Advice needed in buying home

RhiannonB_2

We have been told recently that my gran has to go in to care and that her house is going to have to be sold to pay for her care. We dont want any one else to have the house as I myself wish to buy the house. If it went through a estate agent then i know that someone else would snap it up before i could get it as there are very long waiting lists for specific houses in my area how can we do this and what do i have to do? Do i sneakily ask a estate agent to come up and value the house? How can i get a mortgage? What about solicitors? what is the best way of doing this does anyone know? I am kinda confused on the situation?

silvercar

Start by getting 2 or 3 local agents to value the property. Do not sign up to anything obviously but you will get a feel for the property's value.

You can then decide if you can afford to buy the proerty.

There are rules and regulations about selling a property when the money is to fund care. If you sell at significantly below market value the local authority will end up losing money on the care funding. I would suggest contacting "help the aged" or a similar organisation who will be able to advise you on this.

kellyp

Surely its up to the seller who they sell the house to - and if that is your gran, then its entirely up to her, who she sells it to, and so beit if that is you!

I think you can get estate agents to value your home under no obligation to sell - although they may have a clause about charges if you dont decide to use them to market the property.

But also if your gran is willing to sell to you, I dont see why you would need the estate agent? Go straight to the solicitors - the estate agent is only there to market your property for you and drum up interest.

sarah_elton

Exactly, many many sales go through without estate agents ever being involved. A few years ago my neighbour sold to someone who put a note through the door - "I like your house and am looking to buy - are you interested in selling?", and my mum has previously dropped similar leaflets when buying. The seller saves agents fees and buyer and seller can split this saving. You can agree it and instruct solicitors yourselves.

Obviously do follow the advice above though to look into the regulations regarding care home funding, which may make it more complicated than average.

Do a search on these forums for 'private sale' - there have been threads in the past about them.

silvercar

There are really important financial issues that you need to consider. I obviously don't know your family's financial arrangements so these are general comments.

If an elderly person has less than £20,000 (savings and property) the local authority should fund their care.

If they have more than this, they are expected to contribute (sliding scale etc) to their care costs. This can be substantial and (hopefully) if your gran has many years ahead of her, these costs build up. If all the money you pay her will go straight to funding her care and otherwise her care would be at a lower cost you may want to examine other ways of transferring the property.

Of course your gran can sell to who she wants BUT you must all consider the financial implications.

It maybe important whether your gran transfers her property before or after she applies to move into a care for example. It may be prudent to move in with your gran before she applies for care so that you are a resident of the property and so the property may not be considered an asset.

These points may not be relevant to your circumstances but may be to others reading this. Please do take advice on this.

dander

Estate agents value property for free and no obligation. It's standard practice to get several agents in for valuations when you're going on the market. I had 4 in to give me valuations - that's the point you discuss terms, price, contract etc with them, and when you get to decide which is the agent for you. Or in your case - decide none of them are! They'll probably chase you up after to ask if you've made a decision, but you can always just say something like 'we've decided not to market it right now'.

Good Luck

RhiannonB_2

well thank you all for your great posts they have been really helpful, with transferring the house into my name it would have had to have been done more than 5 years ago for the goverment to not consider it an asset. It really a tricky situation and although my gran has not lost her marbles she is not capable of selling the house herself but it has been disscussed previously that the house could be sold to me.

i will look into this further thank you so much all of you.

mandi

RhiannonB wrote:

We have been told recently that my gran has to go in to care and that her house is going to have to be sold to pay for her care. We dont want any one else to have the house as I myself wish to buy the house. If it went through a estate agent then i know that someone else would snap it up before i could get it as there are very long waiting lists for specific houses in my area how can we do this and what do i have to do? Do i sneakily ask a estate agent to come up and value the house? How can i get a mortgage? What about solicitors? what is the best way of doing this does anyone know? I am kinda confused on the situation?

Please please PM me, im an ex estate agent and now run my own business, have all the answers you need.. but dont instruct an estate agent .. no need...hope you pm me soon

Mandi