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

Woolsery

Belleofthebooks said:

 One morning, it must of been a school holiday, I was fast asleep in bed when the estate agent opens my bedroom door with the buyers standing behind her, takes one look at me then immediately closes it again.  

I had similar at around age 18, but I was sleeping in the front room because parents were doing up the upstairs. The person who threw the door open had an axe in his hand and I'll never forget waking to that....before my brain kicked in and I clocked he was a fireman!

"Where's Nutcombe Farm?"  he yelled.

"About 200 yards further along." I replied.

"Thanks!"

He didn't even shut the door.

uralmaid

18 months ago when we were selling our place in the country a viewing was arranged for a lady and her son. She was in her 70's and he was in his 50's.  When they arrived they wanted to see the land first as they had animals.  After a lengthy tour around the outside we then proceeded to go into our bungalow.  The lady then rummaged about in her bag and produced a crystal on a string and said she wanted to test the energy to see if there were any vibrations etc.  Went from room to room swinging the pendulum and discussing with the son.  She said the energy was good.  In the hall she stood underneath the loft hatch and said - "ooh this isn't good i can detect electricity"  We pointed out that the workings for the solar panels were in the loft which would account for that.  They proceeded to make an offer which we accepted.  After they left i said to my husband that I can foresee problems but we will see.  After 2 months of them having multiple issues with their own sale as to who actually owned their land we were advised by our solicitor that it would take months to sort out and that we should pull the sale, which we did.  The next day our agent rang us to say the lady had rung him, distraught as she had booked her removal vans for the following week and wanted to move her herd of goats in that weekend.  This was in spite of the fact that no progress could be made on her sale due to the land issues.  We stayed firm and agreed to another lovely family and the sale went though quickly. I often wonder if they ever sorted their issues and found somewhere with no "electricity issues"

Woolsery

uralmaid said:

The next day our agent rang us to say the lady had rung him, distraught as she had booked her removal vans for the following week and wanted to move her herd of goats in that weekend.  This was in spite of the fact that no progress could be made on her sale

We bought from a friend and moved some of our stuff into their garden and attic before completion, but even in that situation.....goats? No way!

P.S. I did dowse the 150mm water main here because SW Water's map showed it under a new barn, which would be a big no-no. It was actually just far enough away not to be a problem.

newsgroupmonkey_

peter3hg said:

Emmia said:

Silvertabby said:

Emmia said:

I was also reminded of another property last night...

Newly refurbished flat, done to what appeared to be a high spec - however, what I think was supposed to be the "master bedroom" (it was the one with an ensuite) was hardly big enough to swing a cat in once a standard double bed was in there, but the second bedroom was huge, that had acres of space for a king sized bed - but no ensuite...

The other curious thing was the shiny kitchen had a built in fridge, coffee machine, slimline dishwasher... But bafflingly the flat had no washing machine anywhere, and no obvious place to put one, unless you ripped out the dishwasher, and the newly fitted cupboard next to it.

When I asked the agent where a washing machine/or a space for one might be located, she said with a totally straight face, there isn't one, but there is a laundrette at the end of the road... She also said it, in such a way as though it was a totally normal thing too, to schlep to the laundrette with your clothes, when you lived in a high spec flat.

At Uni I used communal facilities - but there you rent a room in halls so it makes sense, but I've never otherwise rented/ lived anywhere without a washing machine.

Who buys a (newly refurbished) property with no space for a washing machine???

One bedroom flat with a dressing room/en-suite?  Only suitable for buyers who can afford a full laundry service?

Two entirely separate bedrooms with a narrow hallway leading to a backdoor in between, one of which was huge and the other small one with a tiny ensuite. It had a separate family bathroom (bath + shower) separate lounge that was sort of open plan (it was an L shaped space) with a properly open plan kitchen/diner.

I think it probably needed a different layout - but as it was freshly refurbished (and priced as such) it wasn't really a "project" property you'd want to do that to.

When I was searching for a new house last year this house came up in the wider search.
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/57956984/

As with the one you describe the en-suite is off the much smaller second bedroom.


It has been up for sale for over a year now and not sold which is very unusual in the local market currently.
Looking at the listing history they did knock £15k off the price in October but then put it back up to the current price in December.

I have to say, this is the weirdest history of any house I've ever viewed.

The patma plugin says this:

23 Feb 2022	Unavailable	->	£350,000
17 Feb 2022	£350,000	->	Unavailable
9 Dec 2021	£335,000	->	£350,000
3 Oct 2021	£350,000	->	£335,000
12 Mar 2021	£75,000	->	£350,000
16 Sep 2018	First seen	->	£75,000

ariarnia

the 75k could be buying a joint owner out? 

bettyboo71

Rumana03 said:

Slithery said:

Rumana03 said:

There'a no way someone could break in via the roof like that...so bizarre.

In older terraced houses it's quite common for there to be no firewall between adjacent properties. You can go into the loft and come down into someone else's house several doors away....
This could easily be where her anxiety about the loft came from.

But it was a flat that we had viewed so that's why I found the whole thing strange. The flat was on the top floor (5th floor).

I lived in a 2nd/top floor flat, which had a communal hatch on the landing.  It was broken into simply by someone stamping heavily on the plaster ceiling.  They obviously knew the layout of the flats so they broke in in the perfect spot for using doors and cupboards to climb in and out. 

IrisB

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!)

dave8204

Many years ago my now ex-wife and myself were browsing Estate Agent's windows and saw a place we liked the look of. It was around 7pm but midsummer so still light. Being local to the area we actually recognised the house and decided to ask the vendor if we could take a quick look,if they'd said no that would be fine and we'd approach the agent the next morning.
We rung the bell and told the man who answered the door that we were interested in buying the house. He told us,"actually I'm taking it off of the market, been trying to sell it for months and no-one's even come round to look at it"............and he shut the door!!

eddddy

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.)

youth_leader

@IrisB, the toilets!  Brings back a memory!  My husband and I bought a terraced house when we were first married and our neighbour's gave us their key whilst they went abroad for a few months.  One day we noticed water pouring out of an overflow pipe and went in to investigate - they had a toilet next to their bed.  Just next to the bed. Amazing people actually do this.