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Can a house buyer ring a seller directly?

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  • 06-08-2020 6:13pm
    #1
    Alrigghtythen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,365 ✭✭✭


    Is there any legislation or law that would stop a house buyer calling a house seller directly to have an informal chat about the sale?


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    #2
    joeguevara
    Registered Users Posts: 7,995 ✭✭✭joeguevara


    Alrigghtythen wrote: »
    Is there any legislation or law that would stop a house buyer calling a house seller directly to have an informal chat about the sale?

    The ‘how the fcuck did you get my phone number’ Act of 1972.


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    #3
    Samuel T. Cogley
    Registered Users Posts: 10,684 ✭✭✭✭Samuel T. Cogley


    It's a free country as they say.


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    #4
    Alrigghtythen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,365 ✭✭✭Alrigghtythen


    joeguevara wrote: »
    The ‘how the fcuck did you get my phone number’ Act of 1972.
    Good one. If both had solicitors that where talking to each other would it make a difference?


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    #5
    joeguevara
    Registered Users Posts: 7,995 ✭✭✭joeguevara


    Alrigghtythen wrote: »
    Good one. If both had solicitors that where talking to each other would it make a difference?

    There is nothing to stop it. Sometimes it can work. Sometimes it will do more harm than good.


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    #6
    Samuel T. Cogley
    Registered Users Posts: 10,684 ✭✭✭✭Samuel T. Cogley


    Almost 'Door-Stepped' my vendors during the sale of my house. All's well that ends well as we ended up getting the house but there were shenanigans going on in the background we didn't know about.


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    #7
    Baybay
    Registered Users Posts: 1,034 ✭✭✭Baybay


    When we were selling our house, we paid the agent to do all that was necessary to secure a sale. We were obviously happy to answer her questions as they arose, if we hadn’t already covered a buyer’s query & it meant she had further knowledge to provide to other buyers but would have taken a dim view of being contacted directly.


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    #8
    nuac
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,769 Mod ✭✭✭✭nuac


    most solicitors and estate agents advise against that. Crossed wires can cause shocks or worse


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    #9
    ganmo
    Registered Users Posts: 7,748 ✭✭✭ganmo


    I know of one situation where the estate agent was cut out of the deal.


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    #10
    whippet
    Registered Users Posts: 7,668 ✭✭✭whippet


    I bypassed the EA during the sale process as I was suspicious.. spoke to the vendor who confirmed my suspicions and eventually bought the house.

    It was during the down turn of 2011 and there was very little movement in the market. The EA used our offer as a base to get a friend in at the 11th hour to chip our final offer.

    The vendor didn’t take too kindly and refused to sell to the EA mate


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    #11
    machiavellianme
    Registered Users Posts: 12,400 ✭✭✭✭machiavellianme


    Yet you'll have EAs on here saying that would never happen because EAs are fine reputable folk who would never risk losing their livelihood over a single commission.
    Per the OP, I can't see how there's anything illegal about a vendor and a buyer having any sort of interaction provided both parties are happy to.


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    #12
    maestroamado
    Registered Users Posts: 4,426 ✭✭✭maestroamado


    If the sale goes ahead and ok everyone happy.
    If the sale goes ahead and someone left out of loop Court.
    If no sale you have just told everyone your dodgy character.
    I seen it happen more than once.
    Personally i would not do...
    You possibly get someone else to call if you think something very dodgy.
    I did this buy i was not the buyer, looking for info as i have place next to property sold.


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    #13
    Darc19
    Registered Users Posts: 3,817 ✭✭✭Darc19


    Why do people think that there should be a law for every little thing?

    Comes up almost daily.


    If people thought logically they'd worry less.


    In the op case, it might piss off an estate agent or a solicitor (these two professions absolutely hate strangers suggesting that they are not doing a good job and can cause you plenty of aggravation) but absolutely no legal impediment.


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    #14
    maestroamado
    Registered Users Posts: 4,426 ✭✭✭maestroamado


    Darc19 wrote: »
    Why do people think that there should be a law for every little thing?

    Comes up almost daily.


    If people thought logically they'd worry less.


    In the op case, it might piss off an estate agent or a solicitor (these two professions absolutely hate strangers suggesting that they are not doing a good job and can cause you plenty of aggravation) but absolutely no legal impediment.




    That's interesting post as i did not read the OP post correctly as i never thought of the law in my reply.
    I was just thinking of what i would do.


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    #15
    jarvis
    Registered Users Posts: 1,497 ✭✭✭jarvis


    I was selling a house in 2003 and also purchasing a new one. Went to look at a house that my selling ea was also selling. He said he can’t accompany me to view the house I was looking at as he was showing my house to another client. My wife suggested it sounded dodgy. She suspected it was him and his wife looking at out house.

    Two days later he called to see us and told us it was him looking at our house. He offer asking price (which he had set) and no fees for him. Did the usual spiel about not being worth his reputation to try pull a fast one and to get an independent valuation if we wanted.
    He was able to do us a very good deal on the house we looked at and we sold him ours. It wasn’t very very dodgy but he probably could have gotten a little more from someone else for the house we bought from him if he’d tried harder. Maybe he wouldn’t have but I could see how it would be very easy for an EA to manipulate things if they wanted to.


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    #16
    maestroamado
    Registered Users Posts: 4,426 ✭✭✭maestroamado


    jarvis wrote: »
    I was selling a house in 2003 and also purchasing a new one. Went to look at a house that my selling ea was also selling. He said he can’t accompany me to view the house I was looking at as he was showing my house to another client. My wife suggested it sounded dodgy. She suspected it was him and his wife looking at out house.

    Two days later he called to see us and told us it was him looking at our house. He offer asking price (which he had set) and no fees for him. Did the usual spiel about not being worth his reputation to try pull a fast one and to get an independent valuation if we wanted.
    He was able to do us a very good deal on the house we looked at and we sold him ours. It wasn’t very very dodgy but he probably could have gotten a little more from someone else for the house we bought from him if he’d tried harder. Maybe he wouldn’t have but I could see how it would be very easy for an EA to manipulate things if they wanted to.




    Personally i think its very dodgy but if your happy all ok...


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    #17
    whippet
    Registered Users Posts: 7,668 ✭✭✭whippet


    in my case - we had been the only bidder on a house for about 3 months (market was on the floor- and the house was great value) ... eventually the EA said if we offered another 5k the vendor would agree to sale. So we did and amazingly as soon as we did another bidder arrived out of nowhere offering 5k more and wanted house off the market immediately.

    EA called me with the bad news on a friday evening saying house was sale agreed and deposit paid. Its a small community and over the weekend a family friend told me that he heard that a close friend of the EA had just put an offer for the house.

    It was obvious that we were just the bait to see what the real floor was for the vendors and the EA's mate was going to get it at a bargain.

    I called in to the vendor and they were disgusted - firstly they hadn't accepted any offer and were due to speak with the EA on the monday. So 9am monday morning they called the EA - told them to accept our offer, take the house off the market and proceed with closing the sale.

    I have no idea if the vendor ever did anything about the behavior of the EA but I know that if I didn't take the chance and knock on that door we would have missed out on the house. Plus its a small community and word spreads very quick - the EA has taken a bit of reputation knock


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    #18
    chooseusername
    Registered Users Posts: 3,588 ✭✭✭chooseusername


    I sold a house in the U.K.through an online estate agent.
    They did the marketing and arranged viewing times, I did all the showing.
    A few asked for my number to arrange 2nd viewing etc.
    I had no problem with that, in fact the eventual buyer phoned and asked
    for measurements of windows and other stuff,and didn't even have a second
    viewing.
    Only drawback was not recognising the tyre-kickers and nosy parkers
    that had no intention of buying.


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    #19
    angel eyes 2012
    Registered Users Posts: 896 ✭✭✭angel eyes 2012


    ganmo wrote: »
    I know of one situation where the estate agent was cut out of the deal.

    It makes you wonder if Estate Agents are really necessary in the sale of your bog-standard Semi D. Similar to years ago when everyone booked their holidays through a travel agent. I know the stakes are a lot higher but these days with vendors more educated and informed, reform in digital services, and public bodies in general providing a user centric approach, it may be only a matter of time.


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    #20
    maestroamado
    Registered Users Posts: 4,426 ✭✭✭maestroamado


    angel eyes 2012 wrote: »
    It makes you wonder if Estate Agents are really necessary in the sale of your bog-standard Semi D. Similar to years ago when everyone booked their holidays through a travel agent. I know the stakes are a lot higher but these days with vendors more educated and informed, reform in digital services, and public bodies in general providing a user centric approach, it may be only a matter of time.


    I think if you get reliable agent better inside as they seem to know that specialize in different areas, what i mean is they may have someone on their books who looking for what you selling.
    Most only charge about 1% these days for sellers and going as a buyer probably lass than 0.5% so as well be in there


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