How many viewings on average?

cattie

My house was on the market just over 4 weeks and there were about 9 views, with 2 of those being second viewings. All the feedback was excellent, but the one drawback for some people is my house being on quite a busy road, although well set back.

Anyway, after 4 weeks with not even a silly offer I spoke with my ea about reducing the asking price and 2 days later I had an offer from my next viewer, who had been notified about the price change as the original price had been over her budget so she didn't bother to view the house before the price drop.

I've noticed in my area that lots of houses, if priced at the 3% stamp duty threshold, don't significantly reduce their asking price, then the house can sit around for months and months unsold. Nobody likes taking a big hit on their property, but with things the way they are right now I think it's a step the majority of people need to consider if they do really want or need to sell.

AMO

pinkcheshirecat wrote: »

The house is on in the region of £350k and being honest is on the low side for similar properties in the area, but is a smaller than average 4 bed i think.

I think your house is probably right to be on the low side then. People paying £300K or more are going to want more inside space. They'll look at the 2nd, 3rd and 4th bedroom sizes and would rather pay an extra £20-30K for bigger rooms.

I would say that your number of viewings are okay for a house that's been on the market for a while, but initially you should have quite a few a week.

Always tell your viewers to give feedback to the estate agent - for some reason at least 25% just don't answer estate agent calls after that, but if you've requested them give feedback they are more inclined to answer the call.

Also, remember that larger more expensive houses have a smaller pool of buyers and the houses can sit on the market for a loooong time.

I would say spend time targetting redecorating. In the past, because of all the viewings we stopped maintenance on the house (painting etc). We actually found that by pushing viewers into certain timeslots together (e.g. offer one day in the week and one day on the weekend and show them around at the same time - competition) and also use the time between mid week and weekend to say paint one of the rooms and put down new carpet (easy on small rooms - or get a local fitter for £20-£50 per room when you decorate it) it helps with the viewers as the house is being decorated whilst at the same time you're not putting them off because all your tools are lying around. You also only need to tidy up the house twice a week for viewings.

baskerville_2

Hi, i can only comment on our own experience. Went on the market in Jan, lots of initial viewings. Then very sporadic but then take into account things like school hols (people away), horrendous weather (I always think a sunny day makes people more inclined to look!) I can't say I wasn't surprised. Talking to other agents (surprisingly i'm now on first name terms with all the local agents who regularly ran us up asking if we wanted to change!) it was the same for everyone - very peculiar market at the moment. However, just when I was starting to feel like the white elephant on rightmove another viewing would come along. To be fair we had several offers ranging from the taking the p*** to the well thats a good starting point. Then one weekend we had 2 second viewings booked in, both who had viewed 2 months before and consequently had 2 very healthy offers one of which we accepted. I guess the moral is, dependent on your circumstances, you need to be prepared for a bit of a long haul. Yes, you can reduce if you want to go quicker - we gave ourselves an 18 month time line so were quite happy to stick it out for a bit and see what happened before going down the reduction road. People also seem to be taking their time so don't be surprised if like us you get an offer off someone who viewed months ago. It took us 5 months to find a buyer but was worth waiting for. (finger crossed - i've probably jinxed it now:eek:!!).

cattie

AMO wrote: »

Always tell your viewers to give feedback to the estate agent - for some reason at least 25% just don't answer estate agent calls after that, but if you've requested them give feedback they are more inclined to answer the call.

I have to agree. I asked all of my viewers if they would be kind enough to take the time to give my ea feedback, telling them that all feedback, good and bad would be very welcomed. All viewers did give feedback and it was all pretty good. Only real neg for 2 viewers was the house being on a fairly busy road.

I advised a friend who has her house up for sale, and hardly ever seemed to get any feedback, to also make a point of asking viewers as they are leaving if they would please give the ea a call and give some feedback and it has worked. All viewers since have responded.