Inheritance house split equal one wants to buy other wants to sell

workmummy

Inherited house split 50/50 between siblings. One sibling wants to buy the other out and can afford to do so but other sister wants to go straight to market for “quicker sale” rather than wait for sibling to sell their house and then buy it (with equity/mortgage) 
iv explained market may not be quicker as any other buyer may well also have chain plus have to pay estate agent for listing and selling fees etc 

This will quickly escalate into argument as sibling who wants to go straight to market is very money driven

And sibling who wants to buy the house has emotional attachment to the property 

can I have pros/cons for each siblings situation?

Herzlos

pros for open market:

May get more money for it.

Clean break so less hassle down the line.

pros for sibling buying half:

No estate agent fees.

No dealing with viewings, listings, presentation, fickle buyers.

Probably quicker. Most of the delay will come from the rest of the chain.

The biggest convincing factor for the selling sibling will be the estate agents fees and that it could easily take months to sell *before* the legal part and the buyer being in a position to complete.

Can the buying sibling fund the buy-out figure without selling their own property first? Or ribe the selling subling with a huge downpayment? Say buy 25% now and the remaining 25% when their house sells. If the selling sibling is money orientated that may be tempting enough.

You could potentially compromise and have the house listed for sale, and have the buying sibling list their house for sale. That would give the buying sibling a fair shot at the house whilst placating the selling sibling, but it'll mean estate agent fees of 1-2%.

Keep_pedalling

Seems rather foolish to think that the open market will be faster, so many more things to go wrong.

bouicca21

Get three EAs to give a suggested valuation and take the average?  Maybe that would convince sibling 1 that sibling 2 wasn’t trying to get a bargain at sibling 1’s expense?

workmummy

bouicca21 said:

Get three EAs to give a suggested valuation and take the average?  Maybe that would convince sibling 1 that sibling 2 wasn’t trying to get a bargain at sibling 1’s expense?

Absolutely sibling is willing to buy at valuated price 

WindfallWendy

Seems to me that having a commited buyer you can trust, without having to deal with an Estate agent is a gift. 

I was lucky enough to sell an inherited property to the tenant who was living in the house at the time. I knocked £15k off the top Estate Agent valuation because of the expense I saved from estate agent fees and avoiding having to do any tidying up and work on the house I'd have otherwise needed to do to get a swift sale if they had moved out and bought elsewhere. The house was 150 miles from where I live too, so I was so grateful to not have to deal with an unknown buyer.

anselld

It cant sell until probate is granted anyway.  Surely that is enough time for the buying sibling to get an offer on their current property.

WindfallWendy

Another point about how quickly things can or can't happen... I sold a second inherited property using the 'modern method of auction' assuming it would be the quickest route: my dad had equity release against the house and they were putting pressure on me to sell, despite probate taking 6 months and it being a generally horrific time for me. 

Anyway, it wasn't quick at all. In theory it operates on a 56 day turnaround but that's not set in stone. Yes, if they buyer doesn't complete you can withdraw from the sale, but then you just end up back at square one. This "quick" route for me took from mid-June, accepting the offer to actual sale concluding in mid-Sept I think it was. It was solicitors which slowed it down, because for some reason they buyers mortgage people had a solicitor involved too. 

Anyway, I guess all I'm saying is "quick" is a figment of ones imagination and patience is a virtue. These things take as long as they take. I suppose there could be some cost penalty build into the agreement to buy if there were extensive delays (which one would feasibly do in a 'normal' sale if having to extend rental or storage facilities for example) but if the issue driving the need to a quick sale is greed, then that's a bit rotten. 

Another feature of all this of course could be that the sibling who wants to sell might feel quite uncomfortable with the house staying in the family. They may never want to be in the house again, may not want to see it transform into a different family home. Emotion is engrained into everything and not always presented explicitly. Might be worth exploring that just so that if buying the house, the retaining sibling is prepared for what may follow. 

Albermarle

anselld said:

It cant sell until probate is granted anyway.  Surely that is enough time for the buying sibling to get an offer on their current property.

This is a good point.
OP - How is probate progressing?

Bonniepurple

WindfallWendy said:

Seems to me that having a commited buyer you can trust, without having to deal with an Estate agent is a gift. 

I was lucky enough to sell an inherited property to the tenant who was living in the house at the time. I knocked £15k off the top Estate Agent valuation because of the expense I saved from estate agent fees and avoiding having to do any tidying up and work on the house I'd have otherwise needed to do to get a swift sale if they had moved out and bought elsewhere. The house was 150 miles from where I live too, so I was so grateful to not have to deal with an unknown buyer.

Agreed. We sold to the son of the next door neighbour.  He knew the state of the place, and, when he found that he couldn’t borrow as much as he’d thought (thanks Liz Truss) my brother and I agreed to drop the price to what he could afford.  It would have cost us more in estate agent fees and we would have been knocked down by the eventual buyer as the house needed a lot of work.

As next door were key holders, we were quite happy for him to pop in and check the place/measure up etc.

sheramber

Cost out the estate agents fees, the cost of advertising, the cost ant hassle of clearing the house( buying sibling could accept house as it stands)  and present that to selling sibling.

is there any money in the estate that could be used to  give sibling their share instead of the share of the house?

Is selling sibling willing to list house for sale immediately as there could similar delays in both selling to sibling and selling on open market. One is not guaranteed quicker than the other.