Buyers struggling to get viewings!

[Yippeeforme]

So we're 3 weeks on the market, had 12 viewings in that time, and then suddenly nothing for a week.

This morning, a lovely mum and son knock on our door and tell us they've been trying for a while to get a viewing of our house and thought they'd chance knocking on the door to at least be able to ask a couple of questions! We have had no calls whatsoever from the agency in the last week so had no idea anyone was even interested. This leaves us wondering if there was anyone else trying to get through to us too.

We have also been trying to get ourselves a viewing of another house (listed with a different agency) where the agents said they'd get back to us and never did. We were assuming it was perhaps the seller's fault as surely the agents want houses to sell, but after this morning, we're not so sure.

Is this just a problem at the moment, that agencies are overworked and struggling to keep up? Or would this be a red flag that our agents might only be putting the effort in on the newest property listings?
Or was the rando at the door likely to be fibbing?

A bit obvious but I'd be in the phone to the estate agents thus morning. Did the viewer actually phone the agents, or even visit them?

They may be snowed out under, 5 flats where my mum lives have all sold this month despite some being on the market over a year, and there's very little in rightmove but that's no excuse for the estate agents not contacting you.

Maybe give them a call and let them know you are happy to show viewings (if you are) if the agency doesn't have capacity. It's frustrating when you are paying them, but our best viewings (and offers) came when we did them ourselves.

I'd complain about the fact you weren't made aware.

I would get a friend to call and ask for a viewing to see what happens

We've had this house hunting. One estate agents near us is awful for not calling back. They also dont respond to emails at all re viewing(not even a response to tell you that). We saw one we liked, sent them a list of questions and asked for a second viewing. We asked another week later. The week after that we called and they said it was now under offer. It wasnt uncommon to have to chase them 3 times per viewing. There was also a house where we called 3 times about viewing with vague "will get back to you" responses. It was then (whilst we were still interested) reduced in price and hung around for an age on the market. I wanted to knock on the door and tell them that we asked to make a viewing at the original price! They are the biggest estate agent near here but i do worry their clients have no idea how hard they make it!

Could it be that this woman isn’t in a position to proceed? Aren’t a lot of agents insisting you must either have an offer on your house or as a FTB have a mortgage agreement in place? Maybe they are only letting people who can move quickly view in order to stop time wasters?

At the moment our local EAs are only allowing proceedable buyers viewings, definitely give yours a call and say you're concerned viewings aren't being followed up?

I’d check with the agent, the woman could be full of shit.

Good points regarding whether they might not be able to proceed. It was supposed to be for her son who's a FTB. I don't remember any viewers who didn't either have a mortgage approved already or who already had a house to sell.

So it looks like the best thing for me to do is to call the agents and ask whether there have been any requests for viewings. I'll be so miffed if it turns out there have, and they've just not bothered to follow up!

We've been told by two agents this week that we're not allowed to view anything until our property is sold. This is a change from last month when we were told our property needs to be on the market. We're thinking of staying put for a bit as we're not "desperate" to move. We've been thinking about it for a couple of years and we inherited some money this year.