OT- Quick...I want to buy a house without using a real estate agent and yes I have

one on the hook. I have sold a house without an agent years ago and recall it painless enough but have never bought one that way. And the seller is clueless how to go about it and leaving it up to me to figure out that part.

But I need to act quick. Any suggestions ? (besides vague generalities like "see a lawyer") I would be applying for a mortgage so presume the bank will force title searches, appraisal and maybe home inspection.... but anything else to be aware of ? Any real estate standard purchase contracts online ?

I've heard some buyers agents will work for a small flat rate....they don't have any listing or showing etc.. I have heard some will push a few pieces of paper for $400 or so. Not a bad deal perhaps. Ask one.

you dont need an agent the only time I have used an agent is in the finding the property BUT make sure you go through a title company and buy title insurance, if its owner carry the title company handle the accounting and you will be fine (but you must get title insurance. can't repeat it enough.

The nuts and bolts vary state by state but, title insurance/ escrow is an industry standard. I have bought commercial property not residence. I used a Real Estate attorney who knew all the customary things, home with a loan may want a home inspection and termite report? Buying cash removes a lot of potential requirements of what ever lending institution you chose. They would be the ones to talk to regarding their process, some "as is" sales are just that, others want some outside opinion of condition/value.

Talk to your loan source and ask them what they want, any half decent RE attorney will do the purchase contract on a standard home. It is a straight forward property contract. Some special covenants or land clauses may be more involved. The due diligence is on you regardless of a broker or agent, they may have to disclose more than you think of but IMHO most of it is CYA. Look on the web for disclosure in the state where the property is located, that is a good start.

Steve

My family just sold a house here in Ohio without a real estate agent, my experience was that its up to the seller to arrange everything.

We used a company called Northwest Title here in Ohio. The biggest thing is they wouldn't help and offered very limited advice on what to do for the purchase agreement. I found some examples, and put one together using what I thought were the best points. As our sale was an as-is cash sale I deleted all the terms about a mortgage and property warranties. My opinion with the financed or cash sale you have to be really careful with the terms to protect yourself and the seller, I feel that's why the tittle company didn't want to help as the purchase agreement is what defines a good or bad transaction and they didn't want the liability if someone wasn't happy. Once I got it done, the title company said it was one of the best they've seen, so if I can pull it off, you definitely can also.

Super simple after that, title company did the title search, the buyer opted for title insurance, and the title company took care of that. Everyone went in and signed the papers and we were done. Title company also took care of getting a deed going, filing at the court house, etc.

when i've sold my attorney did the title insurance and for that he threw in all the other like contracts, etc. of course the seller usually does that but i guess you could negotiate the cost and then it would be under your control. i'm sure the bank will tell you what they want.

Your closing attorney should handle all of that . My parents were in the surveying, abstracting, real estate business.
The attorney has a standard purchase agreement, can arrange for title insurance, and handle all closing costs and filings.

Is it near you? Just curious because of flood insurance. If flood insurance is required you would do well to get an elevation cert.

I just went to a Title and Escrow company and they handled everything, but that was in California a dozen years ago. Things may be different in your state or changed since the housing bust.

There Are two sides to the deal. They are the obvious, buyer and seller. As buyer you should have an attorney. The seller can have anyone they want. If they have an agent, that's their business and their expense not yours. You as buyer NEVER need an agent, only an attorney.

In some/most states unless you as buyer have a Written contract with an agent that/the agents Work for the Seller NOT you.

When I bought my house from my parents the bank had us use a title agency...basically real estate lawyer. They handled everything for a few k.

Are you going to negotiate some blue pills into the deal? Sorry couldn't help it

If a seller is by self and you bring along a realtor to assist they usually insist on a piece of it.

Often greedy ones want the full cut for just doing paperwork.

The basic stuff is a simple agreement then title insurance.

Where it gets sloppy is covenants and restrictions or other finer details that the native Realtors usually are aware of.

It sounds like you stumbled upon a party thinking about selling and have talked price and you want to get in before published and fine but there may be hidden things in the area so online listing tools may help as is calling Realtors that have signs in the same neighborhood as potential.

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We have bought and sold more houses without realtors than with. I don't think they do much of anything for you. Since you are buying with a mortgage the bank will do all the standard stuff to protect themselves, which takes forever. The thing I would to is to look for a contract online or wherever that would be most favorable to me- minimum down payment, must pass inspection, etc.

I've bought and sold here in Ohio without a realtor - Office Max had a standard contract that I used. Cost less than $20 at the time. As stated above, we* just cut-out the sections that did not apply to our sale. The title company does the detail work the bank needs.

*The buyer and I worked through the contract together - he was my tenant and already living in the house

I've sold 2 and bought 1 off-listing. I used a real estate agent to handle the paperwork for a fixed fee in all the cases. It's not a lot of work for them, they know the ropes and needs to run the deal through. When it's all said and done you have a clean deal with no loose ends all for a few hundred dollars in cost.

Don't get any agents involved, they aren't going to provide any value in such a deal.

A lot of lawyers will handle house sales for a reasonable flat fee. This is how we bought our current house and will buy our next. I would get your own lawyer and tell the seller they should get their own if they want. You can even have your lawyer recommend another for the seller to help walk them through the process, it will probably make things smoother overall.

In our case it was a $750 flat fee and they would write up to 10 offers and represent us through closing. Closing lawyer costs are several hundred anyways, so it was a reasonably good deal. The lawyer wants the title insurance commission, which is pretty lucrative. We live in competitive north east market and ended up doing 4 offers on different places. Not having an agent makes the sellers agent salivate as they often get twice the money. We actually were not the high bidder, but the selling agent kicked in the difference plus a little extra to the sellers to make them whole and get the bigger commission.

You can go it alone with standard online contracts, but because you will need a lawyer as part of the closing, you should just engage one now as it will be very cheap. Just make sure they can close for any of the places you might get a mortgage from.

1) Get a lawyer and maybe one for the seller
2) Have an offer put together, include inspection and financing contingencies unless the seller has a problem with these. You will provide this with a small deposit of something like $1000 to be held by the sellers lawyer in escrow.
3) Have the offer agreed to. Seller has agreed to sell and doesn't really have a way to back out at this point as long as you meet all your requirements.
4) A purchase agreement is then put together, which is basically the long detailed version of the offer letter. Everyone agrees to that. After some of the contingencies are cleared there is usually a larger payment made around 5%, put into escrow.
5) In parallel you work with the bank to line up the mortgage (shop around).
6) Do your inspection, you can do it yourself if you know what you are doing or don't care. The bank generally doesn't require an inspection, just an appraisal.
7) Get approved for a mortgage and do the closing with your lawyers. Should be able to do it in 30-45 days depending on your bank.

Get a lawyer though, they should be able to walk you though this quickly and are actually pretty cheap for this sort of thing.

idacal said:

you dont need an agent the only time I have used an agent is in the finding the property BUT make sure you go through a title company and buy title insurance, if its owner carry the title company handle the accounting and you will be fine (but you must get title insurance. can't repeat it enough.

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I highly agree on the title insurance. My brother used to work for a major banking company disposing of abandoned properties. In one case several partially built houses in a "spec" subdivision were torn down when the developer went bankrupt. The lots were sold individually to anyone interested.

In one case the customer was adamant he didn't want title insurance. He was sure of the lot he wanted and was equally sure title insurance was in no way shape or form necessary. Unfortunately he bought one lot, but built on another lot. When the real owner of the lot he built on came to build his house he sued the person for encroachment and ordered that the house be torn down.

They went through a lengthy court procedure with the person building the house claiming that it was the banks responsibility. When all was said and done the person who built the house was held liable, Had he purchased title insurance the survey would have alerted him to the fact that he was in error as the which lot he purchased. In fact there were several properties between the one he purchased and the one he built on.

I'm not sure whether the house was actually torn down, or they reached a financial agreement. I do know the whole thing would have been avoided if he had purchased title insurance

Yes it will need to clear the title company or you won't want to purchase it any way. Otherwise you're not buying the property you're buying the other individuals rights to the property whatever they are. Search on your states association of realtors, they usually have boiler plate agreements. The title co really does all the work once you're at this point. State and local laws vary most residential transcriptions now require standard disclosure forms to be filled out and signed by the seller. Example questions are "has the property flooded in the last x years, do you know of any mold issues, has the property ever be in a fire" etc. Good luck

I just approach the selling agent, they are more than happy to sell to you as they get all the commission (at least here in Canada). They tend to be quite motivated to sell to someone with no agent and the self interest is often pretty obvious in the insider info the buyer is treated with.