So is this the norm or unprofessional?

[Miss.September]

We've never sold a house before so not sure if we should expect more of this or not.

In two days, we've had three private inspections. The two yesterday were fine. They were with the agents who listed our house and I came home and struggled to even see that someone had been here.

Today was an agent we're not dealing with from the same agency, but she had someone who was interested. First off she called me to confirm my appointment this morning at my own house. She had me down as the buyer. Laughed that one off.

I left the house and had been gone for about half an hour when she rang to say buyer was running late. No probs, thanks for letting me know.

An hour later I'm talking to DH on the phone and he gets another call coming through. It's our house calling him. The alarm is going off. He calls the agent and she hasn't followed the instructions so the alarm can't set and it's going off. The other agents have had no problem.

I get home, sort out the alarm and do a walk through. There is a soccer ball that belongs to my dogs sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. It was out of sight outside when I left. The curtains have been pulled down which defeats the purpose of us trying to sell the house as "fantastic indoor outdoor living". One blind is down all the way to the floor. I have some toys in the nursery that have been fiddled with and the pram is in the middle of the room, not where I'd left it out of the way.

I was sort of expecting that I'd come home to find the house as I'd left it. I guess our normal agents doing exactly that has left me with a false sense of what should happen. I really have no idea, but what would you expect?

[Phteven]

The blinds might be the buyers. I always turn lights off and pull blinds to see just how dark a home is during the day because agents always light them up as much as possible so you don't notice which rooms are dark.

But the minor stuff moved is weird - unless someone bought a child then it's normal. Trying to stop a toddler touching stuff during inspections whilst getting a good look yourself can be a very tricky balancing act. The agent should put stuff back for you if it's moved but if they are focussed on talking up the house to a buyer that might be tricky.

[Muppity]

Sounds to me like her potential buyer brought kids with them.

The curtains etc could have been the buyers - I would always open every curtain etc - but put them back like they were.

If I were you I would ring your agent and let them know that you weren't very happy and you would prefer to deal with them from now on. I can't imagine that they were 'special buyers' if she confused you with them...

[Miss.September]

That makes sense about the curtains - except they were exactly the same height which makes me think they were deliberately put that way. Other than the one pulled to the floor. But that was in the laundry, all the others were in our living area.

I'm honestly not fussed about kids playing with toys, if I was I'd make sure they were out of sight. It's more that nothing was put back. Especially when she told DH she'd sat out the front for five minutes to make sure the alarm wasn't going to go off again.

I guess I'm being picky. It just felt a bit weird to come home to it. Even DD said "What happened?!" lol. I think if she comes back and the house is left in the same way, then we'll say something.

With any luck, we'll get an offer from her

[OceanPrincess]

Ring your normal agent and explain that you'd like to deal just with them please, like Muppity says. Stuff being moved is a bit weird, unless there were kids. Ring and ask if there were kids.

FWIW, I think you are being very generous - you are heavily pg, have a 3yo, a self-employed DH who is working long hours away from home and you have accommodated three private inspections, during the day, in the space of what, 24 hours??, the day/two days before your first OFI. I would have been tempted to say it is not convenient - but I know you are trying to sell the place and want to get as many people through as possible. One of them might be the buyer after all!

But I'd be asking if the agent you have been dealing with can try and group these inspections - one a day maybe - and only if they absolutely cannot come to the scheduled OFI. You don't want to push anyone away but cut yourself some slack at the same time hun.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Ring your normal agent and explain that you'd like to deal just with them please, like Muppity says. Stuff being moved is a bit weird, unless there were kids. Ring and ask if there were kids.

FWIW, I think you are being very generous - you are heavily pg, have a 3yo, a self-employed DH who is working long hours away from home and you have accommodated three private inspections, during the day, in the space of what, 24 hours??, the day/two days before your first OFI. I would have been tempted to say it is not convenient - but I know you are trying to sell the place and want to get as many people through as possible. One of them might be the buyer after all!

But I'd be asking if the agent you have been dealing with can try and group these inspections - one a day maybe - and only if they absolutely cannot come to the scheduled OFI. You don't want to push anyone away but cut yourself some slack at the same time hun.

Yeah that.
You guys are being very accommodating, the least they could do is put things back.

When we bought here we checked the curtains etc but WE put them back, Ava played with things but again we moved things back. It's courtesy, they might be interested in buying but it's not theirs yet. IYKWIM.


Sent from my iPhone, more than likely while I should be doing something else!

[FabFiona]

We were selling our place when I was pregnant and I had to put the foot down - no inspections outside of our advertised open house times. I just couldn't manage to get the house into a presentable state more than one a week.

I'd just say to agent that you only want them showing people through. They want your commission after all, so will be ok with that.

[Mother Goose]

I'm with op and ZF too. Also, I was once told that only the listed agent should be doing anything with the house unless you ask for someone diff. It's very political. So I'd be curious if your agent is even aware!

[Miss.September]

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

[LuluHB]

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.

[nickle730]

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.

[Three Graces]

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.

[fionas]

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

[leesha]

I find it creepy!! But I think it's just because I would never let my kids touch anything unless the agent said here is a box of toys the vendor has left for the kids to play with. But people are strange and some have little or no respect for others these days!
As for the nappy change mentioned above that is just plain gross and disgusting! As a person looking thru at the same time I would of given the agent a heads up to go check out the baby's room if I had of seen that....I'm shaking my head in disgust :-(

[Miss.September]

OMG, the nappy change!!!!!!!

I don't expect the agent to "tidy up", but as I have left the house spotless and presentable, as per their instructions, removed the dogs, myself and DD while being almost 38 weeks pregnant, I would appreciate that today's agent would have at least had the decency to leave things as she found them. Especially seeing as we have an OPI tomorrow. And given that she couldn't even set the alarm - after we've given them a push button remote (Yep it's as simple as push once for on and push once for off), well yeah, bit sad.

We've decided to contact our agent tomorrow and tell him that we'd only like him and our second agent dealing with our property. If they can't manage to get to a private inspection in a time that suits their buyer, then the buyer will have to come to the OPI. At the end of the day, they're working for us. I'm concerned too because we have people who we need to make sure do NOT come into our house and our agent has assured us how they will go about preventing this and it's not an abnormal request. If the girl that worked today hosts the OPI, then I doubt very much she'll care about who actually comes in.