How long before a viewing?

[wereonthemarket]

We went to market on Thursday!

Not sure what to expect now - I guess I expected a viewing booked very quickly?! It feels strange being in a sort of limbo waiting to see if anyone wants to view.

We agreed a price with the estate agent close to the top of their valuation and said we'd keep it there til mid January before reevaluating the price.

In no hurry to move but obviously now we've started the process I think I want something to happen 😂

Our first house we sold had multiple viewings booked in within days then they all offered on it so when our last one we sold didn't have any viewings instantly I was panicking!

I took us about a week to get a viewing booked in then about a month till we got a (low) offer. Seemed like an absolute age at the time but looking back it was pretty quick really.

The issue with "unique" houses is that they are very difficult to value. They may have more square feet/better fittings/bigger gardens etc than other houses with the same number of bedrooms etc, but there can also be drawbacks such as unusual layout, huge house but tiny garden in rural location.
Sometimes the positive quirks of a property can be seen as negative quirks by some buyers. Buyers may be prepared to buy but not a premium for features, which they don't value.
Where a unique house is in a fantastic location, offers redevelopment potential at a profit then it should sell quickly.
In my area, these are often left lingering on the market for months as they have been overvalued.

You should normally gets calls of interest straight away and a flurry of viewings in the first two weeks after listing. That is the busiest time.
The fact that you haven't had any calls suggests that it may be over priced. Why did you decide to go for the highest valuation in a falling market where demand has fallen hugely? Agents tend to over value to get business and this is even more marked in a falling market.

Because we can always reduce but not increase?

I see, although you did say in the OP that you wouldn't reduce until January which is 4 months away.
Wait and see by all means and hopefully you will get some viewings.
I'm just making the point that there is a lot of over pricing going on and that some sellers and agents don't seem to have grasped that the market is falling. Letting houses sit around for months with tiny reductions will likely lead to a lower selling price than if it was priced well initially.

We viewed any house that fit our main requirement (4/5 bed) the day after they hit rightmove (took a day to book viewings through rightmove).

The house we offered on (rejected offer) we offered on 5 days after hitting market, 3 days after viewing. They are still on market 3 months later seemingly getting no viewing (they are just a few houses down from our rental).

We were the same when we were seriously looking to buy - we viewed as soon as we physically could.

Serious buyers don't hang around umming and ahhing about whether or not to view something. If the house ticks their boxes for their budget, it gets viewed.

Yeah Zoopla tends to estimate higher than other valuation sites.

One of our neighbours is currently up for sale, and has priced towards at the bottom of the Zoopla estimated range for their house. But despite that, they haven't sold yet and have now reduced the price (only by 2% though). The house is in lovely condition, but the market has fallen further than what is reflected on Zoopla.

I think one problem is that everyone believes "the market" when it tells them that their house has gone up in value, but when that same market goes down, everyone believes their house/street/village is an exception to the rule.

You see posts on here often claiming that house prices aren't falling in their area. I can only assume they are looking at local asking prices (which are meaningless) rather than the sales data.

I have noticed people on here regularly saying their house isn't selling but they can't see why as prices 'haven't dropped in their area' as if they live in a magic bubble when the lack of sale is painting a truer picture.

Yeh maybe that's it - we need to expect lower than we originally thought. Which might just mean we won't sell at the mo will wait for the market to change again.

We thought January for a price change only because we think people won't view much nov-Jan due to Xmas and then will start again in Jan. I don't know if that's the case - just was our rationale 😂

It all depends OP. Mine sold in June before it went to market formally, at top valuation of four. Similar property had 13 viewings listed on their first weekend.

I was in a good position re next house so got it at a sensible price, for the current market. Am aware prices now falling slightly in that price bracket but hope to be there long term.

If you're resigned to no committed interest before next January (!) I would think about the pricing.

It has to be priced for the market or it won`t sell, I would get another EA TBH.

There are three identical houses in my road, one sold for 495k at the height of house prices a couple of years ago. It needed a lot of work. So far all new windows, kitchen and bathroom. Next doors immaculate show home that also has an extension has been sat on the market for 5 months now with little interest, was priced at 500k and now reduced by 30k. It’s an unsettled time.

It’s probably the price but also the market. Transactions are way down. Fewer houses are getting sold so there are fewer proceedable buyers in a position to view your house. And, whatever people here are saying/wishing, prices are not falling consistently because people who don’t need to sell are taking their houses off the market rather than accept a lower offer than they want. We already have a shortage of housing stock, which is why prices were able to get so high long before very low interest rates. Market behaviour is complex and varies enormously by area.

If you're not getting any viewings at all in 3/4 weeks say, then the house must be overpriced and I would advise you to reduce it quite signigicantly (50k) to generate some interest.

This is even more the case @RoxieLoxy if you are implying that you and your husband would be happy to accept 625k

If you think that way you’re going to be chasing the market downwards. If you really want to sell you need to get ahead of the market and appeal directly to those buyers with a budget of £625k by marketing your house at that price.

Transactions cant be way down (I read mortgage applications were down around 30% recently) AND there be a shortage of housing stock, everyone viewing or thinking of buying lives somewhere so that doesnt really make sense.

Prices got high before the super low rates because people were not being stress tested properly and they were being allowed to borrow much larger multiples of their income than previously on very basic checks (Has everyone forgotten Liar Loans?) then when the inevitable happened in 2007/8 the PTB panicked and cut rates, stupidly leaving them too low for far too long, then Covid turned up and then the inflation leaving millions of people with far too much debt at the mercy of rising interest rates.

Prices are a direct function of borrowing costs, any seller basing their selling price on there "not being enough houses" will be very disappointed IMO. Of course in a small niche market where houses only come up every 20 years or so you could maybe price for scarcity, but in the wider general market not a chance.

Non-seasonally-adjusted estimate of the number of UK residential transactions in July is 22% lower than July 2022. I’d call that way down.

And while people are mostly living somewhere (not counting the growing number of people who aren’t, because they are homeless) many people waiting to buy, particularly at the bottom of the ladder, are in shared houses or staying with family etc. Further up the ladder, most people can’t buy until they have sold, and I would suggest that gleeful discussion of a housing crash is going to reduce sellers’ confidence, even as buyers hold out for one. It is hugely nerve-racking to be ahead of a downward curve and market your house at much lower than all the similar houses around you. If no one else joins you, you potentially face not being able to afford to buy anywhere else.

That's a big house in the northeast at 500k. You'll have a smaller market than other. I'm further south but it still took a few days before we had viewings for our averagely priced 3 bed.

Sorry, meant at over 500k (edit doesn't work on mobile!)

It's really bad where we are at the moment. As others have said the middle of the market 700k-900k are really struggling at the moment where we are. There seems to be hardly any buyers about. We are on one of the most "sought after" streets in our lovely town in a Victorian townhouse close to outstanding schools and greenery but barely any interest and only one very low offer so far. It's really disheartening when you need to move (which we do!).

If you have no viewings on weekend 1 it suggests there are no buyers currently looking who want your house at the price you have set.

If you stay on the market at that price you are waiting for buyers who are not yet looking. They might pop up but there'll rarely be a hurry or flurry after the first weekend.

Have you asked the agent if there have been any enquiries?

Yes it's a big house with a little land and classed as expensive for the North East.