# Buying a house without a buyer or seller's real estate agent



## beiercai (Dec 16, 2009)

I have this chance to buy a house from a friend of mine and we decided to not use a real estate agent to save commission fees. What's the legal process to get the property transferred? I understand first I need to hire a home inspector to make sure the home is in good condition, and then a real estate lawyer for all the legal paper work, but are there other important procedures I need to take care of? any advice or links to resources will be really appreciated!


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

Assuming you know what you are doing....not sure of that. But yes, assuing the home inspection does not turn up any surprises, the lawyer will take care of everything else for you.

I am going to assume that you either have a mortgage and rate in place, or are buying it outright, as well as are getting a discount on the purchawe price due to lack of RE agent commisions.

Have you looked at comparable prices and sales...


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## dougbos (Jun 4, 2012)

beiercai said:


> I have this chance to buy a house from a friend of mine and we decided to not use a real estate agent to save commission fees. What's the legal process to get the property transferred? I understand first I need to hire a home inspector to make sure the home is in good condition, and then a real estate lawyer for all the legal paper work, but are there other important procedures I need to take care of? any advice or links to resources will be really appreciated![/Q
> 
> Yes, you definitely will need a good home inspector (not recommended by your friend) and a real estate lawyer. You did not state how you will be paying for it. If you will be seeking a mortgage then any mortgage company will require an appraisal done to see if the price agreed to is actually in line with the actual value of the house. It would be best to talk to a real lawyer first to find out the steps and paperwork he or she will require. You are making perhaps the largest financial decision of your life. Forget for the moment it is your friend. Money does not recognize friendship. You need to take all steps to protect yourself.


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## yycmortgageguy (May 29, 2012)

The financing will be considered a private sale (unless you are paying in full with cash), so the lender will require a full appraisal to complete financing. If the price is not supported in the appraisal compared to what you agreed to pay for it, you will need to pay the difference to secure financing. 

The advice is good from Cal to know what the market is selling for, and without a realtor your best bet is to look at the property assessment as a guideline. You may benefit from having an appraisal done as well on your own to agree on a price, or have a contract drawn up based on the appraised value.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

We sold a friend a property of ours privately , we each had a lawyer and we discounted the RE fees from the list price .We split the fee of home inspection but the buyer picked the inspector.It helped them and us as we both saved $10,000


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## blin10 (Jun 27, 2011)

lawyers do all the work for you, roughly $1-2k... I don't even know wtf is the point of all these re "agents", they get money for something that if given a choice 90% of people who buy/sell would get a lawyer themselves and save a ton of money if mls was open to private sales...


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## Mall Guy (Sep 14, 2011)

My last sale and most recent purchase were both private sales, very common in my local market. In fact I think the purchaser called me, because he heard that I was thinking of selling. In another case (didn't actually buy) a seller call me directly as they heard (through various neighborhood children) that I was look for a place . . . You can pull a APS off the net, or one of your lawyers can draft one up, helps to reduce the deal to paper (keeps everyone on track).


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## beiercai (Dec 16, 2009)

Thanks all for your advice. I'm now more comfortable moving forward with the transaction.


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