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?

I disagree.

All those viewings suggest that it is priced in the right ball park. In a slow market houses will naturally take longer to sell, even attractively priced houses. Of course a fire sale at a price below market value will bring about a whole range of buyers quickly but I don't think that's what OP wants or needs. I would wait a bit longer before making any rash decisions.

It’s a head-scratcher.

I’d get a blunt friend, preferably one who hasn’t visited you before so maybe a colleague, to come for a “viewing”. Prepare the house as normal and see what he or she says.

Perhaps you could post a RM link for an hour and then request deletion from MNHQ on privacy grounds? You may get some handy replies during that hour.

Lots of viewings confirms the price is in the right ballpark for the listing.

It's still entirely consistent for the price to be wrong for the reality.

Always wise to do new name when selling so can link property

32 views is good and unusual no offer. Not even one 10% under

Do you have a set price or a guide price

I hate guide prices

Just say what you want for it

If that suits you, then do that. For buyers, it is a barrier you need to overcome. I've bought in both systems and I know absolutely which one worked best for us as buyers.

Could the upcoming election be an issue here? Are people holding off on committing to a purchase until the political situation becomes clearer?

That was the same for me in Scotland. Where I live now, it was all EA led viewings. Total pain in the arse. I assume that people who have only known EA led viewings think that is the way it must be done and don't realise its actually potentially reducing the number of people who get to view their property. When I come to sell, there is no way I will do EA only viewings. I'll have open house on sunday afternoon and Thurs evenings for anyone to come and let anyone who wants a separate viewing book that.

Of course, but if the listing was unrepresentative of the actual property then you would expect the feedback to consistently mention this, normally in quite a specific way. So for example if the garden was more overlooked than expected or the rooms were darker then photos showed then a good proportion of the viewers would normally mention this. The fact that the feedback isn't pointing to specific issues suggests that generally the viewers aren't surprised by a specific element of the properly.

I think it's much more likely that the market is slow hence it is harder to find the right buyer quickly. It's like on Vinted or eBay when you list an item at a reasonable price. Some things get loads of favourites but don't sell for ages. When they do sell though, they sell for the asking price to a very happy buyer. If you need a quick sale then of course you will have to lower the price but if you are very confident that you are listing is reasonably priced and there is a lot of interest then I would be tempted to give it more time.

Make sure it smells fresh. Not reeking of febreze or pets, but smelling of fresh air with just a tiny whiff of clean laundry in the bedrooms, nice soap in the bathroom.

But the agents need to talk to and listen to the potential buyers. The one who has been back several times - they should know exactly what this person is looking for, what is holding them back from offering and help them envisage how to overcome the obstacles.

I was probably a wee bit arsey with the EA last time we sold. I told them exactly what they would be doing and exactly what they would not be doing. They'd do the photos and brochure (yup, it was a while ago now) and listing and put a sign up. I told them how many weeks they'd have exclusivity. I'd do all the viewings. They were not to ever put a Under Offer/STC/Sold sign up. And in the end I did all the negotiations directly with the buyer. I only told the EA the price we'd agreed after I'd told my solicitor, and the buyer told their solicitor directly too. The For Sale sign came down the day we exchanged.

Just quoting myself so you can see context, OP. I can see there's still a lot of head scratching going on.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that the OH and I viewed a village house a few months ago and, like you, the man had had 30 viewings and no offers. What put us off:

They were divorcing
The house was in far less good condition than I would have like and something really crucial to the house needed fixing, which he said he would do (but everything else looked to be on the verge of falling apart, so, erm...)
The village

He told us to go to the village pub that his mate owned about a mile away; we duly did, and four different people turned their back on us when really casual attempts at sparking off conversation were made.

The main thing was the village.

If you're gonna isolate yourself in the sticks, you'd be better be damn sure that folks around you aren't going to be hostile.

He made a big error telling us to go to his local.

Exactly. Plus the OP says they've seen a property they really want to buy yet they don't have buyer themselves 🤷‍♀️

Impossible to say without pictures at least. There must be something that is being 'unspoken' if you haven't even had low offers. New pictures won't change that.

You say that not many semis are for sale in your area, I wonder if there isn't a huge demand for that type of property? Are you surrounded by start terraces or huge detached houses? Just because you mention about there being lots of semis clustered in a nearby locality I wonder if the market is more competitive there with more for their money (better finish or prices) or has the type of amenities people are looking for so your village isn't as popular with the type of buyer you need? Just speculation of course!

Thanks for all the feedback.

House is definitely not cluttered as I’m quite minimalist. It’s lived in and has our possessions but I hate ornaments and clutter. We have no pets and always ensure every surface is clear. No washing or washing up about etc.

Kitchen is fairly new (2021) and very similar in style to the attached (not our actual kitchen) and kind of sets the style of the whole house. Most of the house is painted in F&B Wimborne. Garden is narrow but not overlooked and 100ft long with mature tree line at the end backing onto fields. It’s all just lawn as we aren’t gardeners and one persons feedback was it needed landscaping and they wanted a nicer garden, but it’s just been kept tidy. The shed is knackered. Some rooms could do with a fresh lick of paint and it’s definitely not an immaculate new build, but it’s also not priced as one. It’s been fairly well maintained and we had it rewired when we brought it and a new boiler installed in 2019. It’s not a perfect show home, it’s an older house with a bit of character, but far from quirky or unusual.

Village has good transport links, several small shops, 2 pubs, 2 restaurants, coffee shop, bakery, good school. It’s not a tiny village.

Had another viewing today. Got another tomorrow. We just keep racking them up…

I don’t think there is anything we can do other than hold out and wait!

That kitchen is nice, but an island would put me off, I don't know if you have one.
It's difficult to advise because you describe something which sounds ideal.
Why are you moving?

Utterly flummoxed on this one. I think you just have to give it some time, unfortunately. I do remember someone in a village telling me recently that a house had taken four months to sell and “that’s quick around here.”

Yes we have an island it’s very similar to that picture.

We are moving as we need a bigger house; we need 4 bedrooms, ideally 5 bedrooms (the house we are hoping to buy has five).

Might people be concerned that the field at the end of the garden could become a housing estate at some point?

Could be two things from my experience:

1. agent is trying hard to send lots of people around, but most of them will be unsuitable - in our case we learned that they used our house as a 'compare' house. They basically got lots of viewers to 'come and see the house' to clinch some other deal. We had people who had quiet garden or double garage as their no negotiable and our house doesn't have either. Same with people who hasn't sold yet. There really isn't much point of them viewing until they do.
2. something is putting them off when viewing. As a minimalist myself I overheard someone asking agent if we already moved out 😂. We just don't have much junk stuff. Maybe make it more homely? In our case after seeing pictures I thought 'wow, I would buy that house'. They were making house look stunning. But we have a fairly busy road behind the garden, which brochure doesn't mention. Quite often I look on Rightmove and I see somewhere nice and after doing lots of research reject most of the houses. But most people won't do that and just view and are surprised. Maybe you have water tower close by? Smell from livestock? Aeroplanes? Slow tractors on roads?

If neither, it's the market. We are in SE and things aren't selling even in fancy village where previously you could never buy.

It’s only ever one thing. People don’t think it’s worth the money.

I was also wondering about election or interest rate uncertainty - although we are all pretty sure who's going to win the election, people may still be feeling a bit uncertain about how things are going to go and how that will impact their finances? Also the Bank of England has been hinting about cutting interest rates later in the summer, so some people could be waiting for a cheaper mortgage.

Maybe ask if the agent is getting viewings leading to offers and sales on other properties? If yours is the only one that is getting interest but no offers, that does sound more like it is something specific to your house or possibly the village.

Not necessarily. People can always put a lower offer in.
We had seen a few properties now, some we were ready to buy based on floorplans and the usual google view, aerial view, looking at planning history etc., But when visiting, something non-negotiable has put us off. Once it was a driveway that looked big in pictures, but it narrowed down at entrance, so would never get lorry and/or some of the vans in.
Another one had a dog smell everywhere and I couldn't even finish the viewing it was that horrid.
Both of these properties were perfect, if overpriced but I would have put an offer in.
Then we saw another perfect one but it was very overpriced. Spoke to agent and he agreed. The owner wanted a full price, a year later it was withdrawn.
So price can be an issue but I don't think it would stop people.

Dropping the price just to reach a lower 'price bracket' results in a DOUBLE reduction as in the new price bracket it will be at their upper limit and then they will expect to have offers accepted into the bargain.