Viewings and curtesy

If you make an appointment to view a property that you know is inhabited, would you please have the curtesy to turn up? 6 times now I have had a viewing cancelled at the last minute for various reasons. Us vendors go to the trouble of cleaning and tidying, in my case with a small baby and very little time off, so the least you can do is honour your appointment. You liked the property enough to make the appointment so turn up! Moan over.

Was it anyone from this forum Penny? I would have a word with your Agent ; if you have one.

I sympathise Penny, frustrating and annoying. When we were selling our house in Sussex, we would spend precious Saturdays cleaning, making sure the garden looked good and then the so++ didnt turn up. Nothing more weird than the potential buyer. You will get there in the end!.

No Flip, no-one from this forum as far as I know but as there are plenty of house-hunters that post here it might just make them think a little before they waste an owner's time. Not much the agents can do unless you're an advocate of forced viewings ;-) Thanks Angie. I think 6 times in a row must be some kind of record!! Certainly is for me. "Nothing more weird than the potential buyer." Never a truer word spoken! When we were selling our house in the UK, we actually had someone make us an offer in the garden and ask us there and then to take it off the market only to never hear from them ever again - never answered the agent's calls! We also had some other numpty come to see our thatched cottage to say "Oh, it's lovely - do you think they'd let us change the thatch for tiles?". Why come and see a thatched cottage then????? Aaaargggh!

I wouldn't go to too much bother Penny, we bought our place with the electrical wiring stripped out, the well pump broken-so no water.... and a big SHIT in the toilet..   (no effort had been made to "dress" the house)  yep,   some people get carried away!!!

Yuck!!!!! I remember seeing a house once where the owners were still in bed when we knocked and showed us round in pyjamas. Yes - we did have an appointment!

When we house hunted, in 2001, we arranged [by email from the UK] visiting 'sessions' [3 hrs -ish] with about 6 agents over the period of 4 days.  We gave the Agents our requirements, and left them to prepare a portfolio of places for us to view So, when we met the agents to do the visits, some of the place offered were totally unlike our requirements, and some we had seen already with other agents - so we didn't view them.  [One Agent was working for 2 companies, so wanted to show us all the properties again] So don't just blame the house hunters - the Agents may also be causing some of the problems Good luck with the sale   Alan

Basically, it is a matter of good manners to inform the owners if you cannot keep an appointment. Unfortunately, good manners start to look as something of the past. You have my sympathy, Penny. It is very frustrating and having a young child getting the house ready for an inspection is more difficult.

Thanks both of you. Alan - I'm surprised you managed to find 6 agents who communicated by email in 2001!!! An agent can't know if you've seen the house before though can they? The thing is I've been on the other end when I worked for an estate agency and I know how fickle viewers are. In my experience, 80% of people who buy here, end up with something very different to what they asked for. I could describe exactly what almost everyone asks for: A house in the country but near to a village. No other houses nearby but not isolated. To restore but not too much work. With land but not too much land. A view of the mountains but not too near the mountains. etc. etc. Oh and I'd rather not say my budget in case you try to rip me off (obviously they don't actually say that bit - just are reluctant with the info). As this paragon of virtue can rarely be found, people have to compromise and therefore end up with something very different. A lot of the time they rely on the dreaded Tom Tom to navigate and arrive very late to viewings as they've been sent on a ridiculous route (yesterday's problem) or just try to view too much in too short a time (also yesterday's problem) and are exhausted. They don't appreciate that it might look like 100km on the map from Umbria to Amandola but guess what - there's a flippin' great mountain range in the middle and that slows you down!!! Maybe I've just been here too long and I've 'gone native'. I never have problems with estate agents.

Some people will also look from outside and think 'that's not what I am looking for' or the area isn't right so they think they won't bother you by looking inside.  They should ring though so you are not sitting waiting.  If you don't tidy up and the place is a tip to be sure they will all turn up!! Good luck! PS The Italians don't even bother to tidy up for the photos never mind viewings!!

  Do you mean viewings and courtesy?  Or do you want your potential buyers to curtsey when they come to view?  I would ask for a telephone contact number and I would certainly ring them if they were a no show. Good luck, tough market conditions! PS Not laughing at you but with you

Be nice if they did curtsey ;-) The longer I'm here the worse my English spelling gets....

  At least you can speak the lingo!  I’m still at the ‘buongiornia, ciao, come sta, va bene stage’  Just had this image in my head of your ‘late stressed out buyers, lost the way cos’ I followed sat nav’ also forgetting to curtsey  Fingers crossed that you sell soon.  Try Ebay – Alma has had some positive response. http://www.italymag.co.uk/community/post/not-sure-how-help-my-neighbour    

We have been selling our 13 apartments  in Le Marche for about 2 an a half years and we have had such a variety of experiences.  Some of the people have been incerdibly nice and polite: even those saying no have generally been very pleasant to deal with. Others seem to want to play lord of the manor and have been awful One recent cleint was told at the begining ( as all are) that the price is the price and not to expect a 10% discount added on and then knocked off so that they feel they are getting a deal. The cleint took huge offence, saying not all Italains are like that and that hey understand that the price is the price.  Then they came back and asked for a 10% discount saying that was the norm!  People are MAD! Speaking as a seller ( i also sell houses in Umbria & Como) the buyer really does need to trust you a little and confide the budget but people dont know, maybe the can't know, exactly what they are looking for.  Once they are in  house they know if its right or wrong and then can try and verbalise it.  Sounds odd at first but people arent thinking of a house but more of what they are going to do with their time in ITaly.   Nevertheless, the people who didnt turn up were more than a little inconsiderate