What are your worst or weirdest experiences from a vendor hosting the viewings?

AUDITOR

Many years ago, I and a number of colleagues were relocated to another part of the country by our employer. Initially, the employer paid for our hotel accommodation while we sought our own properties to buy or rent.

One of my colleagues was the wife of someone I had known in a previous job and we became quite good friends. Since her husband was still employed by a company in the area where we had relocated from and was not intending to move until his wife had found them a property, she and I accompanied each other on our house-hunting expeditions.

On one memorable occasion, my colleague and I were viewing a property that she had already seen once and liked and had asked me to go along for a second viewing as a "fresh pair of eyes" before she asked her husband to make the 400-mile round trip to see it himself.

The seller, an older lady, was of course happy that my colleague was showing an interest in the property. At the end of our look around the house, my colleague took me aside for a quick private conversation to get my opinion, after which she turned to to seller and said "I do like this house, but I need to come back once more when my husband comes up from home."

It was obvious that the seller had assumed that I was said husband because the look on her face was a mixture of puzzlement, disapproval and embarrassment.

My colleague, her husband and I had a good laugh about it afterwards.

AlexMac

Greenhouse full of Ganja...

(No, I didn't buy it... or the house!)

GaleSF63

eddddy said:

Well... this wasn't quite a vendor hosted viewing...

But I was standing in a flowerbed with my face pressed up against a window, looking inside a gloomy empty house that was for sale, when a next door neighbour came out marching towards me...

I thought she was going to tell me off for trespassing, and standing in her neighbour's flower bed, etc, etc.  I hadn't even checked with the estate agent that it was OK for me to go to the property.

But instead, she explained to me that her house was exactly the same size and layout, so did I want to look around her house to get a feel for the layout and room sizes etc.

So I spent half an hour with a hosted viewing the neighbour's house instead.



(I don't think she had a hidden agenda, like wanting me to buy her house.  I think it was more a combination of loneliness, and enjoying pretending to be an estate agent.

Or maybe I'd had a lucky escape and all the other people she'd caught standing in her neighbour's flower bed were tied up in her cellar.)

Maybe she thought you looked like a suitable neighbour and wanted to encourage you.

GaleSF63

IrisB said:

Everyone should take a look at the horrifically hilarious website “Terrible Real Estate Photos”:

https://terriblerealestateagentphotos.com/

(But not while drinking a hot coffee, as you might end up blowing it out your nose in hysterics!)

The "New "Have a look at this" thread" can out-do this site!

SlinkyWeevil

Most recently we viewed two small bungalows in the rural village we currently rent in. 

Bungalow 1 was nothing particularly exciting apart from being listed as having “parking for several vehicles” at the side of the house and a huge garden at the back.  Fab.  When we arrived, the first words from the agent’s mouth; “this land isn’t actually yours, it’s owned by the council but the vendor has been parking here for years.  In fact if I was the council, I’d probably sell the land off to you cheap  if you wanted.  Oh and the land at the back is technically not owned by anyone, but it’s also not yours.  The neighbours look after the section behind their house and after a while it becomes theirs, but I can’t remember exactly how that works. So you could do that.”

Bungalow 2 - Empty property after elderly owner went into a care home.  Agent who shows us round turns up late and drops keys on the drive on the walk down and mutters “**** sake” as he bends down to pick them up.  We introduce ourselves by name and he says “right.”  We walk into the house to be greeted with a beautiful array of slug and snail trails all over the kitchen carpet(!).  Agent just sort of vaguely gestures around the room like he doesn’t know what day it is, and we then follow him down a hallway clad wall to ceiling in wood panels to arrive in the “sunroom”.  Turns out that both bedrooms come off this sunroom by way of sliding patio doors, and the sunroom itself is only about 4ft in width with a collapsing ceiling and the owner has the washing machine / dryer in there and an armchair.  The icing on the cake was when we asked to see the garden, the agent tugs and tugs on the sliding patio door and eventually yanks it off the track at which point I had to turn and face the wall because I was silently shaking with laughter.  My fiancé thankfully saved it and said “ok don’t worry about the garden, we’ll have a think and let you know” and we made a hasty retreat. 

Bungalow 1 agent rang us two weeks later to ask if we were interested and if so the vendor would flatten the front garden and build a proper driveway “at no expense to us” if we wanted.  We said we weren’t interested.

Bungalow 2 still up for sale. 

SimonT

Went to view a property with my elderly mother in law many years ago. We were looking for somewhere big enough for our family and her so we could look after her as she got older. There were large framed photos of a naked woman in various 'glamour' poses in every room. The lady showing us round was the one in the photos.

Another property I viewed, the owner apologised for the damage her huge dogs had done. This consisted of chewing a large  hole in every door about 3 feet high so they could get through.

Didn't buy either of them!

CasualMFW

The first was viewing a property in a less desirable area, all seemed fine when were inside until we went out the front and a group of teenagers sped past on quad bikes wearing balaclavas. The EA claimed it was part of a community event.

The second involved the EA opening the cupboard under the stairs to show us the extra storage. It was shelved up the sides to house about half a dozen cats, with the entire floor covered in a litter tray. The stench was horrendous. 

The third was more recent, on a new build estate where parking was at a premium (only one space for a car on the drive) and the estate was rammed. The EA claimed the house also had a garage, not attached to th3 house but further up the street, he claimed he hadn't seen it yet. But we were surprised to discover it instead was a small shed set back in some overgrowth, home to a wasps nest.

We didn't purchase any of them.

Ms_Chocaholic

Rumana03 said:

We went to a viewing last week where the EA was running a little late so the vendor agreed to show us around. She had a baby about 9 months strapped to her front. As we walked into the flat I could smell the faint smell of drugs. The nearer to the middle of the flat we got, the more I could smell it. In the kitchen the lady had left the window wide open and there was a scented candle lit right next to it. Honestly it was ridiculous...like she must have just smoked the drugs not so long ago as the smell was still there. 

Did you think of ringing Social Services?

raygcon

One of the house we viewed a year ago , the vendor host the viewing herself. We arrive 5 mins early, ring the door , nobody reply. Ring again, nobody reply. Called the agent and they confirm the vendor is at home. Right at the viewing time, the vendor open the door and let us in. Punctuation at it finest.

juliedee4663

We viewed a house where on opening the 3rd bedroom door the vendor explained that there was pond liner in there. What she didn't explain was that the whole room was covered in soil and was home to her pet tortoise. The smell of damp soil was horrendous and permeated the whole house