Required to view a house before offering?

Devongardener

I can only comment on our experience as sellers; last year we put our house up for sale in March, and sold it on day 2 to a woman in Scotland (we are in Devon) who sent her sister to view it.  Our EA assured us that she was a genuine cash buyer with confirmed funds, so we accepted her offer.  In the meantime the sister viewed again and we had a zoom call with her.  Time passed but she dragged he feet booking her surveyor in May, followed by separate trade professionals to inspect the boiler, the windows and the drains. We started pushing for exchange in June as we had found our new property.   At this point she pulled out with no explanation.  We quickly remarketed and increased the price due to the local property conditions at the time.  A week later the same buyer came back saying she’d made a mistake and really wanted the house, offering £2.5K more than she had originally,
 still sight unseen!  Lot’s of assurances from the EA that she would complete quickly.  This was June and guess what, come July she pulled out again!  I later found out through another person in EA that she had done the same thing the previous year.    Needless to say we sacked the EA and are about to try again with a different agent.   I would never again sell to someone who had not viewed in person.

theartfullodger

Skiddaw1 said:

theartfullodger said:

hrf93 said:

Hi,

First time poster, looking to find out if there's any actual legislation around having to physically view a house in person before making an offer.

....

Nope.  Indeed I bought a house (as it happened at auction) having merely driver past it, not seen inside at all.  Children do not do this!

Turned out OK. Now on the market for more than 6 x purchase price.  Picture taken from inside front room 2014...

@theartfullodger you've posted that wonderful pic before! Where is it and what's the munro (I presume it's a munro) in the background?

Gulvain:

The small collection of buildings is a Camusnagaul on Loch Linnhe...

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5446982
(Not mine..)

Slinky

I tried putting an offer in on a house, sight unseen, which came up shortly after we'd missed out on a neighbouring property. The houses were of a different style but built by the same builder. The houses in the street go very quickly, and I didn't want to miss out again.The EA wouldn't put our offer forward without a viewing, so I had to drop everything to drive over 100 miles to view.  I'm sitting in that house now.

Regarding Devongardener's experience, alarm bells would have been ringing with me if the purchaser hadn't attempted to view shortly after putting their offer in

fackers_2

hrf93 said:

Hi,

First time poster, looking to find out if there's any actual legislation around having to physically view a house in person before making an offer.

We have seen a house we love, and have already viewed houses on the same street, and so would feel confident offering as we know this is the house for us. The house is advertised with the same estate agent as our mortgage advisor is affiliated with.

Whether or not this is a wise choice is another matter, but we have been told by our mortgage advisor that *legally* we have to view before we can put an offer in. Is this true? I feel like he's not telling the whole truth and it's more that he knows there's a lot of interest in it or he knows someone else who is also viewing the house. We have a viewing booked on Friday but likely to be the last appointment of the day. 

Any advice much appreciated as I feel we need to be able to trust our mortgage advisor to be working with our best interests in mind, not the seller or the estate agents. 

Thanks,

I don’t see an issue with mortgage advisor being linked with the EA. You pay exactly what you want and do not be influenced by them if they are trying to bump up your offer. Stick to your findings and research! Good luck

babyblade41

badger09 said:

babyblade41 said:

bought 2 without out venturing inside. EA new me so -could vouch for me .both went to completion & no nasty surprises when entering in for the first time after completion

To live in, or as BTLs? 

I could imagine an experienced BTL landlord buying without viewing, but as a long term home? Madness IMHO

To live in .
 Also corrected my spelling of "knew" !!!