22 viewings....only 2 (rubbish) offers

[sianyb83]

Our house is quite niche so never expected quick or easy sell...
but peeved at estate agent letting so many people in who are clearly property-tyre-kickers.
4 more viewings tomorrow but frankly sick of it and wondering whether to take it off the market if tomorrows viewings don't amount to anything?

[Mimitoo]

People can see how much you have paid for it and may think that it hasn't gone up that much in value in a few years.
Were the two offers similar in price? In terms of refurbishment and redecorating - that may be worth that much to you, but to other people it might not justify that price - we went to see a house owned by an elderly couple. They proudly told us that the bathroom had only been fitted a year ago, and was very high spec - it did look high spec and prob cost them a bomb to get fitted, but I have completely different tastes to a 75 year old, so for me I felt that didn't justify the price.
You may just have to hold out a little longer for a buyer.
Good luck!

[Mildura]

22 viewings and 2 offers in less than 14 days, and you don’t think the agent is doing a decent job?

High expectations much?!

Blimey!

[sianyb83]

We haven't found anywhere yet which doesn't help me feel motivated to sell!

We saw a few we liked - but in the space of 1 week about 4-5 houses sold in our post code area at a similar value (including the ones we liked)

So we thought strategically could be a good time to list as shortage of stock at that price bracket.

We live in a nice village with good amenities between 2 large towns...and I think we are seeing the 'covid effect' of people thinking village life is safer bet and/or not needing to commute daily anymore.

[maybemu]

Estate agents usually go with the more people viewing more chance of selling. Either the price is to high or people think there is to much work to do. Ask the agent for feedback if you really want to sell but I'm not sure you do.

[Hardbackwriter]

If you've had all those viewings in two weeks then I'm not surprised it's driving you mad but it's way too early to say it won't sell. My EA (who I thought was pretty good) did say that this is a hazard of being cheap for your market - you get a lot of people come to look on the off-chance. That's why he advised against dropping the price, he said 'you really don't want to be the cheapest two bed listed on Rightmove because you get everyone coming to look just to see what the bottom end looks like'.

I do think that you can and should say that you don't want viewers who aren't proceedable, or who at the very least aren't on the market - we did (which was why I was so furious with the time-waster who lied and said they'd sold their flat when they hadn't!). You're getting loads of people through the door, you don't need the 'on the off-chance' people traipsing through too.

[sianyb83]

@Pizzapromotion

As I said in earlier post, the house was an ex-rental when we bought it.

The last tenant was actually a fairly famous radio DJ, he has not left the house in a good state.

The owner was living in France, and had given him permission to recarpet and redecorate.

What she didn't know what that he would recarpet in bright red carpets throughout and paint the living room ceiling black!

Whilst we haven't changed the unfixable issues with the house it is far more marketable and sellable now.

I've bought and sold 4 houses in 9 years so not naive to how property market works.

[HerNameWasEliza]

You can instruct the EA that viewings are only available to those who have already got their home on the market. Many do

I get where you're coming from but our house was not on the market when we came to view our current place. We were not generally looking to move, it just really grabbed us and because we also liked it in person, we then put ours on the market and 2 weeks later had an offer on ours and put an offer in on our current place. You will potentially cut down on genuine buyers with that strategy.

[sianyb83]

@Hardbackwriter

We've not even been on the market for 2 weeks yet - so I guess I have to be patient!

I have thought perhaps some of the viewers that weren't on the market yet may go onto the market soon, and come back at a later stage.

[Pizzapromotion]

But wjybwere you able to buy it so cheaply, buyers either want a finished refurbished house or expect to do some work. Needing a new kitchen and windows wouldn't usually make it very cheap, so the other drawbacks must have influenced the price you paid too.

[Hardbackwriter]

It is so frustrating when people just name the same issue over and over again, but I do think you just have to grit your teeth and get through it unfortunately. I did end up calling the EA and saying that they should clarify the parking situation (which was perfectly clear in the advert - lots of parking in a private car park but 200m from the house, the way people reacted to this gave a lot of insight into the cause of the obesity crisis, it would seem that most people make it their goal to move as little as possible!) before booking in viewings because I was so fed up, but actually we then got three offers in the next few days, one of which was the one we sold to and so there were no more viewings!

Interestingly two of the offers came from people (both FTBs) who had seen it a few weeks earlier and said no, but who then came back - I think because by then they'd seen enough other places to realise how much more they'd get for their money (most two beds on that price were flats not houses) and so that the parking situation perhaps wasn't as unliveable as they thought. They actually both offered asking price but we went with the £287k offer because £3k was worth it for the ease of having a cash buyer. So don't lose heart just yet!

[Bemorechicken]

I would have put it on at value price of 565K. Make the EA contact each viewer and ask for feedback. Make them work for it and tell each viewer it's a bargain at 525 if they valued it at 565K.

Check the particulars yourself. Make sure you address any issues. I once viewed a house that was marketed with a double garage etc and photos from the outside showed double garage. Inside decent kitchen -and lovely huge "utility room". Went to view it -the double garage was the bloodt utility room. They had converted it. Fine but I wanted a utility room AND a garage and I felt diddled. Waste of a viewing. I knew the sellers and told them to check what the estate agent had listed as they listed a double garage AND huge utility room.
Once they corrected it. -it sold in weeks.

Another house I didn't visit -4 bedrooms and one en suite and downstairs bathroom listed. It was a stupid thing but no family bathroom - didn't bother viewing. Someone brough it (a friend) after it languished on the market for oer a year and was sold for £50K under asking price. My friend got a steal -I went and looked at it -it had a bathroom a huge family bathroom but no viewings due to incorrect details.

Just saying.....

[sianyb83]

@Pizzapromotion

I think that's exactly what people have done as they've said to our agent they paid xxx in dec 2017...

I know when I look at house I also look at what they paid for it, and other sold prices on the street, is gauge average values in the street.

Many viewers have told our agents they've even checked the pictures from the listing when we purchased the house to see exactly what we've done.

I think you're underestimating the research people do

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

I'd worry that you were moving on so quickly because there was a problem with the house. You've not even been in it 3 years.

[Pizzapromotion]

Cross post. What makes you think the fact that you bought it cheaply is devaluing it? I don't think a prospective buyer has looked up what you paid and made you an offer of exactly that, why would they expect you to accept that?

If the work you've done was "all" that was required to increase the value so much, why was it sold so cheaply? Doer uppers that only need fairly cosmetic work aren't usually that cheap because they're in demand. It's the well maintained but dated ones that are tricky to sell, too good to rip everything out but not what buyers want.

[sianyb83]

@hardbackwriter

this is exactly our issue - we have some large trees near us, and restricted parking...

The right move picture look great so I guess that generates the interest and then people point our the 2 major faults with the house.

We're like, yes - we know!

Estate agent has given me same bit of feedback for 90% of the viewings!

I have a 9 month old, 6 year old and a full time job - so its annoying going to the effort of sorting the house every few days...

We have more booked in tomorrow

[Pizzapromotion]

Yes, we sold a house with slightly difficult parking. There was plenty of it but it was a short walk from the house. The price reflected this and it was a lovely house, so I think we had a lot of buyers attracted by the nice house going cheap who had either ignored the parking situation or were hoping it wasn't as bad as it sounded.

The people who visited but didn't offer always said it was because of the parking, which was very clear in the EA's details, so I don't think they were really at fault.

If this property has drawbacks are they in the EA's details? As a buyer I am often frustrated by particulars that make a house look or sound a lot better than it is. I don't think that helps anyone.

[sianyb83]

based on average sq foot pricing for the area, the house would be 600k

it frustrating that the fact that we bought it cheaply is devaluing it!

[Pollypocket89]

Is all that you've done to it work 110k - 75k?

[sianyb83]

I don't think the price is too high...
We bought the house 'cheap' as it had been rented out for several years and in bad repair.

We bought for 450k in Dec 2017, we've spent 33k on double glazing throughout (inc 3 sets of French doors and front door, new flooring throughout, oak internal doors, replastering, redecoration, new kitchen oak worktops etc

It was valued at 565k, but we put on for 525k expecting 500ish.

We had an offer today for what we paid for it!!!

I was annoyed the agent even put it forward to me and hadn't managed the expectation of the prospective buyer enough to say we would be receptive to that level of offer.

[Pollypocket89]

How far away are the offers from your asking price, op?

[sianyb83]

@tara66

I feel estate agent uses it as an opportunity to bring in new listings...as let them browse a house they like, then say 'you need to get yours listed' etc

[tara66]

Don't let EA bring viewers who are not genuine buyers or who don't have the finances to make the purchase. Tell EA you don't want any ''browsers'' -people just looking around. Some EA seem to think you should be grateful for them just bringing bodies through the door. They will then say '' You've had xx number of viewers but no offers so you need to drop the price''.

[Hardbackwriter]

Also 'in the end' for us was only five weeks, with that few days off the market for the offer that turned out to be a waste of time. It just felt like forever while we had to keep keeping the place clean and taking the toddler out of the way for viewings. So it wasn't actually unusually slow to sell, but having so many viewings that didn't go anywhere made it feel it.

[2bazookas]

Make your EA earn his fee. Even a failed viewing can be useful.

One of the tasks expected is that EAwill contact every viewer after the visit to ask how it went, what were their impressions, why they are not interested etc.
That feedback can be very useful to the seller.

I

[Hardbackwriter]

This is what selling a "not easy" to sell house is like. If you can't be bothered at the moment, take it off the market.

I think this is true, sadly. We put ours on the market in February, accepted an offer just before lockdown, moved in June. We had a similar number of viewings to you (I think 24), four offers (one of which we briefly took house off market for until it turned out they had lied and weren't proceedable, so it went straight back on). Our issue was that it was a lovely house with two unchangeable drawbacks: the area was a bit scuzzy and people hated the parking situation. Because of these two things it was priced cheaply for the wider area (it was on for £290k when almost everything of a similar size in that town within walking distance of the station was well over £300k, often near £350k - obviously we'd bought it for cheaper in the first place due to the same issues) so loads of people were interested but then came to see it and were put off by the parking. I asked the estate agent about dropping the price and he said that would get even more people through the door but they'd be even less serious. It was so frustrating endlessly cleaning the house for people who then said they weren't interested because of something that was totally obvious from the listing, but in the end we sold to a cash buyer for £287k, which we were very happy with - annoying as it was, we did just need to hang on in there.