Estate Agent Wont Let Me View Properties Until My Existing Home is Under Offer

PotatoFactory

I tried to arrange a viewing and they basically fobbed me off saying they wouldn't work with me on any viewings until my own home was under offer. 

How is that reasonable? Surely the properties they are selling are in chains too?

FlorayG

Since Covid a lot of estate agents work like that now. They are trying to keep waiting times for completion as short as possible so they won't let you move on until you have an offer that can be carried through

daveyjp

May not only be the agent.  If I were selling I would instruct the agent to only accept viewings from those in a position to begin the buying process.

fullyrendered

You are not proceedable, perfectly normal, perfectly acceptable. This way the chain builds from the bottom up.

eddddy

Some sellers / estate agents will allow viewings in your circumstances, others won't.

There are arguments for and against both approaches.


But realistically, if a particular seller / estate agent has made their decision on this - there's probably not much you can do about it.

You can ask the estate agent if that's their policy for all properties, or whether it's specific to the one seller. And you can ask other Estate Agents about their policy.

AskAsk

As others have said, you would be considered not proceedable until your property is under offer so it may not just be the estate agent but the vendor as well who will not be interested in showing you the property.

TheJP

This is also to stop the window shoppers who dont have any intention to sell within the next 6 months but want to see what properties are out there. I had a few of these when i was selling, 2 viewers at the end of the viewing when asked by the EA said they wanted to look at the size of the houses in the area as they plan on moving in a years time. 

housebuyer143

I would prefer not to have people around who are not proceedable. It's a waste of the sellers time, as I wouldn't accept an offer from someone who hadn't sold theirs. 

youth_leader

I was widowed and wanted to move urgently in 2018.  I had a unique house, listed, and had many 'curiosity' viewings.  Many of these people were not proceedable.  I ended up having so many viewings I was out of the house almost every day because of my dog, and I asked the estate agents to start filtering to proceedable.  Eighteen months and two cash offers from not cash buyers later, I went to auction.

I wasn't happy at the amount of people they were sending to view with one very young viewing agent.   I was especially cross when the young lady who did the viewings told me that 'someone liked the house so much they said when they got home they were going to put their house on the market'.  I don't think she realised what she'd said.  I thought going to auction  they screened all viewers to make sure they could complete when the hammer dropped.  As it turned out, the developer that bought my house needed to 'pass it in front of his underwriters' - he'd got a mortgage.

fluffymuffy

We sold a unique and desirable property. We anticipated a lot of interest and so stipulated that only people in a position to proceed could view. All viewings were by the agent. We had 7 viewings and 3 offers in the first 2 days. We accepted the cash offer at the asking price. This buyer did have the money available, but was under no pressure to move things along since they were in rented accommodation. They came back a further 6 times, picking away at the agreed price, untill many months later they found somewhere else they liked better. We wasted so much time with this cash buyer, and lost the house we wanted to buy. After that we sold it to someone in a chain. But they had accepted an offer on their house. In all we had about 20 viewings. If we hadn't restricted it there would have been a lot more.

youth_leader

So sorry you went through that @fluffymuffy.  I'll never forger the cash buyer but he wasn't who 'wanted to move quickly' so I sold my Tetrad for peanuts - he withdrew by email late one night, weeks later.   I was selling a disused railway station on the live East Coast Main line and did have to do some of the viewings, unfortunately I often got the timewasting train enthusiasts.