Buying house from friend - valuation?

Kastanie

Hi everyone, I'd love some advice. There's a possibility I could buy a house from a friend in the near future (she's talked about moving this year and if she did would offer me first refusal on her house).

We'd arrange it all privately without an EA. However I'm not clear what we do about getting the house valued and arriving at a price that suits us both. My questions are: I assume we don’t need an EA to value it? So am I right in thinking we find an independent surveyor to do it? Does my friend organise that, or do I? I guess we then use the surveyor's valuation to come to a mutually acceptable price, subject to survey?

Has anyone bought privately from someone they know and is there anything obvious I should be aware of? I'm sure it would all be amicable, but don’t want to overlook anything… and want to ensure we stay friends! Sorry if these are naïve questions but I've never bought (I currently rent). My friend will know about valuations as she's bought and sold before, but I feel I should be a bit more clued up on the process too.

googler

If you need a mortgage, your lender will insist on an RICS valuation anyway. You could arrange your own, then be charged when the lender sends out someone on their 'panel' (who may be the same surveyor).

Can you agree a price with the seller subject to your lender's surveyor's valuation?

~Beanie~

I bought my house off a friend. I just offered her what I thought it was worth and when I spplied for the mortgage, their valuation came back exactly the same so we were both happy.

hamster2013

start by seeing sites like zoopla for an idea of how much the house would be worth, how much similar proprety sold on the street/building etc
and there is no harm in getting it valued by a few EA's, they will give ball park figures, but again, dont take those for anything precise, they will be basing it on same as above, ie what is selling the in the area similar to what your friend is selling
but its always fun to get EA's do free work and then tell them to leave you alone because you have a buyer.... LOL

when i got a valuation done on a property, i didnt expect any miracles.... they came up with figures like:
oh, the property around the corner is on the market for a similar price, yea and another smaller one sold for slightly less an year ago, so this price seems right. They are not any specialists either.

at the end it will depend on what you feel is reasonable for that property, and if your friend agrees to that price, good, otherwise, you have to set your budget and see if you are ready to pay more than what you think is reasonable, and if not, she can sell through agents and let them suck out the commission

Yorkie1

I did this. There were sufficient recent sales of houses in the street / nearby for us to have a look at sold prices and get an idea of the correct price.

Independently, we came up with the same price.

If you can't agree or there aren't any recent sales, you might need to jointly instruct a RICS surveyor to give you a verbal valuation.

Kastanie

Thanks guys, all much clearer now. I was having a mental block about how we'd even decide on an initial price before getting surveyors, EAs etc involved - as even if the EAs were to value for free, they're known to value high round here to flatter the seller and get the business.

Well I know what she bought for in 2006 (she admits was slightly over the odds) and what the next door neighbour bought for in 2010 for essentially the same house but with an extra room, so I guess friendly negotiations will start from there....when she finally does decide to move of course!

Cheers, K