Ever Had This Happen at a Real Estate Closing?

[TranquilMind]

Ha, ha.  I'm still laughing about this.

 

We are selling a house to someone and close shortly.  Buyer's agent is refusing to sit with us in the closing room when we close on the house. 

 

The only time this ever happened to us was a couple of decades ago, when the Buyer Agent was completely incompetent and I had to herd the transaction through closing, while my own agent (obtained merely to list because I was located in another city) was on a cruise.  I had to manage every part of the transaction to get it to close and through closing, including instructing the Buyer Mortgage company rep upon which forms and procedures to use.   In that case, the Buyer Agent was embarrassed and concerned that I would let the cat out of the bag if I sat in the same room with her clients, I suspect. 

Now it is happening AGAIN.  While the Agent did neglect a few things, being older and wiser, I think I was much more tactful in casually identifying what needed to be done this time. 

 

Buyer's Agent still won't sit with us or let her Buyers do so.  Heh heh. 

 

I can't imagine that, because as a Buyer, I want to hear anything and everything a Seller wishes to share with me, and I'm just a friendly person.  I like to meet and talk with people and can't imagine such an antagonistic stance.     I once learned a famous star had spent the night at the house, as he was a friend of the Seller. Stuff like that is fun. 

 

(It does occur to me briefly that perhaps the Buyer doesn't have all his funds together and Agent doesn't want me to know as they are scrambling at the last moment, but in that case, everyone would be angry that his/her time was wasted, not just me). 

 

Anyway, this  really entertained me and I wonder how common this really is out there.   We have particular expertise in real estate, but still.  Funny stuff.   Has an Agent ever refused to let his/her Buyers or Sellers sit with you? 

 

[bolt.]

We just sold-and-bought, and never formally met either the buyer of our past house, nor the seller of our new house. We bumped in to the sellers, but there weren't any meetings. I thought that was what agents were for?

[Happy]

In my state, buyers and sellers never meet. Closings are scheduled separately. All communication is through agents.

 

 

[Butter]

We closed in one state and the seller in another.

[freesia]

No, I wish,though. The last time we bought one of the sellers (in a divorce situation) sat their stoney, seething with rage. It was VERY uncomfortable. I could have done without that as I signed my name a million times (I have 4 names).

 

In Canada, buyer and seller were in separate venues.

[TranquilMind]

In my state, buyers and sellers never meet. Closings are scheduled separately. All communication is through agents.

Interesting!

Here, they are almost always simultaneous and they sit together in the same room and sign off. Funds are transferred, and verified by Seller, who then hands over keys and garage door openers to Seller. 

 

I've never encountered it any other way - except for the instance I mentioned. 

[Angie in VA]

We have always been in the room with the buyers and sellers. 

 

You know I want to know who the famous person is, don't you? Please don't torture me. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Buyers and Sellers never meet here either. The closings are sometimes in adjoining rooms at the title company, but usually they try to stagger the times.  The closings are always with agent/party/title company agent/sometimes mortgage agent

[TranquilMind]

Buyers and Sellers never meet here either. The closings are sometimes in adjoining rooms at the title company, but usually they try to stagger the times.  The closings are always with agent/party/title company agent/sometimes mortgage agent

I had no idea so many others did it like this.

I'd prefer to meet the Seller or the Buyer.   And I'm sure never handing over any access to the home until I have the cold, hard cash in hand. 

[gingersmom]

I wanted to reach and across the table and throttle the seller of a house I once bought.

 

Things like day of closing (2 hours prior) and hasn't packed up to move yet.

 

Trying to leave huge nasty dirty pieces of furniture behind. Leaving carpet stains as he dragged disgusting furniture across carpet.

 

Then he moves, unpacks, can't find stuff and tells neighbor I stole it!

[TranquilMind]

No, I wish,though. The last time we bought one of the sellers (in a divorce situation) sat their stoney, seething with rage. It was VERY uncomfortable. I could have done without that as I signed my name a million times (I have 4 names).

 

In Canada, buyer and seller were in separate venues.

Wow.  The only people I ever saw seething with rage were agents.  ;) 

 

I find most Buyers and most Sellers (though exceptions surely exist) to be quite reasonable. 

[TranquilMind]

I wanted to reach and across the table and throttle the seller of a house I once bought.

 

Things like day of closing (2 hours prior) and hasn't packed up to move yet.

 

Trying to leave huge nasty dirty pieces of furniture behind. Leaving carpet stains as he dragged disgusting furniture across carpet.

 

Then he moves, unpacks, can't find stuff and tells neighbor I stole it!

Lovely. 

 

What a jerk. 

[vonfirmath]

In my state, buyers and sellers never meet. Closings are scheduled separately. All communication is through agents.

 

This is how it worked when we bought our house. (texas) No idea if it is a state thing or not.

 

(Our seller was in a different country but he deputized someone to sign the documents for him. But the seller's agent and that person had closing at a different time. The only people there were me and my husband, my mortgage person, and my agent (husband-wife team) Oh and the closing person that was handing us all the documents to sign.

 

 

[Kalypso]

We have never met buyers or sellers. Closings have always been set at different times for us.

[Guest]

I don't recall closing at the same meeting with the buyers or sellers except one time when it was a friend who bought our place.  It was GREAT though because on the way to the closing, my dh said, "Now if we could just sell the car..."   And after closing, the friend who bought our house said, "Have you ever thought of selling your car?"  

 

:0)  

 

The previous owners of our current house completely dropped out of sight after closing.  They left the place as neat as a pin--no complaints--but I have never had anyone just completely disappear, no forwarding address or anything.  It's weird because we get letters from lawyers and so on--addressed to them--and just have to return to sender.  

 

The people who bought our house were also very unfriendly.  I had all kinds of wonderful things to tell them about that house--like where the walls were reinforced with plywood behind the wallboard, so they could set up a shop wall, and a bunch of non-obvious things like that.  Nope.  They wanted NOTHING to do with us afterward.  Very odd.  But oh well.  :0)

 

[hornblower]

We never met the people who bought our place.
We met the sellers of our house only because they were there when we had a home inspection done, & the inspection was complicated & the inspector (& we) had questions for the owners. It all worked in our favour because the sellers liked us & wanted to sell it to us so they were more willing to negotiate based on the inspection....

But actual closing was done at notary firm's office & we were the only ones there. In between realtors and notaries and lawyers, it all is done at arm's length.

[Happy]

I had no idea so many others did it like this.

I'd prefer to meet the Seller or the Buyer.   And I'm sure never handing over any access to the home until I have the cold, hard cash in hand. 

 

The keys are not handed over until all parties have signed and the loan funds. That can take a couple of hours after everyone has signed. One of my happy jobs as a buyer's agent is to get the key out of the lockbox and open up the house for the new owners. Sellers leave all other keys and openers inside the house.

[kitten18]

We have bought 4 house (sold three) in three states. We have never been to a closing with buyers/sellers, or agents.

[historically accurate]

I've only had 1 closing where the agents had us in the same room.  The seller was irate she was moving to a nursing home and when she found out who I was engaged to I got an earful of how awful his parents were.  Since she was so hateful the agents hurried her along.  I've never had such a fast closing.  Other than that (3 other houses) it was separate rooms in the title company.  

[Joanne]

This is how it worked when we bought our house. (texas) No idea if it is a state thing or not.

 

(Our seller was in a different country but he deputized someone to sign the documents for him. But the seller's agent and that person had closing at a different time. The only people there were me and my husband, my mortgage person, and my agent (husband-wife team) Oh and the closing person that was handing us all the documents to sign.

 

When xh and I bought a house in 2004, he was in the same room as the Sellers and their agents (Texas). I was in Arizona.

 

The Sellers happened to be locally well known, and while xh never had any interaction with them since, I have had several occasions of interacting with the wife - all pleasant and productive (and never about the house).

[Momof3littles]

We've had some weird ones.  One that stands out was when we had two full price offers on our home.  Our agent, who was very experienced, sat on the board of realtors, etc of course suggested taking the cash deal, full priced offer.  He did not have us run the two full priced offers against one another. So we get to closing, and the "cash" buyer does not have her money.  She needs a check from the bank, and she's mortgaging also. They ask *our* agent to drive to her bank to get the check????  Our agent remained cool but firm in the closing.  THe drive was 45 mins without traffic, and this was all happening at like 3-4 pm on a Friday.  Traffic was going to be an hour plus.  We had a 15 month old, our dog loaded in the car, and we were literally heading out of state for our move.  Finally their agent agreed to go. I  had to entertain my 15 month old outside for a looooong time.  It was insane.  They also had offered that we could give the seller a key, but "close" via fax. etc. long distance the following Monday.  Um, no.  No $$, no key!  Seriously!  Once everything closed, our agent was on the phone to the different boards, etc. filing complaints about the buyer's realtor.  He also had them waive all inspections on our home (no known problems, relatively new house) because he told them there would be an "inspection" by the town.  Well there was, but that was the type that is solely for major code violations, etc. and not a thorough inspection like you typically do.  So he kind of screwed his buyers there too.  Fortunately we knew of no issues at all with that house, but had there been some, they would have been hosed by his ridiculous advice.  That one was fun.  I learned to NEVER close on a Friday.  Ever. And not in the late afternoon on Friday for sure.

 

The cash deal with no inspection certainly had us sweating at closing!

 

Interesting on closing, as we've always been there with both parties present, other than one house where it was long distance faxes and such with the seller's agent filling in.

[TranquilMind]

The keys are not handed over until all parties have signed and the loan funds. That can take a couple of hours after everyone has signed. One of my happy jobs as a buyer's agent is to get the key out of the lockbox and open up the house for the new owners. Sellers leave all other keys and openers inside the house.

Here, because the Buyer likes to do a walkthrough immediately before closing, all keys and openers are handed over to the Buyer after funding.    No way would I leave that stuff in a house, thereby essentially handing over possession to a Buyer prior to funding.  I'd never just give the means of access to someone and trust the funds will come. 

 

People must be trusting in your neck of the woods. ;)

[bolt.]

The walk through we did as buyers was with the agent present. We could no more have taken the keys/etc at that point than we could have stolen their belongings during viewings/inspection. (Which is to say, we *could* have done so, but it would have been a crime, and, we were being supervised.)

[bzymom]

Yes.  I mentioned before about some nutty stuff with our last house sale.  Buyer started demanding more mulch hours before settlement. :confused1:   

When all was said and done, we closed in two rooms but that was d/h's choice.  He was afraid he would lose his, by then, precarious grip on himself if they mentioned one.more.thing during closing.

 

Sounds like this has been a less than delightful experience.  Hope it wraps up quickly and without more nonsense!

 

 

[Happy]

Here, because the Buyer likes to do a walkthrough immediately before closing, all keys and openers are handed over to the Buyer after funding.    No way would I leave that stuff in a house, thereby essentially handing over possession to a Buyer prior to funding.  I'd never just give the means of access to someone and trust the funds will come. 

 

People must be trusting in your neck of the woods. ;)

 

No, no, no...no funds, no keys. I open the lockbox for the front door key AFTER funding. All other keys are left on the kitchen counter usually.

 

Buyers do walk throughs here, too...but they don't get keys until after signing and funding.

 

[Liz CA]

We just sold-and-bought, and never formally met either the buyer of our past house, nor the seller of our new house. We bumped in to the sellers, but there weren't any meetings. I thought that was what agents were for?

 

Same here. We never knew from the agent who bought our house. We always found out by word of mouth but never met them face to face. Here in CA, real estate agent seem to go out of their way to preserve privacy and avoid seller/buyer meetings.

[maize]

In my state, buyers and sellers never meet. Closings are scheduled separately. All communication is through agents.

This has been our experience as well.

[Um_2_4]

Never met and keys were transferred via agents. Closing was in our living room for us. (mobile notary)

[Grover]

Never met people we've bought from / sold to.  Standard practice here seems to be keys are with the lawyer or agent, who hands them over once all funds have cleared. 

[Slartibartfast]

In my state, buyers and sellers never meet. Closings are scheduled separately. All communication is through agents.

We never met the people who sold us our house.

 

That was just how it is in that state.

[HSmomof2]

Buyers and Sellers never meet here either. The closings are sometimes in adjoining rooms at the title company, but usually they try to stagger the times. The closings are always with agent/party/title company agent/sometimes mortgage agent

It's like this here, too. We've never met buyers or sellers in our real estate transactions.

[nukeswife]

Never had everyone in the same room either. We just bought a house in TN. Our closing was at 10 am on Thurs at our RE attorney's office. The sellers closing was supposed to be wed evening, but they didn't make it back to town in time, so it was at 1pm the day we closed, but at their attorney's office. The only other person at our closing was our agent, who is now our backyard neighbor.

[QueenCat]

Never had everyone in the same room either. We just bought a house in TN. Our closing was at 10 am on Thurs at our RE attorney's office. The sellers closing was supposed to be wed evening, but they didn't make it back to town in time, so it was at 1pm the day we closed, but at their attorney's office. The only other person at our closing was our agent, who is now our backyard neighbor.

 

That must be specific to your area in TN but it's definitely not TN law. We're in TN, and the sellers were in the room with us.

[happypamama]

We never met the sellers of this house, nor of our first house; the first house was a foreclosure, and the people were long gone, and with this house, the agent was handling everything because the people had been transferred and had moved to a new state. But their agent was very nice; we did meet him at the inspection. I don't think he was at the closing though; I believe it was just our agent and the lawyer. With our first house, our agent was the listing agent, so it was just her and the mortgage guy. We never met the buyer of that house, because we had already moved by then, and our agent handled it for us. The guy who sold us our second house was really nice; he was selling it for his deceased mother, and he lived around the he corner, and he came by a couple of times to see how we were settling in. I think his agent was at the closing, as was ours, and we all sat around a big table together. Very friendly.

 

When we sold that house, we met the buyers a couple of times, and it seemed friendly, but then the closing was hugely difficult because their financing was tricky. It was right before everything crashed, and I wonder if they had a shady deal. We were fine in the end but it was very unpleasant and very stressful.

[shawthorne44]

I've bought two houses and both times it was mainly me and a stranger from the closing company, with the real estate agent coming in at some point.  

[TechWife]

The only time we didn't have the seller at the closing was when the seller was the construction company. Their realtor was on vacation so the seller signed all of the papers before their realtor left town. Other than that, buyers & sellers meet at the closing - this is when the keys are passed off after the seller witnesses all of the signatures and sees the check! 

 

 

[amyco]

We've only closed on one house purchase, never sold a home, and in that instance we were in the same room with the sellers and agents.  No issues.  It's good to know there's probably a choice about that if the next time something is wrong!

[Cinder]

We have bought 4 house (sold three) in three states. We have never been to a closing with buyers/sellers, or agents.

 

Same here--bought in 4 states, sold in 3. Closing for buyer and seller were at different times and we might bump into each other on the way in/out but no actual meeting or sitting in the same room.

[TranquilMind]

I don't recall closing at the same meeting with the buyers or sellers except one time when it was a friend who bought our place.  It was GREAT though because on the way to the closing, my dh said, "Now if we could just sell the car..."   And after closing, the friend who bought our house said, "Have you ever thought of selling your car?"  

 

:0)  

 

The previous owners of our current house completely dropped out of sight after closing.  They left the place as neat as a pin--no complaints--but I have never had anyone just completely disappear, no forwarding address or anything.  It's weird because we get letters from lawyers and so on--addressed to them--and just have to return to sender.  

 

The people who bought our house were also very unfriendly.  I had all kinds of wonderful things to tell them about that house--like where the walls were reinforced with plywood behind the wallboard, so they could set up a shop wall, and a bunch of non-obvious things like that.  Nope.  They wanted NOTHING to do with us afterward.  Very odd.  But oh well.  :0)

Wow, how perfect is that, that you sold the car too?

 

I don't understand why people would be unfriendly.  We were ignored by the Buyer's Agent but greeted by the Buyers themselves.  I still see it as primarily an agent problem, in my own personal experience. 

[AK_Mom4]

When we bought our house in Colorado, we had Crazy Seller Lady across the table from us ranting because she had to split the money at closing with her ex-husband.  For over an hour, she ranted while the rest of us signed papers as fast as possible to escape from there.  No surprise - she left a huge mess behind that we spent 3 days cleaning out.

 

When we sold the Colorado house, we did it all over fax because we were out of state.  Very easy!

 

When we bought our house here, we closed a few days before the seller.  She was a very nice older lady who fed our kids ice cream while we looked at the house the first time. DH even went over before closing and finished some of the "gotta-have" repairs when the seller's son flaked out on getting them done in time.  Everything was very simple as both parties had experienced agents who had it all together and smoothed out the bumps in the road.

[mamajag]

No, but I got cussed out and accused of trying to screw the seller over when we bought this place. The paperwork was done and the seller came to closing without disclosing they were almost $2k in arrears on property taxes. They had already signed paperwork that said any discovered arrears would be kept by the bank to pay the taxes. Since we already had the keys, they couldn't damage the house, but they did come take the porch swing before we moved in.

 

Stupid idiots forgot we'd agreed to hold their supersized handcrafted dining table for them until their new house closed. I got my swing back before they got their dining table back.

 

Yes, we changed all the locks. A few weeks after we moved in seller showed up drunk at 2 am and was screaming about us changing the locks. Apparently he'd found a key.

 

DH is related to this man and the property was a steal or it wouldn't have been worth the headache.

[TranquilMind]

When we bought our house in Colorado, we had Crazy Seller Lady across the table from us ranting because she had to split the money at closing with her ex-husband.  For over an hour, she ranted while the rest of us signed papers as fast as possible to escape from there.  No surprise - she left a huge mess behind that we spent 3 days cleaning out.

 

When we sold the Colorado house, we did it all over fax because we were out of state.  Very easy!

 

When we bought our house here, we closed a few days before the seller.  She was a very nice older lady who fed our kids ice cream while we looked at the house the first time. DH even went over before closing and finished some of the "gotta-have" repairs when the seller's son flaked out on getting them done in time.  Everything was very simple as both parties had experienced agents who had it all together and smoothed out the bumps in the road.

I'm glad that worked out for you with the older seller.

I find that the deals that include agents are much more difficult and contentious than my many FSBO sales, where we just work things out like reasonable people.

 

I can count the number of competent and socially adept real estate agents I have met in 20 years here on fewer than the fingers of one hand. 

[TranquilMind]

No, but I got cussed out and accused of trying to screw the seller over when we bought this place. The paperwork was done and the seller came to closing without disclosing they were almost $2k in arrears on property taxes. They had already signed paperwork that said any discovered arrears would be kept by the bank to pay the taxes. Since we already had the keys, they couldn't damage the house, but they did come take the porch swing before we moved in.

 

Stupid idiots forgot we'd agreed to hold their supersized handcrafted dining table for them until their new house closed. I got my swing back before they got their dining table back.

 

Yes, we changed all the locks. A few weeks after we moved in seller showed up drunk at 2 am and was screaming about us changing the locks. Apparently he'd found a key.

 

DH is related to this man and the property was a steal or it wouldn't have been worth the headache.

Your story illustrates a well-known landlord saying: NEVER do business with family or friends.   It's true with sales of real estate as well. 

[justamouse]

That is so weird. 

Even if for some unforeseen circumstance I couldn't be there, our agents and lawyers would! 

We've bought and sold 3 times, and all times everyone was at table. Sellers, agents, and lawyers, though this last time the seller WAS a lawyer and he such a jerk that he left his lawyer to represent him. 

 

[KidsHappen]

That must be specific to your area in TN but it's definitely not TN law. We're in TN, and the sellers were in the room with us.

We bought in TN as well and we never met the seller. The only people at closing were us and the title company people. Our agent wasn't even there. It was just the same in FL and we sold our FL house from here. 

 

ETA: My brother bought a house in TX and my dd bought a house in GA and neither of them had the sellers present either. 

[Mona100]

I had my agent, the seller, the seller's agent, the lawyer, the lawyer's assistant, and the mortgage lady. We had a full table. The seller was a super nice lady who had just recently gotten married and they bought a house together. She was super excited that she didn't have to pay on two mortgages anymore.

[LostSurprise]

Just us and the title guy. I think the sellers were in earlier. We also rented the house to them for 4 days so they could close on their new house and move in that time. That didn't work out as well for us. They broke 2 included appliances and then left on Saturday instead of Sunday (and wanted the money back for that day but we weren't even in town to get the message...we were moving too!)

 

The only exchange where I remember sellers and buyers together was when my parents sold a house we moved from a year earlier. They buyers re-negotiated the deal at the table or they were walking away. That still stings my dad, I think. If he could afford it he would have let them walk. 

[The Girls' Mom]

We've bought and sold houses in TN, MN, and TX and have never closed in the same room as the Buyer or Seller. That seems like it could be uncomfortable?

[Mom in High Heels]

I used to sell real estate, and I only ever had one closing where the buyer and seller weren't in the same room.  The seller was a complete ass, and furious with the buyer for reasons that make no sense.  The seller was mad because the buyer wouldn't pay more than the list price (um, what?) and asked that the security system, which the buyer didn't want, be disconnected rather than take over the contract.  The seller had to pay a $100 disconnection fee.  I was the seller's agent, BTW, and almost dropped him as a client, because he would call me every.freaking.day. to gripe and moan for an hour or two.  After a few weeks of this, I usually just put the phone down while I read a book and made the occasional "uh-huh" sounds.  

[FaithManor]

At our last closing, we didn't meet the buyer or their agent. We went into closing alone, signed our stuff and left. They came in a couple of hours later. It was all handled by the title insurance company. But, Michigan is, well, relaxed in that regard. When we closed on the house we bought in Oregon, it was quite the affair, and the developer, the contractor, our agent, and their agent were all in the room with the title insurance agent directing everything. I thought it would NEVER be over, ever! Four hours or something. ARGH!