What questions to ask Estate Agent about viewers?

lookstraightahead

Snookie12cat said:

lookstraightahead said:

How would a buyer even know if they are serious about your house? They might hate it when they see it, or might think it's dramatically overpriced, or they might not think you are interested in moving out as quickly as possible.

ehat is it about your house that makes you think everyone will come away feeling they want to buy it? I've viewed houses where the photos that the vendor had used are really not what things look like, and as soon as you walk in, you know it's not fit you. Perhaps what they should do is ask buyers for blatant honesty instead. Like the photos don't show the house in it's true light, etc.

There are an awful lot of vendors who definitely aren't serious about selling. They want to set the terms 'l won't move out unless I find exactly what I'm looking for'.

I was a very serious buyer, but I found a lot of vendors not serious at all, and they're still there trying to move,

best thing you can do is let people view!!

I don't think vendors are not serious. I think the problem is they can't view on some occasions or then offer unless they have sold their house. 
This means people want to move and of course they want to move to their dream house but they can't possibly attempt this until they have a buyer.
Then they have to waste the buyers time while they wait for their dream house which needs to come up in one or two months...

The system is stupid. I am really serious about moving and by pure chance a perfect house in the right area came up at the right time. Nothing else suitable has come up in the last 6 months. If I hadn't got it, I would have lost several buyers while I waited.

I agree the system is stupid. 

However, there's a distinct lack of vendors who will not move or put themselves out for anyone, or believe their house is worth more than it is (so a potential buyer loses a house on valuation), or they won't break the chain. There are some buyers who categorically will only move to one house in one area, yet expect buyers to wait around for ever.

I will do anything to get a house sold, reducing the price, renting etc. This is what I mean by serious. Too many vendor "window shoppers" who are after one particular type of buyer.

the system of course doesn't make sense because as you say a vendor has to become a buyer (unless they break the chain).

overall there are too many people in this country who are too comfortable to buy or sell, unless they find their forever home (whatever this means, as it's just a house)

Gavin83

trailingspouse said:

Why wouldn't you want all and everyone who was even slightly interested in your property to view it? It's the single biggest chunk of money anyone will ever give to you. The more the merrier say I!!

Yes, there are time wasters - but proceedable buyers can change their minds.

And sometimes viewers are too polite - when asked if they like the property they'll say they're not quite ready to buy when what they actually mean is the house stunk of cigarette smoke and dog and they couldn't get to see one of the bedrooms because the adult daughter was still asleep at 10 in the morning (I speak from experience...)

Well how many viewings would you be willing to entertain? When you’ve got 50+ people wanting to view your house (as was happening round here) I doubt the vendor nor the EA really want that many so it makes sense to whittle them down a bit.

Saying that I do agree it’s difficult to tell who is serious and who isn’t. Just because someone views and doesn’t offer it doesn’t mean they aren’t serious, maybe they just didn’t like your house. Most of the houses we viewed we didn’t offer on either because there was something obviously wrong with it, we just didn’t get the wow factor or it hadn’t hit the market yet so no pictures and we were going in a bit blind.

We found a lot of property listings were deceptive. Either there was a glaringly obvious issue with it that hasn’t been mentioned in any way, the pictures weren’t a true representation or the listing outright lied. We viewed two houses for example that were listed as having parking when none existed.

youth_leader

My estate agents tried their best to screen my viewers. 

I had an offer from a cash buyer living in rented - when he had to prove his funds he was living in, and marketing a £750K house.  He withdrew. 

My second cash buyer was ducking and diving for three weeks before admitting his ex wife in Sweden had the cash, and he couldn't get any of it.  I'd sold lots of large furniture for a song because I thought the second cash buyer would proceed, and everyone said he'd want to 'complete quickly'.  Take everything with a pinch of salt.  

ccbrowning

My estate agent was very explicit about potential buyers. FTB, status in a chain, etc. When we had multiple offers in the same range they advised which ones seemed the most serious.

powerful_Rogue

We went to view a house without ours being on the market. Soon as we saw it we loved it. Put ours up for sale and then remortgaged it to a Let to Buy - which released the deposit for us to buy the house before we had even sold ours. So don't rule people out, or you might miss out!

MysteryMe

I think a lot depends on the quality of the EA.  A few pertinent questions should be able to wheedle out most of the fantasists.  I would not automatically discount someone from viewing who had not yet put their property on the market, it's a bit chicken and egg and also depends on the local housing market.  You would expect such a viewer to focus on properties that had some commonality between them so again this is where an experienced EA comes into play assessing who is serious about wanting to move/buy or not.  I don't mean buying your house, how can they possibly know without viewing, just buying generally  When it came to assessing offers to proceed with, that's when the status of the buyer would come more into play.

lookstraightahead

"You, you and you are worthy of viewing my castle ... I know all about you and you're circumstances. However, I'm not prepared to put myself out for ten minutes for you and you. Even if it means throwing away a perfect opportunity"

I really can't wait for the market to return to some sort of normality where vendors don't see their properties as more than average.

peterhjohnson

Okey00001 said:

It is not about the type but time wasters! Please read my email, I have had so many in the past and wondered why the agent ever sent them to my house.

Many years ago when I was an FTB, I got agents ringing me up and urging my to view "fantastic" houses that were unsuitable but in those days, you had to wait for the post to deliver particulars - there was no website you could preview on

lookstraightahead

peterhjohnson said:

Okey00001 said:

It is not about the type but time wasters! Please read my email, I have had so many in the past and wondered why the agent ever sent them to my house.

Many years ago when I was an FTB, I got agents ringing me up and urging my to view "fantastic" houses that were unsuitable but in those days, you had to wait for the post to deliver particulars - there was no website you could preview on

I've also viewed "fantastic" properties that were anything but. If agents continue to promote like that it is the vendor/EA who is the timewaster.

You don't get a feel for a property until you see it (naturally). I remember years ago where the kitchen was quite literally in a cupboard, and more recently less obvious things that the vendor doesn't want to mention, like the road being a rat run, or leaving info out.

op, you might want to ask the EA if they're over enthusiastic about your property when marketing it.

Skiddaw1

lookstraightahead said:

"You, you and you are worthy of viewing my castle ... I know all about you and you're circumstances. However, I'm not prepared to put myself out for ten minutes for you and you. Even if it means throwing away a perfect opportunity"

I really can't wait for the market to return to some sort of normality where vendors don't see their properties as more than average.

Hmmmm..... thing is, it isn't just putting yourself out for ten minutes is it? If you're really taking viewings seriously even if you're keeping the house in a state where a sudden or unexpected viewing isn't too much of a problem (which can be stressful in itself) there's a significant amount of prep involved (not to mention absenting yourself if the EA is conducting the viewing). I'm really not one for insisting on a strict vetting system but by the same token we found viewers who were obviously tyre-kickers irritating. I agree with you about the market hopefully returning to some sort of normality however.