Buying Home Directly from an Owner

This is how it worked out in my experience...
I sold my parents house directly to a buyer who, like you, sent me a letter explaining their situation.
The buyer actually grew up in the neighbourhood, had moved away, now wanted to come back and live near their parents.

I had already recently got the house valued by estate agents, and knew what the price of similar had already sold for (using Property price register).

I didn't price too far from that ballpark value.

We met and agreed a price which was also subject to the buyers getting a surveyer.

At this point, it is still all verbal and NO agreement yet existed.

No deposit was paid - this is where you could argue having a agent might be a benefit, because now we are just trusting each other.

The process was;

- Agree a price but do NOT exchange money (ie deposit) directly between buyer and seller. Could cause all sorts of problems if anything goes wrong.
- Both sides to engage a solicitor ASAP.
- Let the solicitors deal with everything from now on - deposits etc...
- The conveyencing process should now follow its normal course via legal reps.
- The buyer should get a survey done.
- The seller needs to get a BER (buyers solicitor will insist anyway)


Overall, there was no price advantage to either side but I didn't have to pay estate agents 1.5% out of it, and the buyer got the location they had their heart set on.

It was also faster as we didn't have to search for a buyer.
 
This is how it worked out in my experience...
I sold my parents house directly to a buyer who, like you, sent me a letter explaining their situation.
The buyer actually grew up in the neighbourhood, had moved away, now wanted to come back and live near their parents.

I had already recently got the house valued by estate agents, and knew what the price of similar had already sold for (using Property price register).

I didn't price too far from that ballpark value.

We met and agreed a price which was also subject to the buyers getting a surveyer.

At this point, it is still all verbal and NO agreement yet existed.

No deposit was paid - this is where you could argue having a agent might be a benefit, because now we are just trusting each other.

The process was;

- Agree a price but do NOT exchange money (ie deposit) directly between buyer and seller. Could cause all sorts of problems if anything goes wrong.
- Both sides to engage a solicitor ASAP.
- Let the solicitors deal with everything from now on - deposits etc...
- The conveyencing process should now follow its normal course via legal reps.
- The buyer should get a survey done.
- The seller needs to get a BER (buyers solicitor will insist anyway)


Overall, there was no price advantage to either side but I didn't have to pay estate agents 1.5% out of it, and the buyer got the location they had their heart set on.

It was also faster as we didn't have to search for a buyer.
Thanks @redstar - this all sounds very logical and hoping our situation might go this way too - I'd love to buy into the estate where the lady is because I grew up close to there too - thanks for your post

The lady will need an independent valuation so will likely approach the EAs for that- and hopefully she and her sibling will decide to deal with us and not go on open market -

I'll post back progress update after we've chatted with her
 
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