How do people ever manage to book viewings??

victoriavictorious

Our house recently went under offer and we need to find a house to buy but not having much luck arranging viewings. In theory at least, we're in a good position as we don't need a mortgage and there is no chain below our buyer.
Yet we're finding it impossible to book a viewing and penetrate the layers of lazy, unprofessional, unreliable EAs (and possibly sellers) who don't seem to give a rat's whether they sell or not.

Attempts to book viewings so far:
HOUSE A - (my favourite and I'm gutted!) = SSTC 2 days ago, almost immediately after it went on the market but it's still on Rightmove, with no indication that it's even under offer. Agent said it 'takes time to mark them as sold.'
So how come our own agent managed to mark our house as sold on RM within 5 minutes of us accepting the offer?
HOUSE B - tried to book a viewing but told it had been taken off the market 3 months ago, yet it's still being advertised. It had received a full asking price offer but seller apparently never got back to the buyer as to whether they'd accepted it or not,, then took it off the market (yet there it still is!)
Agent promises to email details of another similar house 'now.' She does not send anything.
HOUSE C - a slightly quirky house with 'limited appeal' that has been on the market a couple of months. Yay, still available so I try to book a viewing. Agent says he'll contact seller and call back to confirm. He does not.
It will involve a 2 hour+ train journey, so it's not exactly up the road and needs to be planned.
If the agent was unable to contact the seller to arrange a viewing, he could at least have let us know that by the close of business - he has all our contact details. Doesn't exactly fill us with confidence for a smooth transaction further down the line!

Our own (online) agent has been fantastic and puts this lot to shame. Our viewers remarked on how efficient they were.
I'm perfectly polite & civilised when I call, so I can only think it's maybe because we won't be requiring their mortgages that we're getting such cr*p customer service?

betsie

Is it worth putting a note through house A's door if they have just accepted an offer. You may be in a better position and they might let you have a look round. The worst that can happen is you hear nothing.

victoriavictorious

betsie wrote: »

Is it worth putting a note through house A's door if they have just accepted an offer. You may be in a better position and they might let you have a look round. The worst that can happen is you hear nothing.

Oh, I'd love to, but a) I have no idea of the house number. It's a 'tucked away' house that isn't on Street view. And b) that's also 2-plus hours away so it would have to be a letter, If I knew the house no.:(

glentoran99

victoriavictorious wrote: »

Oh, I'd love to, but a) I have no idea of the house number. It's a 'tucked away' house that isn't on Street view. And b) that's also 2-plus hours away so it would have to be a letter, If I knew the house no.:(

Surely the house number is where you seen it advertised?

victoriavictorious

glentoran99 wrote: »

Surely the house number is where you seen it advertised?

No they don't mention it in the listing, only the street name. I'll try and find it on Zoopla.

victoriavictorious

...Well I found it and have composed a letter, but will ask them to keep us in mind should this sale not proceed, as I would feel bad for the original buyers. Also I would not feel confident that the same thing would not be done to me if someone else offered more further down the line.

Smodlet

Do you know anyone who lives in the area? Could they perhaps do a bit of recce for you and tell you the number? Would you consider calling several other EAs in House A's vicinity and telling them of your bad experience with one of their competitors? You might just come across one who knows of the house and lets slip the number. If these EAs are so useless (and I have no problem believing they are) is there a head office you can contact to try to get a fire lit under their lazy butts?

Failing all the above, if you are determined, I would plan a day out including a nice pub lunch and flipping well deliver the note myself. Depends how hard you want to work. OH and I once viewed seven houses in one day, not all in the same county. It required military planning but we were old hands by then. Not the funnest way to spend a day but needs must.

Good luck, though this might be one of those situations where you have to make your own.

ETA: Cross posted. Oh well.

JoJo1978

We conducted a long distance house hunt last year. If the places you're interested in are all in a similar area, start by putting aside your feelings on the profession and ring around all the local agents in that area, get on their books and explain what you're after. That should mean you get advance warning of properties about to come on the market before they hit Right Move etc.

We booked a couple of weekends away in the towns we were interested in, the first one to explore/"live" there and do a recce of the decent roads etc. The second trip we did intensive house viewings c. 6-10 a day. Once the local EAs realised this is how we were playing it they were actually really helpful, even working with each other to make sure we could get between appointments with different agents. We were cash buyers not requiring mortgage ssrvices either.

When I rang to enquire about listings the EAs gave me the house number/postcode. Sometimes I also found them on the titles of the floorplans on RM etc. So worth looking there. I hope your luck changes and that you get to the fun viewing bit...but try to find one before you get to house 40 like us!

Smodlet

We must have looked at close on a hundred. No kidding. It was ssshhh.

victoriavictorious

Thanks Smodlet and JoJo78.

We have 2 different counties to look in, each 2 hours away from where we live at the moment. We like both equally and don't mind which one we end up in - it's just a matter of which place comes up with the right house first!
The main problem at the moment is that there is little or nothing on the market to buy, (we had at least 20 houses bookmarked but they were all sold just before we went under offer, with nothing to replace them) and the very few houses we *have* found, have been in both towns (at opposite ends of the country!), it's just been impossible to arrange viewings for them.
We had indeed planned to spend a few days away viewing, but it would be a waste at the moment, as there's literally nothing to view any more, and it's so hard setting up even one viewing, let alone have them dovetail into each other with different agents.
We have in fact registered with the three agents mentioned in my original post (will have to try more) but tbh, not very confident that they'll bother getting in touch - one has already *not* followed through on a promise to email a property and the other has not called us back to confirm a viewing. They know we would be going there especially too.
We're also reluctant to get on the wrong side of the agents (at the moment at least), or we may never get to see anything!

Margot123

victoriavictorious wrote: »

Oh, I'd love to, but a) I have no idea of the house number. It's a 'tucked away' house that isn't on Street view. And b) that's also 2-plus hours away so it would have to be a letter, If I knew the house no.:(

What about Google Earth?
I've found you can have a good nosy round the whole property then, and see how it is overlooked (if at all).
Also shows changes over time. Perhaps a neighbour that likes adding more and more to their property, and things like that.