What expectations do estate agents have of someone asking for a viewing?

maladict

RHemmings said:

BobT36 said:

Nothing wrong with getting the agent to field some questions before wasting everyone's time with a viewing. 

Totally my intention. Particularly since this property is listed with an agent all the way across the other side of the city. Which seems an odd choice of EA. 

It does depends on the agent though.  We were interested in a house with a listing that offered 'virtual viewings', which appealed as we're moving to the other side of the country.  When we tried to book a 'virtual viewing' we were told that it meant it was on rightmove and we could look at it there.  When we asked some questions to try to understand if it was worth us viewing in person, they said everything they knew was in the listing and they couldn't and wouldn't answer anything else.  Obviously we didn't pursue it, and it would be lovely if this story ended with the house languishing unsold for months on end, but it sold for 30% over the home report value within three weeks of being listed, so I guess they just didn't need to bother with us.

Jonboy_1984

When we were looking last year we booked up anything that remotely matched our specifications (budget, size, location) and viewed quite happily without any issues or undue questions from estate agents. I didn’t feel any remorse to the sellers as we had a number going on in our flat and that is simply what you need to do to sell a place.

What I wouldn’t do is what my ex sister in law was doing, which was booking viewings as something to do, with no intention of moving and insufficient funding for property (or real understanding of why 2 acres of floodplain green belt, in an area that was blocking housing through planning, would be “so” cheap in one set of pipe dreams!). I think some local agents caught on quite quickly, as they seemed to stop offering quick or “prime time” weekend viewings to her.

Bigphil1474

Just to add, if you haven't got one, it's probably worth doing a floor plan of your own home or at least measuring your rooms, so you have an easy relative scale when looking at potential new homes. Fortunately, our main rooms are pretty much the same around 4-5m x 4-5m, so I can visualise when looking at room dimensions online. 

RHemmings

Bigphil1474 said:

Just to add, if you haven't got one, it's probably worth doing a floor plan of your own home or at least measuring your rooms, so you have an easy relative scale when looking at potential new homes. Fortunately, our main rooms are pretty much the same around 4-5m x 4-5m, so I can visualise when looking at room dimensions online. 

There is a past for sale listing on Zoopla for the current (rented) home that I'm in. But, it's very large and in the master bedroom where I am now, I've got a really big desk, queen sized bed, chest of draws, there are built in wardrobes, piles of boxes and stuff, and there's still plenty of space left over. My son has said that one property we viewed smaller than this one is 'too big'. 

I'm going to try using floorplan.co.uk to map out some rooms of likely houses, and see what I find. We viewed a terraced house the other day, and looking from the front it looked way too small, but the rooms were surprisingly roomy. I'm playing around with the master bedroom of that one (the second bedroom is pretty much the same size and we don't need the third), and it's looking suitably spacious as I remembered it. This is going to help with viewings. 

Skiddaw1

Jonboy_1984 said:

What I wouldn’t do is what my ex sister in law was doing, which was booking viewings as something to do, with no intention of moving and insufficient funding for property (or real understanding of why 2 acres of floodplain green belt, in an area that was blocking housing through planning, would be “so” cheap in one set of pipe dreams!). I think some local agents caught on quite quickly, as they seemed to stop offering quick or “prime time” weekend viewings to her.

The mother of a close friend of mine used to do that (admittedly, this is going back a fair old time- she's been dead & gone for years now). It was her favourite weekend occupation. She just liked the excuse to poke around other people's houses.

I don't think in general you get so much tyre-kicking these days. EA's have wised up to it (and it's harder to get away with since Rightmove, Zoopla, etc, came on line).

RHemmings

I had a very interesting talk with an estate agent about a house. There are no dimensions on the floor plan and they can't get them right now. But, the estate agent is familiar with the house (long term let managed by them). He pointed out that an alcove in the smaller bedroom was shaped so that the foot end of a single bed would fit into it, making good use of the space and leaving enough space in the rest of the room. He really advised me to come and view the property, and we have the viewing set up. He also talked about the other room, and it's clear that there's more to that room too based on what he said. So, in this case, the agent was keen to have me view, despite my reservations. 

BobT36

^ Take a tape measure.. 
I never trust EA (or even vendor!) measurements, and they even have a disclaimer saying they're for illustrative purposes only. 

Get a good idea of the room layout (basic width / length, and length of any "noggins") then simply floorplancreator.net. Also have a meter stick or something to give you a good visual guide of space in your own house, such as how much actual room you'd have to push your chair out from a desk etc. 

Silvertabby

When we were house hunting some years ago we saw a couple of properties in an estate agents window that looked promising, and popped in to request viewings.

All seemed to be going well until the EA asked how far along we were in selling our existing property, and we said that we were in rented/Armed Forces married quarters.

She immediately seemed to go cold on us, said that both vendors were currently on holiday so she would have to get back to us.  She never did.  It may be that she thought that first time buyers wouldn't seriously be looking at 4 bed detacheds, or maybe she just didn't like the Armed Forces.....

RHemmings

Silvertabby said:

When we were house hunting some years ago we saw a couple of properties in an estate agents window that looked promising, and popped in to request viewings.

All seemed to be going well until the EA asked how far along we were in selling our existing property, and we said that we were in rented/Armed Forces married quarters.

She immediately seemed to go cold on us, said that both vendors were currently on holiday so she would have to get back to us.  She never did.  It may be that she thought that first time buyers wouldn't seriously be looking at 4 bed detacheds, or maybe she just didn't like the Armed Forces.....

There's one house where I've asked for a viewing three times now. I get told that there will be no problem organising a viewing, but they have to ask the tenants. Then, I hear nothing. I'm assured that there is no problem getting a viewing, but then it never happens. The third time only started recently, so I'm going to give them a few more days and then ask again. My wild guess is that they're asking the tenants, the tenants don't get back to them, and then they forget about it. 

(I've seen the advice in this forum in general to not spend any money on a property until the tenants are out of the property.)

It's odd that the EA went cold on you. I keep getting told how much vendors and EAs like FTBs because they don't make chains any worse. If I don't buy a property now, then in some months my budget will expand. And, I would easily be able to buy a four bed detached. Though, I'm not sure I need one. 

Noneforit999

RHemmings said:

I had a very interesting talk with an estate agent about a house. There are no dimensions on the floor plan and they can't get them right now. But, the estate agent is familiar with the house (long term let managed by them). He pointed out that an alcove in the smaller bedroom was shaped so that the foot end of a single bed would fit into it, making good use of the space and leaving enough space in the rest of the room. He really advised me to come and view the property, and we have the viewing set up. He also talked about the other room, and it's clear that there's more to that room too based on what he said. So, in this case, the agent was keen to have me view, despite my reservations. 

I like to see room sizes before I go to visit, I would always ask the EA for them if they were not listed on the advert.

The house we have for example is a 3 bed semi but two of the bedrooms are 6m x 3m so fairly large.

It was owned by my Wifes gran and when she passes away, they had it valued for probate. All three EA came out expecting a standard 3 bed semi for £375k which was the area average. They didn't factor in the room sizes, the internal garage as well as external garage and several other things so probate valuation was £425k-£450k.

When we were looking at 4 bed houses before we bought this one, lots of them had two doubles and two singles despite being 4 bedroom where as others had 4 double rooms. Personally I think all room sizes should be in the adverts