Why do we get all the strange viewers

Misslayed

I once went to view a house with a splendid sea view, which was high on my wish list. I was invited to wait in the living room, as the EA was in the garden with a previous viewer. I was looking at the decor in wonder - one lime green wall, one purple, one red and one pink (all gloss) - when I spotted the vivarium under the stairs, full of slithery things (I can't even type the word). I fled outside before the panic attack began, apologised profusely to the EA that I couldn't possibly view the property because of IT. "Hmm", he said, "I don't think you'd like what's upstairs then". I didn't ask! 

olgadapolga

Misslayed said:

I once went to view a house with a splendid sea view, which was high on my wish list. I was invited to wait in the living room, as the EA was in the garden with a previous viewer. I was looking at the decor in wonder - one lime green wall, one purple, one red and one pink (all gloss) - when I spotted the vivarium under the stairs, full of slithery things (I can't even type the word). I fled outside before the panic attack began, apologised profusely to the EA that I couldn't possibly view the property because of IT. "Hmm", he said, "I don't think you'd like what's upstairs then". I didn't ask! 

I once saw a house with a sea "view". It was the tiniest bit of sea imaginable. The worst thing was, it wasn't until we got there, having travelled almost two hundred miles, that the estate agent told us that the vendors were very old and that one was in bed, terminally ill and expected to leave this mortal earth at any time! 

It was awful, Iust wanted to leave but we'd travelled for hours. The house was nothing like the photos and stank of damp. 

We drove away rather quickly from that one.

freesha

pinkshoes said:

Well I suppose they at least didn't request to bury a dead dog in the grounds... 

Literally the first thing I was going to ask after reading the OP

pumas

I once saw a house with a sea "view". It was the tiniest bit of sea imaginable. The worst thing was, it wasn't until 

I'm quite pleased with my seaview! If only they'd prune the trees.

FTB_Help

Chloe901 said:

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!!

God purple bricks are terrible! The one im purchasing from purplebricks just made me feel so uncomfortable, she walked us in, she stood back and said...nothing! So we started looking round the living room, she stepped closer to us and just hovered around us and watched us and followed us around the living room, we'd ask questions and she'd answer, so we just led ourselves around the house whilst she hovered around us, actually she did say the bathroom "was a good size" when we went in, but other than that talk was only instigated by ourselves. Then at then end we asked about offers and why they're selling etc, she then told us the minimum the vendor was expecting to receive- which we appreciate actually!

MaxJones

We live in strange times

jenni_fer

This is great thread for some light relief!

I can remember viewing a couple of potential investment properties with my parents when I was a teenager and being highly embarrassed by the toolbox my father insisted on taking round with him.
That was until the door in one of the bedrooms closed on us and wouldn't open, leaving us and the estate agent locked inside...suddenly that toolbox was invaluable!

cosh25

I viewed a number of properties at the start of the year. One vendor was a single middle aged man, he showed me into the kitchen where he had an indoor washing line going from one wall to the other which had various coloured leather undergarments hanging. It was a hoping the floor opens up and swallows me moment - he didn’t seem to care.

Another was a couple who had split up, but both wanted to do the viewings. It was 20 minutes of them arguing and one calling the other one everytime one of them left the room. One of them made it quite clear they had pretty much no intention of selling and were going to make the process as difficult as possible for the other - how lovely!

newsgroupmonkey_

RE: The slippers one. Is that weird?

My folks would definitely do that (and although they're now in their 70s, my Mum has always carried slippers around - she wears them in the car if she's the passenger. If she was visiting someone's home, she'd definitely have them with her.

As for carrying around a clipboard, definitely something we would do. If we were looking at lots of properties, I'd like a checklist so we can compare at the end.

Suseka97

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

RE: The slippers one. Is that weird?

My folks would definitely do that (and although they're now in their 70s, my Mum has always carried slippers around - she wears them in the car if she's the passenger. If she was visiting someone's home, she'd definitely have them with her.

As for carrying around a clipboard, definitely something we would do. If we were looking at lots of properties, I'd like a checklist so we can compare at the end.

It wasn't that they brought along slippers, nor the fact they carried a clipboard (and I didn't think either was weird TBH).  What I found odd and then amusing, was that our house is a large 4-bedroomed property with a large garden etc, and yet they spent all of 10 mins (if that) looking around, asked no questions and were heading down the driveway at speed - shouting back as they went 'cheery-bye....'.  Also when the EA called for feedback, they were very curt and simply said 'disappointing' without any elaboration and put the phone down on the EA (even she thought that was a bit strange).   Maybe my judgement of them being time wasters, or serial property viewers was wrong - but I felt their behaviour was rather odd at the time   All other viewers took their time, asked questions and showed interest even if they didn't offer.