Buying a house privately - no EA

[Aria20]

We are selling via an estate agent but so far haven't found a property we like on the market. We're not in a rush but if we found out a house on particular road we like were willing to sell privately would we be foolish to consider it without estate agent back up to keep things moving in the chain? Also if you've bought a house in this sort of situation how did it go? Did you pay over the market value?

You can ask an estate agent to act just for the chain part and not the selling part, so that's an option. In this market, I would expect to pay over market value for a private sale, or at least at the top end of what the house is worth, because it's a massive advantage to you as a buyer not having to compete with everyone else who is likely to want to buy it.

@AnneMarieClaireSophie this is what I thought. We'd be willing to pay top end of the market value, potentially a bit over if everything was perfect. It would obviously be a huge plus for us not to get into a bidding war and for the seller to save 6k estate agents fees. Just wanted to see if people had positive experiences of this?

Yes OP we've bought and sold off market as it's called. In most circumstances you should expect to pay a premium. I don't know what your area is like but here (Somerset) good properties are easily going for 20% above asking and therefore I'd expect to have to at least match that. In fact one I know of last month went for 50% above asking but that got into a five way bidding war (NB it started in the £1.5m bracket and there is not much supply at the moment).

It's definitely worth a try, but what you need to remember is that it's a sellers' market at the moment and therefore you need to give a vendor a really good reason to not put their house on the open market.

FYI it's not the estate agent that keeps the chain moving along - it's you and a good solicitor.

Thank you @Daisydoesnt how did you go about your sale and purchase in this way? Did someone approach you for your property and did you approach home owners and ask if they were interested in selling? It's definitely an option I am considering at the moment!

A search agent approached us on behalf of their client (we had quite an unusual house and it was exactly what they were looking for!) We then used that search agent to find our next house. She seems to be really well connected and hears about things before they go on the market.

Where are you located OP? And good luck!

Way back at the top of the market, before the 2008 crash, I leafleted the area I wanted to live in (a grid of just 4 roads). Three people got back to me, one was my dream house. I had been told by friends to negotiate a lower price as the seller wouldn't have to pay estate agent fees. However because loved it, paid what they asked for which was top price for the road. In the long run I love it even more so doesn't matter.

Anyway, conveyancers dealt with everything eg negotiations around needing a new boiler. I did sell my place through an estate agent at the same time and they offered to be involved in the purchase but I didn't think necessary.

Following with interest regarding the advice received, as I'm hoping to secure a property in this way. Fed up of there being no houses to buy, so I sent 5 notes to houses I really like this week, and I'm hoping they get back to me by the weekend!

I helped a friend buy privately from a friend of a friend (she asked my advice as I used to work for a law firm which did conveyancing and so have some knowledge of the process) and it should all be fairly straight forward. There are guides available both online and in book form which should help you to understand the process but its not majorly complicated.

I would advise to get a solicitor in a local office who you can contact easily and who knows about your circumstances/wishes and any key dates that need to be met. Also try and ensure that the sellers have a good solicitor and arent relying on online conveyancing. And be prepared to have to be a bit more proactive and chase up things like surveys and searches as an estate agent wont be there to ease the process along. Become friends with the solicitor's secretary too as they often are the ones who actually do the work!

As for price my friend had an offer accepted that was 10% below the two valuations that the seller had had done - this was to reflect the fact that there werent estate agents to pay and that the seller didnt have to undertake a major tidy/redecorating to prepare the house for sale. However this was about 10 years ago when there wasnt such a fast moving market.

Good luck. It can be done. Have faith in your abilities!

Its also a question of getting the seller on board - they need to feel ownership of the process and be willing to help it along and not be intimidated by not having an estate agent who can guide them

We were struggling to find anything we liked and our buyer was putting massive pressure on us so I leafleted 2 roads. I looked on Google maps and worked out which ones had smaller gardens and discounted those.
We had 2 responses and would have been happy with either though one was much better. Luckily the owners of the better one wanted to proceed.
They got it valued by 2 agents and we offered the pay the valuation.
The sale did take a long while as there was no one pushing it through and it was quite awkward at times contacting the vendor and asking when they were going to do things.
We got there in the end and I so glad we did as it took so long to go though the price would definitely have gone up and had it gone on the open market I am sure there would have been a bidding war as it is very popular street.