Any pitfalls in buying a house without involvement of estate agents?

[mintchocchick]

We are looking for a house to buy and have been put in touch with a couple who are selling theirs, but they are not yet on the Market. I've had one viewing, we've got a second viewing arranged so my DH can see round but already I know the house is ideal for us. I love it.

I'm wondering how we go about negotiating etc without an EA and if there are any pitfalls we should be aware of?

I can't see any real pitfalls to be honest. Maybe you could ask the people for their email address if they use it, so you could make any offer in writing, and it might take some of the pressure off.

Agents can supposedly be useful for chasing vendor's solicitors but to be honest if you have a good solicitor they should be doing that. I would say that the key thing is getting a good solicitor and making sure you aren't going to offer way over the odds compared to the selling prices of local similar properties.

An email address is a good idea. Especially if we want to make an offer that we feel may disappoint them. I always feel bad making that first offer and that's when it's passed on by an agent, so can't imagine how awkward it might be direct to seller.

Also good to have record of negotiations through email tracking.
Thanks narmada

I've sold a house without an EA, and several with. It was the easiest and best without an agent.

The main pitfall I can see is that you negotiate direct. You have to say to them I'm offering X rather than having an agent do the talking for you both.

What we did was have 3 EA come out to value the property. We agreed to sell at the average amount, so no tricky negotiations.

The rest was plain sailing. I instructed my solicitor, they instructed theirs, and we just phoned each other if anything needed to be chased up. We communicated more because we were speaking directly, so I would send them an email saying spkoe to solicitor he has sent xyz, and vice versa.

Was over and done with very quickly and everyone was happy.

And saving the EA fee is worth it

EAs are primarily there to get the two parties together, via their marketing, and to get to an agreed price, by assisting the negotiation. You don't need the first part, and I'm sure you can handle the second.

IME, once an offer has been accepted and the sale is proceeding, the EA adds sod all to the process.

Good idea to have 3 valuations though I'd feel a bit cheeky asking them to do this as I know how long such things take and it's a hassle when you're both working as they are.

But I'm not sure how we arrive at a price otherwise.

They seem a very decent couple and our mutual friend is a good judge of character and been very positive so I can see email communication working well. Thanks oreo

I'd agree Cointreau! And you're often left second guessing the EAs agenda in any communication.

Do you have an idea of the value of the house. I did it a few years ago when the market was more bouyant so an EA value was pretty accurate.

If I was doing it now I would research local house prices, zoopla and up my street will give you the recent selling prices of similar houses in the area.

Also whats the area like, are ther loads of houses up for sale? If there are what are they asking? Often too much so if this house is one of many of a similar price that are not selling it may be too expensive.

Once you have an idea of what you would like to pay, email them, or see them in person (the better option IMO so they can see your sincerity), and suggest an EA valuation so that both of you have a starting point for negotiations.

Also remember they will be saving thousands of pounds by avoiding the EA fee, point this out in negotiations (nicely).

Say they want £100k, you want to pay £95, split the difference of the EA fee and you should find a happy common ground.

Thanks Oreo. We've been looking a while so I think I'm fairly clued up on prices. It was last sold 18mths ago and I've seen that price on zoopla but am not sure how much prices have gone down since sept 2010, if at all.

The area is one where some (overpriced) houses stay on for ages, we've been looking a year and some are still on at same price. Others go within a week, really quickly the EA will say no more viewings as sellers were offered their asking price, were happy and accepted. I've found that very frustrating as you have no chance.

I really would go for it then, decide what you want to pay and go for it. They will also feel slighlty uncomfortable negotiating - we all do, but just remember that they would know what you offered even if an EA was involved so its not that different really.

Good luck

Oh and I think 18mths ago the market had already dropped a fair bit so the price should still be fairly relevant, just remember to knock a bit off fot the EA fee

Good advice here about negotiating, we bought our house without an EA and paid what the sellers asked because we wanted the house so much, we didn't want it to go on the market because we knew it was unusual and would be popular. However this was 5 years ago and prices were high. We thought it wasn't worth quibbling over 5% of the asking price, but with hindsight could probably have got it for a little less.

It was a hassle chasing our sellers though, they were slow and not in an upwards chain whereas we had buyers, we had to keep phoning them. Things we might have asked an EA we asked our solicitor direct e.g. make sure the boiler's been serviced.

We bought our first house without using agents - the owners just decided to do it on their own and stuck a nice sign up outside. They were lucky in that the owners of a similar house 2 doors down had just put their place up for sale and it was when we went to look around that one that we spotted the makeshift sign.

I found the whole process very easy, although to be fair there were no real sticking points. Negotiating was VERY difficult though and stumped my usually very hard-nosed husband... so much harder to say what you really think when you're talking to the owners of the house - but it makes the whole process so much more human.

We're now in the process of selling that place and buying a new one, with EAs at both ends - and have to say I might have just got lucky with the agents we're using but I'm VERY glad to have them. They've helped out loads with organising surveyors, reports, discussing leaving certain fixtures/fittings (which was starting to get a bit heated), and with chivvying along the whole process - crucial in that our buyers are turning out to be thick as mince and utterly infuriating. I've been glad there's a layer between us and them because frankly I'm not sure I would have been able to keep my temper.