Are Agents Allowed To Lie About Viewings

ashe

January is a busy time for house sales as everyone puts it off until after Christmas. Could well just be a rush they are getting.

Personally I'd rather do the viewings myself because I know the property better than they do and can answer questions directly. I gave a brief tour of each room, key info and a summary of the area, answered any questions and then gave them time to walk around and look in their own time.

Worked much better than getting a raft of questions after each viewing.

esault

davidmcn wrote: »

In these days of webcams etc, it would seem hazardous for agents to lie about viewings which aren't happening at all. If you want to meet these viewers yourselves then why not just stay in?

We do try to do the occasional viewing and have stayed in some times but estate agents tell us that "it puts them off" .

TN1984 wrote: »

Before we had an offer on our property, we had 6 viewers, which I know all turned up as we were there for each viewing. Only 2 of those viewers provided any feedback to the agents, so I wouldn't assume no feedback equals no viewing. A lot of people don't do it, perhaps as it was just wasn't right for them and they don't want to have that conversation.

you have a point,

robatwork wrote: »

No more than they lie about anything else.

:rotfl:

googler wrote: »

Are viewers allowed to lie to agents?

you have a point

PasturesNew wrote: »

They might; they might not. It could be an agent who makes a 'viewing' at yours so he can meet a mate for a burger up the road.... who knows.
The only way you'll know is if you monitor the property, bug it, or set up a camera, or, get a neighbour to look out the window and report back what they see.

Our next door neighbours are old and are in a lot, so they usually come round and tell us :A

AdrianC wrote: »

So who's doing these viewings? Actors...?
Or are you thinking they're simply lying and nobody's viewing? Wouldn't that be a rather substantial risk of being caught?
Occam's Razor says that it's simply that now Xmas and NY are out the way, people are starting to look again...

Like noone is viewing the property. yes you have a point, maybe being paranoid. as it has happened once before definitely, as we stayed in for it to happen and noone turned up!

DCFC79 wrote: »

Just set up a camera or your phone to record just before you go out/just before the time for the viewings.

might try doing this

lookstraightahead wrote: »

House buying and selling is just one big long set of lies. Like a story written by the brothers Grimm.

couldnt have put it any better myself!

Spriggan wrote: »

When I was flat hunting we probably ended up seeing about 50 places and I gave feedback on a very small fraction of those. It becomes exhausting to have endless phone calls saying ‘no, just not what we’re looking for’. I realise that can be frustrating for sellers, but I found I rarely had anything constructive to say.

thanks!

kinger101 wrote: »

It's possible they're trying to funnel lots of viewers whom the property is not suitable for. When I was searching, I'd regular get phone calls about properties which matched none of my criteria, and would repeatedly have to tell them "don't call me, I'll call you".
Regardless, hardly anyone leaves feedback.

yeah, sounds like something our estate agents would do

ashe wrote: »

January is a busy time for house sales as everyone puts it off until after Christmas. Could well just be a rush they are getting.
Personally I'd rather do the viewings myself because I know the property better than they do and can answer questions directly. I gave a brief tour of each room, key info and a summary of the area, answered any questions and then gave them time to walk around and look in their own time.
Worked much better than getting a raft of questions after each viewing.

we have done a couple before, and have sat in whilst they do the viewing. sometimes we dont have the time, as we are out quite a lot anyway.

esault

Thank you everyone for the replies!

our estate agents are pretty rubbish, it has happened once before when we had a fake viewing. we were in when it was supposed to happen and nobody turned up all day!

anyway thank you for the replies! Going to switch agents now!!!!!

markin

I guess even with googl street people probably still take one look at a street/house and drive on past, it would be to easy to set up a webcam to record

Taiko

I hid an old mobile with a voice recorder set up when my house was on the market previously, as I didn't feel my agents were doing a great job and wanted to see what was happening.

They did get me an offer, but only after telling the viewers I was dropping the price significantly. I hadn't agreed this prior to viewing and, thanks to an unexpected change between listing and the viewing, was going to terminate if I didn't get an asking price offer anyway due to my job moving office, thus making the reason for the move redundant.

I declined the offer, and the agents requests to lower.

tobywilsit

Question is : are they special agents. ?