Selling a house without estate agent

CaptainWales

I am considering selling a house without an estate agent.

If I get an offer, would it be reasonable for me to ask the potential buyer to provide proof of funds, like I guess an estate agent would? Could I go so far as asking them to carry a survey on the property if their mortgage provider wants them too, before I incur any legal fees?

My feeling is that somebody might offer a good price, I incur legal fees and then something comes up on the survey (there is potential for this) which then leads the buyer to try and re-negotiate price / back out of buying the property. 

user1977

No reason why the procedures ought to be any different from someone selling with an agent, if that's what you're asking.

Hoenir

The biggest challenge is going to be marketing the property and attracting potential buyers to view it. 

CaptainWales

No problem on that front Hoenir. More uncertain about what happens after I accept an offer

Albermarle

CaptainWales said:

I am considering selling a house without an estate agent.

If I get an offer, would it be reasonable for me to ask the potential buyer to provide proof of funds, like I guess an estate agent would? Could I go so far as asking them to carry a survey on the property if their mortgage provider wants them too, before I incur any legal fees?

My feeling is that somebody might offer a good price, I incur legal fees and then something comes up on the survey (there is potential for this) which then leads the buyer to try and re-negotiate price / back out of buying the property. 

This could happen just as easily with or without an estate agent in the loop.
The issue is that many people are not good negotiators, and/or get too emotional especially over such a big thing as buying or selling a house.
The estate agent can act as a middleman/woman to try and find a compromise.

theartfullodger

You can set such such terms as you wish.  As can any purchaser or their solicitors.

Bigphil1474

From my recent experience, the EA basically markets the property, arranges viewings and sometimes carries them out, and liaises with people in the chain on your behalf. Mostly stuff I wouldn't want to do. However, if you can market it and get an offer, once you have the offer, you can ask for proof they are proceedable like an EA would - mortgage agreement in principle, statements etc. 

You shouldn't incur that much in legal fees when selling until you are sold, so not sure the benefit of holding off.

AlexMac

You sound fairly sorted and competent so why not give it a go?

However, if it comes to negotiation, I’m not very good, so I’ve welcomed having an EA acting on my behalf. Last time I sold, the EA was really efficient; conducted a bidding war, knew all the local EAs and conveyancing solicitors by first name, chivvied things along and kept me in the loop. 

And on another occasion I invited three agents in for a “no obligation “ valuation and to quote terms. There was a £55k difference between the top and bottom estimates and the top one offered a 1% fee. So when he sold within a week, even at £10k under asking price, I was still well ahead!  I assume you’ve already had 3 Agents in to guage the value..?

pjs493

im in the process of selling a rental property (belonging to my late husband) privately to the current tenant. I’d previously informed the tenants that I planned to sell and was offering them first refusal. I stated the price I believed the property to be worth (the price was based on the value for Probate). 

We had two local estate agents come to value the property. They both stated the same figure that was used for Probate. The property is similar to many other neighbouring properties and there is a steady rotation of them on the market so it was easy to accurately value. 

The tenants and I agreed on the price and then instructed our own solicitors. They confirmed to me that they’d got the deposit together and sent me a screenshot of their AIP. Solicitors have taken over now but every so often the tenant and I touch base to update each other. They decided to dispense with a survey because they’ve lived there so long they know the property better than I do. 

In my situation it helps a lot that I’m selling to a couple I’ve known for a while, they’ve been good and reliable tenants, and most of all they really want the property. It’s their dream home and they weren’t in a position to buy when they first rented it, but now feel lucky that they’ve been able to buy it; albeit that the sale is only happening due to the unexpected death of my husband.

It makes everything so much easier if you have a buyer already lined up. Even better if it’s someone you can trust to help things go smoothly. 

NameUnavailable

How will you decide on the price to market your property for? Are you doing your own research or inviting estate agents around to give you free advice with no intention of ever engaging them! How will you then advertise? Make a home made for sale board? Social media? Cards in shop windows?

Once you get an offer you're happy with you can (and probably should) ask for proof of their funds/mortgage as well as all the details of any chain below them. There's no reason why you can't then await the outcome of their survey/s until you instruct your solicitors to proceed.

Be prepared to deal with a lot of time wasters (EA's will do a certain amount of due dilligence before booking appointments to view) and dealing with a lot of phone calls/emails from potential buyers.

In my past life as an EA I took a full asking price offer on a house shortly after it was put on the market (before advertising etc). The vendor was delighted at first but a few days later they came into the office all grim faced and said they weren't happy with us, we undervalued the house and they wanted to disengage with us and the buyers and sell it themselves.

I immediately suspected a side deal had been done with 'our' buyers but they were shocked too and said they wouldn't buy the house now as they didn't trust the vendors. We could have kept them tied into the agreement but let it go and off they went.

Fast forward several weeks later and the vendors called into the office. Basically they hadn't had much interest and were fed up with time wasters etc. and asked if the buyers we found them would be still interested. I took great delight in telling them that they had already agreed an offer on another property and given the previous experience we would prefer not to remarket the property!