People who don't turn up for viewings

Doozergirl

If I knew which house they were selling I'd do exactly the same to them and see how they feel.

What's wrong with common courtesy? Why do I have to get up early, spend all morning running around making the house look like a showhome for some idiot who can't even give me enough time of day to make one lousy phonecall. My EA phones them to find out they don't even want to live in this town. :wall:

Poppycat

Sadly thats life, they are always people who couldn't give a damn about others letting them down. If they had changed there mind thats okay, but they should have the decency to let you know that they changed there minds or whatever there reasons.

merlinthehappypig

Hi Doozer

We had never had a problem with this (sold 6 houses before) until we sold the one in Scotland. From memory we had 4 or 5 not turn up.

The worst one was one who had given us her mobile in case we needed to contact her. After she was half an hour or so late I rang the mobile and got no reply. I continued to ring at intervals until after about 5 hours I got her.

She informed me that she had driven to the end of the track along which we lived and had decided that it was 'too rural'. She would have been no more than 200 metres from the house at this point. She had travelled at least 100 miles to get to us.

I asked why she hadn't let us know as we had been waiting around all this time. She made up some excuse about not having the time at which point I told her that I thought she was a bloody disgrace and one of the rudest people I had ever had the misfortune to meet (or not as it turned out).

She just put the phone down. No shame at all.

The other people who didn't turn up didn't contact us again. I made a point of telling the agent that we wouldn't entertain another viewing appointment from them anyway, regardless of their excuse.

As for the woman who couldn't be bothered to apologise, she had an unusual surname and bought a house in the Scottish Borders about two months later. I'm not sure if she did need double glazing, a new kitchen or needed to consolidate her debts, but she would have had plenty of offers and advice if she did.;)

clutton_2

my mate who is an estate agent reckons that agent-accompanied viewings are much less likely to attract no-shows

PasturesNew

Some people have a really slack attitude to viewing/buying houses. They don't seem to have done their homework at all. Or maybe it is the EA doing their job of getting bums through the door by almost forcing people to view if it has a few features they are after.

I'm sure there are many reasons why people don't turn up, but there is NO excuse not to let people know. Especially these days when most people have a mobile phone. It's not like they have to find a phone box and find somewhere to park then have the right change!

dubsey

I hate that too. Your life is hold enough without rushing around preparing for a viewing.

Worst one we had was when we sold our first house. It was quite small so I would put everything that wasn't chained down in my car, laundry bin, kids toys-everything. I spent ages doing this one day, friend came and took the kids to the park just before viewing time and it turned out it was the blooming woman directly across the roads sister! They had watched me doing the whole lot and worse she actually wanted a three bed but was hoping she could make ours into a three!

Make sure you let your EA know how upset you are. You will get timewasters unfortunately and it is frustrating, but if you let your agent know you're not happy MAYBE they might listen and try to vet them a bit more. Do you know if they changed their mind about the area or were they pushed to view by the agents?

PasturesNew

merlinthehappypig wrote: »

As for the woman who couldn't be bothered to apologise, she had an unusual surname and bought a house in the Scottish Borders about two months later. I'm not sure if she did need double glazing, a new kitchen or needed to consolidate her debts, but she would have had plenty of offers and advice if she did.;)

I'd never get that personally involved. Too much emotional effort. When I decided to sell my house I tried to detach myself from the house/process so I got annoyed at a no show, but left it at that. So I was only annoyed at the time. Never after 4 hours.

Fergie73

There's quite a good system in Edinburgh, where there are open viewing times - 6-8pm on a Thursday evening and 2-4 on a Sunday. Pretty much everything that's on through the ESPC works to that shedule, so buyers and sellers can plan much more easily. It is difficult when you're looking at a lot of things, to be fair to buyers. You have a list you're trawling round, and often you get lost, don't realise how far is is from one to another or sometimes just see so much crap that you get dispirited and go to the pub instead. :beer:

Having to sell is one of the things that puts me right off buying. I've only had to do it once and it really is like putting your life on hold, having to keep the place clean all the time, having to show folk round and sell it to them, the fear of it not selling...next time I buy, I only want to do it if I think I'm going to be settled there for years.

debtfreeoneday

We're selling at the moment and it's a nightmare - with three dogs, you do spend so much time getting the house presentable - but luckily all of our viewings have turned up - but I do think that's because the EA comes with them!

Doozergirl

dubsey wrote: »

Make sure you let your EA know how upset you are. You will get timewasters unfortunately and it is frustrating, but if you let your agent know you're not happy MAYBE they might listen and try to vet them a bit more. Do you know if they changed their mind about the area or were they pushed to view by the agents?

They called the EA yesterday to view our house as the EA told me when she called to book it that she had only just registered them. As far as I know they take full details from everyone who wants to view, including addresses. They are certainly able to tell me the area that every viewer comes from. All other viewers have turned up or cancelled properly.

I't how much the EA can do; if people don't want to turn up, I guess they just won't. I just can't comprehend why people do it when they will be going through the same themselves - perhaps they don't clean for viewings or perhaps they just aren't genuine buyers.

Are there genuine buyers on this board prepared to admit that they have just not turned up or perhaps not liked what they've seen on arrival and not bothered to call and cancel?

merlinthehappypig

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd never get that personally involved. Too much emotional effort. When I decided to sell my house I tried to detach myself from the house/process so I got annoyed at a no show, but left it at that. So I was only annoyed at the time. Never after 4 hours.

You are absolutely right, of course, it was stupid and I remember vowing at the time that I wouldn't let anything like that get to me again.

I've pretty much stuck to that as well, that is until we started the process of buying again.......never mind buyers who don't turn up, what about sellers who don't really want to sell?:mad: