Why Do Homebuyers and Sellers Rarely Meet in Person?

It is rare for buyers and sellers to meet in person before exchange of contacts or completion.

The simple reason for this is that things can go wrong, and can go wrong quickly!

Most estate agents prefer to avoid face-to-face meetings between the buyer and seller because there’s a chance that the buyer might make a comment that the seller doesn’t agree - think religious or political! - that could completely scupper the entire deal…!

However, an in-person meeting can sometimes hold huge advantages, such as helping to cement the relationship between buyer and seller!

Pros for Homebuyers

Looking After The Home

Selling a home - especially a family home - can be a very emotional time and experience.

It could be where your baby first learned to walk or talk…

It could be where you’d dreamt of living for a number of years…

It could be where you have lived with your partner for over 10 years…

Many sellers want to be assured that the new homeowners will look after the home.

For homebuyers, having an in-person meeting is an opportunity to convince the homesellers that you’re the perfect homebuyers for their current home.

When a face-to-face meeting goes well, it is incredibly effective at building a bond between the buyer(s) and seller(s).

Questions

There is a large possibility that you have a few questions about the home and the neighbourhood in general...

For example:

  • What it is like to live there?

  • What are the neighbours like?

  • Are there are cafes and restaurants that they’d recommend?

Asking these in person can also help to build a genuine connection with a homeseller, as it shows them that you’re serious about buying their home!


“The homebuyers could drop into conversation that they’d ideally remodel the home, which might annoy the sellers if they’ve spent loads of time and money over the past few years decorating and renovating the home to their taste.”


Cons for Homebuyers

Potential Issues

When sellers become more comfortable with you, they might let information slip, such as parking being difficult in the evenings, or neighbours being unusually quiet!

It is worth listening to subtle clues that homesellers give you if and when you meet in person, as this can help you work out if going ahead with the purchase workd for you or not.

Miscommunications

The biggest issue with meeting the homesellers is that there’s a strong chance that something might be misunderstood in conversation, or that there are large religious or political disagreements, which puts the homebuyer completely off selling the property to you.

The homebuyers could drop into conversation that they’d ideally remodel the home, which might annoy the sellers if they’ve spent loads of time and money over the past few years decorating and renovating the home to their taste.

Pros for Home Sellers

Confidence

As a homeseller, you need to have confidence that the buyer is able to proceed…

Of course, this will be done by the estate agent, when they receive proof of funds from the potential homebuyer…

However, meeting the potential homebuyer in person can most definitely help you as a seller, in terms of trusting them when you meet them.

As previously mentioned, emotions play a large part in buying and selling a home and meeting any potential homebuyer can help to get rid of any fears.

Help Negotiations

When selling a home, negotiations can carry on for a long time…

They can become frustrating…

You can easily become annoyed with the other party - in this case, the home buyers!

An in-person meeting can help to clear up any misunderstandings between both the buyer and seller and can also help each side to see the other’s viewpoint.

Cons for Home Sellers

Focus On The Home

An in-person meeting such as this can often be informal, which is great, as it allows the buyers and sellers to get to know each other more and come to an agreement...

However, it’s really important to stick to talking about the home as much as possible and to avoid talking about controversial topics that are currently in the news, as tempting as it might be, because it may annoy the potential buyer!

You Might Not Like The Buyers

You might want to put a face to the buyers (which is very common!) but you may well dislike the buyers after meeting them.

This can cause SO many issues moving forwards and is one of the main reasons why it is possibly, at times, best to keep the home selling process as a business transaction, instead of a more emotional one - where possible!

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