Hard to get house viewing in our hours

ktcoil

Hi We have booked in for a couple of house viewings as we are planning on buying our first home.


I work Monday to Friday, 8:30am till 5pm so its best for us to view late and also we have heard its good to visit houses late as you can get a true picture, as well as other times in the day.


all the houses are from different estate agents and one house we seen on right move we emailed the estate agents for a viewing about 5:50pm and they said can you make it any day earlier as we close at 5pm Monday-Friday, we emailed back saying how about 4:30pm and they never emailed back(guessing because we might be in the house till 5pm and they have to take the keys back!) and don't want to be late.


I thought with it being a sale they would offer visits later like others?

Grenage

It depends on the agent, or the vendor. You will often have to do some viewings during lunch, or taking some time out of work.

gycraig_2

Maybe the people in the house would show you around alone if they wanted to.

But sale or no sale most workers won't stay past the closing time

davidmcn

I find these experiences quite odd - I would expect most viewings to be evenings/weekends rather than 9-5, and estate agents/vendors to accommodate that. If they don't, their loss I guess.

moneyistooshorttomention

All viewings on my last house were in "office hours". I think its fair enough that EA's only work "office hours" too personally - as I'm someone that always refused to work outside those hours.

In my case - the EA was told that I simply didnt wish to do any viewings myself - and I literally never clapped eyes on any of the viewers. I recall that my EA asked if one or two viewers could be seen by me personally (ie because they wanted an evening/weekend viewing) - but it always transpired that that was down to the viewer themselves having a personal wish for that (ie rather than it being literally impossible for them to do an office hours viewing) and so I refused and they had to come in office hours.

But - if the house had been proving more difficult to sell than I'd bargained on - then maybe I'd have had to stretch a point and see the occasional one or two viewers personally (ie if they genuinely had a good reason for not being available in office hours for the standard run of viewings). I would have needed to have been told a very good reason by my EA as to why a particular viewer honestly literally couldnt make an office hours viewing (no matter how much they wanted to). If I'd been told a genuine/couldnt possibly reason for me having to be the one to see them - then I'd probably have stretched a point and done an evening/weekend viewing myself. If the request had been just because they had a personal wish for an evening/weekend viewing then I would have refused (as it would have been a "their personal wish against my personal wish" situation).

Moral of that being that - if you genuinely/literally find it impossible for either of you to do office hours viewings - then maybe the EA might be authorised to stretch a point and ask the home-owner if they would do the viewing. But if it is possible - but you just don't wish to - then you'll probably have to accept that viewings will be office hours only.

PasturesNew

It is an unfortunate fact of life that if you work it can be nigh on impossible to get viewings arranged. The agents don't care because somebody will be able to view and somebody will buy. The sellers don't really care so long as they get a buyer.

It's just one of those annoying facts of life ... that some agents are simply not really bothering too hard.

Been there, done that. They won't change just because a lot of people can't get time off work, at short notice, to drive a 40 mile round trip, to look at a house that turns out the be !!!!!!.

Slinky

I worked for a while as an EA. I stayed late for viewers, some of whom arrived late, some never showing up at all and not letting us know. One was a Policeman who turned up with mud on his shoes & trousers after chasing somebody across a field. He was an hour late but at least he bought the place I showed him!

A lot of EAs work 6 days a week, with a midweek day off and still some people expect you to be at their beck and call just because you're an EA.

davidmcn

Even if the person conducting the viewing is from the agents, rather than the vendor (and I realise there are regional variations in the usual practice), I wouldn't necessarily expect them to be someone with a 9-5 job back at the office - and many of the offices are open into the evenings these days (or at least have someone answering the phones) so they can obviously cope with flexible hours.

ktcoil

Yea this estate agents are only open Monday to Friday so we can't even go on a Saturday.

moneyistooshorttomention

ktcoil wrote: »

Yea this estate agents are only open Monday to Friday so we can't even go on a Saturday.

In that case - the EA is being rather unrealistic. I would expect traditional "shop hours" from an EA (ie 9-5.30 Monday to Saturday).

Perhaps you could slip a note through the door of any house that particularly takes your fancy as a genuinely possible purchase - to the effect that you are available to view/would like to view during Saturday 9am-5.30pm. Unfortunately the EA isn't open/conducting viewings on Saturday daytimes. Followed by suggesting to them that they might possibly see if a "way around" this can be found.

You leave it up to them as to what that "way around" might be. If I were the vendor my "way around" that I would have found would be to sack my EA and find one that worked Monday-Saturday standard hours instead. Other vendors might possibly be willing to do a viewing themselves (if you have a genuinely good reason as to why you cant make Monday-Friday daytimes - ie not just a personal preference).

AnotherJoe

^^^^^ What moneyistoshort..... said, contact the vendors directly with a polite note.

With one other thought, it may be that the vendors themselves consider that any buyer that isn't willing to take one day off work for viewings (could you coordinate several on one day?) as not being that serious?

Why is it you can't take a half or even a full days holiday to view ? It does strike me, thinking about it, as meaning you arent "that bovvered" about this particular house ?