Lots of viewings, no offers. What can we do?

[DoItWithABrokenHeart]

Been on the market 6 weeks and have had 32 viewings in that time. Three bedroom semi in a village. Not many come up in our area (none have sold in our street for eight years) but plenty of the same size within a 15 minute drive. I think we are priced low to sell.

Most of the feedback has been really positive. Several have said they love it but want to check out the area / plan to make an offer but need to sell / intend to make an offer but then vanish / like it but want to think through.

Only one person said it was overpriced. One didn’t like the area. Another wanted a larger garden (it’s 100 foot deep so not tiny). Negative comments have been minimal.

The EA said they are frustrated as we’ve had more viewings than any other property on their books and they don’t understand why we don’t have an offer.

The pictures online aren’t great but they aren’t putting people off viewing. We don’t want to reduce the price as again, people are viewing and saying they will make an offer. If we reduce too much we can’t afford our onward move (we have a property we love).

I won’t post a link as don’t want to be outed.

I’m just not sure what to do. It’s mentally exhausting and we seem to have a viewing every other day. We just want to be able to buy the property we’ve found but feel stuck in limbo. I’m also suck in my job as need to stay to get the mortgage as moving to a new role would be risky as not sure I can get a mortgage while on probation.

What else can we do?

Wait another couple of weeks. If nothing happens, then pull it from the market and try again at a later date. That's far better than having it on the market for a long time at a low price in order to sell.

Have you found somewhere?

6 weeks isn’t long to sell a house in most areas and with all those viewings it looks like the price is in the right ballpark. So you probably just have to wait a bit longer to get that elusive offer.

Though personally I wouldn’t find it acceptable if my online house photos weren’t as good as they could be. I would be complaining to my EA about that & asking for new photos to be taken.

I feel like 32 viewings in 6 weeks is a huge amount of interest in your place. You must be priced attractively to get that many people interested.

The big question I'd be asking the estate agent is how many of those 32 are actually proceedable? If 28 of them haven't sold their own properties yet, they might be ready to offer as soon as they get a sale - but in many ways useless to you. If it IS that you are getting a lot of non-proceedable viewings, I'd be tempted to at least ask the agent to stop those and tell people to sell first, then view. I totally get that feeling of being emotionally drained by that many people traipsing through your home!

Re the mortgage: I applied for mortgage earlier this year, while simultanously moving jobs - application went in when I hadn't even started the new job, let alone received a pay slip. I raised it as a concern with the mortgage broker, but he said it wasn't a problem at all as long as you had a contract with your new salary that you could submit instead of payslips - sure enough mortgage went through easily and smoothly, so perhaps give a broker a call who can talk you through that process and put your mind at ease.

The EA did offer to send the photographer round to take new pictures but with the high interest we haven’t sorted that out yet.

We don’t want to take it off as we have found a property we are desperate to buy!

Not sure if this is just the general state of the market, but then why are so many people viewing?

After viewing a property, which will probably only last 15 mins, I would often look back over the photos on the listing because I wouldn’t remember a lot of it. If the pictures are not great, viewers may think it wasn’t as nice as they remembered. I would highly recommend getting better pictures done. A change of agents may work too as they all work differently and some are absolutely better than others at communicating, chasing, selling.

I’ve asked the agent to stop showing it to people who aren’t proceedable but they say that’s bad practice as these people’s circumstances could change any day. For example one person who apparently loved it and said it’s perfect, supposedly had three second viewings on their own last week. We haven’t heard from them since.

I hadn’t thought of this! I’ll try and get that sorted.

We are stuck in a 12 week exclusivity contract with our EA and can’t take it off and put it with someone else within that time.

I don't like the sound of your agent. Sure, their circumstances can change any moment - and then they can view when that happens. I can see the argument when you aren't getting many other viewings and at least getting someone in keeps things rolling - but you need to be allowed to draw a line and have some privacy in your home!

No advice really but a similar thing happened to us in the autumn, we took ours off after 3/4 weeks but we’d had 15+ viewings in that time and no second viewings or offers. Estate agent was perplexed. I think maybe the price was too high but would people view if that were the case? The price wasn’t the feedback people were giving either (which was usually fairly bland or positive). I still don’t really understand it but we have to put ours on again soon as we are now buying our onward house (we can buy without selling but don’t want/ can’t afford a long overlap). But I’m confused about what the lessons from our last experience should be (if any!)

Prep it was if it was goinf to be viewed and get a friend to "view". Get them to give honest feedback. No niceties. Or look at it with fresh eyes yourself.

Often when people show houses, especially that many times there can be dirt/clutter etc that can Be off putting. People really don't think.

Things like a dirty or marked stovetop, oven door, shoes dumped, washing hung up, food jars/saucepans etc on the side. All put people off a little bit. People aren't buying those things. But perception is a lot. I once looked at a house that was 3 years old, priced top end, stove top was all burnt on, oven hadn't looked like it had been cleaned in years. All sovleable. But did make me wonder what else they'd neglected. Saucepans and other clutter on kitchen work surfaces or stuff piled anywhere makes me think theres not enough storage.

These are things people will discuss anoungst themselves, but will rarely ever feedback to an agent. They'll go with the yeah its amazing love it just need to do x y z, line.

Also are the agent showing people round? If so if its not somewhere houses come up alot. Make sure they know the area well! To talk it up, or even consider doing viewings yourself, if you feel co fident in talking about the area and house.

Have these people actually asked to see your place or is the agent just bringing them? So
many times we’d be shown another property nearby that we had no interest in but thought why not.

I think it’s hard to sell houses in villages right now unless they are very cheap OR have lots going for them OR the house is so breathtaking that it literally cannot be walked away from. Does your village have a shop, post office, pub, a community hall, village events, a bus to town at least once an hour?

I have seen many lovely houses languish for a long time in villages with no amenities or connections over the last year. My dream home was in such a place and my other half point blank refused me, no matter how many times I mentioned it. He just didn’t want to be that disconnected from people and services. That place was immaculate and not unreasonably priced but took six months to sell because it was just a collection of houses spread over a mile with nothing else there.

He is of the view that village moves are would be ‘nice to have’ whereas town moves are ‘must have’ (for work), and that’s why they are taking so long to sell. Only the ‘must have’ people are generally moving.

In Spring 22 we could get 2.77% at 95% LTV and this spring the best we can get is 4.78 at 90% LTV (or 5.3% at 95%), so maybe he has a point.

FTBs are probably generally buying cheaper homes and clogging things up for everybody up the chain.

We have been in the same position and if you look in rightmove there's lots of properties that have been reduced . We think the market is still scared where people are struggling with the cost of living and wary despite what the agents say ' we can sell your house for this etc' . We live in a desirable area too but had to drop a lot after lots of viewings , in the end we've decided to extend as it's a fortune in moving costs too with stamp duty etc . I feel so sorry for people trying to buy for the first time now too

And anyway, I don’t think that would be an appropriate thing to do seeing as your EA has got 32 viewings for you in 6 weeks - they are working hard for you!

Just ask them to redo the photos if you are unhappy with them.

You didn’t give it long enough to draw many lessons if you took it off after 3/4 weeks. Just don’t list it for more money than it was listed at in the Autumn or savvy buyers will be able to find out and won’t be happy about it.

@Twiglets1 no we won’t (we will probably list for a bit less if anything). We put it on to try and buy a specific house but then missed out on it. By then it was early November and nothing new was coming on so we decided to take it off sooner rather than later as even if we sold at that point we couldn’t see ourselves finding anywhere that side of Christmas.

But my previous two houses had sold within 1-2 weeks of going on (including one in 2019 when the market was supposed to be slow) so I was/ am a bit rattled by this!

If people are viewing but not offering it is sadly the price op, it means when they get in the door they don’t feel it’s worth the money.

I can understand that plus when you’re trying to sell a house the weeks drag on if it doesn’t sell immediately so 3/4 weeks can feel like months! I hate all the palava of having to keep the house tidy all the time and accommodate viewings at a moment’s notice.

We have moved quite a lot & normally sell quickly, apart from once when we had a quirky house. But this is a very tough market so it is to be expected that most properties will take longer to sell than normal.

I'd say something is putting them off when they view, which isn't apparent from the listing.

Is the garden badly overlooked, do the pictures make the rooms appear more spacious than they are? Is the house more tired than the photos show? Do you have dogs which might be creating a smell? Any dodgy neighbours with conked out car on their drive, overgrown garden, hot tub with outdoor bar etc?

I don’t think anyone can really help without the link to the details.

I wonder if the election is putting people off? Whilst it’s barely uncertainty what if one party promises a stamp duty holiday you just missed? If I didn’t need to move I might get a feel for the market and order after election day.

Hmm not sure. If there was something putting them off then wouldn’t the feedback reflect this? Garden isn’t overlooked, only our attached neighbours can see into it and then not fully, neighbours aren’t an issue, no pets etc etc. There really is no obvious reason!

EA has worked hard and is as equally frustrated as we are. We can’t fault them really.

It will be the price.

Have you considered an open day?

Post a link and then we can comment.

Without pictures it's impossible to make sensible comments. However - get all the windows cleaned, get the pictures improved so people can look back at them, make sure the agent is aware of any selling points like good local schools. People may be serious about liking it but then see something cheaper elsewhere or be unable to sell their own property and unable to go ahead. Or there may be nothing they can put their finger on but it just doesnt feel right. We saw a property like that once, we had taken proof of being able to proceed and were expecting to put in a good offer but we didnt.