Strategy for selling a house - what is the best way to proceed?

Directly during the viewing? I mean, before you can make a purchase commitment, you should first study numerous documents (such as the land register excerpt, building file, etc.). Have you already provided these documents to the interested parties before the viewing? Or did they commit "blindly" (without reviewing the documents)?

Unfortunately, with good houses, you don't have the time once they hit the open market. If you want to see that, make sure to clarify it in advance. We looked at houses where there wasn't even an energy certificate yet and the agent already had offers by the time we had our appointment in the evening... for rather mediocre properties...

Were those the ones who still have the appraiser appointment pending?
And in general: How could they confirm the financing so quickly? Usually, interested parties only come to the viewing with a very rough financing confirmation, which is only prepared if there is concrete interest (and then critically examined by the bank).
What were other decision criteria? Sympathy never hurts, but it is less important in sales (compared to, for example, a rental).

The ones with the appraiser appointment pending are in second place on our list.

The couple we have currently decided on have been looking for a house for about 2 years. They had already contacted their financing advisor based on the exposé before the viewing, and he gave them the go-ahead.
Also, in general, all had already clarified their financing framework with their banks in advance.

For me, sympathy is definitely a decision criterion, especially because you will still deal with each other several times during the sales process, the handover of the house, etc.

I ultimately did a total of 5 viewings and have received 4 purchase commitments and 1 rejection so far. 2 of the commitments came within 1 hour after the viewing. One came the next day, and the other directly after the viewing while still in our living room.

How did you arrive at the asking price? You wanted to orient yourself by the agent’s appraisals and also received several tips. How you finally (successfully) determined it, however, I could no longer find in this thread.
And was your asking price also the listing price - or was the latter higher and you let yourself be talked down to the asking price?

Based on the agent’s valuations and my own price research, for example in the Finanztest issue "where buying is still attractive," there were good price tables. That's how I determined a good value for our house from my perspective.

My listing price was set so that I could offer a rent for the period from March to July as negotiation room and then reach my actual asking price. That is how it played out.

But I have to say that NONE of those who viewed it gave any impression that this concession was not enough for them. NO ONE asked for more negotiation room!

I felt that the parties also, I don't want to say fear, but rather hesitations to negotiate further because they think they might shoot themselves in the foot. There, I partly sensed desperation with 3 out of 4 parties due to the long search.

According to which criteria did you decide who gets a viewing and who doesn’t?

In my listing, I asked for contact only with the indication of contact details such as name, address, and phone number.

Furthermore, I named pictures, floor plans, and the handover date in the listing.

So inquiries like: Hello, when can I view? Best regards A. H. or Hello, please send floor plans, regards André, etc., got no further attention from me. I expect interested parties to read the ad properly.

And then there were inquiries where people briefly introduced themselves and also allowed some emotions in their requests. That was very appealing!

I basically only responded to requests that appealed to me personally, only one was a miss :D That is also the one who did not make a purchase commitment.

Directly during the viewing? I mean, before one can make a purchase commitment, one should first study numerous documents (like the land register excerpt, building file, etc.). Did you provide these documents to the interested parties before the viewing? Or did they commit "blindly" (without reviewing documents)?

EVERYONE committed without reviewing documents!

Our land register has no tricks or things I would have had to mention, so I was and still am relaxed. Of course, all parties can still back out of the purchase. Because as long as nothing is signed at the notary, it’s not yet sold.

Congratulations on this! That sounds like a win-win.

One’s joy is another’s sorrow...

It all feels right, but I also feel sorry for the others. Since I have communicated openly with everyone from the beginning, I told all about the current status. Everyone wants to wait and be contacted by me in case things don’t work out with the first couple.

That sounds very fair from you! :-) I can understand the interested parties well, at some point we stopped counting down and only "up," meaning we would still add something to the stated price. (Most of the time the answer was: nothing ;-))

That sounds very fair from you! :) I can understand the interested parties well, at some point we no longer calculated down, but only "up," meaning we would add a bit on top of the stated price. (Usually the answer was: nothing ;-))

Fairness is very, very important to me! I believe in karma and, in addition, I would find it especially bad if you happen to meet someone at the bakery and then have to be ashamed because you pulled some kind of nonsense.

We had a visit today and spoke with a real estate agent. My premise was always "we sell without an agent" because I wanted to avoid the fees for the buyer. As I learned today, both parties pay the fees in equal parts. However, the agent also had some good arguments in favor of selling through an agent. On the one hand, it was about legal certainty and liability exclusion. But he has not yet clearly explained what he means by that. I will ask him at the next appointment. Furthermore, he said he can make a more precise selection regarding the creditworthiness of buyers through his connections to banks. I was surprised by this statement (keyword data protection?), but I wonder if there might be some truth to it. Getting the sale done with as little hassle as possible would, of course, also be important to us. I consider myself sufficiently competent for photos, and I could also manage a sales text. The time and coordination effort is probably still not to be underestimated. His first impression was quite positive; he said he expects decent demand because new builds are hardly available. We will hear the exact price estimate next week. It makes a serious impression on me that he does not just give a spontaneous figure.

The notary ensures legal certainty and a disclaimer in the purchase contract. The real estate agent may know someone, yet I strongly doubt that he can make a good pre-selection because of that. Good agents can do that more based on experience.

What speaks for an agent is avoiding the effort. That can already be worth something.