Why do we get all the strange viewers

Slinky

My friend had somebody view her house, seemed to go really well and they were there for quite a while making all the right noises.  Feedback to the agent was it looked nothing like the details online. Turned out they were viewing a different property to the one they thought they were viewing.......

ETA reminds me, many many moons ago when I worked briefly as an estate agent, we showed several people round a particular property which had been on the books before I started working there. Eventually somebody pointed out that the single photo on the details was of the house next door...... The vendor had seen and signed of the details, and it had appeared in the paper several times. Although the same style, there were quite a few differences between them externally.

in_my_wellies

When I was selling my mum's flat a viewer said he wasn't interested in the flat but he would like to buy all the contents. The furniture, kitchen equipment and ornaments - everything.  I later found out he had bought the identical flat upstairs, above my mothers (£10,000 cheaper). He was divorcing and needed everything to start again and as he hadn't got a clue about decor or cooking it was a simple solution. 

amandacat

I think all of these people are the same ones who pop up when you try and sell or give something away on Facebook marketplace. But you could have a whole other thread on that :-D 

Tippytoes

You don't get all the odd viewers!  People are just odd in general.  The last time I sold a property, I insisted on doing all the viewings myself.  I'm glad I did because it wasn't too difficult to suss people out AND catch out the estate agents.  I could tell at a glance those who were interested, those who were day trippers (they have to be the worst) and those who, well, I don't know what they were doing there.  It also became evident that what viewers had told the agent about their position was untrue - or was it what the agent told me?  I knew immediately who would buy my property.  Queer, isn't it?

Coopsy85

Love these stories, a little bit of humour to get us through the stress. 

I’ve found EAs say sometimes say the strangest things, we had one who tried to sell the side entrance by telling us it was great if you have friends with kids, they can use the side and won’t have to go in the house .... after we told her we had kids ourselves, the same EA when viewing the kitchen, thought it important to show us how the oven opened and point out the radiator which was just a bog standard one. 

Chloe901

We're just buying our first house so don't have any experience of strange viewers, but boy did we have some strange vendors and agents when we were looking! One agent (purple bricks, admittedly) showed us into the house and as we entered each room just said 'kitchen' or 'living room' etc. - no sales pitch, no information about the house and couldn't answer any of our questions. At another house we were shown around by the vendor who was a recently divorced man (he told us all about it, very sad). He had laundry - exclusively pants and boxers - on a drying rack in the middle of the kitchen when we arrived! He either didn't want to sell, or was unfailingly honest, because he was telling us how noisy it was there, how the house was too small really, how he didn't like the garden etc. We also viewed a very nice house with an estate agent who at the end of the viewing gave us his 'business card' for some kind of MLM pyramid scheme!!

Davesnave

On the subject of weird deluded vendors, here's a post I made some years ago when I had time to write more drivel than I do now:

 Just before the recession bit, we viewed a farm property in the depths of the Welsh countryside where an odd discrepancy between the photos on Rightmove and the price existed, but we thought it might have hidden charms.
We soon knew it wasn't a goer. The old house needed a lot doing, the land was too steep or boggy and there were various oddities of expenditure, like a brand new sauna building, sitting in the middle of a field and a huge shed on stilts in another.

“My brother lived in that for a couple of years,” the male owner commented. “He wanted it high up ‘cos of the rats.”

“Er, why is there a trap door in the floor?”  One of us asked.

 “In case he had a fire.”

The sauna?

"We're descended from Vikings on my side," said the bloke. He looked like one, though Vikings on crutches with streaming colds were probably quite rare. His wife looked more Anglo Saxon, but she also had a cold.... and a limp. They were both unable to walk far to show us around, but we could see the farm had gone to pot.
The entire downstairs floor the old house was covered in weirdly-shaped tiles in green & brown snot colours that looked like they'd come from Fungus the Bogeyman's front room. All around were strange symbols, pictures of witches, broomsticks, moons etc.
"I got a sort of witchy theme going," smiled the woman, lighting another fag, hacking and sneezing. I began to wonder about those tiles....
There were dogs & cats everywhere. I counted 8 dogs, mainly because they all jumped up on us with filthy paws. I just wanted to leave. Luckily, no one offered us tea.
Upstairs we didn't see the two teenagers' rooms properly. They were in there, scowling over the top of their screens and the hostility was palpable. It didn't matter; we'd lost interest long before.
Outside, as we drove away, nearly having the front sliced off the car by a quarry lorry at their dangerous exit, I turned to my wife and said, "Well, that was a complete waste of time, but very entertaining. Those poor, deluded numpties!"

The property sold within another week or so, not far off the guide price of £420k.

Scotbot

Chloe901 said:

 At another house we were shown around by the vendor who was a recently divorced man (he told us all about it, very sad). He had laundry - exclusively pants and boxers - on a drying rack in the middle of the kitchen when we arrived! He either didn't want to sell, or was unfailingly honest, because he was telling us how noisy it was there, how the house was too small really, how he didn't like the garden etc

No he didn't want to sell and was doing his best not to!!! Doubtless his ex was forcing the sale ,I imagine she would have been fuming

uralmaid

I am so glad I put up my original post.  Some of the experiences you have all had are very funny too.  I worked as an estate agent for 20 years and although I came across some strange things it seems that some people are still very odd. Keep them coming - it offers light relief in these strange times.

atarisrocks

We went to a vendor house where there were a few red flags:

 First, the estate agent called to say we cannot see the annex as the woman living there has fallen out with the vendor ( no mention of there being a tenant before this)

 We arrive and there are car parts everywhere and the vendor wanted to talk about them but in the same manner, a small child wants to tell you about their toys which made us believe he might be on something even though it was 10 am

 He then tells us about how he doesn’t use some rooms as back in March he was renting a room to a doctor but kicked him out due to Covid and then moves straight on to tell us about a curry house 60 miles away that he goes to.

 We go upstairs and he shows us the bedroom and proceeds to stand on the beds while telling us which rooms he has slept in and that now he sleeps in the room that had just a bed frame.

 More talk about how he making loads of money renting various rooms to people even though he knows we are looking to buy a home for ourselves not to rent out and more talk about curry houses this time 100 miles away.

 He then shows us the garage and tells us he has a car worth £1.4m but it not in this garage and seems annoyed neither of us knew anything about classic cars.

 When we left the neighbour shout out the window to meet her at her door where she tells me the vendor is a nasty man and is making the very ill woman who lives in the annex leave.

 30 minutes later we get a call from the estate agent saying that the tenant is kicking off and saying it is her home and will be refusing to leave.