Buying Our First House Privately - Please Help!!

jennyk123

Hi All,

Well this is my first post :hello: I've been pointed in the direction of this forum by loads of wise money minded people so I thought I'd ask for help.

We have been looking for our first house and have found one that we've fallen in love with. Thing is, its a friend of a friend's house and they want to sell privately to save cash, keep it quick etc. The house has been valued at £130-135,000 las t year by 3 estate agents, they've offered it to us for £125,000.

We don't know how to go about buying privately at all though, and are total newbies. We have a financial advisor looking into mortgages but don't know anything about surveys, solicitors - anything!!

Can you help? Thanks lots xx

illmonkey

First off you need to see if a mortgage is possible. And get something agreed in principle, at the same time you need to tell your solicitors (or find one) that you are thinking about buying a place.

Once the mortgage offer comes through, they will want to make sure its worth the value you are paying so will want to send someone around to confirm that. If its a flat in a maintained block, which covers building work etc you wont such a detailed exam of the place (structural damage etc)

From there, its really down to the solicitors talking to the vendors solicitors about things and doing searches.

zipwen1

the mortgage company can arrange the survey for you, don't scrimp on this get the best you can afford.
phone around and get quotes from a few solicitors
once you have found a solicitor you are happy with just pass their details onto the vendor and that's that

jennyk123

thanks guys... I guess we need to sort out a mortgage first then. I'll look for a solicitor at the same time and ask their advice.

I really appreciate your help, thank you

courtjester

There's no difference buying a property privately to buying through an agent - the process from your point of view is exactly the same as the agent doesn't act for you.

In fact, it's a positive advantage as you don't have the other side's agent trying to screw you in favour of their client - too many buyers are misled into thinking that the vendor's estate agent is their *friend* :cool:

Whether buying off a friend or through an agent, you still need to be satisfied that the price is right - just because it's through an agent doesn't mean it's a good price for you and buying off a friend 'below valuation' is not necessarily a bargain as the 'valuation' has no legal standing anyway (it's just a biased estimate provided by an agent).

You can research the pricing relatively easily - obviously check the asking prices of similar properties (agents windows and local newspapers) and view as many as possible to compare with the one(s) you are short-listing.

Check online asking prices for the area via sites like Rightmove and FISH4.

Then check *SOLD* prices (which proper valuations are based on for mortgage lending) using any one of many free land registry information sites, like ourproperty.co.uk or mouseprice.com - these tell you what properties have actually sold for recently in the street /postcode. Asking prices are generally 5-10% higher than previous sold prices to allow for negotiation, depending on local activity and conditions.

If there is a high level of new house building in the locality, this can have a negative effect on second-user homes with comparable features, holding down their values as people are attracted by the deals on brand-new homes.

Be businesslike in your dealing and try and avoid emotional responses or getting personal - be prepared to negotiate and separate your friendship from your property transaction.