Buyer found, no estate agent - what might we miss?

[Ohthepressure]

We've tentatively agreed to sell our house - it's currently rented (we're overseas - the house has been rented for 5 years as we couldn't sell it at the time we moved overseas) and a friend of the tenant has viewed it and would like to buy it at an agreed value, subject to their sale of course.

Due to this connection we haven't instructed an estate agent to sell the house (our rental agents are monumentally useless in any event, they missed cat pee ruining the wood floor in one room (and replaced engineered wood with cheap laminate without consulting us), and somehow overlooked the sudden appearance of chickens in the back garden - this was a few months after the disappearance of our 1.5m x 1.5m mature planted border which the previous tenants had apparently dug up).

The proposed buyers are planning to go into rented when their house sells, as our house won't be ready until the lease expires in 6 months - our plan is to exchange on our sale at the same time as the buyers exchange on their sale, to lock them in, and then to complete when the tenants vacate.

We'll obviously have to find a decent conveyancing solicitor (and any recommendations for the Sheffield area would be very gratefully received) but are we going to be missing out on anything by not having an estate agent handling our sale? We don't need to be chivvying along a chain, that's our buyer's problem.

I've sold 2 houses in the UK as we've moved around the country, but they were very straightforward. Can anyone tell me what risks there are to us proceeding without an estate agent?

Thanks!

You may find their mortgage provider will want the tenants out before exchange.

I'm buying a tenanted property and I've been told that we can't exchange until the tenants have vacated.

A lot can happen in six months.

I'm buying a tenanted property and I've been told that we can't exchange until the tenants have vacated.

A lot can happen in six months.

Just buying a tenanted property as you set a completion date at exchange the vendor can not guarantee that the tenants will leave until the day they actually go.

Hence solicitors will not let buyers exchange till the property is empty.

Ah, that's useful to know. The tenants are definitely leaving (they have high level professional jobs to go to elsewhere) but at least we won't sound like numptys asking for exchange if that's not possible. We'll have to get legal advice as to whether there's anything we can do to lock our purchasers in, as otherwise we could be high and dry with a house that's impossible to market in the middle of a Sheffield winter. Maybe if the tenants agree in a written agreement to leave?

You DON'T need an estate agent when selling your property - no different from selling your car or other belongings. Particularly when you already have a willing buyer. I sold my flat to a complete stranger who I met by chance one cold evening in mid-January. Four months later we exchanged and a couple or so weeks later we completed and I moved to my new house before the end of May.

Just get yourself a conveyancing solicitor. We got ours provided free of charge by our mortgage provider - acting for us when buying our new home as well as selling our old flat all at the same time.

Don't need an estate agent.

But in regards to Sheffield solicitors, avoid PM Law, they completely ruined our sale and took a year to register our lease. Never responded to phone calls etc. There's a huge list of people who have complained and all negative trust pilot reviews removed.