Home buyers have worst home shopping experience, seller’s agent need to tell client to clean house, dirty clothes, cat urine smell

Torn2pieces · 03-27-2007, 09:43 AM

I went house hunting this past weekend. I have a buyers agent. Let me say This one house I saw was utterly discusting. We opened the door and just about threw up. Clothes thrown all over the place, cat urine smell was putried.

As a past seller, I sold my house recently- I kept my house clean and did what I needed to do to make it look presentable.

Why would anyone who's selling a home allow realtors to show clients a disaster? I kid you not this house was discusting. Our agent was told by the sellers agent if you can over look the messy clothes, it has potential (meaning real fixer upper) We couldn't even enter the house, it was awful. The owners live amongst the urine and clothes.....

why would the sellers agent, not say anything about the urine smell or mess to their client? This was the worse house I've ever seen and it was not a cheap house either!!!!!!

settlepa · 03-27-2007, 10:03 AM

And they are probably calling their agent every day wondering why its not sold yet...LOL

Apple Annie · 03-27-2007, 10:05 AM

And, they probably want top dollar, and won't negotiate when an offer comes in because of the "deferred maintenance" issues.

It's also called "no motivation to sell".

kawgpz550 · 03-27-2007, 10:11 AM

I completely agree with you on this! I have seen some pretty bad houses as well. However, the other thing that really bothers me isn't even so much the showing, but when looking on the internet for homes available, there is clutter EVERYWHERE, dirty dishes etc. I don't understand why peopledo not make sure that the home is clean before taking pictures for the MLS. You cannot see the home for the clutter!

Angel_0037 · 03-27-2007, 10:31 AM

Sammie, you went through same thing my fiance went thru. We went to look at houses here and was horrified at the things we saw. I dont understand. If someone wants their houses sold then why would they let people in to see it the way it is. When my fiance and i sold our home in maryland, it was picture perfect. It sold in 2 days on market and only one person saw it and bought it for only 900 less then what we asked for. And believe me, where we were, it was a great offer. We finally bought a home in NC and this one was redone and new siding, carpet, fixtures, etc.. and was clean!!. Good luck.

Apple Annie · 03-27-2007, 11:45 AM

With regard to the MLS photos, the broker needs to (a) put the toilet seat down, (b) not take photos at all if the place is the pits.

That's why there are many MLS photos online of just the exteriors. I am always leery when I see exterior only photos. You just get a visual of what's inside.

Then again I've seen some with only interior photos; at which point you just know the outside is "not a drive by".

jdhall1 · 03-27-2007, 12:22 PM

Sometimes in both situations (only inside or outside photos) is because of a lazy agent. I picked up an expired listing with just photos of the outside and view of the lake, but the inside was very cute and going in to get the listing, I thought it would have been a trainwreck. Needless to say, I sold it in 2 weeks (with a new price and tons of marketing), and it closes Thursday and my homeowners loves me for it.

desertgirl · 03-27-2007, 01:00 PM

I'm most impressed with homes that are not just clean and pristine, but smell like fresh air. I don't like plug-in air fresheners or fragrances of any kind because they evoke images of something dated and old-fashioned, well at least to me. I'm sure there are home fragrances that are pleasant but, it might be hard to get rid of that smell if they're continuously used. Fresh outdoor air makes a home seem cheerier and inviting.

chaz longue · 03-27-2007, 01:25 PM

When I first became a Realtor in 1988, there was a house right in the center of a nearby town that was visible from the lovely historic town green. It had been an eyesore for a decade. Actually, eyesore is being quite kind. One day a Real Estate sign went up. A lot of agents went to look and had a similar experience at the front door as was described in the story at the beginning of this thread. The poor miserable dog chained in the dooryard didn't make it any easier to get in.

An enterprising local Realtor canvassed the neighborhood fairly discreetly and realized how annoyed the neighbors had become over the years. The Realtor spoke to several elected town officers and some employees as well. To make a long story short, a group of neighbors got together and made an offer. An offer which included some belt-and-suspenders language, in addition to the standard legal boilerplate - regarding the removal of personal property. The new owners bought the place and the sellers moved out of state as they had wanted to all along. It wasn't long before the town exercised it's option, and bought the property. Now it looks remarkably like the meadow that was there before the shack was even built in the first place.

I wish we could say we even found a new home for the dog.
But I'm not entirely certain whether bowser took his share of the proceeds and rode off into the sunset or not. Sure deserved to...

windflower · 03-27-2007, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by desertgirl

I'm most impressed with homes that are not just clean and pristine, but smell like fresh air. I don't like plug-in air fresheners or fragrances of any kind because they evoke images of something dated and old-fashioned, well at least to me. I'm sure there are home fragrances that are pleasant but, it might be hard to get rid of that smell if they're continuously used. Fresh outdoor air makes a home seem cheerier and inviting.

I completely agree. The last group of homes I saw (I'm looking out-of-area, so it's usually a half dozen or so in one day) included several with knock-you-over fragrances. Maybe not coincidentally, all of them had a dog in residence; small dog, true, but still a dog. Having also seen several homes in which the canine odour was horrendous, the over-fragranced houses made me wonder if the entire purpose was simply a cover-up.

I'm allergic to both dogs and cats, and also extremely sensitive to any fragrance -- so much so, that I can't even have an unlit scented candle anywhere in my home. I must use fragrance-free cosmetics, soaps, laundry detergent, et cetera, and can never wear perfume or scented hair products. So when I go into a home that smells like the candle department at Linens'N'Things, I literally hold my breath as much as possible and also go through it VERY QUICKLY. The houses with dogs + heavy fragrance were the worst. I couldn't wait to get outside and gulp some lungfuls of fresh air!!

I don't remember much about those houses other than one or two things I didn't like, and the overpowering fragrance, because I was concentrating too much on getting OUT of there.