Vendor present at the viewing

Justonemorecupoftea

I've been present for all of the viewings on my house during the week - viewings are often arranged at very short notice and I'm unable to re-arrange my work schedule at such short notice to leave the house for a 30 minute period for the sake of a 5 minute look around the office I'm in (rearranging calls vs stepping out for a couple of mins)

I'm in the office when they view the rest of the house then stand in another room for 5 mins.  I'm then available to answer any questions.

On weekends we leave the house for the time.

We've had 3 offers all from people who viewed when I was present, so clearly not an issue for lots of people.

We viewed 5 houses, 3 were empty, 1 the vendors were there and 1 the vendor did the viewing (precisely so they could open doors and minimise people within the house due to covid).

I think you are massively overreacting.

Irishpearce26

I guess as people are working from home there is a greater possibility of this happening. However could they have gone for a 20 minute walk? Unless it wasn't possible, don't focus on that focus on the house potential.

[Deleted User]

You're being unreasonable. If he's working from home, he can't just leave. Maybe he didn't want to be there either and is having to put up with people staring at him all day when he's trying to work because he needs to sell. Maybe he can't do the viewings himself because he's working or because he has social anxiety.

If you had no interest just because the vendor looked at you, you shouldn't have finished the viewing because you were wasting everyone's time. The fact that you did finish the viewing "in case the place was nice" suggests that the vendor looking at you wasn't actually the dealbreaker you claimed it was.

cymruchris

As it appears to be something you feel very strongly about, and although the majority (me included) think it's a bit unreasonable - going forwards, rather than dwelling on this - just ensure you make it clear to any future viewing EA that you want the property empty during your inspection. No if's no but's. Then it'll not happen again. 

gingercordial

Are you 100% sure it was the owner, not a tenant (they might be lying to you about it being owner-occupied, it happens) who was either uninterested in helping the sale along or actively not wanting it to happen?

Also these days I work from home most of the time.  I would not be comfortable leaving my workstation and confidential paperwork unattended.

Pok3mon

If you have viewed 40+ properties I feel the vendor being there is not the issue.

[Deleted User]

In our area this is perfectly normal. However, I understand that maybe in a small environment either EA or vendor might be better.

Are you a first time buyer? I'm just wondering because I think when you've tried to sell a property you understand that it's not easy to completely change every element of your life (especially work) to accomodate viewings and working from home makes this more so.

The big point is that you've dismissed this property because of that and given you've dismissed 40+ other properties I think perhaps you need to be a little more realistic / may be dismissing things for the wrong reason. There are often inconveniences that you have to look past in a viewing.

Perhaps it would have been better to say to the EA nicely that you find it particularly difficult to really get a feel for a small property when the vendor is present as well and would there be a convenient time you could pop back with just the EA (at the weekend for example).

I think telling the EA that you dismissed the property solely for that reason is the over-reaction part / unreasonable part in my eyes.

SallyCinnamon

When we were selling, both working from home and with my 12 year old remote learning at jome as well, we said to the EA that we could only accommodate weekend viewings. Potentially a Thursday at a push as it's my non working day and my work calendar is the busiest.

We still had numerous requests to accommodate vendors wishing to view during the week, didn't want to view on a weekend etc. In normal times, we'd be in the office in the week and no problem but not all buyers seem to appreciate the difficulties at the moment. I felt awful saying no, but the alternative would have been to stay there and keep working 

RoisinDubh_2

swingaloo2 said:

Try to think of the 40+ people who have been inconvenienced by having you look round during the pandemic. 

You really are making too much of a fuss about it, yes you found it a little annoying that the vendor was there but you are potentially going to hand over a lot of money so you have every right to ask as many questions of the vendor or the agent as you wish.  

Inconvenienced??? They put their flat on the market! Nobody forced them to!

I think the buyer should the one who is accommodated when handing over lots of money, not the other way around! I understand that people are working from home now but I think if someone has gone to the trouble of going to view your property, you should really find a way to pop out for 15 minutes, or at the very least, let them know you'll be there and let them decide if they want to do it with the vendor present.

RoisinDubh_2

Justonemorecupoftea said:

I've been present for all of the viewings on my house during the week - viewings are often arranged at very short notice and I'm unable to re-arrange my work schedule at such short notice to leave the house for a 30 minute period for the sake of a 5 minute look around the office I'm in (rearranging calls vs stepping out for a couple of mins)

I'm in the office when they view the rest of the house then stand in another room for 5 mins.  I'm then available to answer any questions.

On weekends we leave the house for the time.

We've had 3 offers all from people who viewed when I was present, so clearly not an issue for lots of people.

We viewed 5 houses, 3 were empty, 1 the vendors were there and 1 the vendor did the viewing (precisely so they could open doors and minimise people within the house due to covid).

I think you are massively overreacting.

Right, so you stayed well away for most of the viewing. Hardly the same as trying to view a one-bed flat while someone is working in the middle of the main bit of living space and blocking the only window, is it?