Selling without an estate agent

kipper321

propertyrental said:

Presumably you have POA to sell? As such, you have a duty to get the best price possible for your father.

If you can demonstrate that the price you agree with a private buyer is as good as the price your 3 EAs have quoted, that should suffice.

But as advised, make sure these are genuine, proceedable, buyers.

Yes, POA is now in place & ultimately we need to get the best price possible.

kipper321

eddddy said:

kipper321 said:

Both would have to sell property; 

So are you saying their properties aren't even on the market yet?

FWIW, no estate agent would take an offer seriously from somebody who hasn't even got their property on the market yet. (Or even if their property is on the market, but not under offer.)

An estate agent would probably advise the seller to tell the buyer to come back when their property is under offer.

But you're free to handle things differently, if you want.



If you want, you can...

• Put the property on the market with an estate agent

• But tell the estate agent in advance that you have 2 interested parties who might make offers once they've sold their properties (so you won't pay the estate agent fees in respect of either of those parties.)

• Then wait to see who makes a proceedable offer first - one of your contacts, or a buyer through the estate agent

• (When considering offers, you can bear in mind that any offer via the estate agent will mean you have to pay their fee. But not for offers from your contacts.)

Ah - interesting if we can negotiate a lower/no fee for pre-interested parties.
I don't think either of the parties would necessarily sell to live elsewhere, but as I said, we're in no great rush!

Albermarle

Ah - interesting if we can negotiate a lower/no fee for pre-interested parties

The keyword here is if.

FlyMeSomewhere79

The thing to think about is that these people may want the house at this stage but don't rely on them. There's a reliance on them having houses that people will want to buy. If they are really dated or not great houses or in locations that have issues, they may be sat on the market for a very long time. 

My last house that I recently sold was a tricky sell because it was a nice house in a desirable area but had a busy road in front of it and a snicket at the side of it. You need to think about how long you can realistically wait if relying on just those people. 

Bigphil1474

We're paying our EA 0.9% plus VAT in fees on our house sale - money well spent, especially dealing with all the potential buyers. If I had a buyer lined up and we agreed they paid the average of 3 valuations for example, then I wouldn't bother. It would depend on how confident I am in the buyers. Solution might be to let them both have a look around the house and see whether they are still interested.

eddddy

Albermarle said:

Ah - interesting if we can negotiate a lower/no fee for pre-interested parties

The keyword here is if.

With a "Sole Agency" Agreement it should be a standard term that no fee is payable. No negotiation and no "ifs" should be required. ("Sole Agency" is a legally defined term - see below.)

But it would be sensible to tell the agent the names of the interested parties at the outset, to avoid any misunderstandings later.

With a "sole selling rights" agreement, some negotiation could be required. But if one estate agent objects, just walk away and find a different one.


Here's the legal definition of "sole agency"....

“SOLE AGENCY

You will be liable to pay remuneration to us, in addition to anyother costs or charges agreed, if at any time [unconditional contractsfor the sale of the property are exchanged]—

• with a purchaser introduced by us during the period of our soleagency or with whom we had negotiations about the property during thatperiod; or

• with a purchaser introduced by another agent during that period.”

Link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1991/859/schedule/made?view=plain

i.e. The OP's contacts...

• Weren't introduced by an agent

• Weren't introduced during the sole agency period 

... so the OP doesn't have to pay the estate agent a fee.

NameUnavailable

Get your valuations first (so you know what kind of price to expect to market for) then tell both parties what it would be going on the open market for - let them view if they wish and ask for their offers - nothing being binding at that stage of course.

If one or both make sufficient offers and are serious then give them a fixed period of time in which to get buyers for their property otherwise say after that time it is going on the open market.

I think you need to determine asap if they're really serious about buying and create some urgency in getting them moving.

Slinky

When we first bought our house there was another down the street which was empty and had been for some time. Had been inherited by two people who for whatever reason had decided not to sell.  Four years after we bought, they sold it privately. I think they based it on the latest previous sold prices in the street (which were around the time we bought ours), plus a bit more, without bothering to get an agent in to value it. Most houses here sell when someone passes away or goes into care, so the houses are a bit tired to say the least. I reckon they undersold it by at least £40K, as within only a few months a house the same size but in good nick sold for nearly £100K more. But hey-ho, they saved themselves the agent's fee.........