How to sell a house privately?

[FreddoBaggyMac]

Hi. just wondering if anyone can give me some advice on this. We were planning on putting our house up for sale over the next week with local estate agents, but some friends of ours have said they are interested in buying it and renting their own house out (it's not just a spur of the moment thing - they were actually going to move anyway!)

Just wondering how we'd go about doing this and minimising costs etc... We wouldn't need an estate agent, would we still need to get a HIPP done? I presume we'd still need to use solicitors?

I'd be most grateful for any advice!

Don't think you need a HIPP as it is a private sale - check on line. You would need to agree the price, and obviously they would need mortgage in place etc. Still need solicitors who would do the searches/paperwork. Still have to pay stamp duty etc. Main saving would be the EA fees

Thanks Blackduck - can't seem to find the HIPP info online but will keep trying. Might be best to get a solicitor first and check with them...

Found this which seems to answer it!:

A HIP will only be required prior to a property being advertised for sale.

''You will still require a HIP if you sell the property privately ( if it is being advertised ) if however someone approaches you direct and asks to buy your property, then a HIP will not be required.

A HIP is also not required for a tenanted property.

Two HIP's are required for walking or running! For which you can be charged double. ''

We did this a few years ago, in Scotland though, so cannot help you with details. It was like any other house sale, buyers made an offer, we rejected, they made another offer, we rejected , they made a 3rd offer which we accepted . Then the respective solicitors did all the legal work incl. ensuring payment and sorting out stamp duty etc.
We were lucky that we had not signed any kind of contract with the estate agent yet (although they had already come to take photos, oops..) and saved loadsa money.
We would do it again with all the appropriate legal help of course. I do not know about HIPPs, did not exist then.
Mind you, our buyers were not friends, so ther was no potential of destroying a beautiful friendship if it had all gone tits up...

We bought ours in a private sale - was from a friend of a friend, but before the days of HIPPs so can't help you with that.
As for the rest we just used a solicitor exactly as if we had gone through an estate agent. Only difference was that we rang the solicitors direct if we wanted to check the progress of the sale.

I am selling my house soon as have moved in with dp we have someone wanting to buy. How do you work out price ?

It could be worth paying a surveyor for a valuation - at least then neither party feels like they are being diddled.

The estate agents will give you an obligation free valuation estimate if you ask them to come round and have a look. You can also get one from zoopla.co.uk