Buying a house should in theory be a simple process. You find a house you would like to buy, and you buy it. Its usually the parties surrounding the process that complicate the matter. An estate agent of course will try to blind you with science and tell you how complicated it is and how for a small percentage they can make the whole process run much smoother. In truth however they take a huge fee from all parties for doing something that the home owner/buyer could quite easily do themselves.
This site aims to cut out the middle men. People who want to sell their home can easily advertise here on NotAnEstaeAgent, absolutely free of charge. Prosepective buyers can look on the site for properties in the area they are looking to buy. And thats it.. The buyer can contact the seller and arrange a viewing, and ultimately make an offer.
- A good buyer will always ensure they can get the mortgage required before making any offers
- The buyer is responsible for getting the property surveyed, ensuring that it is structurally sound
- A solicitor is contacted to arrange all the necessary checks and write up the contract.
- It sounds pretty simple to me. Then again.. I am not an estate agent.
This is a new site, and i am still feeling my way in this area, but i am sure the process of selling/buying a home should be a lot less complicated than the estate agent/solicitor would have us know. And a lot cheaper to boot!!!
Please be sure to regularly visit this page and this site, as it will be continuelly updated as new info is researched. At the moment i am looking into what it is exactly that the solicitor does. I am sure a diligient owner/buyer could do this work themselves and save thousands!!!
If you have any useful information or advice you can offer to people buying/selling their homes then please drop us a line and if we think it is of interest we will include it on this site.
Thanks alot for coming.. and remember we are not estate agents, so at present we are not qualified to offer any legal advice, or any other advice for that matter on the process of buying/selling a property.
We have however your interests at heart, and with a bit of common sense home buyers/sellers should save a fortune in the process of selling/buying a home, and make the whole operation a lot less hassle than the so called experts try to make us believe it really is.
Procedures
All offers and/or transactions where property is involved should be 'subject to contract'. This means that the prospective buyer can pull out of the deal if, for example, a survey shows up a defectwith the property. If an offer for the property is accepted it would be reasonable of the seller to ask for a small deposit. As there is only a relativelysmall advantage to the seller this should only be a small sum. The buyer is entitled to get confimation in writing that the deposit will be refunded should the sale fall through for any reason.
Once the contracts for the sale have been signed and exchanged, the buyer and the seller are legally committed to the sale and cannot pull out. Contracts are exchanged by their solicitors or conveyancers (conveyancers deal with the transfer of ownership of a property). At this point, the buyer will usually pay 10 per cent of the price they have agreed with the seller. If the buyer fails to complete, they can lose this money.
The sale is complete when the buyer pays the rest (the balance). The seller must then move out. If either of these things does not happen, a solicitor may serve a 'notice to complete' and take legal steps to make sure the sale goes through without further delay.