Time wasting househunters

I have moved several times and never had too much trouble with time wasters however I am reluctant to hand the viewings over to estate agents as one EA gave the keys to the buyer before purchase was complete and they went in and made structural changes to the house, therefore I'd rather hang on to my keys.
On another note if you only invite buyers who have sold their property does that put you under enormous pressure for you to find your next property. How long would you expect them to wait whilst you look?

Quite honestly, if the house looks and smells clean and is not cluttered with stuff all over the place, it will, sooner or later, attact a buyer.

If it looks obviously dirty or run-down, or as if you have no idea at all how to tidy up it won't sell.

So don't worry about tidying up - the very fact that doing so concerns you demonstrates that your home IS already tidy and well-cared for.

None of the tricks like a well-kept garden, or the smell of bread baking work. No-one expects to see a nice, tidy garden in November, and the first thing anyone does on moving is to re-decorate.

A buyer who can look at a house as a house, and not get hung up on the fact that you have a bookcase in every room, while they never have opened a book after leaving school, or that your kitchen was modern in 1990, will if he or more likely she, likes the house, buy it. Otherwise they won't.

My brother and friend went to look round the house he used to live in just to be nosey!

We need to adopt the system that is used in the u.s.a. and Australia I believe. You offer and if it’s accepted sign a contract that means you are buying said property. If you haven’t sold your place or don’t have the money to buy the house you’ve signed for then that is just your hard luck. You will not be able to get out of what you have committed yourself to. And in America the process takes maybe 4 to 6 weeks start to finish. In England it’s a nightmare. Buyer can pull out at any time up to exchange and getting to exchange is usually 10 weeks and often more! So effectively three months after agreeing with a buyer that they are buying your home then can just walk away and not buy it!!

We had an open day and we went out while estate agent stayed in the house. The first person in was our newly moved in next door neighbour to have a good nose around. This was followed by a couple down the road who said they had friends who were thinking of moving into the area and they were just checking it out for them - duh! Just don't think it can be avoided.

I enjoy watching "Escape to the Country" but sometimes wonder why so few people actually buy a house, they have usually looked at so many houses before the programme,and still cant make up their minds. I suppose they have a good week looking around and the programme providers make a good programme, so everybody is happy.

I was an estate agent for over 25 years and registered every person who wanted to view a house so we knew if they were in a position to make an offer. We didn’t want to waste our vendors time or our own as we accompanied all our viewings, by registering potential buyers we could ask all the necessary questions and relay the information to our vendors. If anyone didn’t even have their house on the market we would ask the vendors if they want the viewing.

Pippa22

I think a lot of the above comments are not how things are currently when selling a house particularly here in the south. Property is selling itself , nothing seems to take more than a few days to get a buyer and there can be up to 40 people waiting to view when a property comes on the market. Offers above is also very common which seems a horrible way to buy a home but demand is so high and many people seem to have plenty of money and be in a position to pay a premium to get the home they want. Covid has changed many people’s perspectives of how they want to live, and has helped them to saved a lot of money too.

If it’s offers above the published price, ask the agent how much they want, or best offer so far, you would not hesitate to make a lower offer. If you like the place make an offer and wait for them to come back.

A lot of great advice here. At the moment, it is what is called a “hot market” (especially, but not just, in the south east).
We moved last year, just after lockdown and in 6 weeks from offer to moving in). Three in our chain and we were all serious about moving. Your appointed agent should be checking the status of buyers, eg if they have a house for sale, is it under offer and if so, who is the agent (so they can follow it up). There are so many buyers out there, many so-called cash, and way too many for the house stock available. So many agents are just not bothering right now with unsubstantiated buyers. Friends of ours sold their house last year and moved into rented. They have been slow off the mark trying to find the “perfect property” and missed out over and over again because they were not quick enough to put in their offer. They saw a house they liked yesterday morning. It went on Rightmove at 10am and went under offer ten minutes later….
That said, a lot of agents approximate that one in three sales falls through.
At the current time, there can be several thousand buyers in the agents’ books all going for 40 or 50 houses. That’s why agents aren’t bothering to call up suitable prospective buyers on their books - they are having no trouble selling at the moment AT ALL. The market is very very much in favour on sellers at the moment. A while ago, the suggestion above to agree to only a month’s initial sole contract would not have been accepted by most agents - now they are so desperate, they’d probably accept any conditions from a seller.
Insist on the agents doing all the viewings, and yes, an open day is a great way to sell a house (and I hate to say it, even start a bidding war!!). You should be in a very good position right now. Less so, if you’re trying to buy something else!!

I think a lot of the above comments are not how things are currently when selling a house particularly here in the south. Property is selling itself , nothing seems to take more than a few days to get a buyer and there can be up to 40 people waiting to view when a property comes on the market. Offers above is also very common which seems a horrible way to buy a home but demand is so high and many people seem to have plenty of money and be in a position to pay a premium to get the home they want. Covid has changed many people’s perspectives of how they want to live, and has helped them to saved a lot of money too.

We're trying to BUY a house and it is so difficult. We're on our fourth try in over a year. Sellers have lied to us about important details, not dealt with their admin, or simply made no effort whatsoever to actually buy somewhere to move to. I should add that we are dream buyers, no need for a mortgage and nothing to sell. But the sellers are awful.

I had better luck with a local sole agent and make sure you tell them no time wasters, mortgages in place, their house under offer, etc. One time I had a lady who viewed my house for nearly 2 hours with 3 kids in tow, they were everywhere. I phoned to complain to the agent and they said " oh she does it all the time, she's hard to please and has been looking around houses for a couple of years". I was fuming as I'd spent time making sure everything was sparkling, cut the grass, etc just for a nosey Parker. I changed my agent.

I've recently been house hunting. Not one agent checked before viewing if I was able to proceed.

I should add, I'm a genuine buyer and have had an offer accepted.

We had this quite a lot when we sold our house a couple of years ago. It had only been on the market a couple of days when we had the first viewing - a doctor who came to view on his own, then came back another three times with various members of his family before putting in an offer £40,000 below the asking price !! You can usually spot the time wasters - they whizz round the place, don’t really take an interest and they’re vague about what they’re looking for. I got fed up after a few of these and the last straw was when a bloke came to view and said he wasn’t looking to move - he was local and having watched the houses being built some years before, he wanted to see what they were like inside !! I contacted our EA and asked them why they were not checking viewers’ ability and intentions to buy before booking a viewing, and made it clear that I would change to another EA if there were any more time wasters. It worked.

My flat is currently on the market and I quite like people coming to view as I then have to clean and tidy up. Otherwise the place would be a tip.

When we were looking for a new hone 7 years ago we could only view properties once we had an offer on ours. It worked well and we moved 8 weeks after the offer was made on ours.

I told the estate agent I only wanted viewings from people who were in a position to buy, then they would vet them, as I had previously gone through the situation of having the sightseers and as you say it’s a pain

Get your estate agent to arrange an 'open house's or have estate agent accompanied views only.

My DD and SiL are house hunting at the high end of the market and as houses are in short supply Estate Agents have not been allowing them to view until they have finance in place and they have sold their other properties.
I would have thought that should be standard.

Peasblossom

I think (unless its an absolute bargain) a lot of people are going to look round a house and say not for us. Visits that come to nothing have to be expected.

I know I did loads of visits, second visits and even one third visit and still decided no.

I don’t think people can be expected to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds without thoroughly researching what’s out there.

I agree you need to put a lot of time and thought into a house purchase.

But if, for instance, you know you can't stretch your budget beyond €350,000, why ring up and make an appointment to view a house that's on the market for €500,000.
You're just wasting everyone's time.

My son and daughter inlaw had loads of ppl doing this when selling one of their property’s when they met both had own place and they decided to sell her designer flat and rent out my sons house and buy larger property between them. Unfortunately you can’t weed out these ppl because you can’t judge a book by it’s cover so you can’t always tell if ppl got the money but luckily after first couple dropped out of sale last min a nice dr was soon behind them.

I sold my house last September. The estate agent only sent people over who had sold so there wouldn’t be time wasters. However the first person through our door delighted in telling us that she hated my next door neighbour, they had fallen out about 30 years before and still held a grudge with each other. She stood at the front windows and exclaimed that it would be killing our neighbour to see her car on our drive. The viewing didn’t last long as I then escorted her to the door with a flea in her ear, I assume I’m now on the grudge list.
Luckily I had 3 more views and the 3rd bought it.
My advice is tell the agent not to send anyone unless they are in a position to buy to stop time wasters and nosy neighbours.

I think the TV programmes such as Location Location Location encourage prospective buyers to put in insulting offers way below the asking price. I notice Phil & Kirsty on LLL often suggest an offer of £10,000 or more below, which is a very large amount.

Only 2 ways to avoid the selling or buying hassle

1 Don’t move
2 Sell by Auction

If you have a house that hasn’t been refurbished for a long time auctions are an option, large non refundable deposit and completion quickly. Limit any viewing to one weekend

I think (unless its an absolute bargain) a lot of people are going to look round a house and say not for us. Visits that come to nothing have to be expected.

I know I did loads of visits, second visits and even one third visit and still decided no.

I don’t think people can be expected to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds without thoroughly researching what’s out there.