House Viewings

[sense4all]

What is the most 'interesting' thing you have seen or experienced when looking around a prospective purchase.One that will always stay with me was "the small bedroom is in the need of the most decorative attention" try should have read "the local vagrants have had an indoor camp fire , there is a hole two foot wide in the wooden flooring and scorch marks up the wall."

Or in the upmarket riverside house where the owner was a stranger to house keeping ,actually feeling your shoes adhere to the floor covering and hearing a ripping sound every time you try to step across the room.

But my favourite was where there there was an understairs cupboard in the drawing room. Which the owner booted open from her reclininer ,to reveal an optic with "Stoly " on it , slurred "it stayed lovely and cold on that wall" downed one and continued the viewing, you could hear the row as we left the drive!

[Sozzie]

The dealbreaker was when the seller pointed out that their unfortunate dog had hanged itself on the stair banister !! (which was off the large living room)

I then a this mental picture of the poor dog for weeks !!

[Toureman]

I took a friend to view a large expensive house, the estate agent showed us round, my friend told me he was going to buy it until the estate agent opened the patio doors on to a lovely garden but we could not hear ourselves speak because of the deafening noise from the M25 which was at the bottom of the garden!

[SnowWolf9]

We went to view a 3-bed mid-terrace, which had been described in the details as having "it's own distinct & individual character" ... when we got there EVERY wall, ceiling and floorboard was painted black, the woman who answered the door looked exactly like an extra from the Aadams Family and the only light in the place was coming from the black candles that she was buring in the living room.

I know you've got to see past someone else's decor, but we didn't stick around long enough to even venture upstairs ... just TOO creepy !!!!

We ended up buying this house (which is approx. half a mile away from that one) and we drove past it 6 months later and the 'for sale' sign was still unsurprisingly outside! Creepy!

[shaneystar2]

When we moved to London over twenty years ago we went to look at a house and it was awful. As you walked across the lounge the floorboards went up and down .There was a huge contraption taking up most of the room which the owner told us was a machine for sewing upholstery as her husband was an upholsterer and worked from home. The kitchen was even more delightful.I have never seen so much pipework running around a room .It was like something out of a Heath Robinson drawing. We didn't bother to look upstairs !!

[WendyS]

When my husband and I were looking for our first cheap home we viewed two memorable old places. The first had been newly decorated throughout and was empty. I noticed a corner of wallpaper loose by a skirting board. When I lifted it, the whole roll peeled off the wall which was covered in a thick coat of green mould.

Another ground floor maisonetee advertised two bedrooms. We could only find one until we looked into the tiny back garden where we found a broken down old shed containing a rusty bedframe !

This was around the time the famous estate agent, Roy Brooks was advertising his properties & describing them exactly as they were, in hilarious terms. Does anybody remember him?

[thikasabrik]

About 20 years ago I went to view a house which had a newly decorated living room. On close inspection I saw that the wallpaper on the ceiling was held on with drawing pins! The walls were freshly emulsioned but they hadn't moved anything in the room when they painted. They had loads of wall shelves with books on and they had simply painted around the books, as well as around an armchair against a wall! The smell of paint didn't quite mask the aroma of their incontinent dog which deposited a copious amount from its bowels onto the carpet when we were there.

You may wonder why we didn't buy the house.....

[sense4all]

So the principle of house doctoring is safe for the forseable future! I saw a documentary about Estate Agents and some of Uncle Roys details were read out - eye watering honesty, fab. if you wern't the owner of the property. Do you think his style will come back into fashion?

Thanks to those who have shared so far .... I may never go to a viewing alone again. lol.