Anyone sold privately before?

[DeliveredByKiki]

Our tenants of 3years have expressed an interest in buying our flat should we choose to sell it, we’re thinking about it because we assume we could get more for it now than probably over the next few years thanks to Brexit - has anyone sold privately before and not gone through agents? I assume we still need to pay for a solicitor so is it just estate agent fees you save on? How was the process for you? Any pitfalls?

We sold privately the first time and bought privately, so just 3 in the chain, no pitfalls at all just a big saving on estate agent fees. Only difference is you have to chase up solicitors yourself but it's really not difficult and if anything g easier as you get everything g first hand....go for it 👍

Thanks! That’s the main (only) saving right? Just working out how to negotiate the price with them, I don’t mind dropping it to be what we’d get after costs if t meant they could afford to buy it

I almost did this but decided to put it on the market so I could find out the true market value. The house was a but of an odd ball for the area.

Orginal person who wanted to buy it privately offered most. Then started to mess me about. Saying they thought it was worth less and issues with the size of the house ?!? I told them under no circumstances other than genuine survey problem would I budge on the price. They pulled out 3 days after I told them this, and I sold to someone else.

I fully renovated it myself so knew it was 100%, Which the survey confirmed. I’ve spoken to the new owners since and they’re over the moon with it.

So there are pitfalls.

But if your flat is easy to value and the tenants have been good to you. I don’t envisage you’ll have same pitfalls I had.

In my situation it would of been a terrible idea and would of delayed me a further few weeks in selling and I would of got a lot less for the house.
Well worth the 1.5% agent fee even if they only did 4 hours work in total...

That might be the only financial saving, but it would save a huge amount of stress of trying to give the right amount of notice to a tenant, upon 'guessing' when your sale would go through, and then having voids when things don't go according to plan, etc, plus of course showing people round when you have tenants in, and all the people who would be put off by having tenants in.
If they've been there 3 years and want to buy, it sounds like a good plan to me, if you are thinking of selling.

You need theee evaluations
Then negotate a price
Other than that it's just solicitors

You can pull out at any time of they mess about, and you'll still get the rent paid!

You're in a good position because they already live there

I sold privately just saved estate agents fees - took 5 months to go through but was to a guy I knew. I would get estate agents valuations but in the current market some of them are overvaluing and quite a few places having to reduce. Look for similar properties sold on Rightmove and what they have gone for taking condition into account. I would go for it if can agree a price.

I had 3 valuations for flat sold privately when the market was good - tried on market at middle one for a year then had to reduce. Only the lowest one wasn't an overvaluation (an even the lowest was 12% above what it sold for) - it sold for 20-25% below top one after 1.5 years in a rising market. Though at least having tried and failed this route I knew the private offer was a good one.

I just sold my flat to my tenants. I reckon I could have gotten a bit more on the open market, but I said from the outset the price we agreed was the price, regardless of survey findings, so it was a v low stress experience. They also agreed to complete on the day that suited me best so I had no mortgage redemption fees. Also sold all the fixtures and fittings, so didn't have to worry about clearing the flat.

We just bought privately and being able to speak to the vendors directly was so much easier than having to rely on estate agents (at one point the EA tried telling us both different things - that backfired massively because hey we’re quickly found out.)

You don’t need an EA at all, their valuations are pulled out of thin air half the time anyway. Look at the actual sold prices online, not what EA are marketing at, because the latter will usually be higher unless you’re in an area that’s booming right now.

Good luck!

*they were - bloody typos!