Buyer wants to meet us

Delphblue

Hi.

We accepted an offer on our house at the end of May and things have been progressing nicely. We instructed a solicitor, filled in a huge stack of papers and pre-signed a contract. We're moving into a rented house for a little while and our buyer is a cash buyer, so we haven't had to wait for any lenders. Our buyer has had a survey done, which we believe gave our house a clean bill of health, and things are now with the buyer's solicitor who is doing searches. Our buyer put in an offer after seeing the house once, and then they came and had another look around a couple of weeks later.

We had a call from our estate agent last week to say that our buyer wants to meet us. I asked if that was usual but couldn't seem to get a straight answer from them. OH thinks they want to talk neighbours and bin days, but they're travelling quite a long way to see us and it's got me a bit worried. I've never sold a house before and have no idea whether this is usual or not. The response from the agents didn't fill me with confidence though!! Does anyone have any experience of this?

Thanks

Delph

PaulCooper

We've always met the people that we've bought from, can't think of any reason not to, when all said and done, it's one of the biggest financial transactions both parties will make in their lives.
There is so much more to purchasing a house than the forms the solicitors want filled in, I suspect your OH is right, huge amounts of detail in running a house that you (having lived there for years) take for granted.
The EA obviously doesn't want you to meet as it undermines their strength in the situation. Personally if a prospective seller wouldn't meet me, I'd be wondering why, it might not be a deal breaker, but I'd certainly look via solicitors & surveys for the things that were being concealed
Paul

bluebeary

the only reason i dint meet my buyer when selling my first house down south was because i was in glasgow, i met my buyer when i was selling my property in dumbartonshire, i dint meet my buyer when selling my property in glasgow because im stuck in inverness, but on all occassions if it were absolutely necessary i would have travelled down somehow

for the most part when buying properties, i have met sellers who were happy to be showing us round their house, its a case of either or really

franklee

Personally I'd want to meet the seller just to get first hand any information I'd be wanting to know, type of locks for insurance purposes, about the neighbours, schedule, why you are moving there's loads of details they may want to check first hand with you. If you are worried then why not ask them what questions they've got so you can look up the answers before hand given they are travelling a long way. If there was any really bad news from the survey I'd expect they'd rather pass that through the EA so suggest you don't worry and just meet them and be natural. If they seem nice you may want to swap phone numbers for when communications need a helping hand.

POPPYOSCAR

Did they not meet you when they viewed the house then?

marlot

We're meeting our buyers this week. Entirely normal!

We've not exchanged yet, so its a chance to talk about anything they might want to buy - curtains etc.

We'll suggest meeting them again just before completion and show them how everything works, introduce them to neighbours etc.

whodathunkit

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Did they not meet you when they viewed the house then?

Why would you?

PasturesNew

I've not met my seller, nor do I expect to. It'd be an awkward meeting ... I'd have no idea what I was doing there - and they'd have no idea what to say.

bmunky7

I wouldn't necessarily be against meeting the buyer but I wouldn't want to get too pally with them in case they think that gives them carte blanche to phone up for every and any query they may have after buying. But I would definitely ask what specifically they would like to do / discuss when you meet so you can be prepared. If it's to show them round boiler, where stop !!!! is etc... I wouldn't have a problem with that. And then if they start discussing the price or anything you don't feel comfortable with you can say you'd rather not talk about it and aren't prepared for those questions etc....so you'll need to think about it and get back to them.

googler

franklee wrote: »

Personally I'd want to meet the seller just to get first hand any information I'd be wanting to know, type of locks for insurance purposes, about the neighbours, schedule, why you are moving there's loads of details they may want to check first hand with you.

The former is irrelevant - they may get on great with the nieghbours, you may hate them

The latter is none of your business.

Old_Git

Delphblue wrote: »

Hi.

We accepted an offer on our house at the end of May and things have been progressing nicely. We instructed a solicitor, filled in a huge stack of papers and pre-signed a contract. We're moving into a rented house for a little while and our buyer is a cash buyer, so we haven't had to wait for any lenders. Our buyer has had a survey done, which we believe gave our house a clean bill of health, and things are now with the buyer's solicitor who is doing searches. Our buyer put in an offer after seeing the house once, and then they came and had another look around a couple of weeks later.

We had a call from our estate agent last week to say that our buyer wants to meet us. I asked if that was usual but couldn't seem to get a straight answer from them. OH thinks they want to talk neighbours and bin days, but they're travelling quite a long way to see us and it's got me a bit worried. I've never sold a house before and have no idea whether this is usual or not. The response from the agents didn't fill me with confidence though!! Does anyone have any experience of this?

Thanks

Delph

The agent needs to find out why they want to meet
It could be bins ans and how to work the heating and turn the water off ,it could be to measure up and see what they need or what are you leaving behind ,or it could be we want £5000 off the price .