HATE looking at houses when the owners are home!

We've been going to see houses every weekend for the past six months, and I cannot STAND when the owners are home! They've been known to follow us around, explaining the ways in which we can use the closet space, or why there is a hole in the wall...And none of these were FSBO; all represented by agents.

Why, WHY do the owners stay home, or the agents not kick them out!?

We're seeing another house tomorrow and the agent changed the time because the owners wanted to be home.

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I know what you mean. We felt so uncomfortable looking at houses when the owners were there. I never felt like I could talk freely to DH or REA.

Good luck!

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I had one lady who ranted and raved about how wonderful her house was. It was such a turn off

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I tried not to be home when we sold our home but DS was 6 weeks old when we put it up and 12 months old when we sold. If he was napping I didn't wake him up so people didn't go in his room. I also stayed out of the way. If they had questions I waited until they were about to leave.

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It is a pain, but most of the time the homeowners are home, unless it's an open house (which they have to leave) or if they have a lock box.

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yeah, I hate that.
you can't really feel the house, and make the comments that you would like to make.
we went to one house and it was so cluttered we couldn't even open the closet door, but the owner promise that it was a big closet, they just have boxes in there from when the kids were younger.

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My IL's do that and I don't get it. They say they go out back but still. In CO it's not even an issue. You just aren't home for showing, end of story.

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This is why I try to never be home when people come, I know I hate being followed around by owners when I'm looking at houses. I always make my agent come and open the house and I put the kids in the car and go somewhere.

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i used to sit on the stoop of the co op when people came by when we were selling but even that was annoying to me. we were doing it fsbo at first though. my dad insisted on being there each time for his house and the one time he didn't stay he sold it!!

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ITA! i won't even open the closets! i feel funny! or the under the sink cabinets.....

and then sometimes i don't mind when they are there b/c at least they know the answers to my questions instead of the agent saying "i could find out for you....or I don't know...or i think so"........agents, if you are going to show a house...you should know the important components such as how old a roof is, the electric, sewers, etc....

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Omg, how annoying is that?!?! The house we saw that they tried to pass off the diningroom as a bedroom, the owner was home and told us, "Oh, well, of course this is a 3 bedroom, all you have to do is put a bed in the diningroom" as if we were stupid. GO AWAY!

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I hear ya on that!!!!

It is definitely a turn off. We have driven away from open houses if it seemed the owners were home.

It is very distracting. I wish they would get a clue. Sorry, we don't want to check out your house with you telling us where Jimmy first hit the ball and that you tiled that wall by hand.

You are using a realtor and want to sell your house, then you can find somewhere to go for 2 hrs. Go sit in McDonald's or take a walk in the park. Don't be lazy if you want to sell your house...to me, an open house should be homeowner free or don't have one. Just do private showings.

Message edited 8/9/2008 9:53:21 AM.

Re: HATE looking at houses when the owners are home!

I also hate looking at houses when the owners are there!!

on the plus side, if you be-friend them, they might accept your offer over someone else's

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I KNOW...when we were looking I will never forget we interrupted someone's dinner and they were so cute, little old people and they were eating pot roast That made me think that this place is where they most likely raised their kids etc and it felt so weird...

Or when someone is home and the whole family is just sitting on the couch watching TV silently you can tell they feel weird too...

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i know!! when we were looking for our first house, i couldn't stand when people were home. you don't feel as "free" to make comments, look in the closets,etc.
when we sold that first house, we made sure that no matter what we were out of the house when the agent had somebody that wanted to see it. LOL one time, we were in the middle of cooking dinner and the agent called and had somebody who wanted to see the house within a half hour... so we packed up the dinner and put it in the fridge and left for an hour or so.
it was all worth it though becasue we sold the house in like 3 weeks!

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I agree with all of you. We saw two houses where the owners were home. One of them was pretty bad and we would have left sooner, but got stuck talking to them in their kitchen.

The other one, I didn't know they were there until we went into the backyard and they're sitting on the deck. I was like OH HI.

As we walked over to the side of the house, the owner starts calling out comments like "I installed those gutter guards myself!" and "Don't worry, that dip in the lawn is not because of the cesspool!"

Turns out, we BOUGHT the house but he was there for EVERY viewing (3) and the inspection and the walkthrough even! Not to mention the RE agent followed us through every room. Sigh.

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When we went to the open house for the house we bought, the owners and all of their kids were home! the husband and the kids were watching tv in the living room and the wife tagged along with us when we looked through the house.

When we went back with our REA the owner actually gave us the tour. She was a whacko, but she did answer all of our questions.

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we are selling & looking too, so i know what you mean it is uncomfortable when the homeowners are there, but imo , from being the homeowner too, sometimes its a last min call from the realtor & its a pita to just pick up & go, especially when you have a large family . its hard ... we usualy hang outside , but to be honest any time we were home the people looking talked to us more than the realtor , & I did try to stay away,,

but i do know what you guys mean

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I hated that too. We had a sweet old couple practically begging us to buy their house. They were cute, but they got annoying real quick. I like to go in, make my comments and leave.

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i'm glad you posted this b/c my parents are trying to sell their house, with no sucess and I've been telling them its probably b/c they stay home when people come and potential buyers are uncomfortable.

My family has an 11 yr old dog, so it is hard to just go somewhere with her and that is the reason why they say they stay....they usually hang out in the yard. But the yard is a nice selling point, b/c its a nice size. idk...I'm tired of telling them.

hopefully someone will look past it, so they can move down and be with their granddaughter.

btw...its a great house in Massapequa park FM if you want the MLSLI link

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I hate that too. When my mom was selling hers she would just take off and go do something she would never want to be home. I think she stayed home once but just kept to herself outside. The worst if they are following you telling you the good and bad points that would cause me to run to the door.

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I really disliked it too but it worked out for us in the end.
They were here with their 3 children every time and let their son follow us around babbling away (I think he was around 6).
We indulged him & they ended up taking our lower offer after a few came in a little higher at the same time.
They said they liked us because we seemed family oriented like them and they wanted to see that in "their" home.

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It didn't bother me too much in general, but one house we saw twice (2 different open houses) and BOTH times, the teenaged son was in his room; once asleep in his BED and another time just got out of the shower, when we were walking through the rooms.

Message edited 8/9/2008 8:33:12 PM.

Re: HATE looking at houses when the owners are home!

Posted by dpli

It didn't bother me too much in general, but one house we saw twice (2 different open houses) and BOTH times, the teenaged son was in his room; once asleep in his BED and another time just got out of the shower, when we were walking through the rooms.