Anyone buy a house from someone they know?

I'd say as long as you are in pretty good agreement about price, it's a win-win.

Save time, save agent fees, save dicking around, save him having to have cleaners and fluffers come in to "make it sellable", save open houses, etc.  I can only imagine with all that saving in the negotiated price that you'll both come out better.

Bought mine from my brother, still live in it.     Years later I sold my parents house, I was executor, to him.

iceracer said:

Bought mine from my brother, still live in it.     Years later I sold my parents house, I was executor, to him.

The weird part is, I inherited an equal share in my grandmother's home when she passed. My aunt is the executor of the estate and wants to buy me out. This money will buy a house that's all for me, which at this point is presumably from my coworker. 

We sold our last house to her first cousin. We had a price in mind and they paid it. No commissions, so they saved 6%. She had her parents over numerous times to look at every nook and cranny in the place. They brought in her fathers contractors to look at every system, roof, yard, drains, etc. Everything got a clean bill of health and we went forward and closed. 
 

Fast forward a few months and I get a call about the 3-season room roof leaking badly. We were in the house 13 years and only a drop years earlier and I replaced the roof, flashing and gutters. Never had a problem since but something obviously happened and they had a problem. Next was a call about the dishwasher and if it was under warranty. We had replaced all of the appliances with new GE stainless units when we installed granite countertops. It was 4 years earlier, so obviously out of the 1-year appliance warranty which is standard in the industry. I had to explain that to her husband. Next was the roof, a few loose shingles and  the black streaks. I reminded them that the last person on the roof last summer was their roofing contractor and he gave it his "blessing".

After a long talk and reality check I think get either got it or just lost our phone number. All of the repairs which they needed to do ended up being way less than the $$$ they saved on not paying a realtors commission. Not that it's any justification on my part, but for the 13 years we were in the house it was damn near maintenance-free. It was an AWESOME place to live, but I guess that when the place turned 20 years old, things start to need replacing. They thought it was a new house. I don't know how they feel about it 6 years later as we haven't talked about it, but her father has told my fiancees father about all the money they've spent on the house since they bought it remodeling and changing things. I was hesitant at first selling it to them, but they assured us it wouldn't be a problem. We could have sold it for more on the open market, but since it was family we did the deal and walked away to build our new place. No problem on our end.

The Florida housing market is crazy and going nowhere but up. If you can find a nice stand alone home not in a development and with no HOA, I'd say grab it. I've sold 2 houses and a vacant lot in a development over the last 4 years and did very well on all of them. 
 

Good Luck.

Talked to co-worker again today. Deal seems legit. Pending swmbo talking to a loan officer and seeing what we need to make it happen, I might swing. The thing that pushed me over was, the kitchen is apparently plumbed for gas, but has an electric stove. This can be corrected. Gas stove ftw. 

In reply to Cooter :

While this may be viewed as just someone looking to brag about a home sale, my point is this-
Never underestimate the value of buying direct from someone who likes you, and wants you to get a good deal.

This is a huge advantage to the buyer, especially in a competitive market. I bought my current house a couple years ago. My realtor found out about it before it hit the market. It was about perfect, except- I wouldn’t call it a fixer upper, but it definitely was the worst house in a very nice neighborhood. I know that is the good kind of house to buy, but after spending years getting my last house where I wanted it, I wanted something more- done. The pluses were perfect size, great floor plan, great location, and a huge lot. But it needed paint, a lot of landscaping, and could use a kitchen remodel. My wife loved it, I liked it but saw a lot of work needed to get me to the love it point. We decided to put in a very aggressive offer. If the house hit the market, it would have blown way past our offer in no time. When doing the paperwork to submit the offer, we found that the owner was a long time family friend. They accepted our offer with no counter. The same floor plan house down the street with minor improvements (new paint, nicer landscaping, flooring) sold at the same time for over $100k more- on a lot that was 5000sqft smaller. I don’t think there was any way they took that offer if it wasn’t for the family connection. 

Buying from a coworker wouldn't bother me but buying a house with a crappy commute would.  I would and have spent a lot of money to avoid being pissed off twice a day for years at a time.

I bought my  old house from a buddies buddy !  

Took over a GI loan with just a signature and paid him the balance over the next 4 years , 

It was  AS IS , 

Still stop by and visit with the seller decades later when I am in his area :)

If I was going to sell it now I would  probably have to write a page or 2 of what  is wrong with the house to have "full disclosure"

In reply to Mndsm :

I was striking out pretty hard at hitting all the requirements. No hoa is pretty easy, but houses in Florida just aren't built with garages.

What are the odds of finding the perfect house in the right area with an easy commute and build a two-three car garage on site?  Look into zoning and all that to see if it's allowed and carry on.  Win - Win.

I had a very good experience buying from a friend. Bought the Nolo Press how-to book, and our mortgage broker double-checked to see if we'd screwed anything up (we hadn't) It was a very easy way to save $15,000 in commissions.

FWIW, I've also met each of the four people who bought houses from me. It's always gone well, and one of them became a good friend. IMO this whole "keep  the parties apart" is largely an artificial construct to rationalize the payment of large commisions. 

Canoe revival. 
 

Since then my parents bought a house from a friend/neighbor. My dad was annoyed with them for some stuff. His annoyance and frustration was misplaced; the things were accounted for in the price. They love their new house. They don't talk too much with the friend anymore because she moved, but mom still texts and sees her 1-2 times a year. 

We were looking to move as our family grew and an elderly family friend whose husband had died approached us about buying her house. It had some issues but it was an acre on a very nice road and it fit most of our requirements. But we mulled it over while we looked at some other houses and we never made any promises to her other than having a look one day in a pretty casual way. But one day the phone rang and it was old Merle and she said "Martin it's Merle are you buying my house or not I need to know today!" So I said uhhh....sure I guess we'll buy it. And we've been there 18 years now.

I bought my first house from a motorcycle riding buddy. We weren't especially close. It was in an area that I knew had declined, but was still "home" to me being just two miles from my childhood home. We drove around the neighborhood a couple of times and felt OK with things. I hired a lawyer to help with paperwork and avoided real estate agent fees. It didn't change the relationship with my buddy either way. 

Shortly after purchase, I learned that the neighborhood was much worse than I'd thought. That said, I never had any real trouble. My house was on the walking route to the convenience/liquor store so I got to see a lot of the comings and goings. I was always friendly and my motorcycles were always a topic of conversation (my favorite being "yo - that thing a stick shift?"). I once went out for the night and came home to find that I'd left my garage wide open (which left the house open too). Everything was intact. One of my sketchy neighbors ran over and told me that he'd been keeping an eye out for me. I bought him a case of his favorite beverage and felt like I had won the lottery. It pays to be a good neighbor I guess, even when your neighbors aren't good.

TL/DR

I bought my current house from my father. He's a slimeball.

Buy a duplex, he said, it even has a barn. No need to have a home inspector come in, I know everything wrong about that house.

I now live in a 135yo piece of E36 M3 that needs about 100k worth of work (forget about all the money tossed at it while I owned it) before I sell it in 6 years and move to TN.

berkeley him. berkeley me.

Yeah, I didn't get that house. Long story. berkeley covid. berkeley the land grab in Florida. Someone lock this thing before I start ranting.