point).

Since then the vendor's lodgers obstructed the HomeBuyer survey, the venor refused to let us see 3 out of 4 bedrooms due to "people sleeping in there" and is now making us wait over a week to do a pre-exchange inspection....

(of course, the EA has a key but for some reason they can not accompany us for it)

moneypenny1_2

Yes we had this problem! I think it's quite common actually. We had an intractable vendor. Turned out she was being made to move to a retirement village by her children so didn't really want to sell. She delayed the sale by demanding a ridiculous asking price and refusing all reasonable offers. So just because a house is advertised, doesn't mean it's really for sale!