speck Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 Hi there, We are planning to move to oz in next autumn (depending on partner's visa). A few months ago we had a lady knock on our door saying interested in buying our house should we be considering moving. She appears genuine and remains keen to buy at a mutually agreed price (and wants to discuss buying sooner rather than later and us perhaps renting the house until we fly out). This is obviously great news as we can avoid estate agents fees and makes it possible for us to stay in our home for as long as possible. Has anyone out there had any experience of private house sales? Any advice/tips? (I'm new to this site and not sure if this is the right place to put this - please advise if not!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 Seems a bit odd that. Why is she interested in your house in particular do you think and why is she happy to buy it and allow you to live in it. Always good to save on estate agents fees but if you ended up selling thousands below market rate then the saving would not be beneficial to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srh82 Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 Best use an agent anyway you might get a higher offer and much less hassle!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speck Posted October 29, 2014 Author Share Posted October 29, 2014 (edited) Interesting thoughts. Thanks for the replies. Gbye- she says she really likes our house and its situation (which is believable). She says she isn't in s rush to move in- and is currently renting herself so is happy to wait until we are ready to move. It was her that suggested we get 2 or 3 estate agent valuations to establish a selling figure. It just seems too good to be true... Edited October 29, 2014 by speck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chortlepuss Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 Do you have a very unusual house? Have all the neighbours been approached or just you? It does sound a bit too good to be true - unless there's a huge shortage of houses for sale in your area, or unless personal history (she used to live there etc...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 I sold a house to my brother once privately. Obviously you save yourself the agent's fee so can be quite a considerable saving. It is not hard you just leave out the agent and both go to a solicitor to handle the conveyancing and contracts. As mentioned by others, the risk is that you may miss on a higher price that an agent may obtain. But if you research sales in your area and know what your house is worth then you can mitigate this. I think it is a good idea if you can do it and can save you many thousands in agent's commission. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speck Posted October 30, 2014 Author Share Posted October 30, 2014 (edited) Chortlepuss: Yes, it is unusual and there is a lack of housing in our village. I think we are the only ones who have been approached. She says she had always loved it and wanted to live in it and that's why she asked. It sounds reasonable and believable. It just so happened that we were planning our move to Aus and it fits in so nicely. Parleycross: Good to hear a positive story- thanks. How did you reach a mutually agreed price with your brother? Did you get estate agents to value the property to get a ball park figure? Edited October 30, 2014 by speck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Not really it wa a unit so just went by previous sales. I'm sure you have a good idea of what your house is worth, but by all means get an agent to value it if you think you need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 If she particularly wants only your house (without even an internal viewing I assume as she just knocked on your door) this would suggest that you own something quite unusual and desirable. By all means invite a minimum of 3 agents in to value it but if it is an unusual property or of a type that rarely comes to market I suspect that you may receive wide-ranging valuations. At the end of the day if you an both agree on a price and a completion date which is mutually satisfactory why not do the deal and not think about the 'what if'. Just to say though that when my MIL died she left behind a large country cottage. Our Estate Agent, I have to say,did a fantastic job marketing it and two buyers kept effectively outbidding each other with higher offers because both wanted it. We ended up selling it well above all the valuations which I understand is not uncommon for rare or unusual properties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speck Posted October 30, 2014 Author Share Posted October 30, 2014 At the end of the day if you an both agree on a price and a completion date which is mutually satisfactory why not do the deal and not think about the 'what if'. Fair point. It ultimately depends on if we can find a mutually agreed price. If not then we go through estate agent. If so then that's great and we can agree completion date. In an ideal world we would like to stay in the house until the shipping company takes our stuff a few days before our flight. The lady mentioned completing earlier and us renting from her. I am not a massive fan of this idea (don't really want the stress of someone turning up, having responsibility of the house etc while we are still in it. Also our mortgage is pretty minimal and she was asking for about twice that in rent). I would prefer to agree a sale and then, as you say Gbye, set a completion date later. The only risk is that she pulls out closer to the time. I wonder if we can get some sort of contract to help prevent that situation. I guess if that happens we just go to an estate agent. Thanks for your thoughts :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blossom Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 We sold our house privately. It turned out the guy was especially dodgy and had big problems getting a mortgage due to just having got out of prison. He wanted to pay the deposit in cash. We managed to convince him in the end that all money had to go through the solicitor. In the end he hadn't paid for it by the completion date and we had to issue some legal notice thing to keep his deposit if he hadn't paid up within so many days. He got all threatening, which as he had been tried for murder but got off due to lack of evidence was a little worrying. We were glad we were moving across the globe! We knew the moment he spoke to us that something was off though. He didn't even want to see in the house, said there'd be a 'sweetener' in it for us if everything went well. He was just dodgy lol. I'd sell privately again. :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Fair point. It ultimately depends on if we can find a mutually agreed price. If not then we go through estate agent. If so then that's great and we can agree completion date. In an ideal world we would like to stay in the house until the shipping company takes our stuff a few days before our flight. The lady mentioned completing earlier and us renting from her. I am not a massive fan of this idea (don't really want the stress of someone turning up, having responsibility of the house etc while we are still in it. Also our mortgage is pretty minimal and she was asking for about twice that in rent). I would prefer to agree a sale and then, as you say Gbye, set a completion date later. The only risk is that she pulls out closer to the time. I wonder if we can get some sort of contract to help prevent that situation. I guess if that happens we just go to an estate agent. Thanks for your thoughts :-) That is the best plan I would suggest even if you have to pay a bit more in rent. We did exactly that after our daughter was born 10 years ago. We sold our flat to a property investor who allowed us to rent it back for a non-specified time (with one month's notice) while we found a house (they had a guaranteed initial tenant too so were happy. It meant for us that we were not in a chain and were effectively first time buyers ready to go which is a great bargaining position. In your case it would take a lot of the stress out of moving. We will be selling and going and getting the timing to work out will be tricky; for you one less thing to worry about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliew1499 Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Hi Having worked in property sales for the past 15 years I would offer the following advice firstly, do you want to sell your house before you know the visa situation has been sorted? if not tell her straight that you are not in a position to sell until then. In the meantime do some homework on the value of your property. If you want to sell before visa granted then obtain 3 quotes from local agents, look on zoopla at similar properties that have sold in your area. Look at other properties that are for sale in your area at the price suggested by your agent. If you are happy with the price suggested then tell her what you want for the property. Be prepared to negotiate a bit but not more than the agents fees. If she,s that desperate to buy she'll pay. don't forget you'll have to pay for EPC report in order for the sale to go through. You need to know how she will be funding the purchase of your property before you start negotiating, if it's cash ask to see proof, if it's mortgage ask to see approval in principle. It is not unreasonable to ask for this info - if she really wants to buy she will supply it, if she won't then walk away. Like you, we have very little mortgage and it's not cost effective to rent .what I would suggest is a quick exchange of contracts eg 4 - 6 weeks with a long backstop completion date that is mutually convenient to both parties. this way you know your sale is confirmed but you get to stay in your house without paying rent. she knows the house if definitely sold to her and has a backstop date when she can move in. If property prices move up or down in the meantime then of course you may win or loose but you do have the security of not having the worry about selling in the future. PS Ensure you check that she has no other property to sell, even though she' sin rented it doesn't mean to say that she hasn't got her name on a mortgage elsewhere. good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speck Posted October 30, 2014 Author Share Posted October 30, 2014 Thanks for your advice Gbye and Julie. Jeeeezzzzz Blossom- how stressful was your experience!! Thanks for sharing though! Glad it worked out in the end and you are safe and sound on the other side of the world! We will wait til we have the visa sorted (the lady is very understanding about this) - but it is always good to have a think about things in advance. She seems very reasonable and extremely keen to buy the house, so fingers crossed it will all work out. I like your idea of a backstop completion date Julie. I have a good solicitor so that will help- I will go and discuss it with them once visa is final. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 When we lived in the UK we knocked on our neighbours door and asked them to sell so it doesn't have to be dodgy. You may find a friend of a friend has told her you are heading to Australia so she thought she would ask. As long as you go through a solicitor I don't see there being a problem, if it fell through then you haven't lost anything. The main thing to ask yourself is do you want to move, say she bought the house and the visa didn't come through would you be happy living somewhere else. We sold our house before getting the visa because we got an offer we couldn't refuse. It was very scary as I loved my house and could have quite happily lived there until I was grey and old. If you have no attachment to the house and you get everything written up with the solicitors I would say go for it. A lot of people would love to be in your shoes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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