A moan about waste of time viewings

[VintageFashion]

Just that really. House has been on the market 2 months. It’s well maintained, tastefully decorated (I know this is subjective) in a reasonably desirable area, priced more or less in line with similar properties in the area. I thought it would be an easy sell.
At the start we had a glut of viewings, then it’s tailed off to an average of 1-2 a week. We’ve had maybe 15 so far. None of these have resulted in an offer.
We’re busy working parents with a pet, so the house doesn’t stay show ready for long.
Each viewing (or set of viewings if they get several people in at once) requires hours of cleaning, tidying, mowing the lawn and weeding etc.
There are also all the logistics - make sure pet and child are out, commute to the office or rearrange Teams calls to accommodate the viewings. I keep missing my evening classes because there are viewings the next day and we need to clean.
I don’t mind doing all of this to accommodate people who are serious buyers, but it’s all starting to feel like a waste of time.

So far we’ve had the following:

No shows - cancelling (not rescheduling) an hour or 2 before the viewing, by which time we’ve already done the aforementioned cleaning/jugging of logistics. Or not even bothering to cancel, just not turning up and ignoring all calls and messages.

They like the house but are not even remotely proceedable - house not on the market and won’t be any time soon as still doing renovations etc

Don’t want the house because of things that are obvious from the listing or if they’d done some basic research eg doesn’t like the location (why view then), doesn’t like that there’s XYZ nearby (quick look at Google maps shows everything in the area), doesn’t like the hedge etc

Unrealistic expectations for budget - bedrooms too small (both are doubles with plenty of space for standing furniture), not enough parking, not enough space for large vehicles (there’s space for 2 cars, it’s a 2 bed terrace).

People who say they love the house, they’ll “discuss figures” with their other half, then disappear.

People who aren’t even the prospective buyer but are viewing it on behalf of their sibling/parent/son/daughter etc. Then never hear from them again.

This week has tipped me over the edge. Work is extremely busy and we’ve done the whole cleaning/rescheduling routine to accommodate a viewer who doesn’t like the house because it’s too similar to their current house and they want to upsize. Why are you viewing a 2 bed terrace then!!

I need a lie down and a drink I think.

So a proceedable buyer is one who has accepted an offer on their place (or who has separate finance)?

If I was putting an offer in, I would expect the sellers to have taken a lot of steps on the road to buying their next place.

I wouldn’t want them to start viewing only when they had accepted my offer.

So how does that all square off?

When we sold years ago we found out our estate agent was just bringing random people around so it looked like they were doing their job. People would request viewings on a completely different house with different requirements and they’d end up getting forced to view ours. We know this happened because friends of our fed back.

I sold last year and it almost took two years for the whole process from start to finish so I really do sympathise!

One viewer’s feedback was that it “needed an extension” but they didn’t seem to grasp that if the property were larger, with more bedrooms and had indeed been extended, it’d have been out of their budget. Some people truly are so frustrating.

We have a relative staying with us whilst their house purchase goes through and it’s been dragging on for four months now. Relative is a complete cash buyer and is frightened of chasing up. Doesn’t realise they’re in the power position at all! The people they are buying from are definitely stalling. I assume they want to complete over the summer holidays because the process started in March but they took 7 weeks to complete property info and fixtures and fittings. We’ve been asking for one last (simple) enquiry to be answered for over a month now. They keep saying they’ve sent the document needed but they haven’t. Still waiting for a search back and answers to their enquiries on the forward chain. I think they are withholding the final document because they know we will be on at them about exchange and completion and it doesn’t suit them yet. Frustrating because we told EA at start of June that relative wanted to complete by the end of June and EA insisted vendors did too. Clearly a load of rubbish.

OP I feel your pain, we put our house on the market in August 2019 and had all the same rubbish as you. Also have kids and dogs so had to get them out the way, hoover and clean everytime for them to say I don't want this town or it's too close to the main road, both can be seen on the listing! Then we finally sold and were due to move but hit lock down. I vowed never again to move house. The system is totally broken and needs a massive overhaul. Its far too stressful

Would those who found the specific feedback (eg too close to the road) annoying have preferred “I just didn’t like it” as feedback?

It's difficult. It took me almost 18 months and countless viewings to sell my house. The I rented with a friend for a while before buying again - and that took almost 2 years and over 90 viewings! I was being fussy (definitely didn't want to move again) but I wasn't time-wasting and did a lot of research before viewing. Photos can be misleading and you need to go round the house to be sure. It's a huge decision to make. Better to have lots of viewings than accept an offer and have them pull out later on.

Things like ‘it’s on a main road‘ can be seen on a map but sometimes it’s only by visiting that property and seeing the specifics that you can get a sense of things like how easy it would be to get in and out of the drive/park on the road, the traffic noise, the volume of traffic etc. And that runs true for other things. Agents photos really can be unhelpfully flattering, floor plans aren’t the be all and end all of how big rooms feel when you’re in them (how will furniture fit with the wall space etc).

And as Sheila says, sometimes on paper it’s all great and then they just don’t like your house and want to offer a reason they think less offensive. It doesn’t mean necessarily they weren’t serious and informed viewers.

House selling is a hideous process and viewings and feedback suck; most of us have been there. Our house has over 50 viewings before it sold and we had the same range of hard to hear feedback. A fair number of people viewing your property will be people who think it’s ’worth a look, just in case ‘x’ doesn’t matter’. It’s what Kirsty and Phil encourage us to do after all.

When myself and my ex p sold our house i had already moved out and he was still living there. I took the same approach as you and was convinced the house needed to be clean and tidy for every viewing. He disagreed and refused to keep tidying for viewings. It caused me to feel frustrated, but it turned out he was right. People can see beyond superficial mess and people make decisions on houses based on location / size/ layout / decor and NOT the number of toys and books left lying around or the amount of dust on the book shelves

Painful as it may feel, there is no need to feel you need to make the place 'show home' like for viewers. I know when I have viewed properties I'm so busy thinking about the key things that I wouldn't notice if it was messy

I think I was really lucky. I put my house on the market on 4th January. My estate agent did the viewings and he suggested an open house day if it didn't sell quickly.

The first weekend he organised three viewings in the morning. I vacated with the dogs. The very first people who walked through the door put in an 'offer' for the full asking price and they were first time buyers. We moved out in March.

I understand about cleaning though. I had two estate agents to view, then the photos being done, then getting it ready for prospective buyers. After four intensive tidying ups I was bored of it!!

I know how you feel. Spend ages tidying/cleaning and then people cancel or not really in a position to buy. When we were selling, estate agents asked me to show someone round (as I was at home that day) and it turned out the viewer was someone who had lived in the house 20 years ago and just wanted to see how it had changed! Surely they could have seen that by looking at the photos online.

OP, I have felt your exact pain. Big garden (almost 2 acres) that took about 4 hours to sort every time, house the same, dog, dog clobber, kids etc. We sold at the end of last year after 2 separate occasions of being on the market. We had asked the EA to only accept viewers who had a house on the market or no house to sell, which definitely helped, but the sheer volume of out of area buyers who came to see the house and then commented that 'it was too far', or 'our children don't want to live that far away' or I don't like the county the house is in' was unreal. We had the usual 'we wanted it to be old looking on the outside but ultra modern inside', but couldn't understand that they'd have to pay another £200k for that house. We had many who liked it but not at that price (don't we all!).
The EAs did a good job of narrowing down the viewers and then they did all first viewings and I did the second viewings, but only after realising that their second viewings were about 20 minutes.....it was a big house and garden and I just didn't trust that they could spend enough time showing people around.
The first second viewing that I did took 1 hr 30 and it sold. No clue whether it was serendipity or the personal touch, with lots of time, but it worked.
Good luck OP.

Unfortunately this is frequently the norm. The agent should be showing buyers around and if they don’t show you haven’t stayed in for nothing.
I’ve noticed 2 things have changed in the many years I’ve been buying and selling houses.

1. details often tell buyers to closely study the contents of the listing, in particular the floor plan and room sizes.
2. some agents will only show proceedable buyers around properties - this cuts out the tyre kickers.

my recommendation would be to talk to your agent (or change them). Good luck it’s a strange old market at present

The other thing to consider is that for various reasons, many viewers give zero feedback or make it bland/refer to something about the house you can't change rather than being honest.

I once gave feedback on a house we viewed that had a maintenance or repair job that needed doing in every room, including bare wires where the landing light switch should have been! When we viewed the wife showed us round while her husband sat on the sofa in the living room and didn't engage. He had inherited the house. It was patently obvious he didn't want to move. I let the EA know that and was thanked for it as they had had no one else say anything other than it wasn't for them.

It’s so annoying OP. When we sold a few years ago, we were downsizing, we had a very large 5 bed house and it was an effort to get it viewing ready, so the last thing I wanted was someone viewing just to be nosy, that was completely unable to proceed with the purchase. I told the EA, no viewings unless someone is already SSTC or cash buyer. Made life a lot easier, we found a buyer ok.

This puts me off the whole moving process. Plan to list ours next spring. Will say to estate agent that we only want serious buyers who have offers on their homes or cash buyers. Also thinking of moving in with my mum for the initial influx of viewers So the house remains tidy.

I had this when I sold my favourite house and my least favourite one.

With my favourite one it was too small (it was a 2 bed) and the stairs were too steep, Brexit meant it was too expensive, the bathroom was too big, there was only one.

With my lease favourite one it was only a 3 bed and they were looking for 4, the kitchen was too small, the garden was too small, their house was better, their house wasn't on the market so they were just looking, they could buy bigger in a less desirable area.

Tell your EA you only want proceedable buyers.

This is appalling! However we've also come across some incompetent architects in our time. Getting permission for work on listed buildings is difficult enough anyway, even if it is simply up-to-date repairs. We always found that a good surveyor from the area is far more likely to be successful in getting permission for work like this.

Tell your EA you only want proceedable buyers.

@user1471538283 I asked above, but no one has answered so far - if you are a buyer, would you put an offer in on a house if you found out the sellers hadn’t done any viewings yet (because all of their potential houses only wanted viewings from proceedable buyers)? Or would you think that they weren’t that serious about selling if they hadn’t even viewed anything?

I would wonder if they planned to actually live somewhere else after the sale, whilst they were looking. Many people do this now, either renting, living in a second home or staying with friends or relatives. Then they can go in as a more appealing buyer with a large deposit and any necessary finance. This avoids the hassle of a chain running in both directions. You do have additional removal/storage costs but IMO this is a small price to pay for a simpler transaction, usually with less risk of it falling through. The completion on our current home was actually three months after completion on our previous house, and we lived elsewhere. Obviously it would be much harder to do this if you are moving area and have school aged children.
The other things to say are that it can take many months for a sale to go through, even without a long chain. Your seller might have time to find somewhere and buy during this time. And you can exchange with a long completion date, giving them the time to buy, this gives you the security of contracted sale (as well as making you a proceedable buyer with a definite completion date) and gives them longer to look.
I once accepted an offer and exchanged with two months to completion, and during that time managed to find a property for myself and two others for my children (I was downsizing so that they could leave home).

Many people do this now, either renting, living in a second home or staying with friends or relatives.

I think the renting option will become more and more constrained - landlords preferring longer leases. And I wouldn’t have thought all that many people have relatives who can put 2-4 people up indefinitely… or have second homes.

Yeah this is our dilemma too. We’ve already lost out on a house that we put an offer on because it was taking too long to sell ours and the vendors needed to move quick. They put it back on the market and it’s already sold. So I don’t want that happening again, so wouldn’t be doing any viewings or putting in offers until we have a buyer. I’m thinking we might move into a rental actually, we have friends and relatives who let out places so hopefully we can find somewhere, then we can take our time looking at places to buy.

AirB&B is also an option, my DS and family did this for three months at the start of a large renovation, they put most of their possessions into one big, sealed room and stayed very close to DGCs school during termtime, moving between a relative's second home and family during the school holidays. It wasn't cheap but they had a serviced flat with parking and could walk to their home to check on the renovation.

I think Airbnb for a renovation - where it is more or less a known timeframe before the house is habitable - is different to an open ended stay in one whilst you house hunt. Plus I don’t know the rules exactly, but there may be a point in a lengthy holiday home rental where the let becomes a short hold tenancy by default.

I agree, though you can move between AirB&B's if necessary as my son did. The holiday home option would work best out of season if you were renting (unless you had a definite, shorter timescale) though I was thinking more of people who had friends and relatives with second homes or static caravans.

The "least worst" option would be to exchange with a long completion, provided your buyer was not in a desperate rush.

As someone who had to do short lets for a while during an international move, with children, I cannot tell you how miserable and stressful it was. You have very few personal possessions, you have limited choice if you’re trying to stick close to schools, you’re worrying about your deposit and your kids, you may not be able to take your pets (and where do they go then?), you can’t ‘settle’ and you have zero housing security. Doing that for an indefinite period of time would be very testing (for me - maybe I’m a wimp). We bought our current house while renting and it took seven months to go through from when we found it, and a previous sale fell through right before exchange, so despite finding both properties fairly quickly in the first instance it was over a year before we could move in.