Seller wants to hand over keys in person

[Grouperandoctopus]

What should I expect? For some reason this is making me worried I’m going to end up in a socially awkward situation. Should I have a card or chocolate or something to hand?
I think it’s been a family home for a long time. Am wishing we’d said we would just collect from EA tbh.
Calm me down!

I’d just communicate via your solicitor that you will collect the keys from the estate agent. Moving day is stressful enough and you’ll want some flexibility in timings, that’s reason enough.

No need to get the vendor a present, you’re buying something for a vast amount of money.

I’d assume the vendor doesn’t want to make a trip into the EA offices - if they’re needing to clean house etc then they’ll be there anyway.
You go, they give you the keys, you check that there aren’t any missing etc, agree the metre reading, find out where the stop-cock is, they leave. If they seem to want to hang around, then tell them how you need to unpack now, thank them, and usher them out the door.

Right, thank you, I’ll go and find my grip now lol :) just wildly overthinking things!

They don't want the hassle of potentially driving in to town and parking etc when you are going to go to the house anyway.

If they have been great throughout then why not get them something? A bottle of wine? The person I bought my flat from left me a gift (some flowers and wine) as a thank you for being so pleasant to deal with and working with her to solve some issues. I thought that was lovely.

It’s nice to meet them and collect them in person. If they have a profound connection with the house it’ll be a big moment for them. No need to be worried.

My seller was very emotionally attached to my house. I gave them a card thanking them and told them I would look after the house. I think they really appreciated the gesture.

My vendor left the keys under a flower pot in the garden as she didn't want to go to the EA to drop them off! She was elderly though and its a low crime area so I didn't complain

If it's been a family home for a long time then I can well understand that they would want to know who was buying it. I would. It would help me to close the door (emotionally) and see it as someone else's house.
Not so long ago, it was the vendor who usually did the viewings. That's now becoming unusual, so it's quite common to sell to someone you have never met.

It made sense for me to hand over the keys of my last house because of the location of my solicitors/where my buyers were coming from/where I was moving to.

I was so excited about the new house that I was very surprised when I burst into tears when handing over the keys as I’d not given leaving the old house much thought and had never been particularly affected when moving from any other house I’ve owned. My buyer gave me a hug (and probably was very embarrassed by my display).

Okay. Things to think about, but I still feel a bit calmer about it thank you. I was thinking more a card than chocolate really, not least I’m not going to have time to find anything nice.

We moved recently and left a bottle of wine and a card in our old house for our buyers. Our seller did the same for us in our new house. I don't think cards/gifts need to go up the chain though, you are paying vast sums of money to your seller!

I wouldn't overly fancy doing the key handover in person tbh, but it depends why they want to do it. If the EA is miles away then its probably worth a couple of minutes of awkwardness to save both of you a trip.

We moved last Friday, it didn't make sense for them to drive from their old house to their new house via another town to pick up keys from EA. My DH had already left with our moving van. I locked the door and sat in my car on the drive waiting on them then handed over the keys, said enjoy your new home and left them to it, no drama. I had left 2 bottles of wine and a card inside a they had paid a lot of money for their new home.