No viewings

[Ellena646]

Hi, we have been on the market for four weeks and not had one viewing. The agent just keeps repeating "It's August, very quiet" on a loop, although we are now in September. Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same thing. Not sure if it's the agent, the market, the price... Never been on the market and had zero viewings in the first month before...

Unless it's a really unique house I'd also agree it's probably price. Yes the market can go quiet and slow but people who are proceedable and wanting to buy will book a viewing as soon as they see something they want on rightmove.

Not necessarily so. If the market has stalled there may be multiple buyers watching your property but have not yet sold themselves. I had my eye on the house I have offered on for over a month, so the price it was listed at was irrelevant to me.

Have you asked a friend to ring the EA and see what response they get to a request for a viewing?

When we bought we found EAs variable in how responsive they'd be. And several extremely inflexible about accommodating viewings. Some of that could have been seller request but realistically, if you need two incomes to get a mortgage, the seller needs to be able to accommodate viewings at times that fit around work.

I sold a previous house in a very slow market with a committed EA who was happy to do viewings between 8am and 6pm any day of the week so people could view before or after work if they were local, or easily travel if not. I'd find it far easier to arrange to view a house and go into work a little late or leave early than have to book a half day off.

No, not looking to buy but would certainly see it as a positive thing if house prices were in line with incomes and affordable to working people.

Not sure what you mean by negative. If you mean that I think that if a house isn't selling for months and certainly if it isn't even being viewed, it will be the price on the great majority of occasions, then I agree with that statement. It seems that the great majority of posters do too if you read from the start of this thread- multiple comments citing price. Those that disagree, such as yourself, still mention price as a motivating factor eg wanting to buy prior to the SDLT reduction ending so to suggest that 'price is irrelevant' just isn't true.
As I've already said, if the market is suddenly 'stagnant', it is because of affordability issues, which are directly related to price. Whether you or anyone else likes it, there are constant reductions at present. I've even seen some new builds reduced two or even three times because they know that this will lead to a sale. Developers don't do this unless they are really desperate and getting no interest. This won't be due to a few negative posters on Mumsnet.

So if you aren’t buying I take it you are sitting on your asset but think that other sellers should take a hit on theirs? Not all sellers can afford to take a hit as it could leave them in negative equity so affordability works both ways.

And as for the other posters comments, no seller would come on here and say prices should drop! It will definitely be buyers which is probably most posters on this thread as why would they be on here otherwise?

Before I listed my property for sale I also came on social media to see what the general consensus was and to be honest I was going to list my house at a lower price after reading all the negative comments on here! Just as well I didn’t as I could have lost thousands of pounds. So social media does influence general people who are not in the property business. Hence me posting now as I do think scaremongering online isn’t helping when no one on here has a clue as to what will happen!

The market has stalled as labour just got in and is threatening to make changes to the property market so people are holding off and also waiting to see if interest rates will drop.

All I am saying is if you don’t need to sell, instead of taking a hit just wait until spring as no one wants to lose money, buyers nor sellers!

I will take your comments with a pinch of salt anyway as it strikes me as strange that someone would post so many times on a property post when they have no vested interest in the property market themselves.

Out of interest, why are you posting on a property post if you aren’t buying or selling?

FTB's and people trading up do benefit from falling prices. People who don't benefit are those trading down or estate beneficiaries.

I move periodically and have one or two moves left. I want prices to fall partly for my own benefit should I wish to trade up, but also for the benefit of my children and their children. We were able to buy homes at 3 or 4 times income (in the South). It doesn't matter that rates were sometimes 15% given that the prices were so low! I'd like to see housing become more affordable for all of our youngsters. They don't need to be waiting until they are 35 or 40. They need to be buying at 25 and procreating for benefit of the country!

I don't think you have understood the points I was making @Susanap.

People are free to list their properties whenever they like. There is always a small seasonal bounce in the earlier part of the year but I think it would be naive to suppose that the market will suddenly reignite in Spring. In fact, if you follow property stats etc (someone else linked to Christopher Watkins show earlier), the 2023 stats were worse, long before Labour got in. The problem is one of affordability. A seller who wants to sell will indeed drop their price, as evidenced by the many thousands who are doing exactly that across the country.
I totally agree with @XVGN that lower property prices would be far better for the UK and other economies for many reasons.

Well I’m sure most first time buyers would like to live in the south but there are plenty of houses available for first time buyers in other areas at very affordable prices. My first purchase was certainly not in the south even when I purchased my first home!! Although there are affordable areas in the south for first time buyers available if you are not looking for a 4 bed detached!
I have children also and am looking into helping them get on the property ladder at a younger age with money from the proceeds of my sale! And they have also been saving for their deposit.
They will be looking at flats for under £100,000 or a small mid terrace for under £150,000. Yes they do exist in the south! And their mortgage will be a lot less than rent! Then as a first time buyer you hope to make some money from your first house and move up the ladder. Which I am sure it is what you did at a younger age.
It doesn’t help that labour are hitting them by increasing the stamp duty in April! Lots of landlords will be selling up their second homes which are more affordable properties, this would be an ideal time for first time buyers to snap them up but an increase in stamp duty won’t help! You can’t blame sellers for the state we’re in who are also struggling to pay their mortgages and dreading taking a hit on the sale off their home in case it leaves them in negative equity. Not all sellers are boomers sitting on million pound properties!!

And you have clearly chosen to ignore every comment I have made and avoided answering the direct questions I made to you 🙄

No, I won't be answering your rather aggressive questions and attempts to make this into a personal matter. As I already said, many sellers have and are continuing to accept the need to reduce their price in order to sell. You only need to visit Rightmove briefly to see evidence of this. This is regardless of your wishes and has nothing to do with anyone's attempts at influence on social media, including your own.

@Susanap that's a personal attack and not okay, regardless of whether you disagree with my opinions or feel upset by them. It appears that many others also disagree that price is irrelevant (see start of the thread).
The fact is that Mumsnet is open to all, even people who are not mothers.

This sounds very frustrating for you. Number of bedrooms is a serious error as people put this in their searches so you may have lost out on some potential matches. I would fire this agent as soon as the contract ends, check the small print you need to give notice, and only give the next agent 4 weeks at a time. Languishing on Rightmove and sales portals has become the new lazy norm for agents, but not bothering to proactively contact you is rubbish. I'd go back on this Spring, with an agent who has good trust pilot reviews, or is recommended by friends. Good luck with it.

As a parent I agree. The rest of the country will become like parts of London if we are not careful, with only very wealthy people affording their own homes, and everyone else having to rent from them.

UPDATE: I lowered the price by 10 % and got one viewing that same week – newlyweds in rented, and the first viewing in many weeks since going on the market – they didn't offer, and now it's gone back to being very quiet.

I've just sold my mums house.
On the market for a week 12 viewings and 10 offers (three at asking price).
My mums house needed total refurbished and I was shocked at the price the estate agent put it on the market for (30 000 higher than I expected) so it's definitely unusual for no viewings.

If you want honest opinions about how your property is presented and whether it may or may not be overpriced for the area then post a Rightmove link. Be brave. I did this almost 15 years ago just to get honest, brutal feedback so it isn't like I am asking you to do something I didn't.

So post a link to your property.

That is great, so glad you have sold. Would you mind if I ask what part of the country you are in? Fine if you'd rather not say. I just know that some friends are experiencing a very active market in Bristol and parts of London and some in Surrey and Norfolk are saying it's dead! Or maybe it's the individual houses again, it's a mystery TBH!

I really wish that we lived in a world where that was a good idea, but I have had some horrible inbox messages over the past few years from some thread users (and some messages removed from posters on this site) from people who are not pleasant. This has not been the case so far on this thread, everyone has been very helpful. Again, I really wish we did not live in this kind of world, but we do, and as a woman I think it's not a great idea to encourage any woman to post her address online to strangers, as lovely as you all seem on here...

@Ellena646 I am sorry that has happened to you. In the 15 plus years I have been on here I have never had an unpleasant message sent directly to me but I can imagine how unsettling it is. I am a regular name changer though so for something like posting my house I name changed and only had that name for that one post. Worth a thought in the future and it is incredibly easy to name change and change it back to what it was as it becomes "yours" so no one else can use it. In the old days you could and some hilarity ensued but that was when this site was much, much smaller.

I was honestly just trying to help in case there was something glaring to us that might not be glaring to you about the way your property is presented.

Thank you, and I do believe you were trying to help. It's a good idea to change name for that one post – I had no idea you could do that! I had quite a rough ride during one relationship based thread where I think some quite angry men had taken to the debate (and my inbox) and I guess based on that I am now quite anxious about online stuff. I do love this forum though, and overall have had very good experiences, like the one on this thread!

Experiencing the same thing too trying to sell our house in London and it's incredibly frustrating. Have been trying to sell on and off for the last year and a half and still no joy. We've had about 8 viewings for each 3 month period we are on the market, 2 second viewings but no offers other than one very low ball offer (nearly £200k under our asking price and £150k less than we ourselves paid for the property 5 years ago before doing a ton of work to it!). In our area you could buy an average sized 2 bed flat for the price they offered and ours is a large 3 bed house! We've dropped the house price in that time too to just slightly over what we paid for it originally, which is gutting as we've spent a fortune on doing it up and so we are already in huge amounts of negative equity. Our house is by far the best value of any locally in our price bracket (the biggest, one of the best specs and the cheapest for the size and spec) and everyone who has viewed has said how much they loved it. Admittedly we have a couple of location issues which have put people off, but these are very much factored into the price. I think it's just a terrible market at the moment with so few buyers and the ones that are looking tend to not be in a desperate rush to move or are (understandably) incredibly cautious due to mortgage rates and the general economic climate. We've also had our fair share of time wasters who it turns out were just viewing lots of different houses to get a "feel for the market". I don't agree with the sentiment that its always the price. Yes, if I dropped the price to £2.50 I'm sure someone would snap it up, so in that sense it's true. But I can't afford to sell at that price as I won't be able to buy something else my self. I think there's an element of buyers being unrealistic in their expectations in this current market as they're expecting something for nothing. People are also holding off moving if they can so the buyer and seller pool is limited. There isn't as much on the market so both buyers and sellers are needing to compromise. Rant over!

Sorry you still haven’t sold your house, it must be frustrating.

It’s surprising to me that you reduced the price by 10% but still very little interest.

I don’t normally encourage people to post the Rightmove link as I know I would be reluctant to do so myself as people can be overly negative. However, in this case I think it might be useful as it seems there is something putting buyers off and we may be able to see it more clearly than you.

Exactly the point I was trying to make but I was censored and my post was deleted! Wow! Problem with buyers waiting is they may be in for disappointment as after a lot of research online the general consensus is that the market will level out after the budget in October and by spring it will pick up again. This mixed with the increase of stamp duty in March. Hence my reasoning for me buying now as I don’t want to get stung with higher house prices and higher stamp duty in spring.