Meet the Vendors

Samuel T. Cogley

Just a quick one.

When purchasing in the UK (inc NI) it's fairly common in my experience to meet the vendors. I must have viewed in excess of 50 houses over a period of three years when we were looking and the closest I got to meeting a vendor was someone rushing out into the car and driving away.

Once we had our offer in we did end up meeting our vendors, only because of a myriad of issues with title; but at the viewing stage never.

Not really making any point here, other than it seemed an interesting point of discussion.

little bess

Yes, when I bought my first home in the U.K. the owner occupiers were almost always at home or showed us around with the estate agent. And when we sold we were often at home too.

We've been looking in here in Dublin and have never met an owner. Seems like such a different system, the estate agents wanting complete control maybe? There were no bidding wars when I bought in the U.K. either, but that was 18 years ago, maybe things have changed?? Was all very civilised and friendly!

Samuel T. Cogley

My in-laws have a couple of offers in on their's in the UK, but nothing compared to the literal wars that go in here. Then again it's Cheshire rather than Dublin.

Father-in-law suggested that it might be due to a more litigious attitude in Ireland - don't really agree but maybe there has been a case of someone saying something they shouldn't have?

Wesser

Just received a sales notice with my address on it and the vendors name and address on it. IApparently it was also sent to the vendor. Am shocked that my name and address has been revealed to the vendor!!! Is this normal??!! Could they not look me up.online now? I feel somehow vulnerable that thus information has been revealed to them!
I am the buyer but there are major problems with the property so i might have tp pull out.

Parchment

Wesser wrote: »

Just received a sales notice with my address on it and the vendors name and address on it. IApparently it was also sent to the vendor. Am shocked that my name and address has been revealed to the vendor!!! Is this normal??!! Could they not look me up.online now? I feel somehow vulnerable that thus information has been revealed to them!
I am the buyer but there are major problems with the property so i might have tp pull out.

Thats the norm from what i can see - we also received that.

Thestones

Wesser wrote: »

Just received a sales notice with my address on it and the vendors name and address on it. IApparently it was also sent to the vendor. Am shocked that my name and address has been revealed to the vendor!!! Is this normal??!! Could they not look me up.online now? I feel somehow vulnerable that thus information has been revealed to them!
I am the buyer but there are major problems with the property so i might have tp pull out.

Yes it's normal! What did you think you'd remain annoymnous for the whole process?

whippet

You will be entering in to a legal contract with them to buy a large asset ... of course they will need to know who you are

Lumen

Only rich people get to stay anonymous.

Senecio

When my wife an I bought I first house back in Australia in 2002 I got a call from the vendor about 7 days before we were due to settle and exchange keys. The process in AU is quite different to here so at this point everything was in order and it really was just a rubber stamp exercise.

They invited us over for lunch on the Sunday so they could show us around our new house. They were a lovely older couple of empty nesters that were downsizing and moving closer to their children's families for the grand kids. It was nice to spend time with them, they'd built this house to their own exacting specifications and wanted to make sure that we got the most out of everything they had put into it. It was quite funny as Stan the husband took me aside and showed all of the "man" things (irrigation system for the gardens, the water mains, fuse box, gas cylinders and the excess garden tools that he would leave in the shed for me. While his wife Pam took my wife and showed her the sewing room and how to use all of the kitchen appliances. It was a nice afternoon, much like a passing of the baton from one owner to the next.

I would have like to have done something similar when we sold it on but alas we had emigrated to Ireland a couple of years earlier so everything was done remotely.

L1011

Most houses I viewed the vendors were an estate or landlords selling out - but I'd say most owner occupied properties I've ever viewed have had the vendors there.

Treepole

The more control of the information flow that the Estate Agent has the better it is for them.

Sesame

So true Treepole. Estate agents don't want you talking to the vendors in case you contradict any lies told.

We spoke to the vendors. The sale was dragging on and getting nowhere, so found out who was selling and met in a pub one day. We had a very reasonable chat and both declared what we wanted to happen and when and came to agreement.
It also saved time on endless solicitor letters back and forth.
Probably saved the sale, in fact as we were getting very restless. It turned out the vendors were too.

When you have a chain of estate agents and solicitors between two parties, it can be a case of Chinese whispers. The message evolves to suit that messenger.

I can see why it might not be a good idea if things get personal but in our case it worked well and the vendor ended up calling over to remove his stuff at his own pace. and showed us how to operate things too at the same time.

Thoie

I've just started selling my place for the first time. I asked the estate agent about being there for viewings, and he suggested not to be (and also to remove any valuables while viewings were happening !).

Besides the control thing, you don't want the buyers contacting you directly 12 months down the line complaining that a bulb has gone or something. Apparently there have been cases where something like a central heating boiler has stopped working after some time, and the buyers started calling the vendor looking for money towards it, which sounds extraordinary.

Irish people can be a bit too friendly, and are quite likely to hand over their phone numbers, or say "sure drop in any time" and things like that, so it's probably better to have them clear out. I know if someone asked me for my number while I'd know the correct response would be to tell them call the estate agent, I'd feel awkward about refusing.

Thestones

Thoie wrote: »

I've just started selling my place for the first time. I asked the estate agent about being there for viewings, and he suggested not to be (and also to remove any valuables while viewings were happening !).

Besides the control thing, you don't want the buyers contacting you directly 12 months down the line complaining that a bulb has gone or something. Apparently there have been cases where something like a central heating boiler has stopped working after some time, and the buyers started calling the vendor looking for money towards it, which sounds extraordinary.

Irish people can be a bit too friendly, and are quite likely to hand over their phone numbers, or say "sure drop in any time" and things like that, so it's probably better to have them clear out. I know if someone asked me for my number while I'd know the correct response would be to tell them call the estate agent, I'd feel awkward about refusing.

Yeah we did meet our buyers (before they were the buyers) they were outside our house when it was for sale looking at it, we exchanged numbers but I said I'd get estate agent to call them. As it turns out it was a mistake for her to have my number as we did have a few issues where I was contacted about a few things after the sale, I was polite about it but it's their house now kind of thing! Also sent me a friend request on facebook, weird right?! (It was a legal transaction, we aren't friends!!)

Parchment

Thoie wrote: »

I've just started selling my place for the first time. I asked the estate agent about being there for viewings, and he suggested not to be (and also to remove any valuables while viewings were happening !).

Funny you mentioned that - once when we were viewing a house that was still occupied ( the family were not there at the time) and personal belongings were all over the place i actually wondered were things ever stolen at viewings!

Peregrinus

Parchment wrote: »

Funny you mentioned that - once when we were viewing a house that was still occupied ( the family were not there at the time) and personal belongings were all over the place i actually wondered were things ever stolen at viewings!

Yes, is the short answer. This is a regular problem when houses are open for viewing.

newacc2015

IMO it is not the norm in Ireland, as estate agents probably can't trust their clients not to say something that can damage the potential price of the property. I think other nationalities like Americans are superior at selling. Whereas Irish people focus on the negatives. Often you can't give a compliment to an Irish person without the response being negative eg I love the tiles in your hall. Instead of someone saying thank you, an Irish person will likely go on about how much work it was to put them down, they noticed they are cracking now, they are impossible to keep clean etc. If you get an Irish tenant to show another tenant around a property, they will likely go on about the negatives rather than the positives.

I think putting a potential buyer in front of the seller is too high risk, so it just isnt done. Plus Irish people to a certain extent want to be anonymous in the house sale process. I have never seen another country where serious horrific low value houses are POA.

Thoie

Thestones wrote: »

Yeah we did meet our buyers (before they were the buyers) they were outside our house when it was for sale looking at it, we exchanged numbers but I said I'd get estate agent to call them. As it turns out it was a mistake for her to have my number as we did have a few issues where I was contacted about a few things after the sale, I was polite about it but it's their house now kind of thing! Also sent me a friend request on facebook, weird right?! (It was a legal transaction, we aren't friends!!)

Yup, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm thinking about. I have a folder with all the warranties and instruction manuals for things like the dishwasher, immersion timer etc that I'll leave behind for the new owners. There's one weird thing not noted in the instruction manuals which is if there's a power cut, one timer resets itself to a factory default timing that most people wouldn't want, and how to change that isn't obvious, so I'll hand write how to do that and leave it in the folder. With all that information, there's no reason why anyone would need to contact me afterwards.

Lumen

I managed to persuade the sellers of our current house to meet after we'd exchanged contracts. They'd owned the house since it was built in the 1980s, and we got a full tour, history if the house and their family, cups of tea and cake, lists of the local contractors they'd used, the lot. It was brilliant! I feel a real connection to the history of the place now. But.....I have no contact details for them. There were a few occasions where I would have wanted to pick up the phone and it's good that I couldn't. Not their problem any more.

athtrasna

Mod note

Let's not get sidetracked please