Selling our house to friends

A big No from me! don't do it.

We bought our first house from the people next door to my parents. They were emigrating so we got a good deal. We knew them pretty well and kept in touch. Years later, after we'd moved to the other end of the country, they came over to visit and stayed with us.

The advantage of buying from them, as you suggest, was not needing to use an estate agent. There was no haggling over the price. We did use solicitors (who wanted to complete the sale after the vendors had sailed for New Zealand!).

Of course, these were simpler circumstances than those you describe.

We did - they were friends of friends. Very demanding, but DH was happy to ahead….
We asked for less than the estate agent suggested, because no fees were involved.p, agreed at the time of viewing/offer.
If you know what you’re letting* yourselves in for, go ahead but be wary.

We were the buyers of our next door neighbours who we had known for about 8 years when we moved into new builds.
They wanted to downsize and we wanted a larger house with 4 bedrooms.
It was very amicable, we had the houses independently valued and agreed to the price.
We sold very quickly and they found a property quickly.
It was no hassle at all.this was in the 70’s and I am still in the house.

I would not want to sell to friends but if you decide to I would get 3 valuations from local estate agents.. these do not commit you to selling with them..

and when you negotiate a price with these friends also give them a short agreed period to find a buyer.. if they don't find a buyer then go back to the estate agent.. make it clear that this is your intention right at the beginning if you want to move fairly quickly..

I sold my house to my neighbour’s sister. Not only did it save EA Fees, the buyer also allowed me to stay in the house (paid them rent ofcourse ) until I found my own place.
I don’t see any reason why the OP shouldn’t sell to this friend, although I think a deposit should be taken and a time-limit given. A mini-contract so to speak, if such a thing is legally binding. Talk to a solicitor.

Don't do it . It can cause all manner of legal and financial problems . Plus unreasonable behaviour from them if they what lower the price they offer at a later date.. Or pull out of the sale all together.
Using a solicitor and estate agents isn't cheap but at least they can check buyers bank accounts to make sure they can afford it or see the mortgage offers they have received. You have no legal rights if you do it all yourself.

We have sold to a friend and bought from a friend. No estate agent involved in either case. But the legal process was undertaken by a solicitor.
Absolutely no problem with with the sale or purchase.

My daughter did this recently.
The friends said how much they wanted for it which was frankly too little and nowhere near the market value.
My daughter said she was sure they would regret it at that price and to get 3 valuations they bought it at around the middle price. They are still both happy about it.

They knew exactly what was wrong with the house and were left a list of jobs in progress/needed as far as the friends were concerned.

Both parties were very happy. It was all concluded very quickly.

My husband's aunt just exchanged her big family house for a much smaller one in the next road. She was friendly with a young couple who had children and were very squashed. She got to downsize and they got a much bigger property that they couldn't have afforded.
She was a very generous person and they were kind to her.
I don't suggest you do this by the way!

Good luck.

I sold to people I knew, however they had already sold their house. I would not wait for people to maybe sell theirs at some vague time in the future

Don't do it! Estate agents often get a bad press but we have moved several times and would not do it without using one. When we decided to sell our last property (which was in a very popular road) we were approached by two sets of neighbours, one of whom even wrote us a letter, asking if we would sell to them. We told our chosen estate agent (one who we had used before very successfully) and they approached both parties on our behalf. The upshot of it was there was a bidding war amongst four lots of prospective buyers. Eventually the property went to sealed bids and we ended up with far more money than we had imagined we would get. I would definitely, definitely never sell to anyone just because I knew them. IMO, a good estate agent is worth their weight in gold.

Many thanks for your comments - an interesting split of opinions. I think if we have at least 2 valuations, one ours and one via the prospective buyers, we should be able to agree on a fair price to suit both parties. We're not interested in involving several buyers in a 'bidding war' to get a higher price and with the housing market so flat at the moment, that would be highly unlikely anyway. We probably need to set an agreed time limit once the sale price has been accepted and I'll make enquiries about asking for a deposit. They are not close friends so it wouldn't be a catastrophe if we fell out but I'm hoping that if we all want it to work, it will! Thanks for your input.

I am you pleased don't want to prompt a bidding war even if you could. You seem to be taking sensible precautions and I hope it all works out for you.

For those extolling the virtues of estate agents, even some of their 'carefully vetted' buyers pull the last minute 'drop the price' trick.

Rosie51

I am you pleased don't want to prompt a bidding war even if you could. You seem to be taking sensible precautions and I hope it all works out for you.

For those extolling the virtues of estate agents, even some of their 'carefully vetted' buyers pull the last minute 'drop the price' trick.

Yes, it happened to me, very last minute, and the EA was clearly on the buyer’s side, urging me to give in. I called the buyer’s bluff, but it did take robust nerves!

My sister and I sold out late mother's flat to my friend for her MiL.
Absolutely no problem, everything went via our Solicitors.
It had been on the market a few months, so we knew roughly the price, so we let her have it at minus what we would have paid the EA.

Witzend My son and dil's EA pressured them to take a substantial last minute drop which they just couldn't afford. When they regretfully told the people they were buying from they were going to have to start again so understood if the deal was off, the sellers suggested they each take 50% of the drop so the sales could proceed. It went against the grain to give in to blackmail but they are very happy in their new house.

You can face last minute issues whether you use an estate agent or not Grandmagrewit so as long as you use a solicitor I don't see why not using an estate agent is a risk.

You could have a contract drawn up with their offer price, your acceptance and stating how long you'll wait before putting the house on the open market.

Researching your area and seeing the average time it takes to find a buyer would give you a good idea, as well as knowing what properties similar to yours are priced at on the open market.

Good luck.