Have you ever sold privately when listed with an agent?

[Houseyhope]

Our house has been up for 4 months. Marketed well, good photos etc?
c but not many viewings and no interest. Estate agents have been ok, but not great. We dropped the price a month ago. Had a couple more viewers but no offers.

While I was at the house I met someone outside looking at it, saying the property they were purchasing was about to fall through due to a legal issue in the searches, but their sale was about to complete. They asked if they could have a look at ours. I showed them around. They came back with their partner and then made an offer. They will be cash buyers, won’t be doing surveys and should complete on their sale at the end of the month, so want to move forward quickly. We are not buying anything else. We’ve agreed to use their solicitor for added speed (I’ve done this before when we bought).

It’s bugging me that we need to give the estate agents a month’s notice, or else pay their fees, despite them not finding the buyer or doing any of the negotiating. Has anyone else been in this situation and managed to reduce their fees?

Another question-
have you ever let the buyer occupy your property before completing and rent it for a couple of months? I know this is thought of as not a good idea, but why? We do have another uninhabited property that we could rent them, but it would be a pain for us as it would need a lot of emptying/cleaning and a pain for them as they’d have to move twice. It would be easier all round to rent them the one they’re buying.

Give notice to the agent now.
instruct solicitors, I don’t think one can legally act for both parties.

DO NOT let them rent.

You can use the same solicitor, I’ve done it previously.

Even if I give notice the contract says I need to pay them if the house is sold within that month. How can I avoid that? I don’t mind paying for photos etc, they have done some work for us..

Why do you say DO NOT rent? I want to know what people think can go wrong.

I would be most concerned that they would end up squatting or something 🙈. Also when you live in a house you can see it for its faults (as well as its good parts). More opportunity for them to potentially get cold feet!

no advice or understanding on the estate agents!

Do you have a a for sale sign up ? Or did they see the property on right move ? I think you’ll have a hard job proving that the sale ( if it happens ) wasn’t helped along by agents , but is it’s have any personal experience of this .

No

Complete after a month. The process can start and have everything ready

OP, you’re coming across as so keen to sell that you’re blind to any notion that you could be being scammed, or at the least being taken massive advantage of.

This all sounds very unusual.

If they move in as tenants and the sale falls through (accidentally or not), you could be spending the best part of a year and plenty of money going through the courts to evict them.

Using the same solicitors can lead to a conflict of interest. If it happened by chance I wouldn't necessarily be too worried, but I'd be very wary if they specifically asked you to do that.

I’m really not naive or desperate. It’s a property I’m selling as executor, no money goes to me. I’ve bought and sold a few times over my life. Im just looking for other people who have had a similar situation. It was I that suggested the same solicitor to speed things up, as they are worried about being homeless in a few weeks. They spoke to their solicitor to see if it was possible, who said it was.

I do take on Pink Cow’s comments. Things to think about. It may be better to let them rent our other property if they rent anything and doing it on a holiday let type contract, week to week. Obviously we’d look into how to do that. Again I am just asking for experiences again.

If anyone rented something short term inbetween houses how did it work?

I would give notice to your agent; even if this sale doesn’t go through, your agent sounds a bit average so it’s probably time to list it with someone else.

I’d set up an Airbnb listing for your other property, if it’s only going to be a couple of weeks, that’s probably the easiest way to do it as all the liability insurance etc is covered by Airbnb.

As an executor you also have a duty to realise the best possible return and minimise risks to the estate.

Have you been able to validate any of these claims
the property they were purchasing was about to fall through due to a legal issue in the searches, but their sale was about to complete. They asked if they could have a look at ours. I showed them around. They came back with their partner and then made an offer. They will be cash buyers, won’t be doing surveys and should complete on their sale at the end of the month, so want to move forward quickly. We are not buying anything else. We’ve agreed to use their solicitor for added speed (I’ve done this before when we bought)

Cold caller who is a cash buyer, not doing a survey, wanting to stay in the property before full completion, use their solicitor?

Honestly at least get your own solicitor to check all this out and verify and then advise on the risks relating to changes in the rental acts. I have experience cold callers making offers too good to be true - they were too good to be true but we found out when we checked out their claims with the help of our own solicitors.

I always rent between houses. I never move the same day I complete. That’s not an issue at all.

I really would caution you not to rent to them before buying as so much can and could go wrong.
I also do believe you should have a solicitor working for your interests.

Thanks. Yes I think we will give notice to the Estate Agent whatever, and change agents if this falls through.
And setting up as Air B&B is a good idea. Is that how you rented inbetween @Tortephant?

The house they said they were buying is shown as added today on Rightmove , when it was shown as sold previously. They’ve copied me in on emails from their solicitors about the previous purchase correspondence for it.

As executor I have passed all offers on to the person who will benefit from the sale of the house and they have decided whether to accept or not. They are also speaking to someone they know who is a solicitor. There has only been one offer so far, and the person who will benefit it keen to sell the house.

I get what you’re saying. They have screenshots of letters from their solicitor addressed to them and their house is showing as under offer on Rightmove. I also found them on Facebook with pictures of them over the years at that house. I’m not worried that they’re not genuine.
As I said, it was I that suggested using the same solicitor to speed things up. I would have to speak to the solicitor first to see if I felt happy with them. I previously bought our house using the same solicitor as the vendor to make things easier. It was perfectly legal and worked well. The person who benefits from the sale can make the final decision on that.

I did this when I sold to a friend, I quietly took it off the market, instructed solicitor, used same, then waited the notice period (4 or 6 weeks) before exchanging then completed later. TBH this process required a bit more legal work and the cost saving was fairly negotiable in the end.

if your buyer is a cash buyer then just wait the four weeks?

Rental income needs to go onto a tax return, you will need to do evo, gas safety and landlord insurance, change your mortgage to a buy to let - not worth the hassle.

Thanks very much. I’m taking everything you’ve said onboard.