Vendors happy to engage in private sale with us – what next?

smelltheroses_2

Last week I posted speculative letters through the doors of all the houses we would be interested in buying, after not being able to find a suitable property currently on the market. We had 5 responses, three of which have real ‘potential’ for us, all with vendors happy to sell privately. We have viewed each house twice and have finally decided which house to make an offer on. We have informed the sellers that we are interested and are likely to proceed to offer later this week, nothing has been made official yet and negotiations haven’t begun. I wanted to be clearer about the process and pitfalls first....Is there anybody out there with some advice/experience/ expertise on how we go about engaging in a private sale from herein?

clutton_2

All you are doing is cutting out the estate agent. THis means that you will have to do all the legal chasing - which is what EAs do once a sale is agreed.

First thing would be to appoint a solicitor to act for you, ask the vendors to do the same, and give each other those details.


An EA would write a letter to the sols saying that the property had been agreed to be sold by X to Y at £x - so if you both signed such a letter then both sols have the basic information to be getting on with

G_M

Discuss your offer. Once you agree, write confirming it.
Appoint a solicitor (unless you are doing your own conveyancing). Give them all the details of the purchase they need.
Tell the seller who your solicitor is.
Apply for a mortgage (unless you are a cash buyer.
Appoint a surveyor (if you think you need one).

Oh - or go to the library and get a book on house buying that will tell you lots more than a few lines here!