Seller declining viewings

[paulwirral]

In an ideal world people wouldn’t waste others time by window shopping but you really can’t tell sometimes . I had my house up for sale a couple of years ago and got a phone call from the agents asking if I could do a short notice viewing as the lady was only in the area for a couple of days and was returning home the next day .
I nearly told them to do one , but , just in case I agreed . A quick clean up and the viewer turned up and spent 15 mins telling me what a nice house it was .
I was kicking myself for going to the effort but 3 weeks later she was back for a second viewing and gave me a good offer that completed a few months later .
That said I also had a load of clowns who clearly were wasting my time .

[Slow.Patrol]

Louis Balfour said:

Basically yes.

We really need to look at the property market and how to make it more liquid again.

I'm not sure we do.

We have had decades of Governments using the housing market to boost the economy, by interfering with various aspects. We need to return to houses being homes and not an investment.

[alscar]

Bluesgirl said:

Not if the EA didn’t introduce the buyer.

Depends on what the contract says - I would suggest still a pretty good chance that the seller will need to pay their commission irrespective.

[Red9zero]

bennno said:

100% normal, why spend at least an an hour tidying and cleaning and going out to permit somebody to view who effectively isn’t on the market.

From what we saw, most people don't seem to bother. We were looking at nice houses in decent areas and some looked like they hadn't been cleaned for months. The house we ended up buying was untidy when we viewed it and a st tip when we moved in (literally, there were skid marks in the toilet). Previous owner was a bank manager and his wife, he had a big Jag too, so probably on here. Every time we move, I vow never again !

[Yorkshire_Biker]

Having had one buyer pull out 2 days before completion in Novermber and another pull out this morning 1 week before completion - on a vacant property with no onward chain I can see why I would now insist on only buyers with cash in hand or an agreed completion date on their own property.
I'm tired of getting messed around by buyers for months on end.

[Kev_Mk3]

I made the same request.

Proof of funds or Mortgage in principal, House sale / on the market to view.

If your dependant on a house sale and its not on the market you are not coming in its that simple as its wasting our time.

[Byker28i]

We're looking, not visited any at the moment as nothing meets what we want, but not got the house on the market yet as they sell in a week here. I don't want to be in a position of sold but can't find anything. We did that last time we moved and lost a buyer because there was nothing on the market suitable at the time.

[iphonedyou]

borrowdale said:

I wasn't really looking to move, but we spotted a house on Rightmove that really appealed. On since at least November last year, two agents' listings, premium listing and featured property, recently reduced twice by 50K each time.... i.e. all the hallmarks of a degree of urgency,

I called one of the agents to arrange a viewing, but the seller has given strict instructions that only people with a house on the market and a buyer lined up can view!

Is that a normal thing to do?

If you think about it, they're more likely to try and preclude time wasters if there's a degree of urgency.

[Sheepshanks]

iphonedyou said:

If you think about it, they're more likely to try and preclude time wasters if there's a degree of urgency.

There's some logic in that argument, but it doesn't really hold water when the property has already been on the market for four months - unless the seller is very optimistic that a proceedable is suddenly going to pop out of the woodwork, or he's looking at auctioning the property, or even staring repossession in the face.

[lizardbrain]

We were advised by agent to accept all viewings, even from those who were just nosey.

Depends on the market, but apparently number of viewings is something to boast about, and helps get the best price out of the serious viewers

[NDA]

It was a major fag with two teenage kids to prep a house for a viewing.

I did not want 'curious' viewers with no house on the market. Complete waste of time.

[rah1888]

A viewer who hasn't even got their own property on the market can turn in to a serious buyer with a complete chain and a solicitor lined up in a couple of weeks if they're motivated enough.

I always think it's better to have more viewings rather than less, you never know what it could lead to.

[OutInTheShed]

lizardbrain said:

We were advised by agent to accept all viewings, even from those who were just nosey.

Depends on the market, but apparently number of viewings is something to boast about, and helps get the best price out of the serious viewers

I think it depends on the house.

Some places, an EA knows that only a certain type of buyer is going to pay top money.

If lots of people have looked at a house and not bought it, I don't see that as saying nice things about the house.

Also, there are quite a lot of people around who, if the right house came up, would buy before selling.
If a seller can tap that market, it's much less hassle than chains, especially if the seller doesn't need to take part in an upward chain.
It can be quicker to wait for the right buyer than to get involved with chains.

Also as a buyer, you should be able to know whether you are pretty serious about a house without going inside, if you've got a floor plan and you've seen the outside and researched the location, the decor and interior are a bit of a detail.

[Unreal]

OutInTheShed said:

lizardbrain said:

We were advised by agent to accept all viewings, even from those who were just nosey.

Depends on the market, but apparently number of viewings is something to boast about, and helps get the best price out of the serious viewers

I think it depends on the house.

Some places, an EA knows that only a certain type of buyer is going to pay top money.

If lots of people have looked at a house and not bought it, I don't see that as saying nice things about the house.

Also, there are quite a lot of people around who, if the right house came up, would buy before selling.
If a seller can tap that market, it's much less hassle than chains, especially if the seller doesn't need to take part in an upward chain.
It can be quicker to wait for the right buyer than to get involved with chains.

Also as a buyer, you should be able to know whether you are pretty serious about a house without going inside, if you've got a floor plan and you've seen the outside and researched the location, the decor and interior are a bit of a detail.

You can have plenty of viewers if you don't qualify them but it's true that sellers often measure estate agency quality by the number of viewings they arrange. That can bite back if those unqualified viewers give lots of negative feedback.

People who would buy before selling are a tiny minority mostly restricted to the top end of the market.

[dundarach]

If I ever wanted to sell again, I'd make absolutely certain they ONLY sent fully qualified people.

(I'd even be tempted not to have anyone from within a mile)

Bunch of nosy fkers

[drmotorsport]

Byker28i said:

We're looking, not visited any at the moment as nothing meets what we want, but not got the house on the market yet as they sell in a week here. I don't want to be in a position of sold but can't find anything. We did that last time we moved and lost a buyer because there was nothing on the market suitable at the time.

You can make buyers wait for you to find something, and if they can't wait then it's no problem if you get another buyer in a week We've just listed ours for sale today, i'm not optimistic about finding something we really want for sale, but feel we need to be in the market to at least be able to view places with some credibility.

[Lanby]

Yorkshire_Biker said:

Having had one buyer pull out 2 days before completion in Novermber and another pull out this morning 1 week before completion - on a vacant property with no onward chain I can see why I would now insist on only buyers with cash in hand or an agreed completion date on their own property.
I'm tired of getting messed around by buyers for months on end.

We were in the process of buying a seaside holiday home few years ago to spend more time together and during the process our little boy died; it kind of took away our requirement for a holiday home so we pulled out.

But under normal circumstances I cannot understand why anybody would pull out so far along the purchasing process - what reasons did they give?

[sjc]

When I was selling the family house due to divorce no one was allowed to view unless they had sold or had proof of (a lot) of funds and mortgage in place.2020/21.
Every one who turned up was a serious buyer,had done their homework on the house and immediate area,and we had 7 offers from around 10 viewings.The ones that didn’t offer also had valid reasons.
You’re simply not a serious buyer to a seller if you’re house isn’t even on the market,or you’re gonna bid low because you “might” be able to buy without selling.
When I bought,Nov ‘21 as a genuine cash buyer ( not cash from house), I had to show my account with the funds present as the seller had been mucked about something chronic by the previous buyer and agent.We got it done in under 9 weeks.

You’re either serious,or your not.

[sjc]

Byker28i said:

We're looking, not visited any at the moment as nothing meets what we want, but not got the house on the market yet as they sell in a week here. I don't want to be in a position of sold but can't find anything. We did that last time we moved and lost a buyer because there was nothing on the market suitable at the time.

If you were concerned that you’d sell too quickly surely you’d just price it higher than it’s assumed value?
The alternative also being that if you lost a buyer,you’d quickly find another based on your post?

[Byker28i]

sjc said:

W
When I bought,Nov ‘21 as a genuine cash buyer ( not cash from house), I had to show my account with the funds present as the seller had been mucked about something chronic by the previous buyer and agent.We got it done in under 9 weeks.

You’re either serious,or your not.

You have to do that anyway, nothing to do with sellers being mucked about, also as part of the money laundering rules?. We had to show we had the funds available as we were buying our other house for cash, but that had an advantage as they knew we were serious.