OT - buying a home privately

[KerriMc]

Hello ... just wondered if anyone knew about buying a home that is for sale privately? We are looking at house that is next to my parents' house. It is in the school district for my daughters' school and it would be nice to be so close to the school. My mom looks after my girls and they love being able to walk to school.

Anyways, the elderly woman next door is selling her home and moving into a retirement home. She is in no hurry as she is on the wait list. We want to make an offer, but don't know how to go about it. Do I have to wait for them to iniate this? Or do we have an offer drawn up? It is hard to communicate as the woman has little to do with the sale ... it is her nephew who is handling these things and we haven't spoken with him although my dad has.

I suppose I just wondered about the whole process of buying a home privately? How does this work and what things do I need to know to protect ourselves as well? We want to put an addition on this house and put in a pool as there is an amazing big backyard. So lots of things to figure out!!!

thanks so much ...
Kerri

 

[rjan67]

We bought our neighbours house. There were no "offers" like with an agent. We agreed upon a price (we had a little meeting, kinda awkward but worked out fine). We contacted our bank, their lawyer drew up the papers, sent them to our lawyer for the ok and we signed them. They were sent back with our mortgage papers (just the note from the bank stating we had the money to buy the house). We arranged for a closing date and keys were given on that day. It went very smooth. We had been neighbours for 11 years and it was pretty low pressure (easiest house I ever bought).

 

[2forMe]

Well I would say that you would need to set up a meeting with the nephew and discuss the price et. Then you would have your lawyer draw up a formal contract to purchase. I would suggest, when you come up with a price that you want to start off offering, that you back it up with pricing from recent homes in the area, in similar condition etc.
Oh and remember to still get a home inspection as part of the contract to purchase etc

 

[KerriMc]

Wow, it seems much easier than I thought it would be. I figured there would be all kinds of leg work or something along those lines. I do need to set up a meeting with the nephew as I want to get things rolling. We are eager to get moving and are trying to be patient!

 

[cdnmickeylover]

If you want to add an addition to the house and a pool I would call the municipality and ask for the building/planning department and find out if that's possible before you buy the house. Usually if you want to add an addition you'll have to supply a brand new survey as well.

 

[stefanospops]

I am a realtor in Ontario and my suggestion is to make sure you know what properties are going for in the neighbourhood prior to sitting with them. You will want to understand why certain properties sold to make sure you take into consideration the condition of their property. If you can reach an agreement there is no need to involve a realtor at all. But you definitely want to have your lawyer review EVERYTHING prior to signing anything.

If you want information about area sales just PM me and I can help you out. I'm not looking for any business you so no worries about that! My services are free in this case. Would love to help out a fellow DISer!

 

[Valjean13]

We bought our house privately. The owner had the papers done up. The first set was just stating our intention to buy the house, at the agreed price, based on the outcome of the inspection and our finances. We just had the neighbours witness it for us. The second one was the actual contract that we had the lawyer look over. Easy to do, but I do think the owner was lying to us about other interested parties and what they were willing to pay, but in the end we held firm on our offer and he went for it. Hopefully most sellers are honest and not trying to push the price up in a dishonest manner.

 

[mc'smommy]

PLEASE get a home inspection done prior to the closing of the sale and make the Lawyers note that the sale is conditional upon a house inspection....