To thinks it's bloody stupid that estate agents are only letting cash buyers, or people under offer view properties?

[fishonabicycle]

Surely this will just slow the market until it almost sizes up? Or is not happening everywhere?

@MynameisHappind

Do you think your perfect house will sit and wait for your majesty until you finally decide to list and get a serious offer in? It's a heartbreaking and time wasting illogical madness. People who want to wait for a perfect house rent, stay with family/friends or even in a caravan or whatever until their perfect home pops up...which can be months and months until they finally realise they cant get everything they want on their budget.

Not at all. Not a perfect house, just a suitable one. But in our case, we're tied to quite a small area and a suitable one only comes up once every few years.

If I put my house on the market five years ago on the offchance that something might come up, I'd think my house might be less likely to sell now? Because it would have been sitting unsold for five years, not because it's unsellable, but because I'd have been refusing offers because I have nowhere to move to. And then everyone would see that it has been for sale for years and they'd think there was something wrong with it, even though there's not.

I do understand the reasoning behind not wanting viewers unless they are in a position to proceed. But I also know that for me it is a dilemma. Do we put our house up for sale and waste the time of lots of potential buyers, on the offchance that something suitable becomes available? Or do we sit tight, wait for something we like the look of to become available and hope that we can get it on the market and an offer accepted quickly so that we can view? And then what if we view it and it's not suitable after all?

I

Having moved several times i would be very reluctant to entertain a viewing from someone who was not proceedable. By proceedable i mean, mortgage offer in place or cash buyer and house on the market, either under offer or not necessary to sell to move.

The problem you have is you have someone who wants to view your property but cannot proceed. They can put an offer on but i wouldn't accept until they were in a proceedable position because you could be sat for months, not taking other viewings waiting for their property to sell.

@Melroses

We had this years ago.

We were pushed to put the house on the market in order to be in a good position to move should we find the right house.

After two offers, we were no further forward.

We had to let our buyers down in the end, and here we still are.

It makes sense if you are moving to the other end of the country or something, but if you want a bigger house locally and the market is slow, it doesn't.

So did we years agao and we were moving moving across the country - we didn't want two moves and two possible school changes and the extra expense.

When we did get an offer on our house it was move fast or lose .

We done howework for area and prices and DH did first views as down here for work so we knew if propertis would work prior to our property getting an offer. Then we all travelled down to looked at possibles the next weekend the made offer on Monday.

The estate agenst seem to struggle with concept that we'd travelled couple of hundren miles to view and no we couldn't re-arrange last minute for mid week and if DH hadn't been able to see first due to no offer on our property then we weren't bothering with as didn't have time to waste.

There were several properties that wouldn't let us view still on the market long after we'd completed and moved here.

YABU.

When we sold our place we stipulated that we only wanted to do viewings for people who were SSTC, cash buyers or FTB with a mortgage DIP already in place.

I find it a bit daft. When we were selling I put no restrictions on who could view. They could get an offer themselves at any moment. Why prevent the person who could be the perfect buyer from viewing and lessen your chances of selling?

I'm in Scotland and we were allowed to view without being on the market. We only wanted to move for a forever house so we weren't going to be forced to pick somewhere to meet a buyer's timescales with the possibility of upsetting them by needing to postpone or be forced in to rental. We got the property ready to sell but didn't go on the market until we'd found a house and had an offer accepted. Our property went sstc just over a week later. The seller knew our circumstances and had an offer accepted on their new home before selling to us so they did exactly the same. When we got a buyer for our property we could then set timescales that suited us.

It's absolutely fair to try and filter out time wasters but to say an offer without being under offer yourself is time wasting or not a proper offer is unfair. We couldn't have been more motivated to sell once we had our offer accepted.

MN had me really worried we'd never get our house because everyone said people wouldn't let us view or offer but that was absolutely not our experience and I'm glad we did it the way we did. If we ultimately ended up losing out on several houses as a result we might have changed our approach but it didn't so we didn't need to think about it.

I really think it depends on individual circumstances. Some sellers (maybe most, I'll never know now?) might not want to take the risk of waiting for someone to sell and the possibility that they won't. On the other hand, some sellers will and I'm grateful that included our sellers.

We couldn't have been more motivated to sell once we had our offer accepted.

But wanting to isn't really a predictor of how quickly your house will sell, which is why I didn't want to be in the position of just believing someone who told me that 'it would definitely sell quickly and for the price they'd budgeted for' when there were lots of other people who I didn't have to take the risk with.

I think, like everything, there are so many different variables. I live in a standard house surrounded by similar houses. I can be fairly certain as to how much my house might sell for, and I've seen houses sell that are better in terms of decor and finish and houses that are worse. I'm a bit of a pessimist so I'd budget for the worst likely selling price, and then maybe a bit less again. Moreover, we would have no real plans to view houses at the top of our budget, so would most likely be able to increase the amount of the mortgage we apply for if our house wasn't selling and we needed to drop the price. But obviously I also understand that not everyone would be able to be so flexible.

We moved last year. We were living in a great house in quite a desirable area, and had been keeping an eye out for a n appropriate house in the same area. Over about 2 years, we viewed 4 houses and offered on 2, never with our house on the market. The first offer was on a house we really couldn't afford, and they'd been on the market for about 4 years, but they were holding out for offers over the asking price, which we couldn't fulfil. The second house, I was the first to view, brought my DH back the next day, offered full price when the office opened and arranged to get ours on the market the same day. Our offer wasn't accepted as we weren't under offer. When our house went on the market, we had several viewings and it ended up going to sealed bids, and we got more than the asking price (we'd keenly priced for quick sale). When we went back to the house, we were in a stronger position, so offered less, and now we live here.

Our house search was very specific, and I was clear with estate agents that I didn't want to be sent everything on their books, I would contact them when I found something appropriate online. Thankfully they completely understood what we were doing.

I commented on a thread earlier re selling a property. We've just put ours on the market and all the agents who valued our house said they only let people view who are able to proceed i.e have sold their house and / or have a decision in principle/ mortgage offer that shows they can afford the house. Reasons for this is time wasters and not wanting lots of viewings due to Covid. Viewings are also restricted to 2 people and 15/20 mins to minimise risk. Will be interesting to see how that affects interest, could put a lot of people off I guess!

I think that has already been the case more lately. Never used to be that way. I often think if I find a house I really like, I might put my house on the market, rather than be stuck not being able to find a house to buy after an offer...

@Hardbackwriter

We couldn't have been more motivated to sell once we had our offer accepted.

But wanting to isn't really a predictor of how quickly your house will sell, which is why I didn't want to be in the position of just believing someone who told me that 'it would definitely sell quickly and for the price they'd budgeted for' when there were lots of other people who I didn't have to take the risk with.

It was suggested up thread that people without an offer might not be as motivated to sell hence that comment. Agree that selling is completely out of your control.

There's never a guarantee you'll sell, sstc or not at the time of offer. There are threads on here every other day about delays in chains or chains falling through because of a buyer not being able to proceed after their offer is accepted. A buyer could pull out at any time for any reason. Maybe our seller thought there was more risk accepting an offer from someone with a 90% mortgage given the current climate and stricter affordability checks than someone in our financial position (which we had to evidence to the EA to prove we could afford it). That certainly crossed our mind when we were thinking about potential buyers because we knew we couldn't have any hiccups or delays! We'll never know now what our sellers thought but either way, taking the approach we did worked out and it might for others!

I have moved several times and between countries and I am more than happy with this. There are far too many lookiloos around and I would expect my EA to weed them out. The last time we sold, it was a beautiful Georgian house in Bath and one couple were trying to get back in for a THIRD viewing, despite not having their house on the market. They just wanted something to do when they were in Bath at the weekends. I have no time for them and I don't look myself unless I know I can make an offer as I don't want to fall I love with a place that might be sold before I can make an offer. We have moved between countries and up and down the country and always bought places that ticked most of our boxes. I have never held out for the perfect house, they don't exist, and we have always been happy with wherever we lived until we got itchy feet again.

If your house is not on the market and you don't have the money I'm not interested in you coming to view my property. Honestly - what's the fucking point?

You're intending to say to me I'd like to make an offer on your house - and if I put mine up for sale shortly and if someone eventually decides to buy it then I'll be in a position to come back and buy yours...

What a waste of my time. I wouldn't ever accept an offer under those terms! You could offer double my asking price and I'd still be telling you to jog on. You're not in a position to buy, so why are you looking?

If you accept an offer from someone whose house is not even on the market yet.. then what?

Do you just sit patiently and wait
for their house to eventually come on the market
for viewings/offers
for the newly formed chain, as their own buyer might be in a ridiculously long chain too....

While you could have accepted an offer from someone ready to proceed, with buyers having already paid for mortgage offer and survey and keen to get on with things.

Why would anyone waste so much time? What about if the buyer doesn't even find a buyer for 6 months? You completely wasted a chance to sell it to someone else.

No viewing unless proceed-able, definitively not showing "under offer" unless written proof of mortgage/cash.

It's painful enough in this country, no need to make the process even worst. If people really are keen to buy, they prove it.

Depends on the market. When we bought we could view whatever we wanted, didn't need to have had an offer.
But when BIL bought in a different area of the country, they wouldn't let him view until he confirmed he was a cash buyer. And even then he'd arrange viewings and the next day they'd STC - in that climate they can afford to be picky, whereas when/where we bought, they couldn't.

YABU

1. cuts down time wasters

2. cuts down unnecessary people traipsing through homes during a pandemic.

If you accept an offer from someone whose house is not even on the market yet.. then what?

I think it would be madness to accept an offer from someone who wasn't in a position to buy. But not necessarily madness to let them view it in the first place.

But would you put an offer on a house whose vendors had no idea when or where they were moving? It seems a bit chicken and egg. Got to be under offer yourself but your buyers have to be happy to wait for you to take a year even to find a property ? That’s how long it took me to find mine anyway.

You should be on the market at least if you want to view a property that much. This has always been the case ime, even before our current internet age when you can get so much more info without even having a look round.

Just tell them that you are looking to buy a second home and aren’t planning on selling yours. They’re not going to ask for bank statements, are they?

We’ve just had an offer accepted on a house. We’re cash buyers (our own house isn’t on the market yet) and we had to provide bank statements to the EA to prove we had the funds to proceed before we could view.

Absolutely standard procedure and has been for years. YABU.

Just tell them that you are looking to buy a second home and aren’t planning on selling yours. They’re not going to ask for bank statements, are they?

Of course they do. I bought mine cash and had to provide financial reports.

I can understand people not accepting viewings if buyers are not proceedable in the current climate with Covid.
In the past when I bought/sold I knew my house would sell quickly as London houses always do. In 2017 when I put my house on the market Brexit completely slowed the market. I had masses of viewers and viewed quite a few houses. Some agents would not let me view until under offer but most accepted all viewers. My eventual buyers viewed before they got a buyer and returned when they had one.

Well, this is the problem. We are selling our house but feel that it is going to take ages to find one we like enough to move to. So any buyer could be waiting for months and months while we wait to find a house. We looked for ages before covid (before putting ours up) and in a year didn't see anything we liked.