As any estate agent will know, the first offer on a property is not necessarily the best. But new research reveals just how much vendors could be leaving on the table by accepting too quickly.
Analysis from Alto found that where homes attracted multiple offers, the eventual agreed price was typically £6,000 higher than the first offer received.
And where four or more buyers entered the bidding, that gap increased to £10,000.
The estate agency CRM analysed 905,265 offers made on 294,582 homes between September 2025 and August 2026.
It found that 54.8% of sellers ultimately accepted an offer higher than the first one received.
The typical property attracted two offers, while 69% received interest from more than one prospective buyer.
However, the figures also highlight the risk of sellers holding out for an offer that may never arrive.
Almost a third of properties – 31% – received just one offer. A single offer was also less likely to result in a deal, with 69% accepted compared with 78% where sellers had multiple offers.
Nearly a quarter – 24.6% – of properties receiving an offer failed to reach an agreed sale at all.
Seven viewings to secure a sale
Alto also examined how much work agents typically undertake before securing a buyer.
Across 307,582 sales agreed during the period, properties required a median of seven completed viewings before an offer was accepted.
It took around seven weeks from the first viewing to agreeing a sale.
More than a third of transactions – 34% – required over ten viewings. Just 6.4% of sales were agreed following a single viewing.
The number also increased with property value.
Homes priced below £150,000 required a median five viewings. That rose to nine for properties priced between £650,000 and £1m.
Agents typically needed to book nine appointments to achieve seven completed viewings because of cancellations and no-shows.
Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson, CEO of Alto, said: “The first offer is almost never the best one, and now we can put a number on what that’s worth. Across nearly a million offers, the one that gets accepted sits at £6,000 above the first one a seller was shown, and £10,000 where four or more buyers are bidding.
“That isn’t a reason to hold out forever. A third of sellers only ever get one offer, and the longer a home sits on the market, the weaker that offer tends to look.
“It’s a reason to get the price right on day one, because that’s what gets a second buyer through the door. Seven viewings and seven weeks is roughly what it takes. If you’re a fortnight in with nothing in the diary, that’s the conversation to have with your agent, rather than the one about cutting the price in month three.”
The analysis covers homes marketed for sale through Alto between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026. Rental properties were excluded.
