The Six-Hour Window That Decides Most Instructions

What the research found

In July 2026, Acaboom published analysis of 123,010 market appraisal proposals sent by UK estate agents during the first six months of the year. The central finding was straightforward: 35.9 percent of proposals were delivered more than six working hours after the valuation appointment took place.

Of those late proposals, 18.2 percent took more than two working days to arrive. Nearly 4,800 proposals, representing 3.9 percent of the total, were not sent until five or more working days after the appointment. By that point, most sellers will have already decided which agent to instruct.

The study covered agents across every region of England, Wales and Scotland, making it one of the largest analyses of post-valuation behaviour in the UK market to date.

Why six hours is the threshold

The six-hour benchmark is not arbitrary. Acaboom's previous research established that proposals sent within six working hours of a valuation appointment are 73 percent more likely to convert into an instruction than those sent more than 24 hours later.

The mechanism behind the threshold is decision timing. A seller who has just had a valuation is in an active evaluation mode. The visit is recent, the agent is memorable, and the proposal is expected. An agent who delivers quickly arrives while that evaluation is still open. One who delays arrives after the seller has begun to form a view based on whoever responded first.

The regional picture

The research identified meaningful differences in response time across the UK. The North West recorded the fastest median turnaround at 2 hours and 41 minutes. The West Midlands and East of England performed similarly, at 2 hours 49 minutes and 2 hours 55 minutes respectively.

London agents took a median of 4 hours and 2 minutes, placing them in the slower half of the regional table despite operating in the highest-value market. Scotland recorded the slowest turnaround at 5 hours and 21 minutes, nearly twice the time of the fastest region.

Even the fastest regional median sits within the six-hour window, which means speed alone does not guarantee conversion. What matters is whether the proposal arrives before the seller's evaluation closes, not simply whether it arrives quickly relative to other agents in the same postcode.

What sellers do after the appointment

Separate Acaboom research from May 2026 offers useful context for why proposal timing carries so much weight. Analysis of anonymised interactions with their AI Concierge tool found that sellers continue comparing agents and questioning proposals long after the valuation appointment ends.

More than half of the interactions analysed related to pricing, fees, marketing strategy or contractual terms. Sellers were asking how valuations had been calculated, whether asking prices were realistic, and how confident agents were in achieving the figures they had recommended.

This pattern confirms what the proposal timing data implies. The appointment itself is not the decision point. It opens a window during which sellers gather, compare and process information. The agents whose proposals arrive earliest are present at the most active stage of that process.

The gap that remains

The proposal timing research measures what happens after an agent has already attended a valuation. It does not address what happens before. The valuation appointment is itself downstream of an earlier decision: which seller enquiries were worth responding to quickly, which deserved a valuation booking, and which were likely to result in an instruction at all.

An agent can send every post-valuation proposal within six hours and still be competing for sellers who were never likely to instruct. The timing advantage is real, but it operates within a funnel that most agencies have not yet examined at the earlier stage.

The data from H1 2026 shows that one in three agencies are losing ground at the proposal stage. The question the next wave of research will need to address is how many are losing ground before the valuation appointment is even booked.