How much contact do you have with sellers prior to closing?

[Anonymous]

We are buying a house and are under contract. We saw the house once when we decided to bid and once during the home inspection. I would like to plan for the move-in (furniture placement, outlet locations, wiring, etc.) and I have a lot of questions. Would it be weird to contact the sellers with my questions? I don't want to annoy them prior to closing but I would like to know dimensions of doorways, etc. so I can plan ahead for our moving company.

When we bought our current house, we never even saw the people we bought from.There was no contact at all. We were moving from an apartment with very little stuff, but this time is a lot different.

[Anonymous]

Go through your agent, who will go to Seller's agent, who can ask seller. You can also ask to spend a few hours in the house, like you did for the inspection, measuring things, holding up paint chips, etc. I would think most Seller's would be able to find an hour or so to be out of the house.

Just make sure you are prepared with your list of "must-finds" and "measurements to take" so as to not waste your time and Seller's time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are buying a house and are under contract. We saw the house once when we decided to bid and once during the home inspection. I would like to plan for the move-in (furniture placement, outlet locations, wiring, etc.) and I have a lot of questions. Would it be weird to contact the sellers with my questions? I don't want to annoy them prior to closing but I would like to know dimensions of doorways, etc. so I can plan ahead for our moving company.

When we bought our current house, we never even saw the people we bought from.There was no contact at all. We were moving from an apartment with very little stuff, but this time is a lot different.

Agree with pp that all communication should be between agents. What you're asking IS annoying, especially for someone who's trying to pack up house.

[Anonymous]

You should contact them through your realtor, but understand that they can say no, and you need to be okay with that. We were contacted once or twice by the sellers, because they wanted to know if we wanted them to leave stuff like a piece of furniture they couldn't use in their new place and leftover paint and stain that matched stuff in the house. We contacted them once about something related to wiring for cable/phone or something we wanted to get done the day we closed. Each contact was through our respective agents.

Personally I wouldn't want the prospective buyers coming in once the inspections, etc. were done. I wouldn't mind sending a handful of measurements, but nothing that was going to take me me than a couple of minutes.

[Anonymous]

With both of our home purchases we arranged visits to the house for measurements, via our agents. The first time we did it post-contract, and the sellers were lovely and gracious about it.

THe second time, we negotiated it as part of the contract. SEllers again were lovely about it, although making it part of the contract made the whole process easier; we arranged visit times directly with the sellers rather than having to go through agents.

As PPs said--go through your agent and be prepared for the sellers to say no. Ask for an hour and be in an out of there in that time.

[Anonymous]

My house is under contract and I wouldn't mind one bit if the buyers wanted to come look at it.