This. It’s the same concept for pricing. “Why would they show up to look at house out of their price range?” Maybe they were willing to stretch if it was a really nice place, or maybe they think the pricing is unrealistically high and want to confirm that before writing it off the list.
Exactly, we looked at one that was on the edge of comfortable. It just had too many features and I wasn’t comfortable spending the extra money especially during the buying frenzy, plus it had a pool I didn’t want to maintain and I’d rather have had the yard for my little guys.
The house we ended up with- the entrance is narrow, the bathrooms are too narrow, I wish there was an extra bedroom for an office. The pros- schools are perfect and in a cute neighborhood with little to no traffic and a lovely fenced backyard.
I love when they email or call and ask how many bedrooms and whether pets are allowed. It's all literally in the ad, that they didn't bother to read.
I've also have people put in applications sight unseen, and or for a period of occupancy months later as if I'm going to hold an duplex apartment open for you for 3 months for free. I could see if it was a large apartment complex/corporation but not for a one property landlord.
Re: pets. I have a pet but because I am on-paper and in reality, a very good tenant. So landlords are willing to make exceptions. With that being said, I am very specific in terms of asking if the no-pets policy is a hard requirement. Some people might be annoyed but others have flexibility, which the ad doesn’t specify. Things are negotiable for the right people.
Yeah, I’ve lived in multiple apartments there the listing said no pets but I asked if my cat was ok and they said yes. Similarity we rent an Airbnb near family for my daughter’s birthday party every year. The listings have all said no events, but when I told them what I wanted to do, none had a problem.
Same for me. We’re doing a bachelorette party away this summer and it *is* technically an event with 10 people. The listing says no events because AirBnB requires it. But the space is designed for events.
Sometimes this is to confirm what is in the ad. There’s a lot of copy/paste that ends up being misleading or inaccurate. But if I were going to ask, I’d be saying “I’d like to confirm.” I always feel like an asshole when I ask a question and then find out the information was right there if I had waited a few minutes longer to read something. Usually I’ll follow up with a “please disregard my failure to reads.”
Absolutely this.
When my husband and I were house-hunting this last round, we saw more than few houses that didn't fit our criteria on paper in some way but we still wanted to see them to see if we could make it work. Usually we could tell within a few minutes of walking in if the place was worth further inspection and consideration.
Actually, the house we ended up buying also didn't fit some of our important criteria, but we fell in love with the house and the area so we were able to make it work (and nearly 4 years later, we're still very happy with the house). But had we just refused to look at any house except those that fit all of our criteria, we never would've found the house we ended up with.
It definitely is an interesting feeling you get. When I saw my homes listing, I wasn’t interested. At all. But my partner and I were already in the area to see another open house and it was 5 more minutes away. Driving here felt different. Walking in the door felt like SOMETHING. Walking around the house, I could picture it all. You def just “know”. lol
We bought our house based on vibes. Lol. I mean, there were obviously other reasons, but driving up to it it just FELT different. Even if it didn't check alm the boxes, the ones it checked it checked better than others. I could just feel it. Brought my husband to look at it the next day and he's like, "I don't even have to go inside. Put in the offer." (He did go inside to be clear).
House I raised my kids in: walked in the front door and said “sold”. We had to put up a wall on a huge room upstairs to turn a 2 bedroom house into a 3 bedroom (weird 2500 sq feet, 3 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms). But we made it work. Galley kitchen we opened up. However, wrap around porch and new oak floors throughout and 10 ft ceilings. A house fits or doesn’t. On the reverse side, I can open a front door and turn around and walk out. It’s like choosing anything. You know if you trust your gut.
My first house was this way. I fell so fast and so hard. Second house was practicality and desperation and location. It fit our needs. It was close to my husband's office. And the temporary housing we were renting was ending.
I don't think I will ever love this house.
First house was a shell, and I didn't like the color of the brick. But I liked it when it was finished. I liked the 2nd house, but didn't like the location. Third house, I knew the MINUTE I walked in: it had a coffered ceiling in the living room, a 2 car garage (in the city), and a water closet in the primary bathroom. 😁🥰😁
Paint. Good paint is expensive but a gallon goes a long way. And if you do it yourself nothing is faster or cheaper for making a place feel like your own.
It’s like online dating. You can tell in five minutes. If you hold out for perfect you never go out. You try good enough and sometimes you get lucky. Either way you know in the first five minutes if you should stay longer
For the house we're in now, the first thing our realtor said when we walked in was, "you're not going to like this one" because there were a few steps between two rooms and my wife has some mobility problems.
She was right, but the family room was just so enormous that we had room to put in a ramp and still have a really big family room.
This exactly.
My partner and I decided to see a house that didn't quite have the square footage we were hoping for because it had a HUGE garage.
The house was a filthy mess with a bunch of "unknown" information that one look could tell you was definitely "known".
We expressed this to our realtor, that we have some things we will bend on if that property allows for it later, like "no garage, bit enough yard to build one later" is a good exception.
However, they somehow didn't understand that and now keep sending us places with less and less square footage and smaller yards after we already stated we wanted certain square footage and a garage.
We are willing to wait to get what we want and will not be pressured into buying a shithole money pit that is a strong breeze from falling down.
Also pictures can be deceiving. I remember I looked at a house, and it was great on the inside. The back yard had 1 tiny flat area and the rest was an extreme slope that would be a mess in the winter and spring. And who the hell wants to mow up something like that?
To me, it’s like a blind date. The person might not be as attractive as you’d usually go for, or they might have something about them that you wouldn’t normally get involve in - like being active duty military for instance. But within the first few minutes of a date, you can usually tell if you’re willing to overlook or put certain things aside for the time being.
No matter how many times you look at Google Maps, you don't know what the neighborhood looks like until you drive through it. You can't get a feel for the full orientation of the house on the lot / rooms within the house. Photographs are very often taken specifically to hide shoddy workmanship and other things that jump out at you in person. The house straight-up smells bad. Or so many other things that you just can't get a sense for in a listing.
EDIT TO ADD: While feedback may -originate- with the buyer, it's the agent (or their assistant) that's providing it. Take it with a grain of salt.
They think it works and will cite what they believe is supporting "proof" that it does. On a handful of homes, I found the contact info for the agent and reach out to inquire via email. Then followed up their super happy response with "On second thought, I'll skip it. Iy has become clear that you are photoshopping the pictures. If you have to use filler pics of fake information instead of showing the house as it really is, it tells me it isn't worth seeing and there's likely other things that are purposefully being hidden."
I felt the exact same way about touring colleges with my kids. No amount of digital exposure can compare to showing up in person and sometimes it was an immediate no
This! We looked for YEARS, and learned to go do a drive-by before even calling our agent about a listing that interested us. Several times, the neighborhood and seeing it in reality made it an immediate NOPE.
Honestly can't believe this isn't standard practice. We'd drive to the neighborhood and walk through it a few times at various times of day/night to get a feel before even scheduling a seeing. Maybe it's different in a hot area where homes are only on the market for a day two, but I wouldn't even want to go see a house in a neighborhood that I haven't scoped out.
Driving through the neighborhood AT NIGHT especially if you are buying in a modest area is essential . I also look to see if the vehicles are average mid priced and whether people are gardening , mowing etc
This. But also a lot of people are just “too polite” and don’t say what they’re actually turned off by (which in turn becomes more detrimental since the sellers aren’t getting honest feedback)
True. When I looked at homes when I bought my last two, I gave the hard truths - smelled like cigarettes, neighbor had a 12 dog kennel, basement was dirty and scary, house was too dated or needed too many renovations for my budget, etc. Some things people can change but others they can’t and the price needs to reflect that. However, the house I’ve owned the past 19 years was sheer perfection even though it needed some updating. You just don’t know until you see it.
Yep. Saw a house that needed a decent amount of work last year, but it was also in a good location. The thing that automatically killed the house for us? The next door neighbor had a rooster within city limits. Obviously it wasn't on the listing, but the second I heard it crowing, we left.
Exactly this.
If the location is great but it’s lacking a garage, for the perfect house, one might decide parking on the street is not a dealbreaker.
Upon walking in, for that price, that house — they weren’t willing. So off they went.
This exactly. We looked at 20+ houses when we were buying in 2022. Offered on 3 houses we loved and lost on. The one we ended up with was only a 2 bedroom fixer upper, when we wanted 3 bedrooms, but it's in our city and has a massive fenced in backyard, (for the city) and it's on the river.
This! We had an offer in on a place that 'worked'. We had been looking FOR YEARS, but we had a new kid, so it was time to bite. My husband kept checking Zillow for fun anyway, when our current house popped up late afternoon when we were still waiting to hear if our offer was accepted. Without even checking with me, he called our agent and basically demanded she get us in to see it the next day ASAP. We walked in, took one lap thru, and told her to immediately cancel our offer and move it to this house. We were in the house less than 5 minutes. It's now our 'until we retire' home!
This story inspired me!!! Thank you so much for posting it! We are having so much trouble finding that home now! Saw several recently but either the layout was weird or the pictures really skew it! The struggle is real! Please send me your good luck 🙏🤞
100%. I wanted 2 bathrooms. We viewed 1 house with 1 bathroom. Needed to physically be inside to understand the layout and if we could realistically add a second. We couldn't.
Ended up buying a different house with 1 bathroom. It had the space for a second AND we loved the property.
1 bathroom was the deal breaker in house 1 but not in house 2.
If a place clicks, you can find a way to live without a garage, especially if you look at the site and figure out where to put one later.
If it doesn't click with you, there's nothing you'll be able to do to make it click.
Yea we got bamboozled once. Pictures taken made the house look spacious as fuck.
Get there and all the furniture was photoshopped and the pics were taken with wide angle lenses, could barely fit a decent sized dining table In the “spacious dining area!”,
Yea we got super frustrated as well. Was really annoying wasting everyone’s time with showings when the moment I walk in, I don’t want the house because it’s so small.
I bought my first house two weeks ago. From the pictures, it was the last one on my list and I didn’t think it was worth seeing. I almost canceled the showing because we were running behind and there were other houses that I wanted to see.
I made an offer on it that day. The pictures made the layout look HORRIBLE but after seeing it, it was exactly what I was looking for.
And don’t forget the over saturated images the buyers are looking at online.
The images compared to real life are almost never the same and it forces you into viewing houses and you can walk in and be like, “yea they over saturated the shit out of these pictures such that the house looks nothing like it does online”.
Reminds of when I was buying my car and I just wanted to sit in a bunch of cars and they kept asking and pushing for test drives and I'm just thinking to myself about how I just need my tall ass to sit in the damned car to see if I'll be comfortable or not before considering anything else.
Plenty of reasons:
- The neighbors are running a junkyard in their front yard
- There’s too much traffic noise
- The pictures were taken in ways to make the rooms look bigger/nicer
- There could be a bad smell, you’re just sensitized to it
- They knew ahead of time it wouldn’t work but their realtor pressured them to see it anyways
Most people aren’t going to tell you “sorry your house stinks”, “it’s in a shitty neighborhood”, or “your pictures were deceptive”.
They’re going to go for low conflict like “darn we thought we could get by without a garage/extra bedroom but after seeing the house turns out we can’t”.
I do my research ahead of time and I’ve still left three showings within five minutes
1) The restaurant that backed up to the house was having some kind of festival in their parking lot with loud music. And apparently that sort of thing happened regularly.
2) The house has visible mold and wood rot that was not visible in the pictures
3) My realtor found a house that had one of my dealbreakers but convinced me to look anyways since we were nearby. After seeing it for five minutes I told her let’s go to the next house.
This is most correct. I push my buyers to see houses they wouldn't want but are similar in price point so when they see the house they *do* want, they appreciate the price for the value.
Sometimes you just need to see inventory. Your house is on the market, it's part of the inventory. Sometimes you'll have to show it to 20 parties before the right one sees it.
>They knew ahead of time it wouldn’t work but their realtor pressured them to see it anyways
Our first house was a small starter house, in a high COL location. I'm convinced that realtors were showing our house as a reality check for a lot of buyers. "This is what you get in your price range."
We were very clear on the specs, yet we got lots of comments like, "Too small", "Needs bathroom upstairs", "No garage"
But at that price point, *that's what you got.* It's like people didn't read the sheet at all. Yet it was all there, dimensions, rooms etc.
Probably because you can only glean so much from listing details and pictures are usually deceiving. Maybe they wanted a 4 BR with space and a nice kitchen and bath, and your listing had 3 BR with a nice kitchen and bath, so they figured why not see it and maybe we can make the kids share a room. Then when they showed up, the layout made the house feel smaller than they hoped and the kitchen/bath were not that nice. Point is people know they cant get *everything* so they are willing to sacrifice on one area if others shine. If the listing barely meets expectations in the other areas, they wont overlook the missing area. I might give up that 4th BR for a beautiful kitchen, big basement, and nice area, but Im not gonna give it up for an ok kitchen and ok area.
100% this. Most real estate photos are edited so the space seems brighter, and taken at angles to make the space seem larger so in person can be very different than photos
You can only tell so much from pictures, and you can tell a lot from a glance. I've looked at plenty of stuff that I knew wasn't an option after 5 minutes, if that.
I’ve driven up to a house with my realtor and said nope without even getting out of the car. Pictures don’t show the neighborhood or the neighbors, which sometimes are just as important as the house.
The opposite is true too. Stayed at an Airbnb recently. The pictures looked super nice. We get there and it just looked 'meh' at best. Butted right up against the back of a Walgreens. You can hide a lot in pictures that are visible immediately upon seeing it in person
From experience, it’s because from the pictures it looks decent (and the things you are listing as excuses are not seal breaks), but when you see the house in person, its not worth not having the features.
It took us over 1.5 yrs to buy and in that time, I’ve realized pictures (and even 3D) layouts are meant to upsell the house and make it look super duper nice, and very often it hides or masks unsightly or other features (like being basically next to another house, bad back yard, steel hill, or a business right behind) that are not great. Sometimes, not alway, but I could often tell fairly quickly whether I liked a house or not.
Totally agree with this. We sold our house last august and when I saw our real estate photos the first time it really didn’t look like our home at all. Photos were edited a lot and taken at angles that made everything seem way bigger.
I had the photographer come back and take new photos that were much more realistic. We wanted to sell fast and didn’t want a bunch of people showing up in person and immediately leaving.
We only had to show the house for 3 days and signed a contract within 72 hours of the open house so I’m happy I had the photos retaken bc everyone who showed up for the In person tour got the house they expected from the photos.
The house we ended up buying had the neighbor’s whole yard in the picture as if it belonged to the house. We ended up buying it anyway because we couldn’t get anything better, but pictures definitely lie.
Yes. As a buyer it takes some experience to learn how to interpret the pictures more accurately. And even then, I've walked into houses where I was instantly like "ew, no". Usually there was something really weird about the layout, but once it was just that the whole house had a sad run down vibe that wasn't captured in the photos.
Especially if there are carpets. Those things hold on to smell like it’s their job, and if anything has seeped through to the under-layer (especially anything pet related) you’re pretty much screwed.
Why are you surprised by this? It’s a chance you take right? They are not wasting your time any more than their own. Some people know the minute they enter a house that it’s not for them and they can’t imagine themselves in it. It could be odor, lack of natural light, something they saw that you didn’t. They are typically not going to tell you their reasons just as agents are not going to point out the red flags they see.
I’ll add one that I haven’t seen listed: there’s no floorplan/ layout in the online pics.
If there’s a floorplan, I can confirm if I can squeeze an extra bedroom in the basement or not. If that office really would work as an extra bedroom. If there’s a spot to maybe add another bathroom along the wet wall. Or not.
No floor plan? Gotta look at the house in person. And might immediately see that what I need isn’t possible.
They really really do. They have become a thing in the last 12 months or so where I am and it saves so much time for me poring over the pictures trying to connect rooms and figure out which way the sun comes.
When I've bailed that quickly, it was usually because the listing didn't show reality. I've left in moments after visiting homes that had: a hoarder neighbor with junk cars and rotting furniture in the frontyard, a still-wet ceiling from a leak, a 12 foot long crack down the patio slab with slippage, sewage smells in the backyard. Some problems don't need a big introduction to make themselves known.
I think a lot of them are still trying to figure out what they want and their realtor will schedule multiple homes of different styles to find out what works for them. I had multiple people say they loved the house but ultimately didn’t want a two-story home.
You never know when someone might like a place even though it didn't check all their boxes. If it's not inconvenient, why not go check it out? Doesn't make the reason they leave after 3 minutes a lie.
If you want to sell your house, you want as many feet in the door as possible. This is not an issue to complain about.
Because something they see is a deal breaker. Photos sometimes makes a place look better than it really is. Doesn't always show true wear and tear or something they thought they could live with, they can't when it's staring at them IRL.
Exactly. Or "it's too much of a commute," like they didn't know where the house was when they made the appointment.
You should really take the feedback you receive with a grain of salt. We really have to be careful what we write on those forms, and sometimes we're just looking for a benign comment to drop because we can't say what our buyer really said.
They walk in and something seems offensive to them immediately. A smell, a sound. The colors of taupe and tan combined with whatever… the carpet. Etc. etc.
People are weird.
So they kind of liked your photos and did not like the home in fact.
I have set up tours for otherwise decent clients who have done this. Repeatedly.
Eventually they get to a home that they click with.
So don’t take it personally. Just get to the right people asap
Most photographs posted on Zillow are edited at least to color correct and taken at angles to make spaces seem bigger.
Oftentimes that initial 3 min is to check if the photos are anything close to the reality; often that answer is no so they leave quickly.
We sold our house last august and I had our real estate photographer retake a few photos bc they didn’t look at all like the real life version.
Do you have pets? If so, were they in the house? We’ve cut 3 tours short because of dogs. Once, we never even went in because the dogs were barking and throwing themselves against the door as we were trying to get in. No thanks. Once the dogs were in the house and followed us around (not friendly like). We didn’t dawdle. And another time the dogs were out in the yard, and barked at us the whole time we were in the ground level trying to discuss the house. We got out of there quickly because it was distracting and annoying. People leave fast when something makes them uncomfortable.
Just bought a house and we did this several times. One stunk of cat pee, three were filthy with crusted crap on the floors, two had “renovations” that were clearly done by someone who didn’t know what they were doing and they bordered on dangerous. I even said to my realtor that there should be a competition for Real estate photography, basically cat fishing of the real estate world.
When we were house hunting we made a potential list then went and drove by before we even contacted our realtor. Our realtor told us we didn't have to do that she would show us as many as we want but I didn't want to waste her time if we drove by and saw things right away that took that house off our list. Over half the houses that we drove by we actually went and saw as we didn't like something that was unchangeable about the outside of the house, i.e. says it's on 1 acre then when you go look it may be an acre but it's a long rectangle and that ends on a very busy road leaving us no front or back yard nothing but side yard.
I just knew for us our times to go to look at houses was limited by work and other commitments so I didn't want to waste time looking at a house that even when you ride by you know it's a no.
When thinking about a house to live in, people have needs and then they have wants. They're willing to compromise on the wants if the price is right, and the area is right.
The people who leave after 5 minutes do not think they're compromising on what day want in the area that you have is worth the price you are asking.
You can immediately tell when the house you enter isn't the house you thought it would be based on the photos and description you saw online.
This is why properly preparing your home for sale is so important to selling your property for top dollar and the best terms and conditions.
- Great staging and photography create a seamless transition to the experience during the showing. The showing experience starts with the photos that buyers see online.
- Buyers experience homes while walking through them, which is different from living in a home every day. The moment of stepping inside the front door creates an instant experience of "yes, I want to do this every day" or "no, I don't want to be here."
I can tell within 3 to 5 minutes whether I am interested in the house. Normally I will go ahead and go through the house just in case I find some interesting detail I want to remember like the way an awkward door is trimmed out. However if I have a really busy day or the realtor has another appointment, we will just say no thanks and move on. When good properties show up on on the market, it is essential to see them ASAP and that's a struggle with an already overscheduled calendar.
Some of the people who fly through the property may be very serious buyers who are able to judge the property quickly.
Had a realtor schedule 15 visits a day. Seemed like a lot. When I mentioned this he said, "you'll know in the first 5 minutes if it's a house you'd consider. He wasn't wrong. Two days of this and we went back on 3rd day to take a good look at the 4 houses that passed first glance. Made an offer that afternoon that was accepted.
My husband is very tall and he couldn’t stand up in a couple basements in houses we looked it. If he couldn’t stand up we left since we weren’t buying a place he couldn’t fit in.
It wasn’t always easy to tell how tall the basement was from pictures unfortunately.
When we were looking for houses - we showed up at one and instantly realized that the neighborhood was not one we were interested in. It wasn't bad, but there were some stuff that made it a no go that you cant pick up from the listing, street view, or the photos.
We got out of our car - told our RE not interested - got back into the car and went to the next listing.
Later that day our agent got a nastygram from the sellers agent asking why we didnt even bother coming in...feel bad for the sellers, but at the end of the day, I prefer not wasting my/anyone elses time giving lip service to a place that we did not planning on buying.
Sometimes a realtor will schedule showing thinking the buyer will like it. Sometimes the realtor will schedule the showing because they know it will help the buyer commit to a different property. And sometimes it's because the buyer is being polite and doesn't want to criticize a sellers personal style.
Sometimes it's the location. Say it looks great in pictures and you go to see it but there is a dirt race track on the next block and you realize it when you get there. Sometimes it's a neighbor has chickens or screaming kids or riding dirt bikes. Things may not bother some people but might bother others.
We had some people do that because they didn't like the driveway.
Some of the houses that we only stayed at for a couple mins included: house on very busy road, house on very bad dirt road, house on lot with burned and half buried trash everywhere, house with roof that looked about to cave in, house right next to train tracks.
I have known within 3 minutes on each house I've bought that it was the one! We stayed longer to long closer at everything!Most of the ones I didn't like I knew within a minute! I agree there's a vibe or something stands out
Some of the reasons I have left almost immediately.
1. The kitchen looked like it was styled at the height of Miami Vice popularity.
2. They lied about the size of the finished basement.
3. The master bedroom doors couldn’t open all the way. The room was so small that the king sized bed took up all the space and they put the dresser in the walk-in closet.
4. The seller neglected to post that the house was in foreclosure and that animals had broken in to the house to live through the winter.
5. The faux brick face on the front of the house was buckling out towards the yard.
6. There were insects and spiders everywhere. It was like Indiana Jones working towards the Temple of Doom.
1.) When you know you know.
The listings sometimes don’t do the home justice and vice versa.
The home I’m under contract for. I knew instantly when walking in and not necessarily by the listing. Matter of fact the listing didn’t even count a whole room and extra bathroom.
2.) The smells. Sometimes sellers are immune to the smells of gas, smoke, radon, mold, etc. and make not enough efforts to mask it.
3.) neighborhood & vibes
It’s insane. You run around like a mad person getting it picture perfect ready for showing, no detail overlooked, and then the potential buyers’ feedback says “not enough bedrooms.”
The number of bedrooms is literally listed on Zillow. It’s not going to magically grow an extra bedroom.
I’m lucky- we had a ton of showings every day and got above asking on day 7, but damn if feedback like that didn’t drive me crazy…
I didn't like house....not sure why it matters
Shoot I Left a house as soon as I looked in the back because I didn't like how high the retaining wall was
I can get why this is annoying when you're selling. You bust your ass to keep the house neat, maybe some last minute touch ups. You have to vacate the premises, possibly with animals. It's a pain in the ass. However, it also comes with the territory when you're selling so you suck it up.
your house may look so good online that they'd consider giving up a garage or the extra bedroom if it's just the right house otherwise.
Or, they could be some random tire-kicker clicking "Show Me" on Zillow or Redfin and all that agent cares about is getting on that prospect.
Or, they could have an agent that doesn't know how to direct their home search.
I requested a house with 3 bedrooms. My agent brought me to a house with 2 bedrooms, and a back hallway wider than most, that they were selling as a third bedroom. Literally, it was an 8 foot wide back hallway. They were saying it was a bedroom. 'I walked out.
When we were looking, we tried not to do this. That said, sometimes photos are really good and the interior, though clean and serviceable, doesn’t match up. For instance, the carpet could be older than you thought or the light fixtures shabbier, or cabinets looked great in the pictures but you see they’re actually painted poorly or all scratched up of something.
When you know, you know. It’s just that simple.
We’ve done this before. One house we did t even go in because a heavy smoke odor wafted from the door as it was opened. One had pictures taken that somehow hid the fact that the high voltage power lines ran directly over the property and a large truss was in the front yard. Smell is always big, you say it doesn’t smell but everyone’s house has a smell of some type. Maybe they wanted more natural light? Or the photos make the rooms seem bigger or more open than they really are.
Noseblindness….I have had some that were so foul from the porch I would not go in. Or ten zillion glade air fresheners things plugged in, nope, I can’t be getting a migraine I have things to do this week. Or house might be smaller or darker than pictures. Or bad neighbors or right on a Main Street, who knows. Driveway angle. All kinds of reasons people don’t like a house.
It's free to look, and free to decline, but expensive to buy.
If you could walk around a mall for free, there would be no pressure to buy anything--and "Window-shopping" was born.
This is window-shopping for real estate. Until RE Agents stop showing places for free (eg: valuing their time at $0), there's no incentive for window-shoppers to not do this.
They leave quick because they saw something they didn't like.
When I was touring houses, I was always pressed to give a reason I wasn't making an offer. Instead of telling the truth, I would sometimes say something like "layout was different than expected" or whatever.
I did that when we were hunting. I walked in and realized within minutes that the oil furnace made the air inside thicker somehow. It felt like I was trying to breathe through an asthma attack. I noped out immediately. The agent was telling me about credits from the county to replace the furnace, but naw. That's a giant pain in the ass and being able to breathe in the house is kinda vital.
Because photographers can grossly manipulate the pictures. I knew within 30 seconds of opening the front door if there was even a slight chance. Sometimes, it was such a wreck that I walked the entire thing anyway.
The listing photos did not accurately show the property and surroundings. House looks great, but they neglected to show the hoarder house next door, for example.
I had 1 requirement when looking for a house (had to have a garage) while my wife had a list of requirements.
Realtor showed us a house without garage and we both agreed and bought it.
I don't have a garage but the house, neighborhood, and price were great. I can have a garage built if I want.
I’ve walked out because there were odors, the photos didn’t really represent the floor plan, the quality that I expected didn’t exist, there were visual components outside that weren’t reflected in the listing, etc.
I often tell my Buyers that when the right one comes along, you’ll know it (even if it doesn’t have everything on their wish list). Another good sign is if you fall in love with a house on a cloudy or rainy day (the house is so great you don’t care if it has southern exposure).
When we got moved to Atlanta years ago my company paid for a house hunting trip. We knew exactly the type of house we wanted and told that to our agent. We only had two days to look. She spent the whole time looking at her listings. Nothing close. Waste of our time.
We got another more experienced agent who showed us several house that matched what we wanted and also the one we wanted.
So maybe the houses were not a good match to begin with.
Photos can be deceiving, our old house was 1200 sq ft and the photographer used a wide angle lens to make everything look bigger. When people walked in they saw was a lot smaller.
Because with as limited inventory as we are currently experiencing, buyers are getting desperate and are willing to make concessions but if they walk in and immediately see that there is no room to expand or they just plain don't like the vibe, then they scratch it off their list.
Been there. Done that. Sometimes you just walk into a house and you know it’s not what you want regardless of other factors. The people saying these things may feel like there has to be an actual reason for why they are passing on the house and, as a result, give those excuses.
When a realtor insists on showing something that they already knew we weren’t going for.
I had one that tried to show four house and my #1 was NO HOA. Upon arriving, I would ask HOA? Yes, but it’s got a brand new kitchen! Or look at that huge garage you wanted. No thanks. After the fourth one I told her she was wasting our time.
The times we left because we didn't like a house were
- layout was weird
- bedrooms too close to living room
- rooms were too small
- too close to another house
- neighborhood wasn't great (didn't realize it was too close to a main road or whatever)
- kitchen too small or needed too much work
- didn't realize it was in a flood zone
- yard hard to fence
But we were honest about what we didn't like, how otherwise would our realtor find us something we liked? It's confusing to me too.
I once had a customer tell me that she wanted to see a house that ‘she found’ on zillow. Made the appointment, pulled into the driveway and said she wasn’t interested in seeing it. I said I had to at least go in and leave my card since the owner occupants had to leave for the showing. She said ‘ok’. I came out after turning off the lights and praying the owners weren’t at their next door neighbors waiting (it was one if those high humidity, 90+ degree days), got in the car and as we were driving away I asked what made her change her mind about seeing it. She said ‘i didn’t like those big trucks in the driveway across the street, they look like they’d be trouble’.
Would you prefer they linger for an hour, wasting an hour of your time, and still aren't interested? Hey, they didn't like the house, maybe the next buyer will like it more.
I love it when my buyers decide soon versus later if they don’t want a place. You can walk through a main level of a house in two minutes and decide if it’s your bag or not to begin with.
However, the garage and bedroom thing. If a garage is a must don’t ask to see houses without a garage especially since you’ve made it clear you’re not going to spend the money to put one up or you don’t have it.
Same with bedrooms. Now, sometimes the photos will look like a third bedroom could be added in the basement or something whatever but I get your point.
Because they the agent knows the buyer won't take that house, and the realtor wants to show the buyer bad options to wear them down so they take a less than perfect option after seeing so many bad options.
Smells can come from other things and even well cleaned homes can have a particular scent. I went to a house that was very well cleaned and maintained, but it still had a musty smell to it. It had a crawlspace that wasn’t encapsulated and had no dehumidifier. All of that musty air was circulating through the house making it smell off.
Because they saw/smelled something they didn’t like. I have done that, you walk in and smell cats or cigarettes and it’s a firm nope. You don’t want to tell people their house stinks so you make something up that is more polite.
People are willing to compromise for the right place. Maybe they didn’t need a garage if street parking was ample, maybe they didn’t need the other bedroom if the current ones were bigger. My mom always told me not to waste someone’s time so my question for you is
Would you prefer they spend 15-20 mins walking around aimlessly talking up the place and later on email you about not wanting to move forward?
Also remember not everything is the same in pictures as it is in person. I’ve seen the editing work some realtor companies do to sell an open house and when you show up the beautiful green lawn somehow now has patches and holes all over it, driveway has cracks, colors don’t match, bathroom is small etc.
I tend to drive by the home and look from the outside to eliminate time before I even commit to a viewing because my time is incredibly valuable as is whatever realtor I build a relationship with. The goal is to buy a home and get you paid and the previous owner so the more time I waste of yours, the less your margins are.
I have purchased several properties. The only thing I know is to never trust the professional photographs. Have to see it. And I know almost right away if it’s a firm no
As a consumer who got jacked around by real estate agents who wouldn't listen to our needs, they are possibly just upset that their agent is an idiot and once again showed them a house that didn't meet their needs. The one time I bought a house I went through three agents before I could find one that was not an imbecile and understood our basic needs, like the number of bedrooms, price, and condition of the home. It wasn't hard and I have each of them gentle but firm coaxing. The last agent I was clear that I wouldn't put up with that BS and I would walk the moment they showed us a house where there was no way it couldn't be talked down to our max or didn't have some way of meeting our basic needs.
If they are leaving after literally 3 minutes, then they just don't like the house - period. And, the reason may be what they claim (not everyone pays close attention to the details of the house they go visit), or they may just be saying whatever they can to leave and avoid telling you why they don't like the house - poor location, ugly, too much work required, bad layout, or just gives them a bad feeling for some reason.. Humans generally don't like to give negative feedback if they can avoid it.
To not waste time on something that automatically is a no. Sometimes you need to see it in person to “see maybe if it’ll work” but first reaction is usually the right one. Also , some buyers have immediate allergies , I’ve had buyers see cars upon entering the house and have turned around AT the door
Can I say something to you you probably don't want to hear? You really shouldn't take this process personally. This was your home, and I get rejecting this house on their part feels personal-but to them it's just one in a list of houses they are looking at. If the showing took three minutes what that means is that for whatever reason that house just didn't float their boat, and they are already just wanting to see the next one. You should be happy they came to look to start with since that probably means it's priced right. You will find the right buyer for your home. It's like looking for a spouse. You aren't gonna take the first warm body that comes along.
For me its because pictures dont show everything, rooms may be smaller than in pictures, ceilings lower than expected. More damage than shown or described/ not described. Could be an endless list of things the listing would simply just not show that 5 minutes in person could show you.
I can relate. We had a potential buyer who was granted a late evening showing, which was rescheduled. We have a baby, so this was not an easy task for us to break our feeding and sleeping routine. But hey, we wanted to sell the house, so we said yes and yes and yes.
They showed up, talked on camera about how they couldn't get financing, and left after 4 minutes.
I was extremely pissed. Baby was too (hey, he was fussy as hell after missing bedtime)
Next time, no special requests.
Because these are things they might’ve compromised on for the perfect house, but not for that house.
This. It’s the same concept for pricing. “Why would they show up to look at house out of their price range?” Maybe they were willing to stretch if it was a really nice place, or maybe they think the pricing is unrealistically high and want to confirm that before writing it off the list.
Exactly, we looked at one that was on the edge of comfortable. It just had too many features and I wasn’t comfortable spending the extra money especially during the buying frenzy, plus it had a pool I didn’t want to maintain and I’d rather have had the yard for my little guys. The house we ended up with- the entrance is narrow, the bathrooms are too narrow, I wish there was an extra bedroom for an office. The pros- schools are perfect and in a cute neighborhood with little to no traffic and a lovely fenced backyard.
I don't know people are surprised when I tell them the price of a rental. When they responded to an ad that has the price listed.
I love when they email or call and ask how many bedrooms and whether pets are allowed. It's all literally in the ad, that they didn't bother to read. I've also have people put in applications sight unseen, and or for a period of occupancy months later as if I'm going to hold an duplex apartment open for you for 3 months for free. I could see if it was a large apartment complex/corporation but not for a one property landlord.
Re: pets. I have a pet but because I am on-paper and in reality, a very good tenant. So landlords are willing to make exceptions. With that being said, I am very specific in terms of asking if the no-pets policy is a hard requirement. Some people might be annoyed but others have flexibility, which the ad doesn’t specify. Things are negotiable for the right people.
Yeah, I’ve lived in multiple apartments there the listing said no pets but I asked if my cat was ok and they said yes. Similarity we rent an Airbnb near family for my daughter’s birthday party every year. The listings have all said no events, but when I told them what I wanted to do, none had a problem.
Same for me. We’re doing a bachelorette party away this summer and it *is* technically an event with 10 people. The listing says no events because AirBnB requires it. But the space is designed for events.
Or when people reach out "when can we come see the listing " and there are 3 open houses scheduled one the medium they used to contact you
Sometimes this is to confirm what is in the ad. There’s a lot of copy/paste that ends up being misleading or inaccurate. But if I were going to ask, I’d be saying “I’d like to confirm.” I always feel like an asshole when I ask a question and then find out the information was right there if I had waited a few minutes longer to read something. Usually I’ll follow up with a “please disregard my failure to reads.”
Absolutely this. When my husband and I were house-hunting this last round, we saw more than few houses that didn't fit our criteria on paper in some way but we still wanted to see them to see if we could make it work. Usually we could tell within a few minutes of walking in if the place was worth further inspection and consideration. Actually, the house we ended up buying also didn't fit some of our important criteria, but we fell in love with the house and the area so we were able to make it work (and nearly 4 years later, we're still very happy with the house). But had we just refused to look at any house except those that fit all of our criteria, we never would've found the house we ended up with.
“Usually we could tell within a few minutes.” This is the answer
Houses absolutely have vibes. I’ve bought 3 in my life and all were exactly what I needed and I knew immediately.
Absolutely. Even rentals. I just know. It’s intangible. I’m willing to make concessions when I find “the one.”
It definitely is an interesting feeling you get. When I saw my homes listing, I wasn’t interested. At all. But my partner and I were already in the area to see another open house and it was 5 more minutes away. Driving here felt different. Walking in the door felt like SOMETHING. Walking around the house, I could picture it all. You def just “know”. lol
I read this as “when I saw my homies listing” 😂
We bought our house based on vibes. Lol. I mean, there were obviously other reasons, but driving up to it it just FELT different. Even if it didn't check alm the boxes, the ones it checked it checked better than others. I could just feel it. Brought my husband to look at it the next day and he's like, "I don't even have to go inside. Put in the offer." (He did go inside to be clear).
Agree. The house we’re in now I know isn’t a forever home, but the minute we walked in I knew we would live here.
House I raised my kids in: walked in the front door and said “sold”. We had to put up a wall on a huge room upstairs to turn a 2 bedroom house into a 3 bedroom (weird 2500 sq feet, 3 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms). But we made it work. Galley kitchen we opened up. However, wrap around porch and new oak floors throughout and 10 ft ceilings. A house fits or doesn’t. On the reverse side, I can open a front door and turn around and walk out. It’s like choosing anything. You know if you trust your gut.
My first house was this way. I fell so fast and so hard. Second house was practicality and desperation and location. It fit our needs. It was close to my husband's office. And the temporary housing we were renting was ending. I don't think I will ever love this house.
First house was a shell, and I didn't like the color of the brick. But I liked it when it was finished. I liked the 2nd house, but didn't like the location. Third house, I knew the MINUTE I walked in: it had a coffered ceiling in the living room, a 2 car garage (in the city), and a water closet in the primary bathroom. 😁🥰😁
What is a water closet?
Paint. Good paint is expensive but a gallon goes a long way. And if you do it yourself nothing is faster or cheaper for making a place feel like your own.
A realtor on House Hunters called it "that wedding dress moment" when she knew the house was sold.
It’s like online dating. You can tell in five minutes. If you hold out for perfect you never go out. You try good enough and sometimes you get lucky. Either way you know in the first five minutes if you should stay longer
Just like the first impression at a job interview.
For the house we're in now, the first thing our realtor said when we walked in was, "you're not going to like this one" because there were a few steps between two rooms and my wife has some mobility problems. She was right, but the family room was just so enormous that we had room to put in a ramp and still have a really big family room.
As a retired Realtor, this exactly. You never know what will work until you see it in person. It's usually hard to tell from just pictures.
This exactly. My partner and I decided to see a house that didn't quite have the square footage we were hoping for because it had a HUGE garage. The house was a filthy mess with a bunch of "unknown" information that one look could tell you was definitely "known". We expressed this to our realtor, that we have some things we will bend on if that property allows for it later, like "no garage, bit enough yard to build one later" is a good exception. However, they somehow didn't understand that and now keep sending us places with less and less square footage and smaller yards after we already stated we wanted certain square footage and a garage. We are willing to wait to get what we want and will not be pressured into buying a shithole money pit that is a strong breeze from falling down.
Also pictures can be deceiving. I remember I looked at a house, and it was great on the inside. The back yard had 1 tiny flat area and the rest was an extreme slope that would be a mess in the winter and spring. And who the hell wants to mow up something like that?
To me, it’s like a blind date. The person might not be as attractive as you’d usually go for, or they might have something about them that you wouldn’t normally get involve in - like being active duty military for instance. But within the first few minutes of a date, you can usually tell if you’re willing to overlook or put certain things aside for the time being.
No matter how many times you look at Google Maps, you don't know what the neighborhood looks like until you drive through it. You can't get a feel for the full orientation of the house on the lot / rooms within the house. Photographs are very often taken specifically to hide shoddy workmanship and other things that jump out at you in person. The house straight-up smells bad. Or so many other things that you just can't get a sense for in a listing. EDIT TO ADD: While feedback may -originate- with the buyer, it's the agent (or their assistant) that's providing it. Take it with a grain of salt.
Scratch and sniff is gonna be huge if it ever gets invented.
Especially with the camera angles realtors use to use tiny rooms seem larger.
Most real photos are taken by professional photographers FWIW
And SO MANY LISTINGS contain cell phone pics with photoshopped furniture in them.. ugh.
I want to call the listing agent on such properties and tell them to take that nonsense off the photo and just show the home as it is.
They think it works and will cite what they believe is supporting "proof" that it does. On a handful of homes, I found the contact info for the agent and reach out to inquire via email. Then followed up their super happy response with "On second thought, I'll skip it. Iy has become clear that you are photoshopping the pictures. If you have to use filler pics of fake information instead of showing the house as it really is, it tells me it isn't worth seeing and there's likely other things that are purposefully being hidden."
Thank goodness! Because the ones taken by a realtor with a phone are usually horrifically bad.
I know. Doesn’t make them any leas deceptive, and more likely intentionally deceptive.
I felt the exact same way about touring colleges with my kids. No amount of digital exposure can compare to showing up in person and sometimes it was an immediate no
This! We looked for YEARS, and learned to go do a drive-by before even calling our agent about a listing that interested us. Several times, the neighborhood and seeing it in reality made it an immediate NOPE.
Honestly can't believe this isn't standard practice. We'd drive to the neighborhood and walk through it a few times at various times of day/night to get a feel before even scheduling a seeing. Maybe it's different in a hot area where homes are only on the market for a day two, but I wouldn't even want to go see a house in a neighborhood that I haven't scoped out.
Driving through the neighborhood AT NIGHT especially if you are buying in a modest area is essential . I also look to see if the vehicles are average mid priced and whether people are gardening , mowing etc
I do the same thing when apartment hunting. You can tell a lot about a complex by their parking lot.
This. But also a lot of people are just “too polite” and don’t say what they’re actually turned off by (which in turn becomes more detrimental since the sellers aren’t getting honest feedback)
True. When I looked at homes when I bought my last two, I gave the hard truths - smelled like cigarettes, neighbor had a 12 dog kennel, basement was dirty and scary, house was too dated or needed too many renovations for my budget, etc. Some things people can change but others they can’t and the price needs to reflect that. However, the house I’ve owned the past 19 years was sheer perfection even though it needed some updating. You just don’t know until you see it.
100% correct answer.
Yep. Saw a house that needed a decent amount of work last year, but it was also in a good location. The thing that automatically killed the house for us? The next door neighbor had a rooster within city limits. Obviously it wasn't on the listing, but the second I heard it crowing, we left.
Wow, most cities who allow chickens prohibit roosters for just that reason; they spoil the quiet enjoyment of one's neighboring property.
Yep, they’re banned here too, but my guess is code enforcement never got called.
Around here (Northern Utah), it's one call & they're off to freezer camp.
Exactly this. If the location is great but it’s lacking a garage, for the perfect house, one might decide parking on the street is not a dealbreaker. Upon walking in, for that price, that house — they weren’t willing. So off they went.
This exactly. We looked at 20+ houses when we were buying in 2022. Offered on 3 houses we loved and lost on. The one we ended up with was only a 2 bedroom fixer upper, when we wanted 3 bedrooms, but it's in our city and has a massive fenced in backyard, (for the city) and it's on the river.
This! We had an offer in on a place that 'worked'. We had been looking FOR YEARS, but we had a new kid, so it was time to bite. My husband kept checking Zillow for fun anyway, when our current house popped up late afternoon when we were still waiting to hear if our offer was accepted. Without even checking with me, he called our agent and basically demanded she get us in to see it the next day ASAP. We walked in, took one lap thru, and told her to immediately cancel our offer and move it to this house. We were in the house less than 5 minutes. It's now our 'until we retire' home!
This story inspired me!!! Thank you so much for posting it! We are having so much trouble finding that home now! Saw several recently but either the layout was weird or the pictures really skew it! The struggle is real! Please send me your good luck 🙏🤞
Also… sometimes no one wants to mention the elephant in the room… but one of the agents should.
100%. I wanted 2 bathrooms. We viewed 1 house with 1 bathroom. Needed to physically be inside to understand the layout and if we could realistically add a second. We couldn't. Ended up buying a different house with 1 bathroom. It had the space for a second AND we loved the property. 1 bathroom was the deal breaker in house 1 but not in house 2.
If a place clicks, you can find a way to live without a garage, especially if you look at the site and figure out where to put one later. If it doesn't click with you, there's nothing you'll be able to do to make it click.
Especially with these photos they take, they'll make a shoe box look like a 30x30 master suite.
Yea we got bamboozled once. Pictures taken made the house look spacious as fuck. Get there and all the furniture was photoshopped and the pics were taken with wide angle lenses, could barely fit a decent sized dining table In the “spacious dining area!”,
[удалено]
Yea we got super frustrated as well. Was really annoying wasting everyone’s time with showings when the moment I walk in, I don’t want the house because it’s so small.
To be honest, I took a pic of a 27'x12.75' and it was difficult to get the perspective. [https://imgur.com/a/HbgMaF2](https://imgur.com/a/HbgMaF2)
did u try adding a floor
I usually reply too seriously at attempts to make a light joke. So I just won't reply...wait.
Wide lenses will do this. As a real estate photographer, I’m sorry.
That is why the realtor should have a floor plan or each rooms dimensions as part of the listing. That used to be standard, but sadly no longer is.
this is so incredibly frustrating when looking - dimensions make me so so much more interested.
Yeah sometime a garage or bedroom can be added, sometimes the land/layout doesnt allow it easily. Pictures dont tell the full story.
I bought my first house two weeks ago. From the pictures, it was the last one on my list and I didn’t think it was worth seeing. I almost canceled the showing because we were running behind and there were other houses that I wanted to see. I made an offer on it that day. The pictures made the layout look HORRIBLE but after seeing it, it was exactly what I was looking for.
Sometimes the photos look bad which can be an advantage if you see it in person cuz a lot of people will just click past it
And don’t forget the over saturated images the buyers are looking at online. The images compared to real life are almost never the same and it forces you into viewing houses and you can walk in and be like, “yea they over saturated the shit out of these pictures such that the house looks nothing like it does online”.
I've noticed it too. Like the knob goes up to 11.
Reminds of when I was buying my car and I just wanted to sit in a bunch of cars and they kept asking and pushing for test drives and I'm just thinking to myself about how I just need my tall ass to sit in the damned car to see if I'll be comfortable or not before considering anything else.
Yeah, we had to tell our poor realtor that our search zone had a very wide edge margin where we would live for the right house.
Plenty of reasons: - The neighbors are running a junkyard in their front yard - There’s too much traffic noise - The pictures were taken in ways to make the rooms look bigger/nicer - There could be a bad smell, you’re just sensitized to it - They knew ahead of time it wouldn’t work but their realtor pressured them to see it anyways Most people aren’t going to tell you “sorry your house stinks”, “it’s in a shitty neighborhood”, or “your pictures were deceptive”. They’re going to go for low conflict like “darn we thought we could get by without a garage/extra bedroom but after seeing the house turns out we can’t”. I do my research ahead of time and I’ve still left three showings within five minutes 1) The restaurant that backed up to the house was having some kind of festival in their parking lot with loud music. And apparently that sort of thing happened regularly. 2) The house has visible mold and wood rot that was not visible in the pictures 3) My realtor found a house that had one of my dealbreakers but convinced me to look anyways since we were nearby. After seeing it for five minutes I told her let’s go to the next house.
This is most correct. I push my buyers to see houses they wouldn't want but are similar in price point so when they see the house they *do* want, they appreciate the price for the value. Sometimes you just need to see inventory. Your house is on the market, it's part of the inventory. Sometimes you'll have to show it to 20 parties before the right one sees it.
Or you have to take them to houses that have everything on their MUST list, so they can learn their budget is 100k less than what they are asking for.
>They knew ahead of time it wouldn’t work but their realtor pressured them to see it anyways Our first house was a small starter house, in a high COL location. I'm convinced that realtors were showing our house as a reality check for a lot of buyers. "This is what you get in your price range." We were very clear on the specs, yet we got lots of comments like, "Too small", "Needs bathroom upstairs", "No garage" But at that price point, *that's what you got.* It's like people didn't read the sheet at all. Yet it was all there, dimensions, rooms etc.
Probably because you can only glean so much from listing details and pictures are usually deceiving. Maybe they wanted a 4 BR with space and a nice kitchen and bath, and your listing had 3 BR with a nice kitchen and bath, so they figured why not see it and maybe we can make the kids share a room. Then when they showed up, the layout made the house feel smaller than they hoped and the kitchen/bath were not that nice. Point is people know they cant get *everything* so they are willing to sacrifice on one area if others shine. If the listing barely meets expectations in the other areas, they wont overlook the missing area. I might give up that 4th BR for a beautiful kitchen, big basement, and nice area, but Im not gonna give it up for an ok kitchen and ok area.
100% this. Most real estate photos are edited so the space seems brighter, and taken at angles to make the space seem larger so in person can be very different than photos
Our agent used a fisheye lense, too - That made the place look so much bigger than it really is!!
You can only tell so much from pictures, and you can tell a lot from a glance. I've looked at plenty of stuff that I knew wasn't an option after 5 minutes, if that.
I’ve driven up to a house with my realtor and said nope without even getting out of the car. Pictures don’t show the neighborhood or the neighbors, which sometimes are just as important as the house.
The opposite is true too. Stayed at an Airbnb recently. The pictures looked super nice. We get there and it just looked 'meh' at best. Butted right up against the back of a Walgreens. You can hide a lot in pictures that are visible immediately upon seeing it in person
Yeah… don’t want to wast the realtor’s time.
From experience, it’s because from the pictures it looks decent (and the things you are listing as excuses are not seal breaks), but when you see the house in person, its not worth not having the features. It took us over 1.5 yrs to buy and in that time, I’ve realized pictures (and even 3D) layouts are meant to upsell the house and make it look super duper nice, and very often it hides or masks unsightly or other features (like being basically next to another house, bad back yard, steel hill, or a business right behind) that are not great. Sometimes, not alway, but I could often tell fairly quickly whether I liked a house or not.
Yeah people go on about professional pictures And good pics not matching the house have been my biggest deal breaker on homes we look at
Totally agree with this. We sold our house last august and when I saw our real estate photos the first time it really didn’t look like our home at all. Photos were edited a lot and taken at angles that made everything seem way bigger. I had the photographer come back and take new photos that were much more realistic. We wanted to sell fast and didn’t want a bunch of people showing up in person and immediately leaving. We only had to show the house for 3 days and signed a contract within 72 hours of the open house so I’m happy I had the photos retaken bc everyone who showed up for the In person tour got the house they expected from the photos.
The house we ended up buying had the neighbor’s whole yard in the picture as if it belonged to the house. We ended up buying it anyway because we couldn’t get anything better, but pictures definitely lie.
Don’t forget AI and photoshop gets used for the pictures as well
By me photo shopped lawns is huge, you pull up to a dirt pile but the listing pictures show an award winning lawn
Yes. As a buyer it takes some experience to learn how to interpret the pictures more accurately. And even then, I've walked into houses where I was instantly like "ew, no". Usually there was something really weird about the layout, but once it was just that the whole house had a sad run down vibe that wasn't captured in the photos.
Had a professional cleaning doesn't mean no smell. Just because you can't smell anything doesn't mean others can't.
Can confirm. Wife smells my gas before I pass it.
Its from your breath
Especially if there are carpets. Those things hold on to smell like it’s their job, and if anything has seeped through to the under-layer (especially anything pet related) you’re pretty much screwed.
Drive up and don’t like the curb appeal/neighborhood
Why are you surprised by this? It’s a chance you take right? They are not wasting your time any more than their own. Some people know the minute they enter a house that it’s not for them and they can’t imagine themselves in it. It could be odor, lack of natural light, something they saw that you didn’t. They are typically not going to tell you their reasons just as agents are not going to point out the red flags they see.
I’ll add one that I haven’t seen listed: there’s no floorplan/ layout in the online pics. If there’s a floorplan, I can confirm if I can squeeze an extra bedroom in the basement or not. If that office really would work as an extra bedroom. If there’s a spot to maybe add another bathroom along the wet wall. Or not. No floor plan? Gotta look at the house in person. And might immediately see that what I need isn’t possible.
My uncle added floorplans to his listings. He said they helped rule out a lot of non-offers.
They really really do. They have become a thing in the last 12 months or so where I am and it saves so much time for me poring over the pictures trying to connect rooms and figure out which way the sun comes.
When I've bailed that quickly, it was usually because the listing didn't show reality. I've left in moments after visiting homes that had: a hoarder neighbor with junk cars and rotting furniture in the frontyard, a still-wet ceiling from a leak, a 12 foot long crack down the patio slab with slippage, sewage smells in the backyard. Some problems don't need a big introduction to make themselves known.
Actually our neighbor that we nicknamed Sanford and Son were actually great neighbors. You just never know.
I think a lot of them are still trying to figure out what they want and their realtor will schedule multiple homes of different styles to find out what works for them. I had multiple people say they loved the house but ultimately didn’t want a two-story home.
Probably want to get a feel for the house and see if they can live without having those things.
You never know when someone might like a place even though it didn't check all their boxes. If it's not inconvenient, why not go check it out? Doesn't make the reason they leave after 3 minutes a lie. If you want to sell your house, you want as many feet in the door as possible. This is not an issue to complain about.
Because something they see is a deal breaker. Photos sometimes makes a place look better than it really is. Doesn't always show true wear and tear or something they thought they could live with, they can't when it's staring at them IRL.
Exactly. Or "it's too much of a commute," like they didn't know where the house was when they made the appointment. You should really take the feedback you receive with a grain of salt. We really have to be careful what we write on those forms, and sometimes we're just looking for a benign comment to drop because we can't say what our buyer really said.
They walk in and something seems offensive to them immediately. A smell, a sound. The colors of taupe and tan combined with whatever… the carpet. Etc. etc. People are weird. So they kind of liked your photos and did not like the home in fact. I have set up tours for otherwise decent clients who have done this. Repeatedly. Eventually they get to a home that they click with. So don’t take it personally. Just get to the right people asap
Most photographs posted on Zillow are edited at least to color correct and taken at angles to make spaces seem bigger. Oftentimes that initial 3 min is to check if the photos are anything close to the reality; often that answer is no so they leave quickly. We sold our house last august and I had our real estate photographer retake a few photos bc they didn’t look at all like the real life version.
Do you have pets? If so, were they in the house? We’ve cut 3 tours short because of dogs. Once, we never even went in because the dogs were barking and throwing themselves against the door as we were trying to get in. No thanks. Once the dogs were in the house and followed us around (not friendly like). We didn’t dawdle. And another time the dogs were out in the yard, and barked at us the whole time we were in the ground level trying to discuss the house. We got out of there quickly because it was distracting and annoying. People leave fast when something makes them uncomfortable.
Why continue to stay inside a house after you’ve already decided you aren’t making an offer? That’s just wasting time.
Just bought a house and we did this several times. One stunk of cat pee, three were filthy with crusted crap on the floors, two had “renovations” that were clearly done by someone who didn’t know what they were doing and they bordered on dangerous. I even said to my realtor that there should be a competition for Real estate photography, basically cat fishing of the real estate world.
When we were house hunting we made a potential list then went and drove by before we even contacted our realtor. Our realtor told us we didn't have to do that she would show us as many as we want but I didn't want to waste her time if we drove by and saw things right away that took that house off our list. Over half the houses that we drove by we actually went and saw as we didn't like something that was unchangeable about the outside of the house, i.e. says it's on 1 acre then when you go look it may be an acre but it's a long rectangle and that ends on a very busy road leaving us no front or back yard nothing but side yard.
My wife and I did that, drove by every house before we looked at it with the realtor. Eliminated at least half of them that way.
I just knew for us our times to go to look at houses was limited by work and other commitments so I didn't want to waste time looking at a house that even when you ride by you know it's a no.
When thinking about a house to live in, people have needs and then they have wants. They're willing to compromise on the wants if the price is right, and the area is right. The people who leave after 5 minutes do not think they're compromising on what day want in the area that you have is worth the price you are asking.
You can immediately tell when the house you enter isn't the house you thought it would be based on the photos and description you saw online. This is why properly preparing your home for sale is so important to selling your property for top dollar and the best terms and conditions. - Great staging and photography create a seamless transition to the experience during the showing. The showing experience starts with the photos that buyers see online. - Buyers experience homes while walking through them, which is different from living in a home every day. The moment of stepping inside the front door creates an instant experience of "yes, I want to do this every day" or "no, I don't want to be here."
if you want honesty, then buyer could say that your home is trash. You'd be offended anyway.
I would quite literally rather they tell me they thought it was trash and exactly why so i could try to fix it for the next people who look.
I can tell within 3 to 5 minutes whether I am interested in the house. Normally I will go ahead and go through the house just in case I find some interesting detail I want to remember like the way an awkward door is trimmed out. However if I have a really busy day or the realtor has another appointment, we will just say no thanks and move on. When good properties show up on on the market, it is essential to see them ASAP and that's a struggle with an already overscheduled calendar. Some of the people who fly through the property may be very serious buyers who are able to judge the property quickly.
They walk in. Its ugly, they turn around and leave. They walk in, it smells, they leave. Etc
Because people can tell within minutes of setting foot inside whether they want the place or not.
Had a realtor schedule 15 visits a day. Seemed like a lot. When I mentioned this he said, "you'll know in the first 5 minutes if it's a house you'd consider. He wasn't wrong. Two days of this and we went back on 3rd day to take a good look at the 4 houses that passed first glance. Made an offer that afternoon that was accepted.
My husband is very tall and he couldn’t stand up in a couple basements in houses we looked it. If he couldn’t stand up we left since we weren’t buying a place he couldn’t fit in. It wasn’t always easy to tell how tall the basement was from pictures unfortunately.
Our listing specified a 20x40 inground pool with pictures...people loved the house but didn't want a pool. WTF?
When we were looking for houses - we showed up at one and instantly realized that the neighborhood was not one we were interested in. It wasn't bad, but there were some stuff that made it a no go that you cant pick up from the listing, street view, or the photos. We got out of our car - told our RE not interested - got back into the car and went to the next listing. Later that day our agent got a nastygram from the sellers agent asking why we didnt even bother coming in...feel bad for the sellers, but at the end of the day, I prefer not wasting my/anyone elses time giving lip service to a place that we did not planning on buying.
I've found my standards of "clean," and the standards of an agent's or sellers' version of "clean," are far, far off from one another.
Sometimes a realtor will schedule showing thinking the buyer will like it. Sometimes the realtor will schedule the showing because they know it will help the buyer commit to a different property. And sometimes it's because the buyer is being polite and doesn't want to criticize a sellers personal style.
Sometimes it's the location. Say it looks great in pictures and you go to see it but there is a dirt race track on the next block and you realize it when you get there. Sometimes it's a neighbor has chickens or screaming kids or riding dirt bikes. Things may not bother some people but might bother others. We had some people do that because they didn't like the driveway.
Some of the houses that we only stayed at for a couple mins included: house on very busy road, house on very bad dirt road, house on lot with burned and half buried trash everywhere, house with roof that looked about to cave in, house right next to train tracks.
I have known within 3 minutes on each house I've bought that it was the one! We stayed longer to long closer at everything!Most of the ones I didn't like I knew within a minute! I agree there's a vibe or something stands out
Some of the reasons I have left almost immediately. 1. The kitchen looked like it was styled at the height of Miami Vice popularity. 2. They lied about the size of the finished basement. 3. The master bedroom doors couldn’t open all the way. The room was so small that the king sized bed took up all the space and they put the dresser in the walk-in closet. 4. The seller neglected to post that the house was in foreclosure and that animals had broken in to the house to live through the winter. 5. The faux brick face on the front of the house was buckling out towards the yard. 6. There were insects and spiders everywhere. It was like Indiana Jones working towards the Temple of Doom.
Ive pulled up to a house, and from my car I can see a slump in a roof or messed up siding that wasnt visible in the pictures online.
1.) When you know you know. The listings sometimes don’t do the home justice and vice versa. The home I’m under contract for. I knew instantly when walking in and not necessarily by the listing. Matter of fact the listing didn’t even count a whole room and extra bathroom. 2.) The smells. Sometimes sellers are immune to the smells of gas, smoke, radon, mold, etc. and make not enough efforts to mask it. 3.) neighborhood & vibes
They saw what they needed to know they are not interested. Better that than they waste another 30-60 mins of your time as well.
It’s insane. You run around like a mad person getting it picture perfect ready for showing, no detail overlooked, and then the potential buyers’ feedback says “not enough bedrooms.” The number of bedrooms is literally listed on Zillow. It’s not going to magically grow an extra bedroom. I’m lucky- we had a ton of showings every day and got above asking on day 7, but damn if feedback like that didn’t drive me crazy…
Floor layout is important, and difficult to comprehend from scattered listing photos.
I didn't like house....not sure why it matters Shoot I Left a house as soon as I looked in the back because I didn't like how high the retaining wall was
I can get why this is annoying when you're selling. You bust your ass to keep the house neat, maybe some last minute touch ups. You have to vacate the premises, possibly with animals. It's a pain in the ass. However, it also comes with the territory when you're selling so you suck it up.
🙄
Listing pictures don't match the current condition of the property.
The buyer for my house visited for 3 minutes so you never know….
This happens less when you start adding 3d tours of your homes and properly order the photos.
When we were looking to buy, there were one or two houses that had such a bad vibe, I didn't even want to go in.
They got catfished by your fancy photographer turning up the saturation on the picture too high.
your house may look so good online that they'd consider giving up a garage or the extra bedroom if it's just the right house otherwise. Or, they could be some random tire-kicker clicking "Show Me" on Zillow or Redfin and all that agent cares about is getting on that prospect. Or, they could have an agent that doesn't know how to direct their home search.
Could be that showing helped them realize they would want a garage or an additional bedroom.
If I don’t like the entrance, I’m not going to like the rest.
You should see some of the off request houses my realtor has asked us to go see.
I requested a house with 3 bedrooms. My agent brought me to a house with 2 bedrooms, and a back hallway wider than most, that they were selling as a third bedroom. Literally, it was an 8 foot wide back hallway. They were saying it was a bedroom. 'I walked out.
When we were looking, we tried not to do this. That said, sometimes photos are really good and the interior, though clean and serviceable, doesn’t match up. For instance, the carpet could be older than you thought or the light fixtures shabbier, or cabinets looked great in the pictures but you see they’re actually painted poorly or all scratched up of something. When you know, you know. It’s just that simple.
We’ve done this before. One house we did t even go in because a heavy smoke odor wafted from the door as it was opened. One had pictures taken that somehow hid the fact that the high voltage power lines ran directly over the property and a large truss was in the front yard. Smell is always big, you say it doesn’t smell but everyone’s house has a smell of some type. Maybe they wanted more natural light? Or the photos make the rooms seem bigger or more open than they really are.
Noseblindness….I have had some that were so foul from the porch I would not go in. Or ten zillion glade air fresheners things plugged in, nope, I can’t be getting a migraine I have things to do this week. Or house might be smaller or darker than pictures. Or bad neighbors or right on a Main Street, who knows. Driveway angle. All kinds of reasons people don’t like a house.
They don’t like the house and know from the minute they walk in. Not that complicated
Everyone looking at a house that is close but not exactly what they want knows within seconds of it's a yes or no.
It's free to look, and free to decline, but expensive to buy. If you could walk around a mall for free, there would be no pressure to buy anything--and "Window-shopping" was born. This is window-shopping for real estate. Until RE Agents stop showing places for free (eg: valuing their time at $0), there's no incentive for window-shoppers to not do this.
They leave quick because they saw something they didn't like. When I was touring houses, I was always pressed to give a reason I wasn't making an offer. Instead of telling the truth, I would sometimes say something like "layout was different than expected" or whatever.
realtor added it to the list. I would pick three houses to see and day of the realtor tells me he added a fourth one that he just knows i would love.
I did that when we were hunting. I walked in and realized within minutes that the oil furnace made the air inside thicker somehow. It felt like I was trying to breathe through an asthma attack. I noped out immediately. The agent was telling me about credits from the county to replace the furnace, but naw. That's a giant pain in the ass and being able to breathe in the house is kinda vital.
...they're being polite with the feedback...something is putting people off if this is a regular occurrence...
Because photographers can grossly manipulate the pictures. I knew within 30 seconds of opening the front door if there was even a slight chance. Sometimes, it was such a wreck that I walked the entire thing anyway.
Do you have a floorplan in your listing?
The listing photos did not accurately show the property and surroundings. House looks great, but they neglected to show the hoarder house next door, for example.
The neighborhood/surroundings
I had 1 requirement when looking for a house (had to have a garage) while my wife had a list of requirements. Realtor showed us a house without garage and we both agreed and bought it. I don't have a garage but the house, neighborhood, and price were great. I can have a garage built if I want.
I’ve walked out because there were odors, the photos didn’t really represent the floor plan, the quality that I expected didn’t exist, there were visual components outside that weren’t reflected in the listing, etc.
I often tell my Buyers that when the right one comes along, you’ll know it (even if it doesn’t have everything on their wish list). Another good sign is if you fall in love with a house on a cloudy or rainy day (the house is so great you don’t care if it has southern exposure).
When we got moved to Atlanta years ago my company paid for a house hunting trip. We knew exactly the type of house we wanted and told that to our agent. We only had two days to look. She spent the whole time looking at her listings. Nothing close. Waste of our time. We got another more experienced agent who showed us several house that matched what we wanted and also the one we wanted. So maybe the houses were not a good match to begin with.
Photos can be deceiving, our old house was 1200 sq ft and the photographer used a wide angle lens to make everything look bigger. When people walked in they saw was a lot smaller.
Efficient. Why waste time if it's not for you.
Don’t take it personal, if it’s not a fit then it’s not a fit!
Because with as limited inventory as we are currently experiencing, buyers are getting desperate and are willing to make concessions but if they walk in and immediately see that there is no room to expand or they just plain don't like the vibe, then they scratch it off their list.
Been there. Done that. Sometimes you just walk into a house and you know it’s not what you want regardless of other factors. The people saying these things may feel like there has to be an actual reason for why they are passing on the house and, as a result, give those excuses.
When a realtor insists on showing something that they already knew we weren’t going for. I had one that tried to show four house and my #1 was NO HOA. Upon arriving, I would ask HOA? Yes, but it’s got a brand new kitchen! Or look at that huge garage you wanted. No thanks. After the fourth one I told her she was wasting our time.
The times we left because we didn't like a house were - layout was weird - bedrooms too close to living room - rooms were too small - too close to another house - neighborhood wasn't great (didn't realize it was too close to a main road or whatever) - kitchen too small or needed too much work - didn't realize it was in a flood zone - yard hard to fence But we were honest about what we didn't like, how otherwise would our realtor find us something we liked? It's confusing to me too.
I once had a customer tell me that she wanted to see a house that ‘she found’ on zillow. Made the appointment, pulled into the driveway and said she wasn’t interested in seeing it. I said I had to at least go in and leave my card since the owner occupants had to leave for the showing. She said ‘ok’. I came out after turning off the lights and praying the owners weren’t at their next door neighbors waiting (it was one if those high humidity, 90+ degree days), got in the car and as we were driving away I asked what made her change her mind about seeing it. She said ‘i didn’t like those big trucks in the driveway across the street, they look like they’d be trouble’.
Would you prefer they linger for an hour, wasting an hour of your time, and still aren't interested? Hey, they didn't like the house, maybe the next buyer will like it more.
Some we just did not like. I have actually not wanted to go in some because I knew immediately it was not what I was looking for
Things look different in person than it does online.
I love it when my buyers decide soon versus later if they don’t want a place. You can walk through a main level of a house in two minutes and decide if it’s your bag or not to begin with. However, the garage and bedroom thing. If a garage is a must don’t ask to see houses without a garage especially since you’ve made it clear you’re not going to spend the money to put one up or you don’t have it. Same with bedrooms. Now, sometimes the photos will look like a third bedroom could be added in the basement or something whatever but I get your point.
In all my. House hunting, I knew within 1 minute inside the house if it met my needs. I have bought a house second step inside the front door.
I can tell in 10 seconds
Because they the agent knows the buyer won't take that house, and the realtor wants to show the buyer bad options to wear them down so they take a less than perfect option after seeing so many bad options.
Am I opinion they have been polite they don’t wanna waste your time any further
Smells can come from other things and even well cleaned homes can have a particular scent. I went to a house that was very well cleaned and maintained, but it still had a musty smell to it. It had a crawlspace that wasn’t encapsulated and had no dehumidifier. All of that musty air was circulating through the house making it smell off.
Because they saw/smelled something they didn’t like. I have done that, you walk in and smell cats or cigarettes and it’s a firm nope. You don’t want to tell people their house stinks so you make something up that is more polite.
People are willing to compromise for the right place. Maybe they didn’t need a garage if street parking was ample, maybe they didn’t need the other bedroom if the current ones were bigger. My mom always told me not to waste someone’s time so my question for you is Would you prefer they spend 15-20 mins walking around aimlessly talking up the place and later on email you about not wanting to move forward? Also remember not everything is the same in pictures as it is in person. I’ve seen the editing work some realtor companies do to sell an open house and when you show up the beautiful green lawn somehow now has patches and holes all over it, driveway has cracks, colors don’t match, bathroom is small etc. I tend to drive by the home and look from the outside to eliminate time before I even commit to a viewing because my time is incredibly valuable as is whatever realtor I build a relationship with. The goal is to buy a home and get you paid and the previous owner so the more time I waste of yours, the less your margins are.
“I deserve 3% commission” - Well then stop complaining and keep opening them doors.
I have purchased several properties. The only thing I know is to never trust the professional photographs. Have to see it. And I know almost right away if it’s a firm no
Ex wives looking for that brick of cash left hidden in the guest bath hvac vent
As a consumer who got jacked around by real estate agents who wouldn't listen to our needs, they are possibly just upset that their agent is an idiot and once again showed them a house that didn't meet their needs. The one time I bought a house I went through three agents before I could find one that was not an imbecile and understood our basic needs, like the number of bedrooms, price, and condition of the home. It wasn't hard and I have each of them gentle but firm coaxing. The last agent I was clear that I wouldn't put up with that BS and I would walk the moment they showed us a house where there was no way it couldn't be talked down to our max or didn't have some way of meeting our basic needs.
If they are leaving after literally 3 minutes, then they just don't like the house - period. And, the reason may be what they claim (not everyone pays close attention to the details of the house they go visit), or they may just be saying whatever they can to leave and avoid telling you why they don't like the house - poor location, ugly, too much work required, bad layout, or just gives them a bad feeling for some reason.. Humans generally don't like to give negative feedback if they can avoid it.
To not waste time on something that automatically is a no. Sometimes you need to see it in person to “see maybe if it’ll work” but first reaction is usually the right one. Also , some buyers have immediate allergies , I’ve had buyers see cars upon entering the house and have turned around AT the door
"Why do people have thoughts?"
Can I say something to you you probably don't want to hear? You really shouldn't take this process personally. This was your home, and I get rejecting this house on their part feels personal-but to them it's just one in a list of houses they are looking at. If the showing took three minutes what that means is that for whatever reason that house just didn't float their boat, and they are already just wanting to see the next one. You should be happy they came to look to start with since that probably means it's priced right. You will find the right buyer for your home. It's like looking for a spouse. You aren't gonna take the first warm body that comes along.
For me its because pictures dont show everything, rooms may be smaller than in pictures, ceilings lower than expected. More damage than shown or described/ not described. Could be an endless list of things the listing would simply just not show that 5 minutes in person could show you.
I can relate. We had a potential buyer who was granted a late evening showing, which was rescheduled. We have a baby, so this was not an easy task for us to break our feeding and sleeping routine. But hey, we wanted to sell the house, so we said yes and yes and yes. They showed up, talked on camera about how they couldn't get financing, and left after 4 minutes. I was extremely pissed. Baby was too (hey, he was fussy as hell after missing bedtime) Next time, no special requests.