Went to yet another unsuccessful viewing today, but the upside is we met the resident cat that was 23 years old.
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Love this 
Would you maybe need a jeep/4x4? Iâd be a bit nervous about being cut off if the weather got bad in the winter. Maybe worth speaking to the hotel
Lovely.
Big fan of the biggest Orkney island being called Mainland.
Hello you lot. Lapsed DiSer here, popping in to ask a property question.
Is it common (or even possible) to conduct a house sale directly without listing it with an estate agent? Like, if you were able to agree a price and get solicitors involved to get things moving, is that a potential benefit to the seller?
For context - next door to the house Iâm renting has been empty for a year because the occupant unfortunately died. Their neice was round in the week and I overheard a conversation about âwhen it goes on the marketâ.
Would I have any hope of getting in touch a requesting a first refusal? I realise that getting an agent involved will start a bidding war and ultimately get them a better price. But, for a relative having to sort this out, Iâm chain free, would make a fair offer and save them the hassle (and cost) of getting it listed.
Itâs a tiny house, and properties in my price range (especially on a single income) donât come on the market very often, and when they do theyâre gone before you can get a viewing, so it might be route out of renting for me.
Would it be worth a shot, or does having an agent involved give the sellers an extra layer of protection/due diligence that theyâd otherwise be missing out on?
Itâs definitely possible
My parents sold their house after a friend of a friend of a friend knocked on their door and asked to buy their house.
I donât know the logistics of it though sorry
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That place is stunning,
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You just ask them, make an offer, and if they accept it, you instruct your solicitors to proceed, in the same way that you would if there was an estate agent.
Itâs up to the vendor to make the initial decision on whether the savings from not paying an estate agentâs commission outweigh the potential higher selling price due to the agentâs selling skills.
A good estate agent will also act as the go-between, chivvying solicitors along, but good solicitors shouldnât need this.
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My folks sold their house a few years back by putting a home made sign on the fence at the front of the property. No agent. Someone made an offer very soon after the sign went up. I think they just told their respective solicitors to talk to each other and sort it out from there.
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Just had this confirmed by my folks.
Someone was passing and saw the sign within two hours of it going up and offered the asking price there and then, which my folks accepted. Done.
âPeople would quite often just put up their own sign back then.â
âBack thenâ being late 80s in this case
Itâs not only possible. I just did it.
Sold my old flat to a landlord of other flats in the same block. We shook on a price and the whole thing went through in less than two months. The buyer thinks heâs got a good price and I was delighted not having to do the place up and generally make it habitable.
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Nice! Did you bother getting proper valuations or did you just have a figure in mind that you knew youâd accept? I feel like if I propose it weâd have to get someone to value it and for me to offer accordingly (I have no idea what itâs worth), but is that any less faff for them than just getting it listed?
Iâve decided I am going to mention it to them anyway. No harm in trying, eh?
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Yeah definitely! Got to be worth a try? A friend of mine bought a place after popping notes into every house in the area he wanted to buy in, and someone replied with a price, which he accepted.
Iâd imagine theyâd get a few valuations anyway before agreeing to list it with an estate agent, so could just take a median price and save themselves the commission by letting you have first dibs.
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Bought and sold a few times now and been personally recommended âgood solicitorsâ each time and theyâve all need a huge amount of chivvying along. Agree that EAs can be helpful when thereâs a long chain and a lots of chasing up to make things happen. If itâs a simple transaction then no need for an EA
We didnât quite get as far as doing the actual posting, though we did prepare for doing so by compiling a definitive list based on specific criteria. (But then one of the ones on the list cropped up on Rightmove, which we bought.)
Not house buying but house care - pretty worried Iâve found damp / cracking plaster on a shared wall upstairs. I know the neighbour is having roofing work done there soon because we signed a party wall agreement on it, but wondering if weâve been affected too. Need to talk to him about it, but Christ, the sick feeling in my stomach when I noticed. Really donât want to / canât afford to deal with that. Properly freaked out 
Might be worth checking your home insurance policy to see if youâd be covered.
Yeah fingers crossed. Just had the neighbour round and the work theyâre doing isnât really connected though might uncover any issues once they start. Not even sure who you get to look at something like that? Urgh just going to have low level dread about this for ages now
My dad died in the summer, and me and my partner are living in his old flat. We were saving for a deposit and starting to browse potential places, but weâre just going to stay here as itâs a place (and an area) we never ever wouldâve been able to afford otherwise, so weâre in a pretty privileged position. Just paying council tax/bills at the moment, but the plan is to buy my brother out and take on (whatâs effectively a half-price?) mortgage.
So we have some funds to refurbish the place properly. Overdue for the electrics rewiring, ceilings could do with getting replastered, needs a new kitchen, bathroom, flooring, etc. Some potential damp issues around the old chimney. No better time than now to properly address what needs fixing and sorting in terms of finances and where weâre at, but the scale of it makes me feel a bit ill.
Probably about time that I become a proper adult and start getting to grips with taking on responsibility like this, but (e.g.) getting window panes replaced with condensation trapped between is a very depressing and boring way to spend a few hundred quid, eh? And that kind of thing is probably the tip of the iceberg in terms of what needs doing.
Kind of feel like asking for advice here, but even then, I donât even know exactly what â almost like âwhere do I even begin?â / beginners tips, recommended reading, etc?
tbh man. I dont know 
I did my place up 10 years ago before/as I moved in, so didnt have to live in the building site.
Id say first of all write a list of everything that needs doing. A lot of it is critical path analysis of not wanting to do Y until youâve done X.
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