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?

How quickly are people getting feedback from viewings?

We had several Thursday through Saturday including a second viewing but have heard nothing. Even a "they hated it" would make me more relaxed.

My second-time viewer came on Saturday. The EA thinks he wants it but reckons he'll be a 'tricky customer'. I know I'm BU but when I got back my wardrobe door was open, which felt like a horrible invasion of privacy. I get that they might want to have a look at the space inside but it hadn't really occurred to me so it was a bit of a shock. I really, really hate this process and I'm very close to taking it off the market and trying again next year.

Our viewers from Friday did a second viewing yesterday, made an offer today which we countered, and they accepted our counter. So, it seems we’ve finally sold! Still never heard back from the investors, so glad to have a buyer who seems very keen.

The house we offered on which was accepted, is now “considering” another offer alongside ours. So having to wait for that otherwise it’s back to viewing houses again, but at least time we can say we’ve sold!

@WimbyAce Round my way people seemed to book in on about Thursday for weekend viewings. I thought I had radio silence too when i went on, but on the Friday my estate agent surprised me with a long list of viewings booked in for the weekend. So you might just have mistimed for last weekend and you'll get people in this week.

Two weeks in and we have had a grand total of two viewings. Tumbleweed-type response, I feel. No feedback from the viewings. I am now quite panicked as this was a "now or never" move for us.
The market here is dead and I have noticed that two properties in the nearby town have gone to auction. Prices are sinking fast.

We have just been talking about how low we will be able to go in order to try to make this happen.

My daughter's house went up for sale 3 weeks ago at the same time as our house. ( we're all moving to The Lakes)
Ours sold within 10 days. Hers is still for sale and she has now reduced it by £10k on advice from EA. Our houses are a mile apart, fairly similar and in a fairly affluent area. She had 3 viewings, we had about 12. No viewings in 20 days hence reduction. EA says there's nothing else they can do. Anyone in a similar position? Should she change EA?

@lingmerth a mile apart can make a big difference to value and desirability etc. Is your daughter’s house priced realistically for her area and the current market? Is it the kind of house people looking to buy in that area will want? Eg if it’s an area that is popular due to being in a good school catchment area, is it a family sized house with a garden? Is it well presented, or cluttered? Are there many similar properties for sale near her, and if so, how does hers compare in terms of appearance, practicality of layout, price etc? It may just be bad luck, and hopefully the right buyer will be along soon!

No it’s too early to think about changing the EA. A mile apart could still mean that your daughter’s house is in a less desirable area than yours or less competitively priced for the condition or just doesn’t have as many things buyers like for example, quiet road, good school catchment, south or west facing garden.

If she is eager to sell fast I would have advised her to drop by 5% of the original price. I don’t know the value of her property but 10k doesn’t sound like much of a reduction and may not be enough to generate new interest. She should look at the Rightmove bandings also and see if the house has gone down to a new banding.

Thanks you have given me hope! Last time we were doing block bookings straight away so this is definitely different! I did wonder whether going live on the Friday was a good idea 😗

Thanks @AllTheChaos and @Twiglets1 for your replies. Both houses are in a desirable area. Her road is nicer than mine I think. I have a much bigger garden, she has a much more attractive front garden. Agree hers is more cluttered with children's toys. Ours is probably more old fashioned. It's difficult to know isn't it. It's the fact now she's not even getting any viewings and the EA saying there's nothing else they can do that's so frustrating. They can't afford to price drop any further.

@lingmerth What are the photos like? And what order are they in?
I’ve seen some crazily bad photos on here, and from my own experience I can say that the order that photos appear on RM makes a huge difference. First pic should be front of house, taken in bright sunlight and not dominated by the garage. Second pic should be of the best room in the house. Apart from that, pics should be in a logical order and make sure there’s at least one good one of the garden.

I wonder whether it would help if people say where they are selling, roughly for some privacy, as it might match with where someone else wants to move to.

Those are really good points, @NewFriendlyLadybird. When the first picture isn’t of the front exterior, or worse, when such a picture isn’t shown at all, it is massively offputting! It always makes me wonder what’s wrong with it! Then room pictures being at odd angles, or obviously taken with a wide angled lens to try to make them look bigger (sometimes one can tell by the way things that should be straight curve instead), and loads of pictures of random little details like vases of flowers when one wants to see the actual house! Also sometimes entire rooms are missing from the photos, again that’s a big worry. Also bad floor plans, that don’t show the actual measurements of rooms and the total area.

Spot on. I also hate those arty evening photos where the sky has been manipulated and the windows are bathed in the dusk sunlight. They must think we are mugs. I guess some are. If only they could just get the basics right.

Update

We are now under offer. The 2.5% over asking people came back and said they wanted to see another property as that was chain free and they wanted to move quickly (bearing in mind, they've been in rented for two years because they keep missing out on properties, probably due to their dodgy behaviour).

That just annoyed me and DH because are you withdrawing the offer? Is it still live and available of acceptance? Couldn't be bothered with it.

Had another offer the same day. At first they offered 2.5% under, EA straight away said no so they offered asking. Managed to negotiate to 1.5% over asking price, which we've accepted.

Had to chase the EA for confirmation of the position as they are not very proactive with keeping us updated. They said they aren't putting the property as under offer on RM until they have their financial docs, which should take a few days. Will feel better once we are officially 'SSTC', then can start properly looking for our onward purchase!

Thanks a lot to all those who have provided me with advice, I've really appreciated it and it's been invaluable as this is a very stressful and convoluted process and it can oftentimes feel like you don't know what to do for the best.

*capable of acceptance

You’re welcome. I just wanted to also make the point that while I understand if someone says they can’t afford to price drop any further, nevertheless that is not something Buyers will care about. If a property is overpriced ( not saying your daughters house necessarily is as it hasn’t been on long enough to say, but it might be) then it just won’t attract buyers & so the house just sits there.

@Twiglets1 I agree. I think it was overpriced but the reduction has brought it to a realistic price for the area. It's Sutton Coldfield West Midlands if anyone is interested!

@NewFriendlyLadybird interesting thought on photos.
The same EA valued and took photos of both my daughters and my house.
I was pleasantly surprised how good he made ours look. Not so my daughter's.
They've tidied the back garden and the EA had agreed to take a new photo. Maybe it's worth asking them to redo them all.

We’ve decided to accept the lower offer on our house. The estate agent managed to squeeze an extra 5k out of them so it’s 10k under rather than 15k. Even though the advert was for offers in excess of the asking price they seem like a good buyer with no chain.

We also really want to move sooner rather than later & viewings were becoming quite difficult as our daughter is autistic & home ed.
I think it’s tricky at the moment as there are people selling that don’t feel they can afford to drop the price anymore but then the buyers like us have got less for their houses so can’t afford to offer more.

For what it's worth I think you made the right decision in being pragmatic and accepting the best offer you got, despite hoping for 10k more.

It's not an easy market at all and you are now in a much stronger position going forward.

I’d have accepted at that as well, seems like a good compromise. Congrats!

Thanks both, it’s such a tough market at the moment. We’re in a supposedly & coming area in East London & it’s still been really slow. Good luck to everyone selling & buying at the moment.

We’ve had an offer! It’s 5% under asking but we priced it 5% less than very similar houses sold for over the past year. I know the market has changed etc etc and it’s an offer so we need to consider but I’m feeling very deflated at this point.