02/12/2025
😱 A shock horror behind the scenes viewing story:
I must have been to around 10+ property viewings in the last month. I sent out around 20 messages on Open Rent. But this one really stood out...
It was for a 5 bedroom property, it looked ready to go on the advertising photos. It was fully furnished with all bills included, which could work out beneficial for me making it easier to known the break even price all year around.
What's not to like?! 😍
I got a quick reply explaining how the previous tentant had moved out, and a deep clean was needed before a viewing could go ahead, so they'd be back in touch.
3 weeks later I still hadn't heard back (granted this was a long time, and I should have message again sooner, but with all the other responses coming in my diary, and more so my hard space was in chaos). So I reached back out and we booked a viewing for the following day at 12pm, which got changed quickly to 11am... no problem!
Myself and Adam arrive at 10.57am, having parked in a permit only area over the road, we prayed for a quick visit. It got to 11.15am and no body had turned up to the property. It was raining so we continued sitting in the car, hawk eyeing anyone and everyone walking by to see if they were heading to the property.
With no signs I called the owner who lives in London, so they had someone else doing the viewings for them. They called to find out what was happening and I was told they were 10 minutes away so wait a little longer. But 25 minutes went by and there was still no sign of anyone visiting the property 😒
I contacted the owner again and I was asked if everything went well as they had received an invoice for a completed viewing - are you joking me?!
I then got another call back asking to visit a local letting agent to collect the keys myself 🤦♀️ at this point its 12pm (the original time of the viewing) and I'm thinking to myself, "what the hell am I still sitting here for?", "should I bother going to collect the keys or just leave?"
But me a) being nosey and wanting to see the property and b) genuinely thinking this could be a great property with a few extra homely touches added, I went to collect the keys.
I had to send Adam into the agency as again I couldn't get parking, and this time I was blocking a high street foot path 🫣 acting like a typical british bad driver who sticks their hazards on when they know they're in the wrong, but sit there anyway. We almost didn't get the keys since they didn't expect a male to be collecting them (and Adam said it was a very arsey staff member).
So we eventually now get to see this place. We walk in and...
😱😱😱😱😱
I have no words!!
It was mentioned to me there may be a small amount of damp somewhere inside the property. It was reported by the previous tenants but no photo evidence was ever sent to the owner for getting it sorted. "Not a massive issue as long as it will get sorted before I take the keys", or so I thought!
1. The damp was top to bottom of the property!
2. There hadn't been a clean in this property at all!
3. In fact it didn't appear tenants had just moved out at all!
Instead:
😵 Homeless people were 100% living inside
😵💫 Furniture was thrown out in the back yard
😵 Furniture had cigarette burns
😵💫 The back door had no working lock, it had been broken into
😵 A window upstairs was wide open for alternative entry access
😵💫 The place was an absolute mess
😵 Upstairs doors had key codes but it didn't matter, as they had been kicked in for entry
Being helpful, I called the owner again, to explain everything, but when they picked up I was asked if I wanted to take the keys with me there and then 🤣 erm... no!
I sent them a video tour of the property, and as requested by the owner, we barricaded the entry points as best as possible! But the owner was as calm as a cucumber and didn't seem shocked at all, they even stated they had received an offer on the place.. now I'm the shocked one!
They then asked if the property got fixed would I still be interested? My response was, "let me know when its ready", I should have added "after it's went back to brick" 🙈
I've never had a reply afterwards and the property is still on the market as available to this day, with no changes to the advert 🥴
Back to the letting agency we went, to drop the keys back off. I parked elsewhere this time, to go in myself, and asked the agency if they were managing this property. Despite still getting an arsey attitude for no reason whatsoever, it turns out someone random came into the agency, dropped the keys off and said I would be coming to collect them. They might as well have done this in a cafe, shop or local hairdressers, the agency had that little information to know what the hell was going on. I've never in my life experienced this.
❤️ Lessons learnt:
1. ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR GUT!! I should have drove away at 11.15am when my initial instincts were kicking in.
2. I'll be setting a waiting period going forward and just drive home if it goes past that time (perhaps to re-arrange for another time, or not).
3. This industry can be madness at times.
4. I will never be willing to work with this letting agent with the attitude from this staff member.
➡️ Watch the video to see the advertised images vs. the actual images that I took. I'd love to know your thoughts.
