Do second viewings still exist?

[Mooserp]

From what I have been reading, it seems the norm now is to have a 15 minute viewing as part of an open day and then final bids to be submitted.

My previous experience of house buying has been to have a first viewing or probably 15-30 minutes, think about it for a while and if interested go back for a second viewing, maybe with a tape measure and more questions, maybe with someone else to get their opinion.

I find it hard to get my head around making such a big decision based on 1 quick viewing.

I don't think 2nd viewings happen anymore, especially for popular properties.

However, if your offer is accepted and you decide, on reflection, it is not the property for you - let's say after a few days - then it is simple to pull out with no costs whatsoever.

In summary, offer and think about it afterwards.

There is generally no time for second viewings. I agree it is a small amount of time to make a huge decision. But the housing market is crazy at the moment.

offer and think about it afterwards

This is absolutely the way to go. If the agent is so keen on pushing people to make decisions with no thinking time, they can suffer the consequences. At one point we were making 3 or 4 offers a week for about 6 weeks. It was mental! Once we had our offer accepted we were contacted 5 or 6 times for properties which had fallen through in a very short period of time. This was around August 2021.

We did a second (and third, and a pre-exchange) viewing once the offer had been accepted. The agent didn't bother doing the hard sell on those occasions which was nice.

Yes, I did wonder about that. And whether there has been an increase in offers being withdrawn after acceptance, once they've had a bit more time to think about it.

I've managed to do second viewings on 3 properties I've looked at. The other 2 I looked at i didn't like. Houses are still going quickly, but usually can do a second viewing if wanted.
I'm not looking for a ftb house though, so I think cheaper houses are going faster. The houses I'm looking at are taking 2-4 weeks to sell, so there is time.

My friends buying houses right now have both told me that people are offering before viewing now. Presumably the people pull out if they view and don’t like it?

I dont think second viewings happen any more. We were doing viewing in September of last year and it is a case of bring your measuring tape with you with the dimensions of your big furniture and any questions you my have from the pictures to ask.
I will say that most properties now have a virtual walkthrough of properties on their adds so we would have watched those as to get initial thoughts and then the viewing was a kind of confirmation.
Even a few months ago it was up for days, you got your slot and best and final offers expected usually a week later occasionally 2 weeks later. One even sold before the open day.

We only did a second viewing after our offer was accepted and mortgage approved. Is all very fast paced these days. Having said that we offered on our current house after only 1 viewing 11 years ago so I guess when you know you know!

Our buyers had a second viewing after we had accepted their offer. Not sure what it was about but I was happy for them to have a good look around because usually viewings are really short.

We are in the process of buying at the moment and the house didn't fly off the shelf so to speak, so we managed to have a second viewing too. We brought FIL with us because we weren't sure if it was the right house for us and wanted someone sensible to see it. The second viewing was very much like the first one in that we were only quickly taken through each room and we mostly stood outside asking the agent some further questions. I'm glad we managed to see it again, but in my experience it's very rare to have a second viewing these days.

Thank you for sharing your experiences, it is really useful. I am just at the preparing to put my house on the market stage...

I think if you’re buying a £4m property there’s still opportunity for more than one viewing. But for your average purchase no, there hasn’t been second viewings for years in my city.

At the lower end of the market - definitely not. You feel like you’ve hit the jackpot in just managing to make it to the viewing list. Spent longer deciding what car to buy..

@Alphabet1spaghetti2 exactly this! I spent three months choosing a sofa. And then spent 30mins sitting at the sofa place. The house? 1000x the cost and 15mins inside!

They exist. We are having one tonight with a view of making an offer after it. Fingers crossed!

They exist for properties which aren't at the top end of desirability ie been on the market a while. Otherwise somebody else will have had an offer accepted before you've even rung off the phone booking your second viewing. We offered without viewing and knowing the house needed everything doing, although it was only provisionally accepted by vendor until after we'd viewed.