Potentially buying flat privately from friend of friend -currently advertised in estate agent

[taratw]

Hello

I am after some advice on how to approach potentially buying privately a flat from a friend of a friend who I vaguely know too.

The flat was put on the market at the beginning of December through an estate agent and apparently she hasnt received an offer yet. The flat is in the area we are looking at and meets most of our requirements.

So I guess we could make informal contact but then wait for the initial tie in period with estate agents to end before making a formal offer. So what is her likely tie in time with the estate agent? And what is a reasonable offer to make? Given that she will be avoiding £4000ish in estate agent costs is it cheeky to split the difference?

Any other advice? I dont want to ruin personal relationships by appearing to be unreasonable!

Iirc our contract with EA was minimum of 12 weeks, some ask for more.
December is a rubbish time to list, things get moving as you head towards spring. Would you really risk someone else getting interested and buying it in the next 6 weeks whilst holding on for £2k?

If you really want the flat, put in a sensible offer now. She's maybe happy to pay fees rather than do a favour for someone she vaguely knows.

I would ask the person you know if she would sell to you and wait for a few more weeks or would she rather you went through the agent? Did the agent alert you to the property? It might matter more if you are a cash buyer. If you need to sell, you are not that much of a catch.

I would just organise a viewing via the EA in the normal way. Trying to avoid the EA fees just gets messy as you are already starting to see, & you as the buyer don’t pay them anyway. EAs can be very useful in helping to get a sale to completion if things get awkward between buyer & seller which they often do because of delays, bad surveys etc.

Just go via the EA, it'll be easier for you and you can still.put a cheeky offer in.

She may want to go through EA for reasons other than marketing - chain management etc