What happens if you are showing someone around a property when you are not an estate agent?
In the case of journalist Myra Butterworth, she couldn’t open the door.
Butterworth observes that it wasn’t the best start to her stint at being a ‘Viewber’ – the outsourced viewing service launched by former London agent Ed Mead.
However, the door problem was swiftly solved, and the viewer did not mind being shown around by a non-agent.
In fact she seemed to welcome it, saying: “You know as soon as you walk in if you are going to like the property and so a heavy sales pitch is unnecessary.”
However, as Butterworth points out, as a non-agent she was not expected to be able to answer any questions about the property.
Being a Viewber is pin money, Butterworth also points out, paying between £10 and £20 per viewing plus travel money.
Comments (6)
From the article:
“Viewber can be a strange concept to get your head around, and certainly raises some questions when you first come across it.
For example, if you’re the person who is selling their property, you may have concerns about Joe Public showing potential buyers around your home.
But Viewber addresses such security issues with a strict vetting service that includes a two-way £1 bank transfer, and people who apply to do the viewings are asked to provide a copy of their passport or driving licence, a utility bill and a landline telephone number.”
Oh – I feel much more secure now then.
Silly me for thinking that fear of dishonesty or worse couldn’t be eradicated by something as simple as giving over your – or someone else’s – landline…
<Hand Claps in appreciation to this post>
Thanks – but seemingly not everyone shares your appreciation…
Never, ever would i allow a complete stranger who doent work for the company and has done nothing more than hand over some ID to have free access to my house.
Never. Ever.
I have a question. I read this on Twitter:
‘From a large County Agency-“It’s running like clockwork & we want to thank everyone. We literally couldn’t run our business without Viewber” ‘
Am I the only one wondering how the chuff this large, presumably well-established Agency actually managed to keep trading on a daily basis without the Viewber service all those… three months or so ago?
Excuse me it costs £30 according to Viewber web site, they are acting illegally in Wales as no record of being licenced as a company or Viewbers (requirement since 2016) and still no reply to the selling agent is liable for the conduct of the Viewber, just we have insurance. As to being passive, the viewer is asked to rate the viewing/Viewber and dependent on the feed back depends on the more business being sent to the Viewber, so how can it be passive?
It might help with viewings if you can’t cover the appointment, but this is a commercial venture at the end of the day. Agents needs to ask, are we in control and are we liable?