Viewers who can't buy?

scooterpig

We've had our house up for sale for a couple of months now, and had about half a dozen viewers so far. All the feedback has been super positive so far. However, it has turned out that several of the viewers have not even got their own houses on the market yet, let alone be in a position to make offers.

What does everyone make of this? Are they just timewasters/sightseers? Or is this how people are operating now? When we bought this house six years ago, the market was much more buoyant and it didn't seem to matter whether people had bought or sold first, but in the current climate, I would not have expected people to be viewing who weren't in a position to proceed.

Should I raise this with the EA? I'm kind of reluctant to tell them to restrict viewings (just in case one of these folk tells someone else who can buy how wonderful our house is!), but at the same time, it's frustrating to get your hopes up every time the EA tells me there going to be a viewing, only for nothing to come of it. The EA is conducting all the viewings.

Life is very much on hold until the house is sold, but at the same time, I accept it will take however long it takes. I just want to be sure we're doing all the right things.

poppysarah

Yes raise it with the EA. If you can get the basic info out of them "are you ready and able to buy" then the EA could too.

You don't think it's just the EA's mates coming round to help you think he's good at his job?

scooterpig

Hi,

I don't think so - it's the EA who's telling me, usually after the viewings, that they're not in a position to buy. The EA firm we're using are generally considered to be the best in the area and they've not done anything that makes me question their integrity. We live in a rural area, and the staff are all part of the local community and have been for years.

I think the fact we're getting the info second hand isn't really helping but we just have to live with that. When we sold our last place, we did all the viewings ourselves, but that isn't possible in this case.

PasturesNew

Think yourself lucky, I live at the seaside and it's a well known day out for tourists to look at some houses while they're on holiday if the weather's poor. Just for a nosey around. All they have to do is pop into the estate agent and say "we're moving down ..." and the EA gets £££ in their eyes because incomers buy most of the houses either as holiday homes, holiday lets or some new dream about a new life.

jockosjungle

Would have thought the EA would have asked if they were in a position to proceed, then again it looks good if you have a string of viewings so you can see they are doing their job

R

jenny74

Well, sometimes it is not a bad thing... Our buyers looked at our house before they had sold their house, then came back once they were preceedable.

PottyHouse_2

The first question I ask my EA is "what position are they in".

I think if you get more "tyre kickers" than proceedables it will envitably get you down.

Good luck, hope you get some serious viewers and offers soon !

Chinkle

While you're right, in this market viewers who aren't proceedable are a real pain in the a. Unfortunately, there will always be people of the mindset that they won't put their place on the market until they've found something they like.

Maybe say to the EA next time it happens - "didn't you check in advance what their position is" or remind them "that's the X person who isn't in a position to proceed" and "aren't they fed up of these people wasting their time"? May just get the hint that you aren't being blinded by his show of getting feet through your door.

jockosjungle

Just because someone isn't able to put an offer in that day, doesn't mean they are not genuinely interested in buying your house. If everyone waited to start looking for a house when they had accepted an offer on theirs, the whole system would take years to sell houses in a long chain.

There is a lot of talk about tyrekickers and timewasters, I honestly don't think people waste their time looking at ones they have no interest in buying. We looked at six houses before selecting the one we did, enquired about a dozen more, viewed one three times before being outbid. Just because I didn't buy the houses we looked at doesn't mean we were wasting anyones time!

R

soundsystem

I can see the annoyance of this but you can also consider it from the other side.

We've looked at houses before ours is on the market to see what's available in the area we want to move to and therefore how much we will need for ours to be able to manage it.

Swings and roundabouts

vet8

I am also surprised how many viewers do not have their house on the market, because the EA wil not accept an offer from them until they are in a position to proceed, so they are really wasting everyone's time, unless they can sell their house super-fast. Our first offerer had not sold his house and even after 7 weeks it was still not on the market. Then he was really disappointed when we accepted another offer and raised his, but his house was still not sold!