Is this normal?

Sassybot

Please bear with me on this.

My house has been on the market for two weeks, and we have had ten viewings. I appreciate that this is a really positive thing and am grateful for it. However, I'm a bit concerned that we aren't getting to second viewings. We did have a second viewing booked today, but they cancelled this morning after deciding the house was too far from their work. 

While ten feels quite good, based on the feedback from those viewings, only two have been in any position to move if they wanted to. Most have basically been exploring the area or just being nosey -  one guy brought his family and his brother threw up in my toilet because he was hungover! I've found various loose calculations on how many viewings I should expect before receiving an offer, and while I appreciate they are just loose calculations, none of them seem to include whether or not it is X number of serious viewings, or just all viewings, including those who are essentially wasting time.

As you can no doubt tell, I'm not enjoying the process - I don't like people being in my home, let alone hungover ones, and it's hard to juggle the viewings and my work commitments, even with the agents doing the viewings (I feel like I need to be nearby for the viewings because the agent magically forgot to show up to the first two). I am trying to figure out how much more of this I should reasonably expect so I can focus on the light at the end of the tunnel.

Also tbh I'm a bit miffed about this second viewing. The viewing agent let slip that the applicant knew someone who works at the agents. While this was later denied, I could see they were friends on social media. I think the agents essentially thought it was a done deal so didn't follow through with the marketing they said would happen to our property; we're not in their window or socials, for example. I get the mechanics of an initial flurry of interest and that dying back a bit, but it feels like we would have more viewings booked if they hadn't taken their foot off the gas. Currently, we have one booked for the weekend, and that's it. I've spoken with the agent who has blamed some technical issue on why the marketing wasn't followed through, and half term.

Logically, I know it's early days, and I don't want to sound like I'm whining, ungrateful or being stupid; I know ten is good, but am I right to have expected some serious interest by now? No one in my family has bought/sold a house before, so I don't really have anyone to get insights from.

Any advice or insights you may have would be welcome. Just please be gentle with me - feeling a bit beaten up by the process already and nothing has really happened yet lol. 

gwynlas

If you have read the threads on selling lately you will seee that the level of interest is high so something must be attracting viewers. Allowing viewers who are unable to proceed is your agents decision but everyone needs to start a chain somewhere.
If you are finding it stressful already then perhaps you need to look at coordinating open house viewings rather than individual ad hoc viewings
If the agents are failing to show up then you need to make a formal complaint and ask for  financial recompense. 
They might be either extremely busy or believe the house will sell itself.
You can only have one successful buyer and the right offer might come after an inittial viewing.

MikeJXE

March is the start of the house selling season and obviously if your home is pitched at a price to sell it will

You may get lots of viewers especially if your agent is not doing their job properly ie, checking out the buyers financial position. 

2 weeks on the market is no time at all, come back here after 2 months 

Sassybot

gwynlas said:

If you are finding it stressful already then perhaps you need to look at coordinating open house viewings rather than individual ad hoc viewings

Thanks for your reply. They agreed to book viewings in last Saturday. I was away and so they suggested it would be the best day to do it. This seemed positive, but the momentum died after the second viewing was booked, and ultimately, only one person was booked in. I wasn't home so it's not the end of the world, but I paid for my cat to have care as I didn't want to leave his litter tray overnight 🙄

While technically I have no issue with people who are in a chain viewing the house, I'd at least like them to be certain they want to sell their own house. My agent told me the puker family had sold their house, but they told me they didn't even know if they wanted to. 

Perhaps I've just had a bit of bad luck, and the stress of it and the disappointment of today's cancellation has got to me. 

MikeJXE

You need to chill, difficult I know it’s a learning curve.

My first sale fell through on signing day (my brother got cold feet)

My last sale was a family from London who went through the viewing like a whirlwind then rang back in 10 minutes later for another viewing, they were shocked at how much the were getting for the price, they paid the asking price.

I have been through 10 selling/buying cycles in my 84 years and most are stressful for one reason or another, fastest 2 weeks slowest 6 months.

I never used agents for viewing, they don’t offer  personal service.  coffee and a chat, I would never view on an open day as it seems more tike an auction to the highest bidder 

Neil49

I would start by being a bit firmer with your agent and ensuring any viewers are in the process of selling their existing property (unless a first time buyer) and have started talks with their lenders with regards to funding. 

Some agents will just attempt to get bodies through the door in an attempt to show they are doing their job. 

Bonniepurple

FWIW I’ve never done second viewings.  Our first house was a repossession and it was “what you see is what you get”. Second property was also empty (owner gone into sheltered accommodation) and, as we drove past it several times a day (school run) we peered through the windows but didn’t go in.  Current house we bought in 2021 during Covid restrictions and so we had 1 viewing with the owners sat in their car.  My daughters didn’t even set foot inside until move day!  While it wasn’t directly on our route to anywhere we did make frequent detours to go past it.

Bigphil1474

If you only want proceedable purchasers tell the EA that. They can filter them out. Lots of nosey or 'might move some time in the future' type people like to go to viewings. If you don't want them, you need to be telling the EA. You might go midway and say you only want viewers who are already on the market or FTB's. Tbh, before we sold our house last year, our EA said not to bother viewing other properties until SSTC as you could end up finding a house you love but not be able to offer, and it may just be wasting the vendors time. 

We accepted an offer on our house after 4 months, so 2 weeks is a bit early to be worried about it. Typically a property gets lots of viewings in the first month, and then they peter out. Its when the viewings peter out and you've had no acceptable offers that you want to start having a rethink. 

Albermarle

 My agent told me the puker family had sold their house, but they told me they didn't even know if they wanted to. 

Buyers often give estate agents a lot of BS about their position. From what you say about this family, it would not be surprising if this was the case here.

If you only want proceedable purchasers tell the EA that. They can filter them out.

Only to a point as it is not feasible to check all details before every viewing.

eddddy

There are different schools of thought about this...

Some agents take the view "Show the house to as many people as possible - because a prospective buyer might change their mind when they see it".

For example...

• A prospective buyer says they want to buy in area A - but the estate agent wonders if they will change their minds, when they see your house in area B.

• A prospective buyer's own house isn't under offer, but when they see your house and like it, they might be spurred into reducing their own house price, in order to sell quickly - and put an offer on your house.

• A prospective buyer says their budget is £x - but the estate agent shows them more expensive houses in the hope that they will reconsider their budget (maybe by borrowing from parents, opting for a larger mortgage etc)

Put another way - the more people you show it to, the more likely you are to get an offer from somebody you didn't expect to get an offer from

The result might be a very low 'offers to viewings' ratio.


Other estate agents might take a different view - only show the house to people who have expressed a specific interest in the area, the house type and price range - and are proceedable.


When 'interviewing' estate agents to decide which one to instruct, you can ask them their views on this.

Sassybot

Bigphil1474 said:

Typically a property gets lots of viewings in the first month, and then they peter out. Its when the viewings peter out and you've had no acceptable offers that you want to start having a rethink. 

The thing is, it feels like its petered out already. That many viewings booked in the first week, then one booked in this week, ignoring the second viewing that was cancelled. I expected a new to market rush then drop, but not quite to this extent. If we had that much interest and then a couple of viewings booked this week, I wouldn't be too concerned. Does that make sense?

I've spoken with the agent this morning and asked them to only send through folks who are already on the market etc. I appreciate people mislead the agents but hopefully, this means we'll filter out some of the folks coming in to be nosey. 

Thanks for your input all