Selling and buying a house privately

Sedge123

We bought in a private sale after putting notes through doors. Was really easy and as we got on with the sellers really well we arranged dates etc with them before checkimg with our solicitors that this was a reasonable timescale. I would say that if the property is in a high traffic area then try putting a sign up, if not then I'd seriously consider a agent just for the exposure. We sold through an agent for exactly that reason.

NeilCr

AdrianC wrote: »

It's all very well saving a couple of grand in EA fees - but if the EA sell it more quickly or for more money, then it's a false economy.

Possibly. I sold to my best friend. Not something I'd do again because it's harder to be hard in that situation. If it had been anyone else I'd have kicked him to touch.

The EA had valued it - we agreed a price that was the valuation less the EAs fees, which worked for both of us. Funnily enough, the EA had said to me that she would buy it!

PusscatT

I used Housenetwork a few years ago to sell my previous property. They put it on Rightmove etc for about £750 all in. I sold to a first time buyer, the deal was done at my kitchen table and then everything handed to the solicitors. I had previously tried 'proper' agents but found them worse than useless and obstructive on several occasions.
As everything goes through the solicitors anyway, it's useful to cut out the middle man and talk directly to either the buyer or their lawyer without interference. However, you must be confident and understanding of the processes and prepared to do a lot more of the chasing etc. We saved around £5k by selling this way and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

ThePants999

My last-but-one move was private on both sides.

We sold our flat through - you might not believe this - Gumtree. We had an estate agent but they were useless, got us zero viewings the whole time we were with them; we simultaneously put up a little text ad on Gumtree that got us seven viewings in a week, and we sold to the first one!

Our purchase was similarly strange. We'd viewed a house via an agent and really liked it. We knocked on next door (other half of a semi) to see who our neighbours would be if we bought the place. They offered to sell us theirs instead for £10k less, and theirs was slightly nicer - deal!

Not having an EA involved in the chain at all was a tad stressful - lots of phone calls to chase things up - but saving their exorbitant fees was well worth it :-)

phoebe1989seb

Nineteen years ago we bought a property privately. We had viewed, offered on and lost out to someone in a better position to proceed, a house that was one of only three built in that style in the area. I happened to mention this to a customer of mine who said her father-in-law owned one of the other two. His had been converted to four flats in the 1950s, he had been letting them out, had since retired to the USA and was considering selling. She offered to mention we were interested when they next spoke.

As he was overseas most of the time the whole thing took longer than usual......plus two out of four tenants had to be evicted before vacant possession was achieved

We successfully negotiated a lower price directly with the vendor post structural survey and eventually got to exchange. Only issue we had was that on completion we found the vendor had omitted to remove majority of the furniture.......

Like other posters we'd consider selling privately - in fact someone has already expressed an interest in buying our current house that we plan on selling this year - but we have a habit of buying more niche houses which tend to need a decent EA to attract the right type of buyer, lol! Therefore it'll be interesting to see if this 'private purchase' pans out - last time we had someone suggest they buy our house privately (mid '90s) it all came to nothing as he turned out to be merely nosey!

Dird

googler wrote: »

As soon as the property is 'exposed' to the general public, it's no longer a private sale.

To me a private sale is simply selling without incurring any EA fees (be that traditional or online). People can advertise for free on gumtree/local equivalents, still a private sale to me

moneyistooshorttomention

Dird wrote: »

To me a private sale is simply selling without incurring any EA fees (be that traditional or online). People can advertise for free on gumtree/local equivalents, still a private sale to me

That was the gist of what happened when I bought my starter house. It was a time of house prices shooting up - so the price I offered was asking price minus EA fees the vendor would have had to pay.

The vendor tried to find excuses to charge me for bits that were due to come with the house anyway at a cost that (funnily enough) pretty much matched those EA fees. That being he wanted his asking price and avoiding paying EA fees:cool:. I refused to pay for the "bits I was due for anyway" and he duly walked off with them (both those he'd offered at a price and some that were included in the price - ie my 1950s kitchen cabinet was agreed as being mine anyway). I don't think the fact that I was the one benefitting from saved EA fees (not him) was what caused the thefts of bits by him - he was just that sort of person anyway and got up to other stuff (eg lying about the house having been rewired).