How much contact would you expect from an estate agent?

[Mulledmead]

We recently put our house on the market, and within the first day we had three viewings booked. All good.

From the three viewings one cancelled and we have since had another viewing yesterday.

I have asked the agent about feedback, but have had none other that one is a cash buyer and is 'waiting to see what happens'...

The agent keeps saying how busy they are and they have had lots of enquiries, but these haven't converted into viewings.

It has only been a little over a week, so I am willing to be told I am being impatient and I know the housing market is weird right now, but would you expect more from them? More contact/telephone calls etc.? I know I am not their only client and our property is not in VIP price territory, but equally it's not cheap end either (not that that should influence the service, but I imagine the higher the commission the more on the ball they are?!)

I don't want to be annoying and pushy, but I also don't want to house to linger for ages when there is supposed interest.

Any experiences/tips/advice?

[Bells3032]

I think two viewings in a week is really good. may just be nothing else to tell you.

[Chocolatebrownielove]

Contact I think would depend on how much there is to update you on. I put my property on the market on Monday and there was massive demand with about 40 viewings booked in within a day for the next two weeks. I spoke to the EA on Monday the day it went to market, Tuesday to let me know there was loads of demand and viewers booked in and Wednesday to give me feedback from first viewings. At that stage she said that with so many viewings booked in, she wouldn't be in touch every day to tell me the same thing and would be in touch Tuesday next week after most viewings were done or before then if there was a significant change in circumstances so I didn't have any expectation of hearing every day.

I suspect it's often the case that there is no update to give so silence day to day isn't necessarily a bad thing.

It's still early days but if you're concerned about contact or lack of viewings with apparent high interest, why not ask how often they expect to be in touch so you're not sitting stressing when there's not actually any news to give? Then you also know when it's okay to chase for news if you don't hear.

The EA has said to me that they're completely swamped and it's a struggle to keep up so it's possible they're not updating just as regular as they might otherwise.

[Bigoldwimp]

Wow @Chocolatebrownielove I would love that level of interest. Is that normal in your area? @Mulledmead I get a call if I have a viewing to check we can be out of the house and feedback emailed the day after the viewing.

[Bigoldwimp]

Also @Mulledmead what are they enquiring about? Ours seem to be request to views rather than general questions; so the EA should be able to convert an enquiry into a viewing surely

[Mulledmead]

Thanks for your replies.
Wow @Chocolatebrownielove 40 viewings?! That's huge.

I am not sure what the enquiries are about @Bigoldwimp It's not a complicated house particularly! I will ask next time ea calls.

So we have another viewing booked and further interest from a couple the other side of the country, so that is promising.

[Chocolatebrownielove]

@bigoldwimp @mulledmead I think it was a bit of a perfect storm to be honest.

The flat is in a very high demand area so it's not unusual to have a lot of interest. I do think it's been considerably heightened by lockdown as there are still not very many similar properties on the market at the moment so that definitely helped.

EA also thinks that many of the viewers had 90% mortgage AIPs so there was pressure to secure a property before deals were withdrawn by lenders.

My flat was empty having served notice to the tenant before lockdown so it also gave me the opportunity to clear it out, re-paint it and the EA flexibility to show it whenever they could.

Just about to start selling DP's flat now which is also in a popular area. It will be interesting to see how much interest there is and how quickly it sells. Hoping for a similar response but there are more similar properties currently on the market in his area so we'll see.

[Bigoldwimp]

That’s really interesting @Chocolatebrownielove about the mortgage offers. It definitely seems like a bit of a chaotic market at the moment

@Mulledmead definitely ask your estate agent because unless lots of information was missing from your property advert I.e no floor plan etc it would be more usual to get viewings not enquires. Although, if you’re Attracting buyers from outside the area maybe that’s why they can’t just come and view, our market is mostly people moving within the county and edging closer to better schools etc