legends · 4 min read ·
Viewing Feedback
Estate-agent feedback forms record buyers who never booked a viewing and all offer exactly the same price.
**Harcourt & Dane Estate Agents — Viewing Feedback**
**Property:** 14 Wren Lane, Millbrook · **Asking price:** £275,000 · **Agent:** T. Marsh · **Vendor:** Mr. R. Vane
· · ·
**Viewing 1 (4 September, 10:00) — Mr. and Mrs. Atherton**
*Interest level: moderate.*
*Comments: Nice garden. Kitchen dated. Had a strange sense that we'd been before. Left after fifteen minutes.*
*Offer: none.*
**Viewing 2 (4 September, 14:30) — Ms. L. Pryce**
*Interest level: low.*
*Comments: Smell of baking, though nothing in the oven. Bedroom two felt very cold. Did not want to go upstairs a second time.*
*Offer: none.*
· · ·
**Viewing 3 (6 September, 11:00) — Mr. K. Hanif**
*Interest level: high.*
*Comments: I loved it. I walked through every room and I felt I knew where everything would go. The light in the back bedroom is exactly right. I'd like to put in an offer.*
*Offer: £214,000.*
**Agent's note:** Mr. Hanif left without his keys. He phoned later to say he had not viewed the property. I told him that he had signed the form. He said the signature was not his.
· · ·
**Viewing 4 (8 September, 09:30) — Ms. A. Olsen**
*Interest level: high.*
*Comments: The house is perfect. I want it. I cannot remember viewing it. I found myself standing in the front hall holding a pen and a form I had filled in. I have no recollection of how I got here.*
*Offer: £214,000.*
**Viewing 5 (8 September, 15:00) — Mr. and Mrs. Dube**
*Interest level: high.*
*Comments: We came intending to look at a different property. We got into the car and arrived here. Everything felt like it was ours. We would like to make an offer.*
*Offer: £214,000.*
· · ·
**Vendor's email to agent (R. Vane, 10 September)**
*Dear Mr. Marsh, thank you for the progress report. I notice that every offer so far has been for the same figure. I did not ask for £214,000. I asked for £275,000. I did not name a lower figure to anyone. Can you explain this?*
**Agent's reply (T. Marsh, 11 September)**
*Dear Mr. Vane, I can't. I have asked each buyer why they chose that figure. They said it was "the number on the door." I went to look at the door. The number on the door of 14 Wren Lane is 14. The figure is a price, not an address.*
· · ·
**Viewing 8 (15 September, 10:30) — Mr. and Mrs. Nolan**
*Interest level: very high.*
*Comments: We have never felt so at home. We took off our shoes at the door without being asked. The back bedroom is lovely. We lay down on the bed for a moment to see what the light was like. Time passed.*
*Offer: £214,000.*
**Agent's note:** The Nolans were found by the vendor's gardener at 17:00, asleep on the bed in the back bedroom, on top of the covers, fully dressed, holding hands. They woke after an hour and were cheerful and slow. They said they would like to move in.
· · ·
**Vendor's email to agent (R. Vane, 20 September)**
*Dear Mr. Marsh, I would like to withdraw the property from sale. I will refund any fees. I do not like the pattern of the viewings. I have not been able to stay in the house myself, in fact, since the beginning of the month.*
*I should explain. I bought the house in 1998. I lived in it for sixteen years. It was a happy house. One evening in 2014 I went out for the paper and when I came back the house was occupied. Everything was the same. The furniture, the pictures, the post on the mat. But there was someone in the kitchen cooking, and I knew without being told that it was me.*
*I have been living in the garden shed ever since. I have always paid the council tax.*
· · ·
**Agent's note (T. Marsh, 28 September)**
Offers received: 19. Offers received at £214,000: 19. Completed viewings: 23. Viewings the agency has no record of booking: 11.
We have a sale agreed. The buyers are Mr. and Mrs. Nolan. They exchanged contracts at 09:00 this morning. The vendor did not attend. At 09:30 the agent walked to Wren Lane to hand over the keys and found the front door open and the lights on. A man and a woman were in the kitchen. They were laying the table for dinner.
I asked the woman if she was Mrs. Nolan. She smiled and said: *"We've always lived here."*
I asked where the vendor was. She nodded at the back garden. Through the window I could see the shed, and in the shed a light, and a man in a coat, sitting on an upturned crate, looking at the house. He seemed content. He looked up and waved.