A 'waiting for viewings and offers' support group?

[TheWanderingUterus]

Not quite ready for the 'in a chain' support group (please please don't let it be too long!), but we have just put our house up for sale and are waiting for viewings. Mostly cleaning and primping and procrastinating, with occasional adrenaline bursts when the phone rings.

Anyone else in the same position wanting to share the angst?

Knock Knock...can I join?

We are putting our house up for sale - we are having the external photos taken tomorrow and then are officially on the market. Everything else is ready to go. Nervous Nervous Nervous!!

Our plan is to sell our house in west London and move out, still commuting distance to central London but easier access to the countryside, friends who already live in Surrey and better schools (Secondary's are a problem in our area).

My first question is preparing for viewings. For the photos we decluttered this house to an insane level. I know the house needs to be ultra-tidy but how much do you tidy away for the viewings? Soaps / Shampoos in the bathroom? Dishwashing soap & cloth in the kitchen?

briteside you don't need to go crazy - just clean & tidy. People don't necessarily want a show home and it seems a bit false if it's not remotely homely. On the other hand I used to make sure shampoo was on the shower shelf rather than the floor of the shower etc! We've just moved to Surrey albeit renting whilst looking for our new home. Whereabouts are you considering?

Brite, there's nowhere to put a shampoo or shower gel in my bathroom, so these things go away. The kids toothbrushes go away as they have 3 different tooth pastes (all different ages) and not enough room in the holder so they go in the bathroom cupboard. I make sure our bedside tables are clear and all the piles of clutter are away and hidden. Apart from that it's a lived in home so it's tidy. We have toys in the living room and a kettle and toaster in the kitchen. We also have personal photos still on the walls as I don't have any art work to replace it with and it would look odd without anything!
The photos need to show the size of the room without looking cluttered, but when they view they will get a feel for the room sizes and mostly be able to see past stuff (unless there are bookcases jammed on every wall and it all feels like it's about to fall on top of you!)

3 weeks so far... 2 viewings...

@notanotherpawpatrol here's my house is there anything glaringly obvious that would be a problem do you think. We're just not getting the viewings.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46917006.html

There is nothing that would put anyone off! Your price is far looking at the area, how long have you been on the market?

3 weeks today only 1 viewing

Well there are a couple of reasons houses don't get viewings 1) they are too cluttered, 2) the price is too high and neither of these things apply to you, so 3) it's not being marketed properly!
Get your agents to send you the property details, print them off and walk round the house and read each room as you go. What have they missed? What are the selling points in each room? Take a look at their bullet points, are you happy with what they are highlighting or do you think there are better selling points? Then finally get onto the estate agents and find out what they are doing? Have they chased up people who they've sent the details to? Have they asked them why they aren't interested in yours?

We were with an agent, had 3 viewings in 6 weeks, despite our area being really popular, there were just excuses after excuses. Moved agents and have 3 viewings this week (our first full week with them) don't underestimate the power of marketing and having a rubbish agent.

There looks to be a lot of 3 bed new builds in your area on at £110k - £115k so maybe potential buyers are looking at them. Is there anything that your house has that the others don't? If so, get the agents to make that glaringly obvious in the 1st or 2nd photo and first line of description.

Yeah there is quite a few only real difference in ours has a big garden compared to normal new builds and 3 parking space. Our agents said there are incentives to buy a new build E.g. help to buy so people will go for those and not ours as the area is just full of new estates

Parking needs to be highlighted, it says 2 driveways but I think it needs to be spelled out, parking for 3 cars. You You're need to spell out it's a good size garden, people won't necessarily get that from the photos.
If you're agents are saying that, can I suggest they are rubbish agents! Yours is a fairly new build, all the snagging has been done, there are no restrictions in place over the area like there are in newly built estates and new houses deteriorate in value quickly before they go back up again. In short, there are plenty of advantages to buying yours over a brand new one. They just need to market better.

It's lazy selling and it makes me so angry. They just shove a house on right move and hope for the best

We had a lazy agent that shoved it on rightmove and we didn't hear from them for two months after that

Sacked those and have had a steady stream of viewings since then with agent 2. Pictures are much better and they keep me updated.

Still no sale though!

Thanks for the guidance on how tidy the house for viewings - what a relief that I don't need to maintain a minimalist look. The kids make that nearly impossible - their entire reason for living seems to be causing chaos

snowglobes we are looking at North Surrey and some villages down towards Guildford. Where are you renting?

I hope that most of you have viewings lined up for this weekend!

Hello! I've been following along for a while now. One house that we want and had our first viewing today. We did put the toothbrushes away for the viewing today but not the birthday cards!

briteside when is your first viewing?

How did your viewing go drs? Was checking in to see if they gave you any feedback??

Nothing yet, thanks for asking, but it was shifted to 3pm so I think tomorrow if anything.

blackfell I am afraid ours are like that. They are cheap and only 28 days notice so we can always change.

(Oh and though I was going to do it I had to do the school run so didn't meet them either)

Ah okay! Preparing for our viewer whilst drowning in new birthday presents...

Good luck today Becky! I'm also preparing for a viewing, our feed back from Thursday was really positive, one of the couple's wants to put in an offer, but need to sell their house first! We're just really happy someone likes it! It feels we are finally turning a corner. Cash buyer today, aparantly quite keen so we will see what happens!!

Two more viewings booked in for next Sat.

Thanks notanother hope it went well. Our viewers turned up 15mins late and are on a very strict budget and need 3 bedrooms. They were apparently looking at a few today and making a decision this evening. Not holding out hope, although our house is the cheapest in the area....
Wow drs hope we have some more soon too!

Ours went well, they'd already viewed our neighbours property (we're both for sale) but ours is 5k cheeper, so hoping that swings it for us!

Got my fingers xd for you notanother!!