Vendors - why not be more accommodating for viewings?

[BuyerReadyToGo]

DH and I have sold our property in Scotland. We've completed and have the funds from the sale in our account.

We're down in England, renting temporarily whilst we do our property search.

We're looking at the Gloucestershire/Wiltshire area, min. 2 bed, max ~£500k.

We're both working full-time, and the earliest we can finish work during the week is 5pm. So we can do viewings from 5.30pm (taking into account travel time) Monday - Friday, and of course any time over the weekend.

What I'm running into over and over when trying to book viewings is agents saying 5.30pm onwards in the evenings during the week is too late for them and their vendors - and they often won't do Sundays, either. This means we have to squish our viewings altogether on a Saturday, and if there are any clashes the viewing has to be delayed by a week.

I cannot get my head around it. I want to view your house so I can make an offer! Why not be more accommodating and enable viewings during evenings and/or Sundays? I assume you want your buyers to be in work so they have a hope in hell of getting a mortgage during these times ... 🤷‍♀️

We're eminently "proceedable", too, and I've made this as clear as I can: we've sold, so we're not in a chain and we have a significant deposit, our jobs are stable and well-paid, we've no debts and the banks are practically tripping over themselves to offer us a mortgage - and we're very keen to get going with a solid offer once we've found the right place.

I totally get it's a pain to have to keep the house in order for viewings, and you want to decompress/have DC to care for in the evenings. But I was a seller myself until very recently, and we did everything we could to accommodate viewings, even if they were a bit inconvenient - because we wanted to sell!

I'm getting to the point where some vendors are being so awkward about specific times they'll enable viewings that I'm just going to stop bothering with them and move on. It just seems like such a silly way to put off a buyer.

I saw a property a few weeks ago, the estate agent wouldn’t let me view it because they had an offer, so I put a note through saying if anything falls through will you let me know, they contacted me a few days later I went to view it direct and got it, so what I would suggest is, find the houses that you want to view and put notes through and see if they will be flexible with their times, a lot of the time estate agents won’t do viewings in the evenings because they finish at six ish and do long hours over the weekends, I’d go direct so as not to miss a potential property and if the sellers want to sell they would be pretty flexible I’d think

Agents won’t accompany viewers after 5pm usually. In my experience, with a young baby, I refused all unaccompanied viewings when my DH wasn’t home as it was just easier

I sold my last place to a couple that could only come in the evening (they were the first viewers 2 days after it was put on the market). I had to show them around myself obvs as the agent had clocked off. I answered everything they needed to know, and they offered the asking price. It def pays off to be accommodating

I get that families who are selling have lives and lots of times are inconvenient......but if you want to sell, you need to be flexible and recognise it's hopefully for a very short time.

I suspect as the market slows over the Autumn and winter you might see more sellers being flexible about times and agents will find they have to be more flexible too.....people will find selling takes longer and buyers are not so easily found and adjust their flexibility because getting people through the day will be vital.

If I was selling, I would be telling the agent that I don't want them to be restrictive with potential buyers. I would ask them to be as flexible as possible and I would stress that I will do viewings if they can't and that I would be very disappointed to think we lost a potential viewing because they wouldn't let us do it. When choosing I would look for agents which do viewings over longer hours....some will do this. I realise Covid has made things different in lots of ways, but the first rule of selling is to bend over backwards to accommodate the buyer......selling a house is usually the biggest sale most people want, so should accept the significant inconveniences and annoyances that come with it.

I too wouldn't take a seller seriously who said I could only view if weekdays 2-4pm.

Watch it all change in a few weeks when it really won't be a seller's market.

Sellers can be too interested in what is easier or more convenient for them. Fine....but they need to know that in that slot they wouldn't let a viewing happen, those potential buyers may well be looking at an alternative house and crossing yours off their list. That is essentially the bottom line. You aren't doing them a favour by letting them view but possibly opening the door to receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds. Too many sellers seem to think they are doing peoole a favour by offering their house or letting them in to look....it's not the right mentality as any salesperson in any kind of market will tell you.

So if you have issues that make being flexible as a seller....think ahead before going on the market. Think about how you can manage to get children out of the house for viewings and how you can be around for the 6-8pm slot if needed and how you can make the tidying and cleaning routine faster and work for your family. This is all part of the selling strategy. Choose the agent who will be flexible about their hours or about letting you do viewings.

And if you're the buyer, I think you should be able to expect some flexibility from agents and vendors who aren't doing you a favour, even if they give that impression. Personally if I was buying and needed to do lots of viewings and was struggling, I think I might arrange to finish work 1 day a week at 3pm for a month, so I could get to some of those viewings......especially in a fast market. But I'd also expect that those who are selling and show flexibility probably sell faster and achieve a higher price as they will simply have a wider pool of viewers and offers to pick from.

We used to sit in our car when there was no where to go. Viewings don't usually last for more than 30 mins.

Good point Mosaic. What's wrong with popping the children in the car for 30 mins and going for a bit of drive and a sit somewhere to listen to music or get out and have a run round if suitable. It's a bit of an inconvenience, but it's just one of those things you do when selling to ensure people see your property. You just have to suck up some inconvenience.

When we sold our house (pre pandemic) our estate agent employed someone on a part time basis to cover the awkwardly timed viewings that their regular staff didn't want to do - Sats, Suns and late evening viewings. He was older (late 50s) and sort of semi retired and worked ad hoc hours for them. I think he had been a police office or firefighter or something like that, so probably had a private pension but still enough energy for part time hours.

@Mosaic123 agree with this, I've sat in my car for 20 mins to accommodate a viewer, you need to be all out flexible if you want to sell your house

Actually how flexible you ‘need’ to be depends on location. Even when I refused all unaccompanied viewings (ie evening ones) I was still getting 5-10 viewings booked per day, during Covid, and I wasn’t even in London. I could have refused Sunday viewings too and it wouldn’t have made much of a dent. Still got an offer within 2-3 weeks and managed to sell my house

@Mosaic123

We used to sit in our car when there was no where to go. Viewings don't usually last for more than 30 mins.

Well, if they come on time for a start! I wouldn't fancy sitting with hungry dc in a car over teatime or their bedtime. In Scotland the vendor usually does the viewings so it was necessary for one parent to be in the house, assuming you had a spare parent that is. I live somewhere it is harder to buy than to sell though.