Private sales - anyone ever sold a house this way? How would it work?

[threeleftfeet]

I'm about to put my flat on the market and my neighbour has said she's seriously interested in putting in an offer.

How would this work?

I'm still going to go ahead and get it valued, as I have no guarantee we'll be able to agree a price etc.

But if we did go for a private sale how woud it work? Do we just get solicitors to sort it out?

I've never sold before (let alone without an estate agent!) so any advice would be much appreciated!

TIA :)

Yes, we sold ours privately. We're in Scotland.

Had it valued to decide whether to rent or sell, then someone heard we might be selling and asked to see it. He came, asked how much we wanted and agreed a price. Next step was his solicitor contacting ours with a formal offer, and the rest happened as normal. All paper work & monies exchanged in 6 weeks. Because it was a private sale we didn't have to pay for a home report.

Hope all goes well with your sale

Thanks MrsAmeretto.

I suspect it may well down to whether we can agree a price.

Would you mind if I asked you how much the solicitors fees were roughly?

I'm assuming as it's out of the ordinary there may be extra charges there?

Solicitor would not increase fee on account of sale having no estate agent involed. private sales are not extraordinary of themselves. However, agents usually sort out the EPC so factor cost of this into your calculations as your solicitor will need this. They can obtain one but would expect you to pay the cost of this.

PS Just give the details to your solicitor of the sale, buyer and their solicitors.

We sold our "rental" property to the sitting tennant. He had it valued, we had it valued and we met in the middle :o Our valuation was the higher one, but we were happy to come down as he had been paying the mortgage for us and had rented it with a view to buying it as soon as a relative's estate had been through probate, which took longer than he thought.

On the legalities, it was pretty straightforward, we let our solicitor know who his solicitor was and the agreed price and they did the rest. Definitely the easiest house sale I've been involved in!

That's really encouraging, thanks everyone :)

Did you knock some money off the price for doing a private sale? If do may I ask roughly how much?

What's the going rate for estate agents' fees where you are? In my neck of the woods it's 1.5%, so perhaps knock off half the fee? The art of the successful business deal is that both parties should feel they've done well out of it.

You could also get a surveyor to value your property (costs about £180 here in London) and the buyer's surveyor to value it, then meet in the middle.

You're bloody lucky. Selling my old house meant paying enough to the EA to buy a brand new BMW. The thing that gutted me was the buyer lived down the street and if she'd just put a note through my door we'd have both been in clover!

All you need to do is tell your solicitor that you have sold, get the name of the solicitor your buyer is using, price details etc and matters will just proceed as per usual.

Only thing you need to check is that the buyer is actually in a position to proceed. This means do they have anything to sell, are they in a chain and do they have a mortgage agreed in principle. These are the things an EA is meant to do for you and it is not at all mysterious nor requiring a skilled professional.

I once sold to an older couple (late sixties) who said they were cash buyers. They then told me a hold up was due to a delay on their mortgage offer. It took me a few days to realise they would have some difficulty obtaining a mortgage at their age and also the fact they did not have jobs. Just a warning.

There is no requirement you reduce your price to allow for an estate agents' fees particularly as valuations may well vary dramatically.

I did, put an ad in the local paper and knocked 1k off the asking price of 55k (it was a long time ago!)
Ended up selling to a sister of a friend of my dp but had 4 offers within 2 weeks.
Sols fees are around 700

Thanks for your advice everyone, it's really useful :)

I know the potential buyer isn't the most efficient with paperwork (this is an understatement), so I'd need to impose a time limit for sorting out the mortgage, and the whole process I guess.

What would be reasonable for this? Last time I got a mortgage (rather than a remortgage) was over a decade ago, I can't remember how long it took now!

YOu can get an offer in principal at the mortgage appointment which can take up to 2 weeks to get depending on how busy the bank or IFA is. Sometimes an underwriter needs to see more information before giving a decision but that can be done within a week.