Do not fall foul of open home etiquette
Are you allowed to look in the closets? Can you scrabble around under the house or turn on the taps? Kylie Klein Nixon finds out.
The first time I went to an open home, I got a shock when the agent asked me to take off my shoes. It’s a little embarrassing to admit to that – in my defence, I was young and clueless. But if I’d given it a second’s thought, I’d have realised it’s just good manners to take your shoes off before traipsing through someone else’s house, particularly when there might be 10 or more prospective buyers there at the same time.
‘‘You’ve got to be prepared to take your shoes off at the door. That’s pretty standard,’’ says real estate agent Craig Lowe, whose company Lowe&Co hosts hundreds of open homes throughout the year.
‘‘Ultimately, it’s a respectful thing to do for cleanliness and sanitation.’’
Count 20-year-old me suitably chastened – and you’re probably way savvier than I was back then.
But if you’re new to house hunting (or out of practice), it’s not always clear what the etiquette around open homes is. Are you allowed to look in the closets? Can you scrabble around under the house or turn on the taps?
You’ll want to get the most out of the viewings, without turning into ‘‘one of those people’’, who uses the loo (the number one open home no-no), or gets caught nosing into the bathroom cabinet (number two no-no).
‘‘In 21 years of selling real estate, I’ve never had anything go wrong at an open home,’’ says Lowe. ‘‘We did once have a small bedside clock go walk about. Turns out it was a 4-year-old boy who liked the Mickey Mouse clock, picked it up and walked out. We were able to track it down once we called everyone who had been there that day.’’
That’s one of the reasons leaving your contact details is important, says Lowe. That’s not just the real estate agency capturing your data for a followup, it’s a security issue.
Estate agents will always ask owners to make sure there’s nothing valuable or too personal left out during an open home.
‘‘There should be a bit of common sense with it. An understair cupboard, for example, I think it’s OK to open, and we would be asking for those spaces to be prepared for people to peer inside.
‘‘But if it’s someone’s wardrobe, or a drawer, that’s inappropriate. At the very least, ask the agent what’s OK and what’s not.’’
There should be enough agents on site to keep an eye on the house – for example, a twostorey home should have an agent on each floor to answer questions and keep an eye on things.
Another open home classic is turning on taps or flushing the toilet to check the water pressure. Lowe recommends checking with the agent first. ‘‘There are no hard and fast rules on this stuff, it’s just common sense.’’
An open home is generally a ‘‘first pass’’. If you want a deeper dive into the home, you can come back for a private viewing.
It’s important to be sceptical during the open home, and to look beyond just the house and property, says Dustin Lindale, director of the website First Home Buyer’s Club.
‘‘I try to look for the negative side of things and say, ‘Well, what are the potential downsides to the property that need to be factored in?’
‘‘I always look at where the sun’s coming from, whether the home is north-facing. I look around the neighbourhood.
What are the local amenities, schools and public transport like? I just make sure that I cover any potential issues.’’
Consider the neighbours, too. Is there a shared driveway?
What is the condition of the fencing? Are there neighbours behind? Take time to assess ‘‘the nature of the neighbourhood’’.
Pace yourself, and keep records of your visits. Open homes are just the start of the whole house-hunting process.
‘‘You’ll have to visit several properties to get a picture of what properties are going for [in the area].
‘‘I always ask the real estate agent about the price, and they should ask you what your feedback is, but they don’t always.’’
An open home also offers an opportunity to gather information for your lawyer or conveyancer to look over.
‘‘The main thing that we need is all the property documentation,’’ says Homelegal senior solicitor Astra Foster.
Usually the agent will have a property document pack you can ask for. This could include a Lim report, a property inspection report, an electrical report, and a copy of the draft agreement for sale and purchase, which is how you’ll make an offer if it’s the place for you.
‘‘Usually, they’ll have a disclosures form as well, which the vendor has signed off, disclosing anything [the buyer] needs to know about the property,’’ says Foster. ‘‘I strongly recommend that purchasers take it to their lawyer and have everything checked through.’’
Disclosures could include whether there are any outstanding consents on the property, any issues with the neighbours, such as boundaries or fencing, or whether any of the chattels are not working – any material issues that vendors need to disclose to purchasers.
Agents are legally bound to tell you about these issues, so it’s good to have a catch-all question to ask them at the end of your visit.
‘‘You might say, ‘Is there anything else you are aware of about the property that might influence my decision to make an offer?’ and, if there is, the agent will have to discuss that with you, once you’ve asked that question.
‘‘It’s always a good idea to throw that one on there to cover all the bases.’’
Open homes can be busy, though that has been changing in some areas. People queued up at this open home in Auckland’s Royal Oak suburb.