No shows and cancellations

flyingv

I had a supposedly 'very interested and serious buyer' cancel her second viewing three times all less than an hour before the appointment time, twice due to work commitments and the third time due to her having to self-isolate for 14 days.  It was annoying as I'd moved work commitments around to accommodate her, but as this is my first time selling I guess it's par for the course.

theartfullodger

Every business has wasted time & costs.  Deal with it, surely you knew this was likely to happen to you?  If you didn't know, kinda worrying....

Best wishes to all

Crashy_Time

moneysavinghero said:

Crashy_Time said:

lillypoo said:

same happened here this week. one cancelled at 9 am for a 10.15 viewing. another rang up the night before and asked if it was worth him viewing as he can only afford 20 grand under asking price. 

Many people phone in sick to work with 20 minutes notice, 1.15 hrs notice to a total stranger is pretty good IMO, as is being open about a small price drop needed, much better than the seller getting their hopes up showing somebody round then getting radio silence when asking for "feedback" later.

Most people phone in sick to work with only 20 mins notice (or less) because otherwise there would be no one in the office to take the call.

You have lost me a bit on that one, do you mean something to do with WFH?

Coopsy85

I’ve had the same here, one was booked for 9am on a Monday morning, as if Monday’s aren’t hard enough, cue running round getting ready for the school run and making sure everything is ready for the viewing, removing dogs and their paraphernalia, loading kids in the car .... and then cancelled at 8:45! 🤬 That was the worst, but others have cancelled and one was a no show. 

lookstraightahead

Human behaviour I'm afraid. Works both ways too, when you are desperate to view a property but no one can show you round for days, or when an agent puts you on hold because there is a different potential buyer. Or the vendors remove the house from the market. It's really a business deal and there's nowt like folk 

Hannimal

I was viewing in bristol and you kind of had to book asap for popular areas. Sometimes you then realised after booking that you wouldn't be buying it. I cancelled on one place because of that, on another because I had my offer accepted. I viewed 12 places. So that means out of 14 bookings I cancelled 2, even though I was very seriously looking to buy a property. I would try to not take it too personally. Had they shown up, they wouldn't have offered on the house.

Hannimal

Crashy_Time said:

moneysavinghero said:

Crashy_Time said:

lillypoo said:

same happened here this week. one cancelled at 9 am for a 10.15 viewing. another rang up the night before and asked if it was worth him viewing as he can only afford 20 grand under asking price. 

Many people phone in sick to work with 20 minutes notice, 1.15 hrs notice to a total stranger is pretty good IMO, as is being open about a small price drop needed, much better than the seller getting their hopes up showing somebody round then getting radio silence when asking for "feedback" later.

Most people phone in sick to work with only 20 mins notice (or less) because otherwise there would be no one in the office to take the call.

You have lost me a bit on that one, do you mean something to do with WFH?

If I phone into work that I am sick, I cannot do that until after 9am as no one is in the office. That means that I can only call in sick after work has already started. 

AdrianC

youth_leader said:

It is really frustrating, I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and missed some fun times with friends because of viewings and when they didn't turn up did take it too personally.

If it's on the market, surely you're keeping it in a state where it's going to be very quickly ready for a viewing...? Why do you need to "clean and clean and clean"?

Should you even be having "fun times with friends" in the pandemic...?

eddddy

A few EAs have said to me - never rearrange anything else to accommodate viewings...
....because at least a few will cancel, and you'll get frustrated and angry.


On the topic of EAs 'pressurising' people to view properties they seem less interested in - it's a difficult balance.  EAs say that people often initially specify the types of properties they are interested in, but eventually end-up buying something very different.

So a buyer might not expect to like your type of property, but once an EA has 'pressured' them into viewing, they decide they do like it. Maybe you're happy to do lots of viewings, hoping that will happen - or maybe you don't really believe that will happen, and would prefer to do fewer viewings. 

Eilidh1970

Sometimes there can be a lack of communication as well. We asked one EA a question which they had to check with the seller, and which would determine whether or not the place was suitable for us to view. The EA insisted we choose a provisional viewing time, on the understanding that the viewing would go ahead when they came back to us with the seller's answer. They never called back, so we didn't view, and about a fortnight later they called asking for 'feedback'.