Buying a house without going via the estate agent?

[stirling]

Hello, wonder if you could shed some light or share experiences.

I'm very interested in a particular house I've seen on rightmove in an area I've longed to live in. It seems ideal and I drove past the house yesterday and just felt great standing outside!
I'm a single mother with two teen dcs. I had my own house evaluated yesterday and it's the exact same cost as the new house. Trouble is I don't really have much for stamp duty (5%?) plus solicitors fees etc.
I wondered how the vendor would take to me randomly approaching ( letter? Ring on doorbell?) and if it holds risks for me...

the idea is that I could offer a little less, and they could save on estate agent fees. But do agents provide protection and is this unethical if you haven't ever been introduced via an agent first?
Thank you

This is totally possible to do

Our friends did this when moving from inner London out to a suburb around a 30min drive away

The property was on the market with a local agent and it had been several weeks and no sale yet

Our friends knew of the owner via a mutual friend who put them in touch

They agreed a price- lower than the advertised asking price- owner acknowledged they were saving on agent fees so accepted lower price.

Our friends simply had to declare they'd had no contact with the selling agent (they hadn't) then the property was withdrawn and they proceeded with a private sale, had their own solicitors obviously

Sale took around 12 weeks and went through fine

How did they know the house was for sale? The OP only knows the house is on the market because the EA paid to put it on Rightmove.

OP it won't save you anything if you go via their estate agent - you don't pay the fees, they do.

Our friends found about the property via a friend who knew the owner who was getting a bit desperate to sell after a few months

They then went to check it out on Rightmove and were put in touch with the owner via their friend

An estate agent cannot claim their fee just because it was listed on Rightmove (as far as I know)

Our friends had had zero prior contact with the estate agent who had listed the property

If you're buying you don't pay agency fees, the seller does. Going direct won't save you as the buyer any money at all except the seller might prefer your offer over others. However if they're under contract already (they are if it's on right move) then they won't be able to sell direct to client anyway.
Stamp duty is the tax you pay on the purchase. It's levied at the point of purchase. You can't get around it.

The buyer can’t get round stamp duty, the solicitor will ensure that is paid.
But the seller can avoid estate agent fees even if they have listed the property on Rightmove, if they end up selling to someone who the estate agent didn’t introduce them to.
If they save a few £££ they may pass on half the saving to the buyer, so both sides benefit.

It really depends on how the contract is written. The fact that they went online and viewed the details on Rightmove means the EA's marketing information was involved in the sale.

It's a very murky area and your friend was lucky.

It's a very murky area and your friend was lucky.

Agree. EAs generally aggressively pursue fees they are due under the terms of their contract. That would involve a buyer being found through their marketing material. The fact that your friend avoided them for the purposes of progressing the sale is immaterial.

Oops, very nearly a Zombie thread, apologies, all!

@GladysHeeler do you know if that also happens when multi-agencies are instructed on a rental? They charge more commission?