Home buying 101:
What you can and can’t do at an open home
You may have never been to an open home before, and with a wealth of sometimes conflicting information on just about everything online these days, you may be wondering what’s allowable.
Open home etiquette is real and if you’re a serious buyer, it pays to follow along.
So save this cheat-sheet, apply some common-sense and get ready to find the home of your (relative) dreams (or budget).
BE RESPECTFUL, AS IF THE OWNERS WERE STILL HOME
Just because the owners aren’t home, doesn’t mean you have free rein.
“We as the agent actually have the power of the vendor in the house, we're obligated and given permission to look after it. We have the same powers as the vendor to trespass someone if they were very weird or threatening,” says Bruce Manning, real estate agent at Proppy. “This happens very rarely.”
When you look through someone else's home, you are expected to conduct yourself with a standard of “reasonable behaviour”, akin to what you would if the vendors were actually home.
For example, it’s courteous to not walk through someone else’s home eating or drinking, dropping any mess, letting your kids run amuck, or being obnoxiously noisy.
SHOES ON OR OFF?
You should be prepared to take your shoes off, so make sure to wear some reasonable socks. It is someone else’s home, remember. If in doubt, look for a sign at the door, or err on the side of caution and remove them.
However, there is some wiggle room. Manning says it also depends on the context. You might be allowed inside in your shoes if it’s a do-up property on a dry day, or you’re wearing really difficult to unlace boots.
DO SIGN THE REGISTER
If you want to be a good open home attendee, Manning says please don't try and get past the agent without giving your details.
“That's what people do,” he says. People will see you at the front door and try and get in the back door to avoid giving their names. And that is a really, really good way of not making a good relationship with the agent. A buyer might think that's clever, but it's counter-intuitive.”
CAN I USE THE BATHROOM?
“If the vendor says no, then that is the rule,” says Manning.
However, we’ve all seen “a frantic parent with a child that just really needs to go to the toilet”.
A “humanitarian approach” can be taken in these cases, says Manning, but don’t count on it being possible.
“If it’s children? Yes,” says Alice O’Styke, agent for Tommy’s real estate in Wellington. “Adults, I feel like should know better.”
CAN I LOOK IN THE CUPBOARDS?
People “often do” look in the cupboards at open homes says Manning, and you can, though it’s recommended that you talk to the agent about why you want to do that.
Whilst it’s expected that you’d like to have a look in the wardrobe or the pantry, to see what kind of space is offered there, if storage is a specific requirement for you and you’d like to go poking around in the kitchen, be polite and first flag this to the agent.
“Cupboards are fine and people often do, but they often also open the fridge too, which I find is a bit weird,” says O’Styke. “I think maybe they’re just on autopilot.”
CAN I MOVE FURNITURE TO CHECK FOR MOULD?
Moving furniture to check for mould is something that could be done with a “reasonable explanation”.
“I wouldn't object to it,” says Manning. “But it's a little bit property dependent. If you had suspicions about the house, that it was damp. Or if there was a sofa in a downstairs basement that smelled musty, and you thought that it's possible that that sofa was put there to cover a wet wall or wet carpet or something like that, then I think that would be perfectly reasonable.”
CAN I TURN ON THE SHOWER?
“By all means, I think that's quite a valid thing to do and probably a good idea,” says Manning.
“Yes you can,” says O’Styke. “But I feel like if you're gonna do really nitty-gritty things, it’s better to do some of those things on a second viewing. So it's not disruptive to other people looking.”
CAN I LOOK IN THE ATTIC OR CAVITY, OR UNDERNEATH THE HOUSE?
“If you can do it without showering everyone else that's coming through in dust”, then sure, says Manning.
However you may find yourself illequipped, as journeys into such places often need a ladder, a torch or heavy overalls. Perhaps it’s better to just book a second viewing.
CAN I ASK IF THE HOME HAS ANY KNOWN PROBLEMS?
“It's a good question to ask,” says Manning, “because every house has some issues, and every house has those issues in a spectrum, from minor to major.”
Major issues like soil disruption, unconsented work and hell-raising neighbours are the types of problems the agent should advise.
“The general principle is full disclosure to purchasers and if a vendor does not want disclosure of something, then that moves into the realm of it actually being illegal. It’s illegal for us to be doing non-disclosures, to be hiding something.”
“We are actually obligated to walk away from that vendor and say, ‘I'm sorry, I can't do that. I cannot continue with the listing if you continue to ask me to do that.’
Like everything in life, there are rules to follow when checking out someone’s else’s place writes Anabela Rea