Buying A Home
Niffa2003
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Have you ever looked at a home and the sellers were there?
DH and I were househunting in the town he's taking a new job in a couple of weeks ago and three out of the eight homes we looked at, the owners were home. The first one (the home we ended up putting an offer on) the owner was home but she really stayed out of the way. The other places it was just super awkward, the people weren't personable and I just got the feeling that maybe it wasn't their option to sell (like it was forced) or something. I thought it was pretty standard that the current owners weren't there during showings?
Re: Have you ever looked at a home and the sellers were there?
Yes, and it's awkward. We looked at a few properties which were currently being rented and the current tenants were there every time. We never had it specifically happen with owner-occupied homes, although we did have a couple of homeowners who waited until we showed up to leave. Maybe they had been getting a lot of no-shows lately.
Oh, and one guy left a baby monitor on so he could hear what we were saying inside the house. We thought it was weird when there was a baby monitor turned on but no other evidence of a baby (no nursery, no crib, etc.) but gave him the benefit of the doubt... until he walked back in the home at the exact instant we were leaving holding the other part of the baby monitor in his hand. That creeped me out more than if he would have just eavesdropped on us in person during the showing.
We looked at many, many houses before buying ours (probably over 100) and the sellers were never present (except one that was FSBO). That seems extremely uncomfortable.
Also, we were never present in our home we sold during a showing.
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We sold our house when my son was 2 months old. I was typically home when people would come look at the home, but I'd take him on a long walk while the potential buyers were there. It was too hard to pick up and leave each time someone scheduled a showing, especially since most scheduled showings were last minute.
About 50% of the homes we've looked at are vacant, another 25% the owners aren't there when we look, and for the last 25% of the homes we've seen the owners are home and kinda hover while we look. Some like to point out special features, which is pretty annoying and awfully uncomfortable
Omg this is hilarious! And pathetic at the same time. I would have ruled that house right away, creepo
There were a few times the owner was present...
The one example that stands out was when the family was preparing breakfast (10am) and people were coming out of rooms in pjs! The agent said to follow her around and we said no thanks and backed out of the kitchen and house fast!
That house is still on the market and it has been over a year...
We had two experiences with the owners being there and they were super awkward. One time the owner was passed out on the sofa. We were told that they wouldn't be there and started walking around before realizing they were there. The person didn't wake up the whole time.
The second time, the woman gave us a tour of the place. She was nice and helpful but it was still a bit awkward. Especially since we realized the place wouldn't work for us fairly quickly but felt obliged to take the entire tour.
There was also one time where the family was walking out as we were walking in. That one was no big deal.
We saw 25 houses and only 2 of them was someone home. It was awkward both times.
One guy pretty well stayed out of our way. He would only allow the house to be shown while he was there.
One woman followed us around the house telling us things about the house (in an annoying way not a helpful way) and then wouldn't let us go in one room bc her adult son was taking a nap in there. The house had been on the market a long time and she was not will to reduce price at all.
The only time owners were in a house we toured was during a FSBO open house.
I would dislike it if the owners were home when I visited a house. And I would feel bad if it wasn't their choice to sell.
We like to discuss things we like and dislike about the homes and I would just not feel at liberty to be candid with my thoughts if the owners were there.
The place where it was the most awkward for us was this one house where someone was sleeping in the one bedroom (and no one who lived there had the courtesy to tell us) and their for sale sign was thrown in the backyard behind the pool...lol.
Another place, the listing agent told the owner the wrong time that we'd be there so she wasn't expecting us. The place was filthy and the woman was cooking something that smelled awful in the kitchen (DH said it was probably meth lol).
If nothing else, it gave us some good stories to tell our friends
XH and I looked at a LOT of homes, but the owners were only there in 2 of the homes. In one home, it was SO awkward, the house was a mess, they were cooking, and it was clearly a no go from the start. I also felt it was not their option to sell.
The second house was actually okay to have them there. It was a historic home, and they pointed out some really awesome features, were not overbearing at all, and then left and let us walk around and talk alone. They were actively trying to sell.
Twice.
One time the owners were just leaving as we were walking up to the door, so that was NBD. We ended up buying that house.
The other time was just bad all around. We made an appointment 2 days in advance, so it's not like she wasn't given any notice. The owner had the front door hanging open but locked the screen door so we couldn't get in. We rang the doorbell a few times, banged on the door and after a few minutes she finally came to the door. She said her soap was on and didn't want to miss it so she was waiting for a commercial to answer the door. Our realtor was taken aback by her being in the house (it's really uncommon other than FSBO) and asked if she intended to leave. Nope, instead she followed us (me, H and our realtor) around the whole time. It was super awkward. She didn't let us look in the coat closet and she got offended when I tried to open the pantry and some kitchen cabinets, so we didn't even bother to go past the ground floor. We were in and out within 10 minutes and that was the end of it. Our realtor found enough humor in the situation to let us know when her realtor called for feedback on the house. The only feedback he gave was that access to the house was essentially blocked by the homeowner who refused to leave the house, on the premise that she didn't want to miss her tv show.
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I'm really just a lurker but when we were house shopping, we did have one amusing experience.
The owners weren't home but we did open a door and walk into a bedroom and catch their teenage son smoking pot on his bed. Guess he thought he lucked out that his parents weren't home
I'd be really uncomfortable with the owner's being home. I feel like being very honest with your realtor as you look at houses is important and cuts down on having to go see homes that you really wouldn't like. And it's hard to keep a mental tally of the problems and then explain them after the fact.
Yes, and awkward.
One was an open house for a FSBO house. I guess the owner had to be there since they weren't using a realtor, but still, weird.
One was an open house where the realtor had an emergency and couldn't come, so the owner held the open house herself. At least she was up front about being the owner so we didn't mistake her for a realtor and say mean things about the house. Still awkward
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When we were looking at our now house the second time, we already were pretty sure we wanted to put an offer on it but wanted a 'homeowners opinion' and brought my dad to see it. The selling agent had neglected to tell the homeowners we were coming so they were home when we got there. They were very gracious and i felt it very beneficial to get thier insights on the neighborhood, knowing thier reasons for selling, (and selfishly knowing they were wanting to sell fast gave us a better picture of what to offer), and then when we did offer they accepted within 20 minutes, and we turned around and were actually did all our signing at the same time as them in the same room, since the selling agent was oot, our agent got her to sign everything and fax it to her agent. It was wierd to me that this all happened this way, but it was nice to know now what the exact issues with the house are (aside from what the inspector found), what neighbors have kids/cats etc, where to park if your spot is taken (its all street parking), all things we wouldnt have known if we didnt meet them. Also its helped too that they are friends with the neighbors so the neighbors come over to collect any mail we might have gotten for her, and its helped us to get to know the neighbors and not feel so annoyed by things like getting mail for her.
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