Selling your house to a friend? Costs involved and where to start?
 

My wife and I were just about to put our house on the market and after getting it valued by 2 estate agents a really good friend heard we were selling and phoned me straight away.

He is super keen to buy it and has money waiting following inheritance he received when he was younger. He’s pretty much a half-brother to me and I trust he’s not a time waster at all (he has a decent job so getting a mortgage will be fine for him). We've had sit down meeting and talked it all through and he’s 100% behind the purchase but I haven’t the foggiest what to do next?

Presumably with the estate agents selling fee's costing in the region of £3k I need to go straight to a solicitors and cut them out altogether? Will any solicitor do? Anyone have any idea how much the paper work would cost and what sort of saving I would make? Im not very well up on houses and mortgages and google seems a mine field of conflicting information :confused:

we did this about 7 years ago, £500 all in solicitor only, easily done if all agree on terms price etc, just get a solicitor that specializes in legal transactions

have you agreed a price?

Wow that is a decent saving! So presumabely that was £1000 in total and you went halves with the buyer so £500 each for the paper work?
It should only take a few weeks to all go through seeing as there is no chain (we are going to move in with my wifes family for a couple of months) so will have a nice chunk of cash in the bank ready for the next house.

Yes price is all agreed (he'll no doubt need a survey to get a morgage?).

yes, the mortgage company will no doubt need a survey - but a mortgage survey has a relatively specific remit

i.e. "is it worth lending the amount they are being asked to lend and will they get their money back if they have to repossess"

as a rule it won't point out the leaky tap or the fvcked central heating system/electrics

I have done similar and it has been fine - but it was a very close relation

a solicitor to do the legal work is a must.

I would think of it as saving agency fees not legal fees

no £500 total house sold in 2 weeks £149950 so yeh we saved loads the estate agent wanted 1% at the time thats £1495 saved , we payed the £500 as at the time i was keen to sell, wish i kept it now and rented it out but hey ho hindsite and all :thumb: if you can rent it and cover the mortage and move on do it is my advice,ps they paid for the survey

When I bought a house off a relative it cost us a grand total of £20 and one 1st class stamp... we just got the forms from the Land Registry to transfer the name on the deeds and got a solicitor to witness the signatures (£20)... job done.