Selling a house to friends, tell me the pitfalls.

[Twistandfallover]

We were musing about selling and our friends have said they'd like first refusal.
None of us are in a hurry and I hope we're all decent enough to separate a business transaction from a friendship.
My gut is to put it on the open market but DH thinks that would be daft.
Does anyone have any experience of selling to friends and did the friendship survive?

Personally I wouldn't really want to because the selling/buying process can be so difficult/stressful anyway I wouldn't want to risk a friendship over it. However it could work out really well for you guys if everything goes smoothly.

I guess things to consider would be, would they expect you to accept a lower offer because of friendship? If they had surveys and found issues how would you deal with them asking for price reductions etc?

You need to put it on the open market, and then let them bid competitively.

When my grandmother passed away, I had an offer on the day of the funeral believe it or not. It looked very reasonable. The solicitor told me not to accept, to put it on the open market and let them bid with everyone else. I did and received much much more that the first party simply couldn't match.

You could have it valued and if you are happy with the valuation ask them if they are willing to pay it.

We sold to friends, it worked perfectly 👍🏻 we were straight and said that it was going on the market for £250k (e.g.) and we would go down to £245k (e.g.) so if they wanted it they could have it at that, so they did, it worked so well, we shared the cost of skips etc and let them decorate etc before exchange ... it doesn't always go tits up when you do business with friends. No EA or solicitors fees either (which we factored into what we sold it to them for)

Thanks for the comments.
DH and friends think it's win-win, avoiding agents fees, no messing about marketing etc.
I think we'll wonder what would've happened if we put it on the open market.

I suppose we could start by getting it valued but then again the agents round here just tell you what you want to hear.

My parents sold all 3 of their previous houses to friends. They had no problems with any of the sales. It was nice and straightforward and saved everyone time and money

Definitely have it valued by 3 or so agents but also look at what you want to purchase. We sold to friends and it was relatively smooth because any issues could be ironed out by a quick chat rather than back and forth with EAs and solicitors.

I'd get it valued , decide how much you want for it based on that then speak to your friends and see if they are willing to pay that.