Should I put in an offer before my second viewing?

GaleSF63

Deanlangdon14 said:

You make a good point. In truth it's not that we're indecisive at all, it's just that my partner wasn't at the first viewing (which I should have probably mentioned but the post was already too long.)

Your partner will almost certainly notice things that you didn't. Might be good, might be bad.

ManuelG

Is second viewings a thing? I know if I like it or not after one!

Ah, just read about partner not being there - that *is* key Estate agents around here wouldn't consider an offer as particularly firm until all the people with an interest in the purchase had viewed the house.

Postik

lika_86 said:

ReadingTim said:

On both of the houses I have bought, my 2nd viewing was also the first time I opened the door to my new house....

You didn't view again just before exchanging to make sure you knew the state of the property before you were legally bound to buy it?! 

I didn't.  Neither did the people buying my old house which I am surprised about because it was almost a year prior since they had their first viewing!

I did drive and walk past a few times though!

I have quite a good eye for detail and my house is also fairly immaculate.  If I'd gone back for a second viewing and noticed that squeaky floor board or the scratch on the worktop it wouldn't have made any difference to the asking price or my offer.

To me, the more important "second viewing" was through the eyes of a surveyor when I had a homebuyers report.  He even took photos of the things he flagged up.

I notice in the article someone posted previously it mentions on a second viewing to turn on all the taps, the boiler, check every plug socket works, etc.  I've never walked around a house flushing all the toilets, turning on the taps, etc, and nobody ever did that when I sold my last house.

lika_86

Postik said:

lika_86 said:

ReadingTim said:

On both of the houses I have bought, my 2nd viewing was also the first time I opened the door to my new house....

You didn't view again just before exchanging to make sure you knew the state of the property before you were legally bound to buy it?! 

I didn't.  Neither did the people buying my old house which I am surprised about because it was almost a year prior since they had their first viewing!

I did drive and walk past a few times though!

I'm genuinely surprised by the number of people on here who didn't do another viewing pre-exchange. Anything could have happened to the place in the time conveyancing takes. 

Martico

I've viewed again pre-exchange, which I used to measure up, take photos of position of power points, etc, and make notes about what needed doing and when. It was a doer-upper, mind. 

mi-key

lika_86 said:

Postik said:

lika_86 said:

ReadingTim said:

On both of the houses I have bought, my 2nd viewing was also the first time I opened the door to my new house....

You didn't view again just before exchanging to make sure you knew the state of the property before you were legally bound to buy it?! 

I didn't.  Neither did the people buying my old house which I am surprised about because it was almost a year prior since they had their first viewing!

I did drive and walk past a few times though!

I'm genuinely surprised by the number of people on here who didn't do another viewing pre-exchange. Anything could have happened to the place in the time conveyancing takes. 

It depends if you are local. If you arent you can always ask the agents to check the house pre exchange to make sure nothing drastic has happened. 

seradane

When we bought our house, we used the second viewing as a bit of a tactical approach in negotiating our offer.

Went for a first viewing, made an offer a fair bit under asking, this was turned down, no counter-offer. Estate agent was an odd lady who talked a grand old story about some other couple who were totally going to offer any day now but she'd rather sell to us, etc etc. We don't believe a word of it but of course pretended like we did.

So rather than rush into a revised offer we instead booked another viewing and hummed and haa'd about what we could 'afford' to spend (in reality we were some way below our max budget), and had a pleasant chit-chat where we let her do all her talking up. Perhaps the longer timeframe helped the sellers ruminate on our original offer a bit longer, or estate agent had time to talk her talk at them for a while, but whatever it was, when we went in with a revised offer we presented as our 'best offer' (this was still a fair bit under asking) the following week, it was fairly quickly accepted.

Maybe it made no difference at all, and the second offer would always have been accepted, but we think we got a very good deal so who knows! :shrug:

badger09

Agree with those who say wait until your partner has viewed before making any offer. They might hate it! Tell EA you’re  interested though. 

We offered on our current home within a couple of hours of 2nd viewing having told vendors we would. Basically, 2nd viewing was a ‘rule it out & keep looking’ or ‘go for it’ decision. We’d completed on our sale rather than lose it, in lockdown, moved into temp accommodation miles away, again in lockdown, and didn’t think we could cope with many more months of COVID & housing uncertainty. 

We haven’t done any pre exchange visits on our last 3 homes (spanning almost 30 years). Our buyers requested one but respected our reluctance - it was the week before Christmas 2020 & we didn’t want to risk having to isolate due to COVID. I gave them a video tour & sent curtain measurements for the only room we weren’t leaving curtains. They were happy with that. 

diystarter7

babyblade41 said:

If you have done all your due diligence before viewing then why not, unless you are going in really low then nothing to lose if you are serious 

Hi
 
What would be the point of that if they plan to do a second view? People ofte do 2 views and then may be another after survey, measure up etc.
I know of an EA that is a good friend of my BiL and something that I am aware of first hand is that anyoe that makes an offer after one viewing has a higher chance of backing out.

We had it o our prerty years ago, went on the market the next day durig my luch break from work I cam home o a sunny day bloke with young child came around looked around for 30 mis loved the house and the massive garden made full asking price offer and the pulled out 2 days later. The EA I know via family agrees that serious buyers are i the majority take a second viewing before offering/s.

Thnaks

powerful_Rogue

diystarter7 said:

babyblade41 said:

If you have done all your due diligence before viewing then why not, unless you are going in really low then nothing to lose if you are serious 

Hi
 
What would be the point of that if they plan to do a second view? People ofte do 2 views and then may be another after survey, measure up etc.
I know of an EA that is a good friend of my BiL and something that I am aware of first hand is that anyoe that makes an offer after one viewing has a higher chance of backing out.

We had it o our prerty years ago, went on the market the next day durig my luch break from work I cam home o a sunny day bloke with young child came around looked around for 30 mis loved the house and the massive garden made full asking price offer and the pulled out 2 days later. The EA I know via family agrees that serious buyers are i the majority take a second viewing before offering/s.

Thnaks

I don't believe it is the majority at all. All houses i've bought have been after one viewing. Next time I enter the house is after completion. You usually know it's the right house from the first viewing. I'd say you have more chance of buyers backing out after 2+ viewings as they notice things they missed on the first viewing.