Buying a house without estate agents

richardw

googler wrote: »

..bear in mind that private buyers, consistent with previous threads on this forum, are likely to deduct a figure equivalent to what they perceive the seller's fees to be from what they offer...

Price knowledge poor buyers getting their offers wrong is nothing new, one reason to add to a long list.

sjlou

We bought our first house directly from the vendor. By chance my husbands landlord heard us talking about properties and mentioned his son was putting his on the market. They'd had the EA valuations, and hadnt instructed anyone yet.

In hindsight they probably benefited more than we did re price. This was probably because we were very naive ftb and didnt really haggle the price as much as we should have.

However what really worked for us was that he was happy to exchange, then complete 3 months later (once my husband was in FT employment).

bobthedambuilder

The "right" price for a house is what the seller and buyer agree on. Nobody, including the EA, can do any more than look at the market and give a guide. Timing, condition, availability of funds etc all have an effect.

There is no reason to suppose that the seller will be prepared to or have to agree to a lower price because he's saving the EA fees - but it might happen. The real benefit to a private buyer is the reduced marketing of the property, and therefore less competition (and less chance of being gazumped).