Viewings - people not on the market

[Delatron]

Do you accept viewings from people who are not even on the market yet? We have had so many viewings on our house and I’m completely exhausted by the whole thing. At least 75% don’t even have their house on the market. It just seems pointless.

Is it ok to say viewings only from people who at least have their house on the market or don’t need to sell.

Last time we were buying one place refused to let us view because we weren't on the market even though we told the agent we could proceed without selling if needed. They declined because "everyone says that but no one ever does". We viewed another less fussy property the same weekend, and completed on that 9 weeks late, having gone ahead before our sale went through.

Private viewings, proceedable only

Open days/afternoons, anyone

That way you're not putting yourself out for people who are almost certainly not going to buy

We viewed a house last week that has sat on the market for four months, with no offers. Our house is going on the market this week. It’s fully renovated and we hope will sell quickly.

We made an offer on the house we viewed but apparently the agent won’t put it forward to the seller as we aren’t proceedable.

Now we’re in the position where we’re listing ours and keeping everything crossed no one else offers on the house we want in the meantime. Selling and buying is stressful.

I’ve said above. We have bought our new house!

Yes I’ve said it’s fine to piggy back any other viewings if their house is not in the market.

I would have let you view our house in this situation. If anybody says they don’t need to necessarily need to sell their house to buy ours then that is fine.

We may have bucked the trend, but a couple of years ago we viewed a house in May, made an offer (fully transparent we weren’t on the market yet and the house happened to pop up and we just knew we had to see it).

Sellers were happy for us to view (among other viewers).

Offers went to best and final, sellers ended up picking us. We moved in around September. So from viewing and no house on the market to a fully completed chain in 4 months.

Being on “the other side” I wouldn’t always discount someone who didn’t have their house on the market yet but rather their intent I guess.

We tried to sell in 2024 and almost every single viewer we had was not procedable. Some tried to make offers, which obviously we didn’t accept and told them to come back when they could proceed. And in the 9 months before we came off the market, none of them ever did.

When we tried again in 2025, we told the estate agents not to accept viewings from anyone who wasn’t already procedable. Not just on the market, but they needed to have an offer on their house. Saved us so much stress and time keeping the house in viewing condition constantly. We sold within 6 weeks, having had about six viewings. I don’t know if the estate agent worked harder because they couldn’t just shove anyone at us, or if we just got lucky.

I do think the market is really different at the moment to how it was a few years ago. Nobody seems to be in any hurry and there’s no sense of urgency.

If you’re getting plenty of viewings, then I think it’s reasonable to limit viewings to people who are t least on the market and committed to moving.

Thank you. This is helpful!

They absolutely can. When I sold I told the estate agent when to book viewings as I have a disabled child who was being upset by them and I was fed up of the constant cleaning. They accomadating that fine.

I’ve also been refused viewings on houses I wanted to buy because I didn’t have my house on the market and wasn’t a first time buyer. Was incredibly frustrating as was looking with a partner and ready to move forward when we found the correct property but it’s like the agents couldn’t understand this scenario? First time buyer, buying with monies from current house sale with current house listed or buy to let- otherwise no viewing

We lived in a very popular area in our previous house. Houses where we were rarely stayed on the market a fortnight and our estate agent had a list of people wanting a house on our street. We were on the preferred side of the street as out the back opened up to protected forest and wetland. No way would we go to market before securing somewhere to go, but we had the house ready to market.

I think it put some off our bids (we are in Scotland and it often is a closing day and sealed bid). However, we put in the first bid on a house and asked the vendors to look at the information in sales in our area we provided and take it off the market. Thankfully, they accepted our bid. We accepted a cash bid 7 days later (not the highest, but most expeditious, as we promised). The slowest part was actually our vendors waiting on theirs to sort a moving day.

Try I'm not convinced the agent even asked. They were very "computer.says no" about the whole thing.

Are you the owner of the house we want to buy?

It doesn’t need to be an open day but you can do back to back bookings. Tell your estate agent that you’ll do viewings every other Saturday from 10-1 or whatever. The estate agents can then arrange around that. If someone loves your house, wants to check it’s as good in person before selling theirs, they’ll fit to your schedule. If they are just looking at everything and getting ideas, they’ll view if it fits in with their plans.

I’m assuming your house is one that people are moving out of a 4 bed on an estate to your 4/5 bed that has a large garden/drive/countryside views/period features etc? So a step up not necessarily for size but for other nice elements of the house. If that’s the case, I think you do have to make your house available because people are only going to buy it if they fall in love and is everything they want but it doesn’t need to be available for viewings all the time.

If you're interested in any helpful decluttering help, Dana k White does gave a few books, but is on YouTube & podcasts she's vey down to earth & is focussed on making your home better, easier to live in. She is undiagnosed ADHD & 'thinks differently'. She's not all about perfection or 'organisational systens'. She's a good listen even if you think you've decluttered! 🤣' she stresses 'do dishes daily' & a 5 minute tidy - (she's not a tidy person & just puts stuff down without thinking) so does 5 minute tidy daily with whoever is home. Set a timer, just put stuff away.

you need the K or you get a body builder 🤣🤣

Why do you think you need to 'vanish' your dog? He currently lives there! I'm assuming you're not planning on leaving him when you move, so he's allowed his 'stuff' around the house too! I'd just remove any throws you have on the furniture for him, that instantly makes a house look tidier.

but yes it does mean more floor cleaning Grrr (worth it though 😍)

Thanks - yes I was thinking of trying to be more strict with the timings of viewings. Fridays and Saturdays are the best days for us so maybe insist on those.

It is a character property. We moved here from a terrace in London so a step up for us from a smaller property when the kids were younger. Though it is one where you need to fall in love with it (like I did!).

Ah this sounds good. I’m pretty sure I have undiagnosed ADHD so maybe her tips will help more than the Marie Kondo woman!!

Will check out the videos. Thank you.

I think I just read somewhere that it’s good to put away dog beds/bowls etc. it’s ok - just another thing to do before viewings. And also light lots of candles and air the house in case it smells of dog.

Though to be honest if someone loves the house I’m sure none of those things would truly put them off.

Could you do an open day?

I do think it depends on the situation. In our area larger houses are like gold dust- people with kids in the local school wanting to move to a larger house in the same small neighbourhood. Those buyers wouldn’t have their house on the market because they are not relocating but will go high in a bidding war over the large houses, so if you want the best price you would allow them to view

That’s exactly what we did. We had been thinking we would really like to move to a bungalow for a while. And then the perfect home came on the market. Great condition, perfect location etc. so we offered and put our house on the market immediately. We sold within a month, but…..the sellers then couldn’t find anything suitable, and after four months we had to pull out because they were just wasting our time. So some of those viewers may well put their property on the market having seen your house. Plus the agent usually vets viewers to see what their situation is.

When I viewed the house where I now live I wasn’t on the market. Wasn’t even thinking of moving. Saw the house advert, fell in love. Viewed it the next day (Saturday) , loved it even more. Rang up agents on Saturday afternoon to get my house valued. Had 3 valuations on the Monday and Tuesday. Signed up with an agent on Weds morning and sold the house to the first viewer on Friday.

we moved eight weeks later. So personally I would allow viewings.

I have been allowing viewings for the last 4 months from everybody and anybody. 2 families have loved it and then put their properties on the market - theirs are yet to sell. That’s why I think the market here and London is just not moving that fast.

I also feel like we’ve had a lot of time wasters and people wanting to have a nosy.

I think I’ll try and guide viewings towards Fridays and Saturdays. Try even more deluttering. Maybe not go to so much effort each time. I just can’t sustain this. We had 6 viewings last week and I’m exhausted, have an active job and walk the dog miles each day.

Thanks for the tips about how to make it easier all.

The only people we allowed a viewing from before they were on the market were a family who lived in the next road and made very clear that the only reason they would put their house on tbe market was in order to buy ours. It’s near their kids’ school and there were no other decent houses in that price bracket on the market. We did let them view and then they put theirs on. They made an offer before they were under offer, which we declined as we had a proceedable offer by then. Then our offer fell through but they still hadn’t sold. We got another proceedable offer. Eventually they got an offer on theirs, coincidentally at the same time that our then-buyers lost their buyer. They didn’t know that so offered substantially more than their previous offer and the one we had accepted, and in the end we sold to them. This process took (from their first viewing to completion) 17 months.

I do think the market is very different to how it was years ago when things were selling within a week. Hence me thinking someone whose property is not even on the market is unlikely to be able to move any time soon..

I think average time to sell is around 12 weeks and that’s the average. So many houses we are looking at 6+ months. The government haven’t really been helping things.

Last time we moved we sold our flat in London after about 3 viewings. Must have only taken a few weeks.