Buyer is now contacting me directly!

[HuckleberryGin]

We are on the cusp of exchange. We are a 3 house chain- we're in middle. Our buyers are FTBs who are ready to go, and desperate to exchange today (they've stupidly handed in notice on their rental property already). We also want to exchange today to complete next Friday, but we are awaiting some enquiries from vendors. I am already beyond stressed and frustrated. Next Friday would be best for us, but ultimately we have to wait.

Buyer has know emailed me directly (she got my email off some paperwork) frustrated that she isn't get much from the estate agent.

Is it a bad idea to respond to her directly outlining what we have done are doing- or should I just go back to estate agent and contact through that way,.

I have made the mistake of replying to direct contact from 'eager' buyers before (usually FTBs) in my experience it never ends well and it usually descends into virtual harassment as they always have something else the need to know/ask.
I would always ignore direct contact and reply via the EA.

We dealt directly with our vendors and it was absolutely fine. We passed out numbers on to our buyers too but they obviously didn't feel comfortable contacting us directly.

I guess it probably depends on the type of people.

We dealt directly with the lady we bought from and it worked out well.
Answers about items we might want to buy could be sorted quickly rather than long winded conversations with EA.
It may have been an exception though.

Liaising directly with our buyer and seller is the only way I've got anything done. I've been waiting all week for a completion date but a few texts to seller last night has sorted it far more quickly and easily than relying on the lawyers - who gave our seller's solicitor wrong info as they hadn't checked with me first!

If banging a few heads together works, give it a try -not sure what you are waiting for but if there is a dinosaur solicitor in the chain it can help.

But your buyers were.daft and that is their problem.

We are waiting for a Local Authority search, our lender to approve some findings on coal search and environmental search (no expected issue, purely formality) and for an enquiry from vendor's solicitor.

I remember being a first time buyer and getting frustrated by how slow everything was going. Why wasn't the guy who owned the house getting on with it? Did he not want to sell or something.

Then I went round there to discuss possibly buying some of his old kitchen appliances (as I had none and he was moving somewhere he couldn't take them) and it turned out he was just as frustrated as me. He was wondering why I wasn't getting on with it. We both realised the slowness was due to EAs and solicitors and were both reassured that the other party was keen to get the transaction sorted.

So it might be worth replying to your FTB's email to reassure them that you are pressing ahead as quickly as possible. If you want to answer their queries, you could do so. If not, you could say the EA is dealing with those queries and you will call them (again) to respond.

Do you know what the enquiries are that you are waiting on?? Obviously, if the response is a quick yes or no, then it's feasible to complete next week. If the enquiries need responses from third parties or documentary evidence provided, you won't be exchanging until the receipt of satisfactory replies.

I work in a conveyancing firm and the enquiry stage is not near to exchange and completion as we usually gather all responses before putting all our findings in a "report" to you. Unless, of course, you've already had that and are just waiting on a final response.

Your buyer was silly to give notice. We never advise anyone to give notice until exchange takes place because up until then, anyone could pull out.

Oh dear, just seen you're waiting on searches. You do realise that further enquiries may be made based on what may be revealed in the searches??

Don't think you'll be exchanging yet, unless no issues arise from the searches.

Searches are usually done early in the transaction though.

I've liaised directly with both buyers and vendors and always found it quite useful as it clears up exactly where the blockages are (I also once phoned the other side's solicitor which shocked everyone and I got shouted at, my solicitor thought it was hilarious, but things started moving after that!)

That said, I've never done it with clueless first time buyers, but in your case I'd reply explaining the reason you can't exchange and what you're doing about it and ask them to speak to their solicitors with any other enquiries.

The searches were held up because our vendors (who we are buying from) didn't instruct their solicitors for two weeks. And then the other issue is that we already had a sale and searches done and that fell through. The insurance should have covered the subsequent searches, but because it was a private sale and there was no proof the insurance wouldn't pay, so we had to pay again- no problem, but I think this hed things up a bit.

Direct contact wad the only way my buyer and us sorted our chain. She near the end let me know as soon as she had agreed something/returned something, so I could then get our solicitors on the case, it also helped to resolve some issues because the solicitors were all being lax and not passing things on! I reckon it would have added 2-3 weeks to the deal if we hadn't been in contact!

I've just completed on a flat sale today and it turns out that my buyer's father (himself a solictor) had been badgering my solicitor the whole way through.

I'd talk to them and manage their expectations. We had a sale only happen because Mrs Buyer called us to find out what was happening and we ended up giving her directions on how to get to a bank in the next 20 minutes to insist on a telegraphic transfer because the deposit hadn't gone through (Mr Buyer had tried doing it by internet banking and not received the error message that the amount was too high). In retrospect, the crapness of their solicitor, reported by ours, was funny...

I think it was due to the insurance thing we had a sale fall through and therefore shouldnt have had to pay again for searches. But insurance wouldn't pay as it was a private sale and no proof that it fell through, through no fault of ours. But I should have hassled them about the searches earlier. I just thought we weren't in any particular hurry. The previous sale/purchase that fell through was very stressful as we had to promise to complain 8 weeks. So I think this time I was chilling out a bit.

Ultimately it's not my fault that our buyer has given notice on their rental property. The others in chain don't have a deadline.

Buyer is a conveyancing solicitor!

Always found it much quicker easier straightforward dealing directly with buyer or seller.

If the chain has what the pp called a dinosaur solicitor (haha love this phrase!) it can be helpful to have a working relationship with the vendor/buyer. Our vendors used a solicitor with no sense of urgency, which closed for lunch every day, even on Fridays. Our solicitor rang him at 3.30ish a couple of times, only to be told that he'd gone home, even though he had plenty to do on our case (and presumably others').

A dynamic EA helps. We were lucky with EAs in our chain. The vendors' EA even had a small team that was purely responsible for "sales progression" which is a good idea imo. They were frustrated by the slow solicitor and one of them told me that he's notoriously lazy.

Our estate agent has a sales progression person. She's been brilliant. Our buyers calls her on average 3 times a day. She's been very patient!