Buying a house without an Agent.

[Jake Enas]

Hi everybody!

I need help. Here’s the scoop:

I want to buy a house from my uncle. He owns a house in California. He bought it with cash and will sell it to me for 260,000. I trust him and I don’t care to pay extra for inspections, insurances, commissions etc.

We want to write up our own purchase contract to avoid realtor commissions. He has an escrow person he is already working with that we can use. I just need to get a loan from a loan officer (preapproval in the works).

I’m realising it can be quite a headache to get through all the steps of the process and that’s what a realtor can help with. But I still want to proceed without a realtor.

I’m wondering if you have any tips for how we can write up a simple purchase contract without hiring a realtor.

Any thoughts on the situation?

Thanks.

[Mike Roy]

@Jake Enas - I totally agree that agents will likely not add value to this transaction, and certainly are not worth $15,600 (6%).  However, you do want to make sure you take the proper steps to ensure a smooth, legal transaction.  

In order to get bank financing, the bank will require a clean Purchase & Sale agreement.  I would suggest reaching out to a local title company to help you write this up.  It's a standard form, so they really shouldn't charge you a whole lot to do this as part of facilitating the transaction.

Once it's signed by both parties and sent to the bank, it should pretty much be like any other real estate transaction - though probably smoother.