How are estate agents still selling houses?!?

[youcantellthem]

Before all of this we were actively looking for a new house and were about to put our house on the market before the restrictions started. As such we have kept an eye on rightmove and whilst there's been a noticeable drop in new listings there is still some, and some of the new ones (including two listed just yesterday) have even sold! How is this happening, surely people aren't viewing other people's homes during all of this????

There are certainly people who buy houses sight unseen (investors and such, particularly the ones who see a good deal in an uncertain market). We had an offer accepted last week and are moving forward with a purchase, but we viewed it weeks ago before any restrictions were put in place. Our sellers are looking to rent temporarily in their new area though so no idea how they are going to sort that out! Thankfully, we are chain free so it doesn’t matter than much to us if they move in 2 months or 4.

I’m sure viewings aren’t happening but people may be registering their interest ready for when they can eventually view.

You will see a lot more virtual reality marketing etc. So far it's mostly been used for high end properties, for example large houses in the middle of nowhere to give an indication of whether it's worth travelling to view the property. It was the way forward anyway, but now estate agents will have no choice but to use high quality online marketing.

I suspect houses showing as sold this week were viewed a few weeks ago.