Do potential buyers actually look at the property details?
Discussion
We've had a similar experience. Dropped our price (which was too high) and got immediate interest which led to an accepted offer. They were good buyers, out of rented etc. Got all the way through having a mortgage survey, confirmed mortgage and all searches complete etc. then pulled out with a change of heart.
We've had a few viewings, but with "garden small", "bedrooms small" or whatever. Odd as the garden is pictured in the particulars honestly and completely and the flooplan is clear and in metric and imperial. Hey ho!
We've had a few viewings, but with "garden small", "bedrooms small" or whatever. Odd as the garden is pictured in the particulars honestly and completely and the flooplan is clear and in metric and imperial. Hey ho!
C Lee Farquar said:
People tend to tell white lies when giving feedback to agents. They say what they think won't offend or make them feel uncomfortable.
There's probably other reasons, it may be that it doesn't come across as homely. Whatever, don't take the feedback at face value.
This + Giving House feedback is the same as interview feedback, you never hear the truth.There's probably other reasons, it may be that it doesn't come across as homely. Whatever, don't take the feedback at face value.
Myself and the Mrs recently viewed a house and the real reasons we rejected it:
Neighbour had built a massive wooden Pub in the back garden (with lots and lots of seating)
The house was dark and gloomy and was generally depressing, It looked like It was the Dad selling after his family left him. At which point he promptly stopped doing any maintenance or decoration.
Garden was just lumpy lawn and overgrown conifer hedging.
Neighbours had 3 4x4s all festooned with Emergency Response stickers.
Another neighbour either had a shedload of grandkids or was running a nursery from home.
The feedback my wife gave was "the layout doesn't work for us" perhaps its a polite British thing, my wife and I have a code we use when the vendors are doing the viewings. "You have lovely high ceilings" translates to "That photographer from the agency is a miracle worker and this place is a midden".
Vandenberg said:
This + Giving House feedback is the same as interview feedback, you never hear the truth.
Myself and the Mrs recently viewed a house and the real reasons we rejected it:
Neighbour had built a massive wooden Pub in the back garden (with lots and lots of seating)
The house was dark and gloomy and was generally depressing, It looked like It was the Dad selling after his family left him. At which point he promptly stopped doing any maintenance or decoration.
Garden was just lumpy lawn and overgrown conifer hedging.
Neighbours had 3 4x4s all festooned with Emergency Response stickers.
Another neighbour either had a shedload of grandkids or was running a nursery from home.
The feedback my wife gave was "the layout doesn't work for us" perhaps its a polite British thing, my wife and I have a code we use when the vendors are doing the viewings. "You have lovely high ceilings" translates to "That photographer from the agency is a miracle worker and this place is a midden".
Sensible post.Myself and the Mrs recently viewed a house and the real reasons we rejected it:
Neighbour had built a massive wooden Pub in the back garden (with lots and lots of seating)
The house was dark and gloomy and was generally depressing, It looked like It was the Dad selling after his family left him. At which point he promptly stopped doing any maintenance or decoration.
Garden was just lumpy lawn and overgrown conifer hedging.
Neighbours had 3 4x4s all festooned with Emergency Response stickers.
Another neighbour either had a shedload of grandkids or was running a nursery from home.
The feedback my wife gave was "the layout doesn't work for us" perhaps its a polite British thing, my wife and I have a code we use when the vendors are doing the viewings. "You have lovely high ceilings" translates to "That photographer from the agency is a miracle worker and this place is a midden".
As an EA, sometimes the feedback you are given by applicants after a viewing can be used, but often them stating the various ways in which they detest the property is not going to be productive, especially if they are things we can't be changed (neighbouring property, the street in general, being dark when it's not caused by clutter / decor).
OP I'd say that, in the current market, you have had a reasonably straightforward experience. Several of our listings have been on for up to 2 years.
Evoquative said:
We've had a similar experience. Dropped our price (which was too high) and got immediate interest which led to an accepted offer. They were good buyers, out of rented etc. Got all the way through having a mortgage survey, confirmed mortgage and all searches complete etc. then pulled out with a change of heart.
We've had a few viewings, but with "garden small", "bedrooms small" or whatever. Odd as the garden is pictured in the particulars honestly and completely and the flooplan is clear and in metric and imperial. Hey ho!
Were you selling a newish house?We've had a few viewings, but with "garden small", "bedrooms small" or whatever. Odd as the garden is pictured in the particulars honestly and completely and the flooplan is clear and in metric and imperial. Hey ho!
I find that any 4 bed house (for example) built in the last thirty years or so will have been built on a plot that would've held a 3 bed house prior to that, so if you're used to older properties, it can be quite easy to persuade yourself that even looking at a floor plan with accurate measurements, the rooms really can't be quite that small in reality.
Vandenberg said:
The feedback my wife gave was "the layout doesn't work for us" perhaps its a polite British thing, my wife and I have a code we use when the vendors are doing the viewings. "You have lovely high ceilings" translates to "That photographer from the agency is a miracle worker and this place is a midden".
Wow. How many phrases do you have in that code?Kermit power said:
Were you selling a newish house?
I find that any 4 bed house (for example) built in the last thirty years or so will have been built on a plot that would've held a 3 bed house prior to that, so if you're used to older properties, it can be quite easy to persuade yourself that even looking at a floor plan with accurate measurements, the rooms really can't be quite that small in reality.
Still selling it due to the buyer pullout. No it is over 100 years old. I find that any 4 bed house (for example) built in the last thirty years or so will have been built on a plot that would've held a 3 bed house prior to that, so if you're used to older properties, it can be quite easy to persuade yourself that even looking at a floor plan with accurate measurements, the rooms really can't be quite that small in reality.
Vandenberg said:
This + Giving House feedback is the same as interview feedback, you never hear the truth.
Myself and the Mrs recently viewed a house and the real reasons we rejected it:
Neighbour had built a massive wooden Pub in the back garden (with lots and lots of seating)
The house was dark and gloomy and was generally depressing, It looked like It was the Dad selling after his family left him. At which point he promptly stopped doing any maintenance or decoration.
Garden was just lumpy lawn and overgrown conifer hedging.
Neighbours had 3 4x4s all festooned with Emergency Response stickers.
Another neighbour either had a shedload of grandkids or was running a nursery from home.
The feedback my wife gave was "the layout doesn't work for us" perhaps its a polite British thing, my wife and I have a code we use when the vendors are doing the viewings. "You have lovely high ceilings" translates to "That photographer from the agency is a miracle worker and this place is a midden".
Out of interest, why?Myself and the Mrs recently viewed a house and the real reasons we rejected it:
Neighbour had built a massive wooden Pub in the back garden (with lots and lots of seating)
The house was dark and gloomy and was generally depressing, It looked like It was the Dad selling after his family left him. At which point he promptly stopped doing any maintenance or decoration.
Garden was just lumpy lawn and overgrown conifer hedging.
Neighbours had 3 4x4s all festooned with Emergency Response stickers.
Another neighbour either had a shedload of grandkids or was running a nursery from home.
The feedback my wife gave was "the layout doesn't work for us" perhaps its a polite British thing, my wife and I have a code we use when the vendors are doing the viewings. "You have lovely high ceilings" translates to "That photographer from the agency is a miracle worker and this place is a midden".
We've just bought and I actually gave the EA really honest feedback on all the properties we viewed that I hoped they might pass on to the seller as useful info.
Now selling, I would find that sort of intel invaluable but people never seem to want to give it.
Really odd, IMO.
Of course, sometimes a property is just a strange layout or doesn't work for you in some way that they could do nothing about, but it's always useful to understand your potential buyers needs/expectations.
Long time lurker and nearly replied to a topic before, but this one is worth logging on for.
We had a real interest in a lovely house, 2006, just before interest rates dropped and prices were still mental. Owners lived 6 months in UK, 6 months in Spain, had just gone to Spain at the time they put the house on the market to move to Spain permanent.
We got our "basic" homebuyers report back. 16 major faults, before surveyor discovered a gas-leak and refused to go any further through the property with the buyers rep whom was escorting!
However, most of these looked like "really" minor problems, more a surveyor covering his arse as they do on home-buyer surveys so we agreed at least £2k off the price (£400k+) if we paid for a full survey and then a discussion on further costs. £75k remedial work came out the full survey - the owner had put in the loft conversion but in doing do had made the access route to the loft by cutting the chimney off internally on the 1st floor and stripped back the internal layer of bricks from the cavity wall so the roof and loft and access staircase was supported by a single skin of bricks, noticeably bulging outwards.
This almost put us off. Wife was really in love with the building. Got a structural surveyor whom I worked with to come and look from the outside. He didn't say walk away. He said, never walk near that gable end wall ever. He could tell the bricks were the wrong type, wrong mortar and even knew whom had done the renovation which was also a big "avoid".
So we told the estate agent all the above, point by point, naming the surveyors whom we'd used and that on reflection, we'd had second thoughts as there were too many issue on these surveys.
Now, the seller had our mobile number somehow and started hassling us for the surveys. We said "sale gone, not interested" but they kept threatening us saying what the estate agent had told them wasn't true and they demanded a copy of our surveys. Eventually, as we had another house I said, I'll put them on EBay as a BIN for 50% the survey price. Low and behold, they were bought by someone, I presume the seller and I got paid 50% my costs of failed bid back.
So in that instance we'd been honest, sounds like the EA had but a deluded seller couldn't believe they'd been caught out or that they hadn't realised their renovation was so obviously poor (I haven't even mentioned what we found out from Building Control separately as if I'd told my mortgage co.....).
Postscript, in 2009 the end gable of the property fell down (63 Whitefield, WA4 if you are allowed to name locations to Wayback / Google SV before / after).
We had a real interest in a lovely house, 2006, just before interest rates dropped and prices were still mental. Owners lived 6 months in UK, 6 months in Spain, had just gone to Spain at the time they put the house on the market to move to Spain permanent.
We got our "basic" homebuyers report back. 16 major faults, before surveyor discovered a gas-leak and refused to go any further through the property with the buyers rep whom was escorting!
However, most of these looked like "really" minor problems, more a surveyor covering his arse as they do on home-buyer surveys so we agreed at least £2k off the price (£400k+) if we paid for a full survey and then a discussion on further costs. £75k remedial work came out the full survey - the owner had put in the loft conversion but in doing do had made the access route to the loft by cutting the chimney off internally on the 1st floor and stripped back the internal layer of bricks from the cavity wall so the roof and loft and access staircase was supported by a single skin of bricks, noticeably bulging outwards.
This almost put us off. Wife was really in love with the building. Got a structural surveyor whom I worked with to come and look from the outside. He didn't say walk away. He said, never walk near that gable end wall ever. He could tell the bricks were the wrong type, wrong mortar and even knew whom had done the renovation which was also a big "avoid".
So we told the estate agent all the above, point by point, naming the surveyors whom we'd used and that on reflection, we'd had second thoughts as there were too many issue on these surveys.
Now, the seller had our mobile number somehow and started hassling us for the surveys. We said "sale gone, not interested" but they kept threatening us saying what the estate agent had told them wasn't true and they demanded a copy of our surveys. Eventually, as we had another house I said, I'll put them on EBay as a BIN for 50% the survey price. Low and behold, they were bought by someone, I presume the seller and I got paid 50% my costs of failed bid back.
So in that instance we'd been honest, sounds like the EA had but a deluded seller couldn't believe they'd been caught out or that they hadn't realised their renovation was so obviously poor (I haven't even mentioned what we found out from Building Control separately as if I'd told my mortgage co.....).
Postscript, in 2009 the end gable of the property fell down (63 Whitefield, WA4 if you are allowed to name locations to Wayback / Google SV before / after).
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