Agent offered 10 minutes for house viewing!

Adsta

I had a similar one like this when I was house hunting in March. Agent offered a 15min viewing, had 4 badly taken pictures on the site. But I knew the area and house layout roughly. 

Managed to get a viewing and had a look, within 5 mins I just went nope and left lol. Place needed tons of work, as soon as I saw cork tiling all up the staircase (3 floor house) thats when I said I'm out.

The agent tried giving me the gaff of it will sell quickly and at asking, if you should consider quickly etc. I told him there is no chance that will sell at asking, it was a good 30-40k over priced. Lo and behold it's still on the market  

Greymug

pokusmaximus said:

has anyone else been offered/subjected to such short viewing times?

Yes, nowadays this is standard practice.

When I sold my property, viewers had a 15 minutes slot. If they were 5 minutes late...that was their slot becoming 10 minutes. If they wanted to see the property for longer they were welcome to book a second viewing.

Having said that, it's easier in Scotland because the survey/home report is done by the seller prior to putting the property on the market so potential buyers already have a good idea about the state of the property and what to look for/ask about.

JS21

All of the viewings we're doing are 10-15 mins slots and if we like the property, we book a second viewing if we can. The only viewings that have lasted longer are when done by the vendor - one lasted for 40 mins as they talked through all of the renovations and updates they'd made to the property over the last five years! There's been a few properties we viewed where the next person has been waiting outside for the appointment after ours but we've definitely seen a slow down in properties coming onto the market where we're looking, so maybe that's part of the reason there's queues!

lookstraightahead

Vendor puts house on market. Agent designs queuing system to make house look popular. Buyers panic and offer over value. Vendor chooses highest bid, along with their own terms of when they will feel comfortable moving out. (rubbing hands thinking that was easy). Buyer gets valuation which, surprise surprise, is "under" valued. Buyer negotiates. Vendor has already psychologically spent the extra money on a jacuzzi. Vendor says no chance. Buyer leaves. Vendor tries to sell to next person without success. House goes back on market, often at reduced price. Loads of time wasted.

ok so this might not be happening that much, but it will do soon. I have to say none of this happened with our recent house purchase as no one wanted to play. We got ours for 10% below so valuation was quickly done and everyone, well, moved! And we're in a supposedly 'red hot' area.