Buyers, be on your best behaviour

If you’re viewing a property and the vendor is present, it’s important to remember it’s their home, so be respectful and avoid committing a faux pas otherwise you could run the risk of them not wanting to sell to you.

While some sellers prefer to be absent when viewings are taking place, many are keen to see who the potential buyers are. Therefore, when viewing a property, it’s an opportunity to score brownie points with the seller and the estate agent. Small gestures go a long way, for example, offering to remove your shoes at the door. This demonstrates that you’re respecting the seller’s space.

Remember to be mindful of what you’re saying when you’re in the property. If you plan on gutting the house from top to bottom, perhaps leave that conversation for when you’ve left – and walked sufficiently far enough away. Don’t stand outside the front door chatting after the viewing as chances are the seller will still be able to hear you. As a seller it’s a very personal thing opening up your home to others and being subjected to judgement from strangers about your choice of décor, furniture, and the way you live and so on. So, as a buyer, if you do have comments, they’re best left discussed out of ear shot if you don’t want to offend the seller and in doing so, reduce the chances of them wanting to sell to you.

Equally, don’t scare the seller! We had clients who loved the house we had won for them at sealed bids so much, that we had a call from the estate agent politely asking our buyers to stop hanging around the property every night after work! Or more recently, I viewed a property with an estate agent and, on arrival at the entrance to the block of flats, we were accosted by an investor who had made an offer on the property and was policing it to see who else was viewing – despite his offer not having been accepted yet. No doubt the estate agent would have reported the buyer’s psychotic behaviour back to the seller.

If you have a question you’d like Jo to answer please email enquire@eccord.com or tweet her @joeccles.