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For the OP. Imagine you did meet them and turns out they are rude and obnoxious.. Now all your daydreaming of how they lived in the house goes up in smoke.
and the buyer wanted to meet Maybe you missed that part. I didn't say I want to meet the buyer its if they wanted to meet with me. There are no negotiations. Last house I sold the buyer tried waiting till his last day of his 17 days to strong arm me into dropping 10k because he felt the roof needed to be replaced ( it didn't) but he wanted 10k off. I waived bye bye and still have the house as a rental today.
Yes, I did miss that part...sorry. I guess if a buyer asked to meet with me, I'd have to accommodate, but I would be very leery.
That said, I fully intend to leave all warranty information and any other info I think will be helpful to the buyers....AFTER the closing.
My view of a house is that it is a living, breathing thing. Every house has its nuances. I always felt that I wanted to pass along those things to the incoming buyer....keep the gutter in back clean; the neighbors have a great garden and love to share; the garbage man come at 7:15; here's schematic of where things are planted in the flower beds; we used so and so to mow our lawn if you should care.
By and large, people don't care. In my opinion this is to their disadvantage. You pass on the house at closing, but you don't have an opportunity to pass on the 'living' aspects. Everyone today 'knows better' than you.
Folks don't care. They like to learn the hard way. Don't clean the snow off the front stoop roof, fall on your a$$ on the black ice on the stairs, and learn the hard way.
Having said that, I always handle the purchase and sale as business. Formal. Documented. Always address the hard things specifically and without emotion.
So, meeting the buyers/sellers just doesn't seem to matter much. Buyer who bought our last house "loved" the gardens and our details about what was where and how the blooming sequence kept color all season long. She has yet, in two years, to lift a finger to even pull a weed. We wasted our time, and apparently hers, in trying to be a decent seller.
OP.....just move along and enjoy your new home. People are peculiar, and sometimes it is best to not force the issue of meeting. It could go well, or it could shatter your dream of your new homes history.
I guess I'll chime in even though there are 4 pages of responses now.
My house is currently under contract. Fortunately we went under contract pretty quickly (much more quickly than I would have expected) but we did have a number of showings. Prior to listing the house, I did pretty extensive reading about selling, staging, all that. All advice STRONGLY advises sellers not to be present for showings. I would extend this even to second and third showings, and any visits after a contract is signed. You just want the buyer to be able to look around comfortably, without your presence, and to be able to imagine the house as their own. We also didn't want to be present at the inspection, for our sake and the sake of the buyer (although our realtor was there.)
Around here, buyers and sellers do sit down together at closing, but it's typical for that to be the only meeting. I guess if I were a buyer of a previously-occupied house, I would be curious about the sellers... no doubt I'd google their names, and make assumptions based on the belongings in the house. But that impulse actually drives home one reason why it could be a bad idea to meet (emotions and all that aside.) You're buying the house not the sellers, but meeting the sellers could, conceivably, alter your view of the house, the negotiations, how much you think they can afford to concede, etc.. I know I "looked up" our buyer and my immediate response was, "I don't want this guy living in my house!" It also made me question how stretched financially he may be in buying our house. These are all things I really shouldn't be thinking about.
Never met the seller of my home. She was in NJ and I was in FL at the time. I did find her on Facebook after the fact so I got to see what she looked like. I never messaged her though. I decided to let sleeping dogs lie. At the time, it seemed pretty normal to me to not have met her.
In my 13 years, buyers and sellers have met probably less than 10 times. It's not the best idea. Sellers think they sold for too little. Buyers think they're paying too much and should have tried for a better deal. Emotions are high. You said they have lived there since the 70's so they might be too emotionally tied to the house to want to know who is going to "take it" from them.
Yup, few people have their emotions in check.
The buyer could reach out to them through his/her agent. Mature people, rare in some parts of the USA nowadays, should be willing to do it. A walk through from the previous owner would be nice.
If you want to reach out, you can send a card with the message of how you appreciate the home etc? That way it's at least something on your part. As a seller, I would be touched to get a card. Okay I will admit it's a bit odd but I would be touched nonetheless.
Ok, picture this. You're selling your house and the buyers want to meet. You guys actually become friends and hang out because you're both living in the same general area (no one moved out of city or state)... then a few months goes by and your new friend says her AC went out and questions you about it. When did you service it last? Did you ever have issues?
Another few months or a year later and the dishwasher breaks... and then the water heater goes out...
You're never going to be free of the house if you get to know the other party, and they might attack you or blame you for anything that happens months and years later. Do you want that stress? As I sell houses, and a client tells me their AC went out, I feel bad thinking there's something I could have done, but the inspection was fine. As the agent, I get asked things like this all the time, I don't want to be asked these things as the previous owner!!
for the same reason you shouldn't give money to family members, or sell your used vehicle to a family member and then have it blow a transmission or something... it will just create undo tension. Good point.
for the same reason you shouldn't give money to family members, or sell your used vehicle to a family member and then have it blow a transmission or something... it will just create undo tension. Good point.
Yes... but, almost every home sold here has a home warranty to deflect these type of issues...
Agents will often pay for it just to minimize problems... at least here.
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