Agreeing purchase without Estate Agents

cheekychappy

Wishing to upsize and no decent properties around in the area of the City we live in, I did some letters through the doors of some houses we liked the look of and amazingly within hours, we got a response from a middle aged couple who were looking to downsize.
Tonight we viewed and liked their house and they viewed and liked ours.....happy days.

Would it be ethical to get some no obligation valuations from Estate Agents, but not sign anything and then say agree to buy / sell to each other at the average achievable price the agents have stated?

We both have conveyancers arranged and need to do the formal mortgage applications etc.

Any other advice, as other than not paying hefty commission, what would the Estae Agent do after the sale is agreed that we can't do ourselves.

Any other advice?

Thanks in advance.
J

G_M

No legal reason reason not to do this.

Ethical? Well, you are kind of asking for a professional service (valuation) for free with the provider having an expectation that you might use his paid services later.

There again, he's an estate agent. So not beyond milking his own clients from time to time.......

cattie

Ooh, this must be every buyers/sellers dream situation in this current market.

Just go ahead and get the valuations. EA's offer them on a no commitment basis anyway and are used to valuing houses for market and not getting any take ups from vendors.

JQ.

There is no way I would base the valuation of a property I was selling and one that I was buying based on the "marketing advice" of an EA.

There are way too many variables that they will not disclose to you that may affect their advice. They might be really quiet and quote high to get the work in. They might not like your property and think it may struggle to sell, so quote low so they don't get the instruction. They might have a potential buyer lined up and will quote the exact budget of that buyer to secure a quick sale.

And don't think by getting 3 valuations things will improve.

If you want to do it properly get a Chartered Surveyor to value both properties - explain exactly what is going on, and ask them to prepare a report. It's unlikely to cost that much, but you will be getting advice from someone who is qualified to value property and not a salesman. It is the biggest purchase of your life - get proper advice.

FireWyrm

Why do you need a valuation? Are they happy with your price and are you happy with theirs? Look on Zoopla for sold prices and check out the land registry in your area. That'll give you a much better idea of actual prices.

A house is worth what you can get for it. However, I like the advice above. Skip the EA and go directly to survey.

cattie

Don't take any notice of Zoopla, it many cases it plucks figures out of the air. Take anything they say with a pinch of salt. Do your own research on similar or comparable properties that have sold in the last 6 months. It's the only way to really find out if a price you set, whether given by an ea or not, is a realistic and achievable one.

googler

cattie wrote: »

Don't take any notice of Zoopla, it many cases it plucks figures out of the air. Take anything they say with a pinch of salt. Do your own research on similar or comparable properties that have sold in the last 6 months.

That's what the previous poster said - look on Zoopla for Sold Prices, not the estimates

cheekychappy

We both had some estate agents around and they confirmed what we thought value wise. Was a bit unnerving when they said that they may have a property on their books soon that ticks all our boxes and they could try to get us in to view.
Looking forward to telling them we've found privately. 10k saved between us in fees.
I will update as things progress.

Moral of the story is if you know exactly what you want, pop some polite letters through the doors of the houses your interested in and see what happens.

cattie

googler wrote: »

That's what the previous poster said - look on Zoopla for Sold Prices, not the estimates

Aplogies then, I read it so quickly that I thought he/she meant estimated prices