In the third of our series investigating buying a house, 65DN looks into Oulu Estate Agents.

If you’re buying a house in Oulu your first point of contact with an estate agent is likely to be at one of the many house ‘viewings.’ They usually take place on Sunday afternoons but can be at other times as well.

The Public Showing

With scores of people all surveying the house at once, the public showing makes the property seem highly sought after and pressurises naive buyers into making an offer.

The reality is somewhat different. Jyrki, a therapist, at the viewing of a 1950s omakotitalo in an Oulu suburb commented that, ‘I’m not interested in buying it. We haven’t even tried to sell our own house yet. But I was just interested to see what it was like.’

‘It’s difficult to know whether I like it or not,’ adds his wife Anna. ‘There are so many people that it seems small. It isn’t but it’s so crowded that it seems like it is!’

At this particular viewing the estate agent’s tactic is a victim of its own success. About seventy people have turned up to view a 130 square metre house. When the estate agent arrives – five minutes late – the viewers are crammed into the garden and she doesn’t have enough information packs to go round. And there isn’t enough space for everyone to take off their shoes before going in.

Getting 70 people to a house uses up far less time than about 35 ‘private viewings.’ Insisting on a private viewing can, however, have many advantages for the prospective buyer.

Insisting on Privacy

‘I always insist on private viewing,’ says house-hunter Tuuli, 30. ‘I find that they usually put in an extra effort. They show you round the house personally. And they really try and persuade you that it’s a really good place to live and you should buy it.’

But, despite the advantages of the ‘personal touch,’ some estate agents are keen to avoid them. During my own house hunting, I arranged for a private showing of an omakotitalo near the university, having endured a crammed public showing a week earlier. When I got there I found that the devious estate agent had invited four other families. And they were all under the impression that this was their own ‘private showing’ as well.

According to Re/Max estate agent Markku Nevalainen there are other advantages for buyers. ‘Some customers want to see a property but they don’t want to give out personal information,’ he suggests. ‘The main problem at public showings, recently, has been theft of items on display which is why, maybe, more sellers will want private showings.’

Matti, an expat originally from Ireland, speculates that the reluctance for ‘private showings’ is because public showings are the only way you can get a price war going.

According to Mr Nevalainen, if you make an offer you have to sign a document with the estate agent officially making the offer and stating how long the offer is valid for. Sometimes it is only valid for 24 hours, sometimes for a month. If the seller accepts the offer and you renege on it you are then obliged to pay them ten percent of the offer as compensation.

‘If someone makes an offer it is illegal to then ring back a person who has made a lower offer and tell them this and invite them to make a higher offer,’ says Nevalainen. This means that buyers do not know about each other’s offers and there can be no bidding war.

But there can be a bidding war at a public showing. ‘I’ve been at viewings where couples start making offers there and then,’ recalls Matti. ‘And sometimes you find that other couples overhear this and start making an offer and so you have a bidding war.’

‘It’s like they’d given up!’

There is also a big variation in the standard of estate-agent. According to Tuuli, ‘I find that when they’re from the bigger companies they are smartly dressed, they are there on time and they really seem to know lots about the house and the area. If you have a question, they can answer it and they really try to sell the house.’

‘I don’t want to generalise, but with many of the smaller companies they turn up late, they are not smartly dressed, they just stand there and – worst of all – they know nothing about the area and not much about the house either!’ According to Nevalainen many estate agents also do not tend to speak English, though some speak it very well.

This ‘variation’ is possibly reflected in the pressure placed on the client to make their home nice for the viewing.

‘I remember a viewing in Kaakuri,’ smiled an American expat who wished to remain nameless. ‘The house was not that big and it was on sale for about 230,000. The woman who was selling it didn’t even leave the property. I guess she was divorced and that’s why she was selling but she just sat in the garden playing with her kids. One of the toilet seats had been left up and there was clearly faeces on it. The house wasn’t very clean. The estate agent turned up late and was a really scruffily dressed woman. It’s like they’d given up! It just doesn’t make you feel good about the house!’

‘Finns are very clean’

In other homes, the house is immaculate for the showing. ‘We Finns are very clean and they like it to be clean and tidy,’ asserts Tuuli. ‘I have been at showings and I can’t believe how untidy and dirty it is. The estate agent that sold my house actually asked me to clean more – even though I’d spent all day before the showing making it spotless – and suggested I buy some flowers for the kitchen table and even bake some bread just before leaving! I was upset at the time but she sold our house for a very good price!’

Traditionally, many Finns have paid the asking price and Tuuli refers to a friend boasting that ‘we got a discount’ on the house she and her husband had bought. This is beginning to change.

‘People usually add about twenty percent to what they want for an omakotitalo,’ explained one estate agent. ‘You start with a high price and then, if nobody buys it, you put it down after a few weeks.’