Anyone else had viewings today?

[Chanel05]

I had 4 viewings today.

First time buyer, couple that have sold to a first time buyer, a first time buyer and a couple that aren't yet back on the market but they had sold and their sale had fallen through.

Anyone else had viewings today? How did they go?

Hi, joining the thread. We went on the market Friday evening. Waiting to hear today if we have garnered any interest over the weekend!

To be fair kitchens are hard to judge from pictures and floor plans.

We don't mind small kitchens (I hate massive open plan ones) viewed one house where what was labeled kitchen on the floor plan was literally just a cupboard sized space on the landing turn of the stairwell. It was just a meter or so long bench with microwave, a tiny integrated oven, tiny sink with a cupboard underneath and a wall cupboard above.

Never seen anything like that before, everything else in the house was completely normal sized. The owners the had a utility room in the basement (labeled as such) with a sink, washer, dryer and fridge freezer + chest freezer but it was very much an undecorated damp (stunk of damp) concrete basement utility room. No floor plan could prepare us for something that bizarre, we expected it to be a small extension room (extentions are common round here in pit houses and almost always have the kitchen in) not the actual stairwell.

We also viewed a house where all looked standard, small galley kitchen but fine except that had no space (literally nowhere, not even under the kitchen adjacent stairs or in the back porch etc...) to put a fridge freezer. Previous owners apparently kept it in the garage... the garage was an entirely separate building at the end of the garden.

Photos and measurements all done today, should get the advert back for approval tomorrow and then we're on the market again. Everything crossed for more interest and a more efficient agent this time round!

Good luck with the new agent. Fingers crossed.

Our 2nd viewing people have offered 420k, house is up for oitro £435k.
It's 25 years since we last sold a house. We wanted nearer £430k. What do you wise property board people think?
They're living with family so no chain.

@lingmerth I think you should go back to them via the EA with a counter offer of £430k & maybe you can meet in the middle at about £425k. They are in an excellent position which is worth a lot.

Thanks @Twiglets1
That's what we're hoping to achieve but don't want to frighten them off!

You won't frighten them off just by coming back with a counter offer. It's standard practice and they can always say No and stick to what they have already offered if that really is the maximum they are prepared to go.

Well done for getting that sorted @BarbaricPeach!

I wanted to come back to @worriedftb and maybe @Twiglets1 will help here too - went on at £475k last year, now dropped to £450k and there are other houses in the same position. Agent now saying drop to £425k. I can't go quite as that low as then I simply won't be able to get a new place (divorce so need to get two places out the remaining equity) but £440 or even £435 is possible. But a friend said to me that really if anyone wanted the house at all they would have already offered £425k or £400k or any price whatsoever! (We had one offer where they couldn't proceed that was last year so that all came to nothing.) Since then hardly any viewings, so I am thinking there must be something wrong with the house. Just to clarify, other houses almost identical to this are on at the same price.

This is my 3rd agent, part of a huge franchise so I'm thinking our best bet. Obvs once we drop to £425k that's it - its only downhill from there. Been back on 6 weeks (took it off originally in October 2023).

We had main refurbishment 6 years ago, new bathroom, put in downstairs loo, plastering, new floors and doors, skirting, column radiators, painted entire house exterior, fascias done etc. all trades no DIY, and some of the very little feedback we've had is that the place needs new windows and "lots of work". The windows are only 6 years old and when pressed the "work" tends to be removing walls. The houses that are selling round here are under £425k and smaller than this. So how do I weigh up if its the price or the actual house? If I saw any house for sale at £425k now I'd offer £400k so I am thinking going that low is just silly?

(PS I'm not going to post a link I am paranoid!!)

Don't blame you for not posting a link @GoingDownLikeBHS I wouldn't either!

You're in a difficult spot. If it has only been on at 450k for a few weeks then I would keep it on at that price for a few more weeks just to be sure that you have given it a good shot at that price. But if it still doesn't get an offer than I'm afraid I agree with your EA that you will need to reduce it to 425k to get new interest. That is because 425k is the next banding down on Rightmove so some new people may see it who were only looking up to 425k.

I can't really see any point only reducing it by 10k or 15k that isn't enough to make a difference. It's true that if people see a property on at 425k they will likely hope to get it for 400k but you don't have to accept any offers you feel are too low. The main thing you do need is to get people through the door and it doesn't seem like your current price is achieving that goal unfortunately.

Good luck @lingmerth. We’re selling our house in East London. Told by EA that market is still quite strong around here. This was evidenced by EA managing to get 20 plus viewings for an open house over the weekend. They gave us confidence that we’d get some offers today but they called & said we haven’t had any 😔. Our house is an acquired taste but it’s been priced at the lower end to encourage interest. I know it’s early days & this probably sounds very encouraging in terms of interest but I’m already feeling demoralised!

Tough one but I’d only go as low as I am willing to settle for.

i speak from experience- I stupidly agreed to drop mine and guess what those viewing and offering where never going to be able to afford what i need for the house.. it’s also complete bs imho that anyone in this market will offer above asking price, they are as you already mentioned going to go lower - so all my offers were lower than the price marketed. Interestingly it was also a large chain that suggested it to me.

The EA I have now said to me - it doesn’t work as those viewing don’t have the budget you need as you’re asking them to go top end to reach what you really need.

We've been on the market for nearly three weeks and had six viewings so far but no offers 😔 I know it's still technically early days but it's really worrying.

I know as a buyer, I'm not expecting to pay over the asking price at the moment. I'd be annoyed to have wasted my time if someone was only going to accept offers above the asking price. Even holding firm on the asking price is difficult at the moment. I would expect most people to be offering at least £10-20k under expecting to negotiate back up, and price accordingly.

Do you have wiggle room to wait it out a bit longer? More buyers allegedly come to the market in spring so it might pay off to stick at £450k, and you'll get a £430ish offer.

That"s right, it is the monthly mortgage cost that decides if the house sells or not now.

I really wouldn't mind a small kitchen as long as you could get the main appliances in, id rather have the living space.

Our property has sold (fingers crossed) so hopefully we are in a good position.We viewed a house on for 250k , it's a small 3 bed detached in the NW. In good nick the house would be getting offers at nearer 300. However, it has a garden overgrown and full of tumbledown buildings, a leaky roof we think, smells damp in garage and smells of smoking. it's full of quite creepy possessions belonging to an older person who has sadly died and was last decorated in about 1985. Oh and the windows are very old but do look double glazed. Despite all this I absolutely love it but apparently the sellers won't budge (lots of them apparently selling after probate). We would have offered 230k. Everything in good nick goes in a day or two around here !

@worriedftb completely agree with you on everything you said.

Rates have jumped since January and continue increasing making it even harder to afford what is already expensive. I just refuse to settle for the bare minimum overpriced house to end up with high monthly repayments and a stressful expensive renovation project.
As much as I’ll love to buy and be over looking I don’t want to end up being financially overwhelmed or worse off.

And the whole idea that spring/summer brings better offers makes no sense to me. If current buyers in the market haven’t offered in the 3-6 months you’ve had your house up what are the chances new buyers that come into the market will offer?

Yes it’s possible but the sun shining into your garden or living room makes no difference to me.
Except rates magically drop or asking prices drop, I don’t really see what difference waiting out till spring makes.

Hi please can I join? Sadly our buyers pulled out last minute so we're back at the start. It's the second time the chain has collapsed so quite disheartening but we're hoping for third time lucky.

We've tidied everything away which was a bit easier this time around as we had decluttered lots and had cupboard space.

Had a couple of viewings over the weekend and have 3 more booked for this week.

Good luck to everyone.

It's obviously not that the sun shining makes a difference. It's that if more people are in the buying pool, there's more chance your house will sell. You only need one buyer, so if twenty are looking at your demographic of house in Spring that's obviously better than the ten who were looking in winter.

And Spring tends to be when families start to look to move, so they're in a new house in time for schools in September (either for primary/secondary applications or changing schools). So if you own a family house in a school area, you both have more potential buyers and more motivated ones.

Sorry to hear that Kentlane, that's so frustrating! Good luck with the new viewings

Many people can"t afford to move now, the buyer pool has shrunk considerably. Really surprised that people still talk about a "Spring Bounce" actually, don"t think that has happened in a long time, the best lever to sell a house is price, not relying on outdated EA sales talk about seasonal demand.

I don't think there will be a spring bounce at all, especially as mortgage rates are clearly rising, unemployment recently said to be going up and BoE stating they won't make a cut for sure. General banks are not responding to BoE anymore because it's all too volatile. Personally, if savings interest rates are still high, that's an indication mortgage rates will stay high too. I don't see most buyer's circumstances changing tbh

BOJ now seriously talking about raising rates, this Friday is important data regarding that, suits on Bloomberg etc. trying to talk it down, but if they raise and the market thinks they will raise again it has big implications for mortgage debt holders.

We're not live with our new advert just yet, but we've booked to view a property on Sunday.

The vendors are doing it themselves which is interesting. I'd rather the estate agent, but could be handy to ask questions. Obviously we won't be able to offer on the house, but it's been on a while and is the only thing on the market in our budget and the area we want most so worth a view.

First viewing booked in tomorrow evening. Their house is already sold to a cash buyer. Fingers crossed!