Many house viewers have no intention of buying your home: they're just snooping

Selling your home? Disappointed when a viewing comes to nothing, when there's not even any feedback or a hint of interest? Or perhaps the viewers are super keen and enthusiastic about your home – only to be never heard of again. Or perhaps your home has had tons of online interest but barely a viewing at all?

Well, there might be a rather unexpected answer to that conundrum. Apparently, many more of us browse through online property listings than are actually intending to move home – and some even go so far as viewing properties with absolutely no plans to up sticks. 

According to a recent poll of 2,234 Britons by Hillarys, 64 per cent of us check property listings at least once a month, but only 13 per cent of us are actually looking to move. When asked why they browsed properties with no intention of buying, the top motives were revealed as follows:

• Er, we're just a bit nosey: 88 per cent of respondents admitted to looking up a property online after seeing a 'for sale' sign erected outside it; 
• Actually, we're really nosey: 11 per cent confessed that they then contacted the estate agent for further details about the property;
• Sorry, we're very, very nosey: 6 per cent have gone as far as booking a viewing of a property we had no intention of buying.

And while we'd like to think that much of this time-wasting is about research, we have to admit (on the Realhomes.com team) to have fallen foul of this kind of behaviour ourselves. Our advice? Ask (and ask again) for your estate agent to weed out the time wasters. That said, it's a buyer's market at the moment, so letting as many people view your home as possible, whatever their motives, isn't a terrible option.

• Find out more about what to do when presenting your home for sale
• Viewing houses or flats? Find out what to look for when viewing a property for sale