UKC

Putting arguments about correctness to one side (with this being UKC ), how might one go about doing this?

I'm alright in my home, but a friend is on a search, and it came to mind as a potential avenue to explore while into classes cycling this morning.

Many ta's.

I was once clearing a house ready to sell it, there was a knock on the door. A lady asked if the house was coming up for sale.

'Yes', I said.

'How much' she said.

I quoted its valuation(+£30k).

'I want to buy it', she said. So we swapped solicitors details, and left them to it. No estate agents involved.

Depends. When I was selling I wouldn't have wanted random people knocking on my door offering money, but a letter would have been ok.

No reason why you can't post a letter expressing interest.  Note however if a buyer is introduced by an estate agent, the agent will normally having a contractual clause saying they still need paying even if  in the end their services aren't used.  Sometimes they go further and won't let a seller go direct while under contract to the estate agent at all.

If the house is already on the market then the seller is likely to be in a contract that means they are bound to pay a commission or fee to their agent regardless of whether it is the agent that makes the introduction.

If your friend is not looking at houses that are already on the market then you have a few options. You can leaflet drop your favoured area, put up a card in local post office/shop etc or you could try a post on the local facebook pages.

I tried the card in the local shop about 20 years ago and didn't get much from it. Putting post on a local Facebook page recently got the inevitable replies with people linking me to stuff on the open market but I did also get a few private messages. Worth noting that my original post made it very clear that I was not business and that any contact would be treated with strictest confidence.

Good luck.

The seller could put a sign outside.  But you probably more than cover the estate agent by using them.

Although for people only interested in selling if they can get an exceptional price, I am surprised people don't permanently haved a small notice.

My friend's house backed on to the local village sports club. They were very happy there.

One day a note was popped through their door "I'm the chairperson of the village sports club. I'd like a house that backs onto it. I'd like to buy your house for X."

They were very happy to sell.

If your friend has a very specific area and type of house they want, and they don't come up very often, then really carefully tailored letters would be a great approach. They need to seem really personal or else the householder will just dismiss it as another "we'll buy your house for cash" mailshot.

As said earlier, this is for houses that aren't on the market yet as it wont work when the vendor is under contract with an estate agent already.

Aah, this house has a waiting list of 90 to view it, 'there must be an easier way' went through my head. It was worth an idle thought I guess.

A lady came round and offered to buy my house last month.  But probably mainly to get a good deal.

We had a letter posted through our door (as did every other house around here) explaining that it was from a couple moving to the area who were really keen to find somewhere to settle in their "forever home". 

I did a google search and they were property developers.  

This hasn't put me off selling my house (should I ever decide) to someone who had posted a letter through my door, but I would prefer not to increase the portfolio of some property developing scumbag.  

I bought my house this way. Took a wander around the village I wanted to stay in, figured out what I could afford, knocked on the house I liked best and exchanged contracts 2 months later. The then owners had waved their youngest off to University 6 months earlier an were discussing down sizing when I knocked.

That's quite an important piece of information. Their solution is to offer a lot of money. 

It is if they have a lot of money, it's much reduced from needing work, giving them something to play with to do it, if the other 90 weren't potentially there first.

If the property is already on the market with an agent and the agent has sole selling rights then the vendor will be liable to pay commission even if the seller sells to a friend. If the agent hasn't negotiated sole selling rights and it can be shown that the purchaser did not get to hear of it through the agent's efforts then there MAY be a case for the vendor to claim it's a private sale. That's difficult for a vendor to prove if the property has been advertised or the agent has a board on it. You have to ask "How did the purchaser get to hear about it being on the market?". Private sales in such circumstances do occur, but they are rare. Historically where an agent is already involved the courts have tended to support an agent's claim for commission, unless good grounds can be shown that it was a private introduction.

I think that Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings's title might be at risk... 

I wondered if there might be a technicality.

Why not get your friend to do what Brad Pitt and Angela Jolie did. They flew around the Cote d'Azur in a helicopter until they saw a mansion they liked. They then landed in the grounds and made the owner an offer

E