Selling house - note through door

JencParker

Has anyone sold a house to a buyer who approached them with a note through the door.
This is a little soon, but I have had a note through the door from an interested family (as I'm sure others have in the road), but have been considering selling for some time.
I've not sold before, so wonder what the pitfalls of selling privately are?

londondealer

I purchased a flat by dropping leaflets through front doors of a block that I was interested in. Absolutly no problems went very smoothly.

grifferz

We were tempted to drop leaflets because the set of roads we would like to buy in don't have properties come up that often.

In the end though we decided to wait a bit longer as threads I had read on here pointed out that by putting notes through the door you signal that you are a lot keener than in the normal arrangement and may find it harder to negotiate. As we are first time buyers we did not want to give up the advantages associated with that.

You'd only be saving them the agents fees - ~1%?

hamster2013

JencParker wrote: »

Has anyone sold a house to a buyer who approached them with a note through the door.
This is a little soon, but I have had a note through the door from an interested family (as I'm sure others have in the road), but have been considering selling for some time.
I've not sold before, so wonder what the pitfalls of selling privately are?

you dont risk much as all is done via solicitors -from a sale point of view.

only risk you have is maybe not getting the best price.... but keep in mind you save on EA commission fee's if you go direct -
if you are in no hurry and fear that buyer is not serious, go with the 'no sale no fee's' type solicitors - they are not the most effective in terms of turn around, but you have that peace of mind of not having to pay if buyer pulls out. (do note that most of these type solicitors end up costing more, so do the maths as to what you want to risk)

G_M

Why does it matter how you find a buyer as long as that buyer

a) genuinely wants to buy and
b) has the money to meet your price?

And you save a couple of grand in agency fees....

JencParker

Thanks everyone.

I've never sold a property before (been here for 24 years as a ftb), so unsure of the process. I assume all the legal stuff is dealt with by solicitors but what about ensuring they have money. I've read that buyers are now asked for proof of financial position to buy (didn't have to do that when we bought). Would the solicitor deal with this or is something the EA does before an offer is accepted? And are there any other things the estate agent would do in the process that I would have to do?

G_M

You don't have to do it if you don't want. Up to you. Ask them to show you a bank statement with the cash &/or mortgage offer to convince you they can buy.

JencParker

I'm happy to do it - not having to pay EA fees would be a considerable saving, but just not sure what I would need to do that would they would normally do apart once an offer has been made.

JuniperJane

We have just bought by phoning our vendor and asking him. We were aware the house was empty and got a good price because we saved him hassle of marketing it and EA fees. It was v straight forward. We just cut out the middle man.

hazyjo

Nothing 'legal' as such, they can act as a go-between, but, tbh, it's nothing you or your solicitor can't do. And it might be easier if you're dealing direct with the buyer.

Do your own homework as to your house value. See what similar nearby properties have sold for. Ignore the asking prices - these are the ones that haven't sold, remember! Might well be overpriced.

Some EAs want proof (AIP or whatever), others don't. I've only had to show one once. It's not a legal requirement or anything!

Would you need to buy something? Don't let your buyer spend money on yours until the chain is complete.

Jx

eddddy

Hi JencParker

One of the things an EA would do is "progress the sale" (or you might say "nag everyone to keep things moving"). This can be helpful if the buyers/sellers are a bit clueless or a bit apathetic.

A good EA will also try to negotiate around obstacles in the sales process - e.g. if the survey shows up problems, the EA may be able to suggest specialists (builders, damp proofing firms, structural engineers) who can provide quotes for fixing them. And then the EA will be the 'man in the middle' if a price reduction needs to be negotiated.

If you feel comfortable doing this kind of stuff direct with the buyer, that's fine. I guess it also depends on how well you get on with your buyer.

On one occasion I was buying from an aggressive and totally unreasonable seller. If I had to deal with him direct, I'm pretty sure that I would have walked away. But his EA acted as a mediator (in fact, he was almost like the seller's anger management counselor) and he eventually managed to close the sale.