Are Estate agents open on Sundays? – The Truth

Why are Saturdays important for estate agents?

Everybody’s Off – Apart from them

Simply put – estate agents get most of their viewings at the weekend on Saturdays. It’s a time when most people are off and have a chance to view the property they’ve had their eye on for some time.

It’s true that in a hot housing market (where homes can come and go within the day) that you need to get your viewing in as soon as possible. Sometimes the weekend can’t wait.

But many people will struggle to find the time to arrange viewings for homes in the normal working week, despite the pressure mentioned above.

Dividing time

For the estate agents having the majority of viewings on a Saturday can also work better for them.

The Reason Why

The challenge for many businesses is having their staff working on two very different activities at once:

1. Viewings
   One part of their role is to facilitate the viewings. This is a very hands on role that requires staff to meet people in person (on time if lucky!), to show them around the properties and to convince them of the selling points.
   
   They also have to think on their feet – especially when the potential buyers uncover a broken window or water damage behind the sink.
   
   Homes can be far away from one another, so having to travel between them takes time out of the employee’s day.
   
2. Sales
   The other part of the agent’s role is to find sales leads. No one is going to view the properties if there aren’t any sales booked in. This task is mainly office based and requires a LOT of phone calls/ follow up emails. Usually the agent is running through their customer database calling people systematically.

The challenge with having the agent do both of these roles each day is this – they are completely different setups. When humans focus on too many tasks with different skillsets, the quality of work normally ends up dipping. And having an agent spend time travelling in the car for most of the day to different homes with few bookings means less time on the phone and less contact with buyers.

Scheduling Viewings

It is much more economical for an agent to schedule a number of back to back viewings at one property instead of single viewings around town.

Because of this agents normally try to save viewings for popular properties on Saturday and have wave of appointments built into the day for buyers.

For properties that are priced at a big discount to the market price some estate agents will deliberately push Friday viewings into Saturday. This creates the feeling amongst buyers on Saturday that they have competition with others. Buyers don’t like seeing crowds of other buyers and the end result is that the agent can usually get asking prices higher for their client.

Should I see the property on Saturday or Sunday?

It is almost certain that your agent will be doing viewings on Saturdays. As we’ve just described above, it is ideal for busy couples who can’t find time in the week.

Most estate agents are closed on Sundays. Despite less of the UK following religious practices in recent years compared to 20 years ago, it is still common for people to not take sales calls on Sunday. If no one picks up the phone then there is no point paying an employee to make calls.

Another reason for not opening on Sunday is that it can be difficult to get agreement from home owners to allow viewings in their home on this day. In general – most people want to have a break from the property market on Sundays.

What about the smaller agents? Do they work differently?

Like anything, there are always exceptions.

Larger estate agencies will normally have a significant portion of people off at the weekend.

In fact some buyers will not go for weekend viewings because these can be staffed by junior colleagues at the agency (because senior colleagues have Saturdays off). Nothing can be more frustrating for a buyer when the representative tells them “I need to check that detail” for the most basic facts about a home.

There are smaller estate agents – and we mean really small – some are run by a single person. For these businesses every sale and potential lead matters. This means that they do usually find themselves doing some kind of work at weekends. This can be as little as scanning through emails at home or as much as driving many miles away to facilitate viewings on a Sunday afternoon.

If most estate agents don’t work on Sunday should I still be searching?

What about bank holidays?

If opening at the weekends is against the norm for estate agents, you might think that opening on bank holidays is almost unheard of.

However bank holidays are one of the most popular days for viewing new homes! It’s a simple truth that for many prospective buyers spending the day roaming around houses can be very satisfying. British people love to be nosey.

Bank holidays are usually on weekdays – which gets around the Sunday issue that we previously discussed.

There is a catch to this – whilst the bank holidays in the Summer months are great for viewing appointments (like the two that fall in May) – there are some bank holidays that are totally off limits. To name a few – Christmas day, Boxing day, and New Year’s day.

Best practices for viewing homes on Sunday

If you find you are able to get a viewing in for Sunday it’s best to follow these tips:

• Avoid having lengthy or loud conversations with your viewing partner or the estate agent in the home. This can be done outside after.
• Be mindful that at least some of the residents might be in the house, so it may not be as tidy as a weekday viewing.
• Don’t force conversation with the owners if they do not engage with you. It is their day off too and they may have had other ideas for the day instead of allowing strangers into their home.
• Use the viewing as an opportunity to decide if you want to give it more consideration. Now is not the time to be checking water pressure and the hollowness of walls when people may be in.
• Golden rule – remember you are a guest in someone’s home.