Buying a house privately - how are things different?

AET2314

Hi all, just looking for some guidance please.
Family friend has offered to sell us their parents house, which is currently empty. We've seen the house and agreed a price with them. Everything done on email so there is a paper trail but we need to sell our house which we will do.

Essentially I'm wondering if there's anything we need to do differently or make sure is in place?

Thanks!

eddddy

An estate agent would normally do 'sales progression' - which might include chasing people to keep things moving; re-negotiating when necessary; trying to smooth over problems and misunderstandings; etc.


So you'd need to do that between you - maybe it will be easier as you're family friends.


I guess the potential awkward situations might include..

• Your mortgage valuation is less than you're paying - so you want to negotiate a lower offer

• Your survey says the roof needs £10k of repairs - so you want to reduce your offer. But the sellers don't agree that the roof needs repairing, and even if it did, they believe it would only cost £2k or £3k.

• Your solicitor says you need indemnity insurance, but the seller's solicitor says it's not required.

• The seller is getting frustrated with you because you're taking a long time to find a buyer for your house - so they want to dump you, and find another buyer who is proceedable.

FWIW, there's no harm in communicating by email - but neither party will be bound by anything that's said in the emails.

If you want anything said in the emails to form part of the contract, you need to pass the info to your solicitor - who will get the info confirmed via pre-contract enquiries.