Buying without an Estate Agent

[BlueKarou]

Has anyone done this?

I've been looking for a house for a long while now, to the point where my mother tells random dog walkers she meets in the woods about it. This has turned out to be potentially not the weirdest thing - a lady in the village has just sought my mother out and told her that she's looking to sell, in my price range, and wondered if I was interested.

The easy answer to that is 'yes' - obviously once I've had a look around the house. I know the area, so just want to check for the usual things; kitchen, bathroom, mould, all that. But yeah in theory this could be ideal. It's very hard to find properties in the village, so I'm hopeful this could be the solution.

My question is what would I need to do differently without an Estate Agent, if anything? Having had some awful experiences with them, and being thoroughly screwed around when I sold my house I'm happy to avoid them, as long as there are no major pitfalls awaiting.

Any experience?

You need to negotiate the price, obviously.

What is the lady you are buying froms situation? Is she buying another property? You might find it hard keeping tabs on a long chain if there is one. Estate agents can go up and down a chain to find out what stage everyone is at etc at any time.

Choose a conveyancer you think you would get on well with, so you are happy to ring them up as often as you need to.

No, I don't have experience but I would not be put off as long as you can negotiate a fair price. After that it is down to you to organise a survey and instruct a solicitor, but you would do that anyway. The main function of an agent is to bring vendors and buyers together. Your Mum has done that! You can try and investigate previous sales in your village to see what price would be reasonable and I assume the vendors would do the same. You could then have a meeting to agree a price and have an agreement drawn up for you both to sign. If they, and you, are serious, you can easily go ahead. However, don't forget the big saving is for them so maybe negotiate a bit for yourself, or your Mum!

Great advice, thanks. I've arranged to pop round and see it on Friday, so will see how that goes. My dad's used a local surveyance company before which he recommends, so it's becoming a bit of a family effort!

Hi, we bought direct after a door blitz, so no agent involved between us (although they were buying thru and agent, so there was contact with them to keep the chain going). Worked out really fine. We agreed a price. I had a very good idea of prices as i had been watching the market for a while so I felt it was a fair price. They saved on agents fees, and we prob got a good deal, so all happy!

Good luck!

I bought a house once without an estate agent (friend of a friend scenario). The owners of the house I was buying were moving out of the area into rented so there was no chain other than on my sale to FTB. Absolutely fine, though of course, it was the vendor who saved EA money not me! Good luck!