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Original poster

If you viewed houses before yours was on the market…

61 replies

Floopdifloo · 04/10/2023 13:41

…how serious were you about selling?

Somebody has booked in to view and I’ve just found out their property isn’t even on the market yet. I’m just wondering if it’s worth all the effort of getting the house spotless or whether I should just cancel it and tell the agent not to allow anyone to view who isn’t on the market at least.

Just to add - I have a disability and making my house like a bloody show home multiple times a week is absolutely exhausting.

If people just want something to do rather than being serious about buying then I’d rather cancel, but I wanted to see if anybody has actually ended up buying a house after viewing in this situation?

OP posts:
cupofdecaf · 04/10/2023 13:46

Could you arrange the viewing just before/ after another viewing so you don't have to tidy the house again?

cupofdecaf · 04/10/2023 13:48

We viewed before being on the market but that was because we knew we'd sell very quickly. At the start we were just trying to see what we could buy but if we'd found our dream house we would have gone for it. Later on we did offer after finding a fantastic garden with an ok house. It fell through (not our decision) and we were later house hunting with our buyers waiting and it was stressful.

MrsElsa · 04/10/2023 13:48

Tell the agent you want only proceedable viewings.

FTB
Cash
SSTC

daffdil · 04/10/2023 13:50

We viewed a couple before getting ours on the market. The property we are selling is rented out and needed a few repairs before listing. I think we eventually listed 2-3 weeks later and if we can sell it, we’ll be offering on one we viewed before it was listed.

Unfortunately we’re now struggling to sell, so part of me thinks ‘take every viewing you get’ and the other half ‘if they have to sell and haven’t even listed it could take ages’…

Original poster
Floopdifloo · 04/10/2023 13:53

@cupofdecaf I’m assuming she was unavailable since she called last Saturday, and at that point I already had a viewing arranged for this Tuesday she could have attended. I would have thought the agent would want them together for their sake as well.

OP posts:
Validus · 04/10/2023 13:54

We viewed before we had the house on the market. Essentially there would have been no point selling ours if we didn’t find somewhere we wanted to go.

We loved it, offered and were accepted. As it happened our sellers needed a bit of time themselves due to issues with their purchase, so the timing wasn’t an issue. We then spent a month tarting our house up. Our own house then sold within a week.

FawltyTower · 04/10/2023 13:58

There will always be people who view with zero intention to buy unless you put some conditions in place, like having to be SSTC or FTB with proof of mortgage offer.

Many years ago (before dc) dh and I viewed dozens of houses we had no intention of buying. We used to like viewing 'aspirational' houses or areas or sometimes just for a nosy around. And once, on a bored week off work, we had a competition for who could arrange a viewing for the highest price house. We viewed a place for £1.5m as skint 25 year olds who were scraping to afford our own mortgage on our £200k house.

Anyway, point being - unless you impose conditions, yes you'll likely get some time wasters in the mix.

Original poster
Floopdifloo · 04/10/2023 14:00

daffdil · 04/10/2023 13:50

We viewed a couple before getting ours on the market. The property we are selling is rented out and needed a few repairs before listing. I think we eventually listed 2-3 weeks later and if we can sell it, we’ll be offering on one we viewed before it was listed.

Unfortunately we’re now struggling to sell, so part of me thinks ‘take every viewing you get’ and the other half ‘if they have to sell and haven’t even listed it could take ages’…

That second part is how I feel - my house is in an area that sells extremely quickly, but it’s taking longer than I expected I assume due to the market and people struggling to sell their own houses. I’ve had a lot of interest including an offer which fell through and it’s a very good price as I’ve priced to sell.

One couple in particular love it and have had two viewings and I noticed a drive-by from them the other day (it’s a cul-de-sac) but they haven’t sold their house yet so can’t buy mine! I have no idea if these other people have houses which are priced realistically or desirable, so whilst it’s nice knowing people like my house it doesn’t actually sell it!

OP posts:
Original poster
Floopdifloo · 04/10/2023 14:03

Thanks for your responses everyone, some mixed experiences here. @FawltyTower thats basically what I don’t want to be wasting energy on.

I’ve emailed my agent and told them to either rearrange the time to suit me better or just cancel it until their house is on the market. Next time I’ll try to remember to ask what position the buyer is in before committing to viewings!

OP posts:
VisaWoes · 04/10/2023 14:04

Very.

I viewed the house, went to the estate agent later that morning to get ours on the market. That was a Saturday and we sold it to the first viewer on Thursday and moved eight weeks later.

until the Friday afternoon when I saw the advert for the house it hadn’t crossed my mind to move house. But I saw it and fell in love with it.

AutumnFroglets · 04/10/2023 14:05

I will be looking before my house goes to market but only by 2-3 weeks.

Is it possible to ask your agent to only do group bookings on Weds evenings or Saturday mornings for example? It's something I'm considering doing as I'm disabled too.

PickleSarnie · 04/10/2023 14:05

We weren't on the market, the house that we saw and ultimately offered on was the only house we viewed. Although obsessively stalking Rightmove is my main hobby so I felt like I'd seen more! We don't have to move, but we want to move if the right house came along - which it did.

The house we viewed had an open day though so we didn't feel we were wasting anyone's time. We put our house on the market right after and got an offer within a couple of weeks (also did an open house). Thoroughly recommend open day if it's an option. You just need to be out of the house for a couple of hours and should be able to get a number of viewings done at once.

wereonthemarket · 04/10/2023 14:07

Unless they don't need to sell there's to buy yours then id be rejecting the viewing.

Peekingovertheparapet · 04/10/2023 14:09

Viewed before market because our house was only for sale contingent on us buying a particular house. Offer accepted on Tuesday, on Market Wednesday, sold by Friday.

itsallnewnow · 04/10/2023 14:12

Very serious. Just didn't want to go through all the rigmarole until we found something we loved.

Viewed Saturday
Offered Monday
Ours on the market by Friday
Sold a week later Grin

shivawn · 04/10/2023 14:26

We viewed quite a few before putting ours on the market. We weren't going to move unless we found a house we absolutely loved so there was no point putting ours up until we found the one. Once we saw the place we're currently in process of buying then we pulled out all the stops to get it.

I get that viewings are very tiring. I was very heavily pregnant with a toddler while we were having a lot of viewings multiple days a week and my husband was away with work for 2 weeks. Spending my days off making the place spotless and clutter free was really exhausting. Most people will be time wasters but it's all part of it unfortunately. The guy that ended up buying our place had cancelled viewings twice at the last minute so I didn't even really want to arrange a 3rd viewing for him but I'm glad I did now.

CrashyTime · 04/10/2023 14:38

daffdil · 04/10/2023 13:50

We viewed a couple before getting ours on the market. The property we are selling is rented out and needed a few repairs before listing. I think we eventually listed 2-3 weeks later and if we can sell it, we’ll be offering on one we viewed before it was listed.

Unfortunately we’re now struggling to sell, so part of me thinks ‘take every viewing you get’ and the other half ‘if they have to sell and haven’t even listed it could take ages’…

I agree, take every viewing you can get, but dont bother tidying if they are just "tyre kicking", obviously dont be in a total mess either. Unfortunately a lot of people make plans around sales that have not materialised yet and you can`t do that in this market.

Notagains · 04/10/2023 14:42

Very serious but I wanted to make sure there was something on the market I wanted and could afford before putting mine on the market as it is in a popular area and would sell quickly

DiscoBeat · 04/10/2023 14:45

We were very specific about the type of house we wanted, which hardly ever came up, so we put ours on after we found it (we could have paid cash at a pinch though by offering slightly under). We took it off again when the vendors changed their mind about selling and extended our own house instead.

jotunn · 04/10/2023 14:45

Validus · 04/10/2023 13:54

We viewed before we had the house on the market. Essentially there would have been no point selling ours if we didn’t find somewhere we wanted to go.

We loved it, offered and were accepted. As it happened our sellers needed a bit of time themselves due to issues with their purchase, so the timing wasn’t an issue. We then spent a month tarting our house up. Our own house then sold within a week.

This. We found a flat we liked, viewed it and put our own flat on the market the same day with the same agent.

Our sale went through more quickly than our purchase because our seller was incredibly annoying (didn't want to have to pay fees so kept failing to pay solicitors bill and instructing someone new).

CutesyUserName · 04/10/2023 15:06

Probably the exception to the rule here, but when we went onto the market in June a couple wanted to view who didn't have their house on the market. I said no (for all the same reasons as you) and if they were interested to either come back when they were on the market or arrange to come on the same day as we had another viewing, so we didn't have to do the big tidy just for them. We heard nothing back.

Fast forward about 6 weeks and they had apparently decided they could buy ours without selling theirs so came to view, put an asking price offer in and we completed a few days ago. Typing this in my new (well, Victorian) house!

Get them to come on a day you have other viewings - you never know if they'll end up being 'the ones'.

Georgiepud · 04/10/2023 15:13

I definitely wouldn't cancel the viewing completely, just reschedule to a more convenient time for you. We viewed the oerfect property before putting ours on the market, went home that evening and instructed an agent the next day to sell ours.
All worked well.

Original poster
Floopdifloo · 04/10/2023 15:19

Thanks everyone. It’s rescheduled to a more convenient time and I’ll be stricter about what days/times I allow viewings for people who aren’t on the market.

There are a surprising number of you who did actually go on to buy so I’ll still allow people to view, just going forward it will be arranged around my convenience rather than theirs 🙂

OP posts:
floofbag · 04/10/2023 15:41

We did because we wanted to know if we could afford what we wanted and liked it enough to sell our current house

We liked it and are trying to buy it now so it's possible they will want to buy yours .

Jessforless · 04/10/2023 15:43

I’ve bought and sold three houses and always found where I wanted to go before I put mine on the market. It was finding the house that made we want to move, so I don’t think I’d ever do it the other way around.