Is this right?

[iwannaseeyou]

Best friend is a first time buyer.
She's put in an offer that's been accepted on a property and within 2 hours of it being accepted the home owner has found her on Facebook and is messaging her asking questions.
This never happened when we bought/sold and I don't think it's the norm but I may be wrong?
Surely it's down to estate agents to act as a go between?
She wants advice, should she reply or ignore?

I would get in touch with the EA and get them to tell their client that all communications need to go through them. I don't think they should be contacting her at all, especially after finding her on FB.

That’s not right at all. It would make me very wary. Communication needs to go through the agent.

Yeah I agree.
She doesn't want to annoy the house owner, but she doesn't want to be dealing with him directly either.

That's not cool, everything should go through EAs and solicitors.

She should ignore, it’s hugely inappropriate, and the owners will know that

Communication should go through EA

As a friend: suggest your friend keeps an eye open re other houses in case this one falls through & ask EA a few questions (like why are they selling, has a sale fallen through etc) as there may be something going on (like a divorce and not both wanting to sell) or sellers may be v strange people.....

As well as contacting the EA, I would advise her to completely ignore the messages. It shouldn’t take too long before the seller gets the message.

I don’t think the EA should reveal information about why the owners are selling, or if a sale has fallen through, etc. The EA works for the home owner, not the prospective buyer. I would be seriously annoyed with the EA.

I don’t think the EA should reveal information about why the owners are selling, or if a sale has fallen through, etc. The EA works for the home owner, not the prospective buyer. I would be seriously annoyed with the EA.

Yes, but as a buyer, I'd see it as a red flag if the EA wasn't prepared to tell me why the owners were selling - I'd wonder if there was something wrong with the house that they were trying to hide! So refusal to reveal it could also put off buyers for no good reason.

Why would the EA know why the seller is selling?

I could sort of understand a buyer cyberstalking and asking questions...but a seller? What on earth would a seller need to know about a buyer that the EA would not have already obtained? (e.g. cash/mortgage, in a chain, etc)

@LemonsYellow

Why would the EA know why the seller is selling?

Because the owner tells them.

@LemonsYellow Every buyer will ask, and it can potentially makes a difference to their decision to buy or not. A cagey "Oh just change of circumstances" from the EA always makes me a bit wary.

Purple bricks encourage direct communication, I've found this a big surprise since I last bought/sold, whatsapping between me and my seller, but it's worked out ok, although it's not actually that useful as it hasn't really speeded the process up, you're still at the mercy of your solicitors. But finding her on Facebook and contacting is a big no and borderline harassment

She's not replied as of yet.
He was asking questions about whether she definitely had a deposit ready and mortgage sorted.
The exact questions she's already answered for the EA?

I wouldn't want to have those sort of direct conversations especially not as the first contact.

Generally I think it can help to meet the parties (assuming both are generally reasonable and polite.......) and at times can avoid the sort of crossed wires
you get when agents say X says you have to agree to completion on the 18th when the actual question might have been "we're on holiday later in the month, so can we complete a bit before or after we're back?"

I’d also be wondering about how effective the EA is. When we bought at the end of September, we were a cash buyer and we had to provide bank statements too the EA showing we had the funds. So the EA wouldn’t put any offer forward unless the funds were there.

That seems to be standard now - gone are the days when you could spend your weekends viewing houses just to be nosy!

gone are the days when you could spend your weekends viewing houses just to be nosy!

You didn't seriously used to do that?

I used an online agent & have spoken to my buyer on a pretty much weekly & now daily basis (as we approach exchange). The agent isn’t involved at all past proof of funds at the beginning. It’s all done via an app. Luckily, I really like my buyer, she’s lovely and it’s all been very constructive & informative and we’ve helped each other push our blooming none responding solicitors.

That said, I wouldn’t have ever have approached her on Facebook if we’d used a traditional agent. That’s not on. I spoke to our vendors on Facebook a few times prior to offering as they put their house on a local community group. Since offering, no contact except via their agent.

There is a huge security risk discussing anything like this via Facebook messaging as it’s not secure and they could be talking to anyone or details shared, not to mention any implied contractual obligation they could unwittingly enter into by putting something in writing, coms around any financial transaction should only be done through the online EA app or via the EA directly

I don’t agree with the way the vendor has gone about things, and it does feel unnecessary to be asking those sorts of question when it’s the exact thing the EA will be confirm, but I have to say I’ve found being in touch with our vendor invaluable during the process, especially as the EA is very doom and gloom and doesn’t seem to understand that the entire chain is very much motivated to complete before Christmas. In contrast our buyers were a complete nightmare and we very much feel like a large component of that was constantly playing chinese whispers with the EA and solicitors.

I think the vendor is worried that it won't be done in time for the stamp duty holiday, but she's a first time buyer with no chain, so it's the people above they should be messaging and pestering surely!!!