Has anyone bought their home directly from the owner? Without a realtor?

We are going to be purchasing DH's parent's house here on LI.

How do we go about getting a closing date? I tried to get mortgage quotes from LendingTree.com, but they ask for a closing date.

I'm so confused.

Re: Has anyone bought their home directly from the owner? Without a realtor?

I'm doing the same now. We're buying my family's house. When you apply for a mortgage, and get approved the bank sends you a commitment letter. In that commitment letter, it states when you have to close by (or the rate you locked into won't be good anymore). It's usually within 3 mos of locking into a rate. We locked in on September 8th and have to close by November 8th. I really don't know why Lendingtree would ask for a closing date.

You don't need a realtor for this, but you're going to need an attorney to draft the Contract of Sale and all the other documents you have to fill out.
Fh and I only have an attorney, my grandparents and mom do not.

Good Luck

Re: Has anyone bought their home directly from the owner? Without a realtor?

I did- both times. It was much easier than dealing with an agent IMO.

Re: Has anyone bought their home directly from the owner? Without a realtor?

We are buying my in laws house in Syosset. We are closing October 2. You don't need a realtor. All they di is find the house. If you already found the house, what you need is a mortgage. We used a mortgage broker and they handled everything. It was worth the money if you ask me.

We locked in July 28. We also have to close by Sept 28 to keep the rate we locked in at but they give you extensions up to 15 days.

GOOD LUCK.

Re: Has anyone bought their home directly from the owner? Without a realtor?

rlivings: with the mortgage broker you don't need a lawyer?

Re: Has anyone bought their home directly from the owner? Without a realtor?

We're still looking now but I would think dealing directly with the seller would be easier than going through a realtor. I wonder what their benefit is after you've found the house.

I wouldn't, however, ever feel comfortable doing anything without my lawyer though!!

Re: Has anyone bought their home directly from the owner? Without a realtor?

In NY you need an attorney to handle all the paperwork. The attorney will recommend or contract with a title insurance company. You can get a mortgage on your own.

For LendingTree just put in the estimated date you want to close. Maybe try a month out from the date you are submitting your request.

Re: Has anyone bought their home directly from the owner? Without a realtor?

we bought our house directly from the owner and our lawyers determined the closing date.

Re: Has anyone bought their home directly from the owner? Without a realtor?

We bought our home directly from the owners. I did find, without a RE agent, that I had to stay on top of things and be a little aggressive with scheduling our closing date. It wasn't a problem, I just think I had to make some of the calls that a RE agent normally would.

The sellers listed through a RE agent at one point, but decided to go out and sell their house on their own when they were unhappy with the agent. Because they didn't need to pay a commission, they were willing to negotiate on price.

Good luck!!

Re: Has anyone bought their home directly from the owner? Without a realtor?

Thank you all so much. We thought it would be very easy since it was family, but we are learning that it's a lot more involved that we anticipated.

We got a quote from one bank for a mortgage, but I wanted to see what else was out there. We still have to get in touch with a RE lawyer, which I hope to do this week as well.

Re: Has anyone bought their home directly from the owner? Without a realtor?

I have the name of a great RE attorney if your interested.