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?

People can be put off making big decisions on a house purchase in the run up to an election. It's a factor.

But 32 viewings and no offers suggests that the listing is attractive, the price on the listing is attractive, but the reality of the viewing isn't matching up to the expectation the listing is creating. So it's likely to be either condition, layout, or kerb appeal - which are all harder to judge from an onscreen listing than in-person.

Could you ask the EA which other properties on their books the viewers you're getting are also viewing? Then compare their listings with yours. Maybe ask a friend to give you a critical appraisal of both the listing and the property.

I don’t understand the idea that you would only allow first viewings from people who have already got an offer on their house.

Wouldn’t the offerors on those houses want to know that their vendors had found a property to buy, using that logic, and then nobody goes anywhere?

From our experience you get some agents that seem very selective over who they send around, others encourage anyone - sometimes the later works, sometimes it doesn't - but obviously means lots of viewings. Has agent contacted every single viewer and fed back each individual comment to you? Again I think some will do that, others won't.

When I was in Scotland people went to fixed price when they wanted a quick sale. You just say, ‘the price is this’ and first person to offer it gets the house. It’s attractive to buyers as it’s a guaranteed acceptance with no bidding war.

Also, estate agents are just a barrier to viewing. Where I lived in was open house viewings. Run by the sellers, Sunday afternoon and Thursday evening. It makes it so much easier to view properties. Also, the sellers can actually answer your questions which I found estate agents never could. I much preferred this system as a buyer. When we were buying in England there were houses we were interested in but could never view as the EA could not accommodate us in a slot! EA really are an unnecessary barrier between buyer and seller.

Does your house need work anywhere or updating?

I would be concerned that the feedback is positive but they're not making an offer. Often viewers don't want to be honest about why they don't want to offer as they don't want appear rude. Ridiculous and unhelpful but also understandable.

Absolutely not saying there is anything wrong with your house, just something to consider.

In that case, I would be asking the estate agent to ring the people who gave positive feedback and said they were interested, for the reason they haven’t offered, so that you get the actual reasons. I was always happy to give honest feedback.

I don’t think it will be the price, as if people really loved it they would put a cheeky offer in. We loved a house and offered 25k under just to chance it. It didn’t work, but it was clear we wanted the house.

Also, estate agents are just a barrier to viewing.

Op has had lots of viewings and has stated how helpful her EAs are.

Surely it's going to be the price??

I am not saying that this is the case here, but from my own experience, I viewed a lot of houses with a lot of interest from other buyers which looked very nice in the RM pictures (no surprise that many wanted to view) but very different (in a bad way) on site.
The only explanation I have is that the pictures were photoshopped.
I never bothered to make an offer or giving feedback and in most of the cases the houses were still on the market after many months and with reduced prices.

They are not going to tell you about the people they didn't make time for, are they? Or the ones who just never bothered trying to book as it takes so much time to book appointments around EA availability that they reduced the amount of houses they look at, are they?

EA viewings add nothing to the process. They don't know your house as well as you do, so they can't sell it as well as the owners could. Viewers can only view around the EA availability, which is another restriction.

I really can't see what they add at all. They were only used for empty properties were I came from. Honestly , it was so much better. Trying to view houses was a huge pain in the arse when I came here. As I said, there were houses we were very keen on that we never even got a chance to look at due to lack of EA slots for us to do so. Clearly, that does not help sellers to have keen buyers barred from the process due to EA slots.

I am going to guess that your house is messy, cluttered, dirty or smelly in the viewer’s opinion. So they come into view it, are disappointed or feel that it doesnt match their expectations, so they dont offer, but are embarrassed to say why.

its just a guess, but I would take a hard look at how you are presenting it for viewings, do you have a friend who has a good eye/nose and will be blunt with you? If so ask them to come around and be brutal with you.

If it's the price, surely they'd make an offer? There is something making even a lower price not worth it. Something I assume that is non negotiable to many people.

"Viewers can only view around the EA availability, which is another restriction."

The EAs have more availability than I do, given work and kids.

Do you have a dog OP? I find dog smells (which the owner is rarely aware of) can make even the most immaculate house seem unappealing.

Viewers can only view around the EA availability, which is another restriction.
Really? I've never allowed the EA to lead a viewing when I was selling. When I was buying I've only ever viewed a property with the EA when it was an empty property.

I was about to ask the same. I wonder if it's a dog smell. So off-putting.

The best thing to do is to provide a link.
You can change your user name afterwards.

I’ve been helping DB and SIL house hunt for the past few months and have seen some shocking properties, even ones where SIL was happy to consider (tiny kitchen washing machine in garage next to kitchen!). One property which could’ve been offerable on DB didn’t like NDN’s next to and opposite as looked very scruffy and run down and he thought they could be difficult…

So it can be a lot of factors. Quite a few have been overpriced but need lots of work doing to them. Or just need a lot doing generally.

Agreed with this. I’ve seen some shockingly messy houses, packed with furniture and stuff. It’s preferable to have an empty house to see how things can look.

DB cleared and declutterred their flat and updated kitchen with new or painted doors and matching items, before selling it and it sold within 2-3 weeks at just over the asking price.

We're in a similar position, been on since March, 29 viewings, with another 2 booked in. Reduced the price. Good feedback, those interested waiting to sell.
We put our house on the market for a specific house and it is soul destroying not being able to clinch it!

There are many things that it's either difficult or impossible to change about a house: how big it is; the location; how big the garden is; which way it faces; what's next door etc etc.

What you can do is have an honest assessment as to whether your property is as good as it can be. Is it clean, tidy and uncluttered? Are the gardens well looked after? That sort of thing.

If you've got a neat, tidy, uncluttered and clean smelling house then the only lever you've got that is likely to make any difference is altering the price to appeal to a new bracket of buyers who won't have considered the property as in their price category before.

It could be the agents are the problem. Firstly they should definitely not be showing to people who are not already under offer. What's the point, even if they did offer you wouldn't accept it as they're not proceedable.

But also I'm wondering if they are telling people there is a lot of interest which is true but might put buyers off as they don't want to get into a bidding war. Think the agents need to change their strategy.

Not sure I would agree with that, 32 viewings in 6 weeks suggests the agents are doing a decent job.