I looked her up and found that she is the assistant to our main agent so he'd know that she was coming.
I feel unwilling to say/do anything at this point. I actually posted this wondering if I was being a bit OCD and overreacting. Now that I know it's not really the norm, I think I'll wait and see if she comes back and see how the house is left.
I know it's a fair amount of inspections in a short space of time, but at the moment I'm managing it. I'm sure that time is coming to a close and I will say something (even if they can organise it so it's not every day) but right now it's okay. We're getting a stack of hits online, so while it's running hot, I want to be as accommodating as I possibly can. Today wasn't bad as far as prep goes anyway, we're spotless so all I had to do was grab DD and the dogs and I went for a long drive. DD slept and I tried to encourage labour
Our agent pulled all our blinds and curtains after inspections at our house. I think she assumed it was a safety thing, and that we had opened everything up to let the sun in but she wanted to leave our house looking "safe". She also always asked if she could drag one of our boxes of toys out to entertain any kids that came with their parents - makes sense really cos if the kids are happy, Mum and Dad will stay longer and just might by the house.
The alarm is pretty inexcusable though. Agents deal with different alarm systems a kazillion times and if she had had a problem then she should have called you before leaving your home.
We sold last year. Honestly, I was surprised at the liberties people take in a home they are inspecting. I actually had someone at an OFI change a baby's nappy on my change table, use one of my bags (and I assume wipes and nappies) and leave the pooey nappy hanging in the bag on the end of the change table. I spoke to the agent, whom I was quite happy with in general, and it had been a very busy inspection and somehow she and her assistant had both missed the nappy change. Who does that at an OFI???
I also had people use my bouncer, my high chair and kids trashed the cubby. Now, if I'm inspecting a house I explain to my kids that this is not our home and they must not touch anything. Kids being kids, they might not be able to restrain themselves but I would ALWAYS make sure that anything they touched was back in it's original place (and I would grab it from them immediately they picked it up). If my child is too young to understand the 'look, don't touch' theory, then I carry them instead of giving them free reign in someone else's home.
Having said that, I did not expect my agent to clean up after an OFI. I wanted lights switched off and doors locked. I know my agent had other OFI's to get to so didn't expect her to tidy before leaving. My dismay was with the people who inspected our home, not with our agent.
I wonder if the people who inspected your house on this occasion had children with them and they ran amok? I would expect the agent to ensure nothing was damaged, but not necessarily to tidy up before leaving.
We sold our place 2 years ago when we had a baby and a toddler and 2 dogs, so I told the agent that I was only doing the scheduled OFI's. We did a couple of private opens during Dec/Jan before the campaign OFI's started. I just didn't have the energy to make our house spotless 3 or more times/week. I know you want to be accommodating and sell your house, but if somebody was serious about spending a lot of money on a home, then they'll get to an open inspection etc. I'd also just check with the agent that kids attended the inspection, b/c it would be really weird for things to be moved around if there weren't any children present.
I'm going to go against the grain here and I'd say be as accommodating as possible. This is not a great market and you want to sell. Having said that, I'd perhaps have a gentle word with that particular agent and say that you'd really appreciate everything being put back as it was found. They shouldn't take offence to that.
I sold two years ago. I was heavily pregnant with a 2.5 year-old. I had severe SPD and couldn't walk very much at all. Couldn't bend. Getting the house ready was a major logistical exercise. I had to tidy by wheeling myself around the house on a wheelie chair so I could get things off the floor. I had to clean in 10 minute stints throughout the day to get it all done because I couldn't physically do it all in one go. I had diabetes too and was knackered. We had two scheduled inspections per week and about six private inspections. I complained about the private inspections and my agent gave me some wise advice which is that in his experience you just never know where your buyer is going to come from. He knew I was a complete physical wreck and I made him promise that if I needed him to help me with the last 10 minutes of froofing (if DP was working), he would. He was an absolute angel.
We had a couple come to every single inspection plus arrange their own private inspection with an architect mate. We thought they were a shoo-in to buy. They didn't even bid at the auction. You know who bought? A woman living in London who'd seen pictures on the internet and sent her brother to the auction. So our agent was right, you just never know. I was spewing that all that tidying had been a bit wasted though
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