Rent to buy

Needshelp_2

Rent to buy

Just wondering if these schemes are any good??

Does anyone know any sites or agents that list rent to buy properties, as I've found it quite tricky find some.

Cheers

BitterAndTwisted

The only ones I've read about have been on here and they have been scams

Needshelp_2

Have noticed this one;


http://www.nationalpropertygroup.co.uk/


They advertised on findaproperty.com


Anyone know anything about them?

pararct

What exactly is rent to buy?

Is it a shared ownership type scheme ?:eek:

robin_banks

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

The only ones I've read about have been on here and they have been scams

I'm haven't seen any that are FSA regulated.

Could be wrong though.

MobileSaver

In this case, rent to buy seems to mean pay rent plus 50% extra every month on a house with an over-inflated value. The 50% extra allegedly goes into a pot that you get back in 5 years to use as a deposit to buy the house.

Looking at the first property on their list they claim "If the property is worth more than £119,995 in 5 years time (it's probably worth at least that now)". However no house in that street has ever sold for that much in the last 10 years, the last one sold was for £80,000 in 2007. So on their valuation Yorkshire properties have increased in value by 50% since the 2007 peak! I think not.

The domain name is registered to a private individual who has told Nominet, the UK domain name authority, that it is not being used for commercial purposes when it obviously is.

The Ltd company was only set up a few months ago but the business model relies on them still being in business five years from now when they pay out a lump sum.

If I were in your shoes I would avoid like the plague.

white_noise

MobileSaver wrote: »

The domain name is registered to a private individual who has told Nominet, the UK domain name authority, that it is not being used for commercial purposes when it obviously is.

If I were in your shoes I would avoid like the plague.

the name sake of the individual also runs www.juicy-property.co.uk/

Juicy Property was set up by Ollie Cornes, who created the "Singing Pig" UK landlords forum in 2002. In 2006 he wanted to move his own portfolio of properties away from paper and spreadsheets, and manage them using a scalable and comprehensive software system. He put a team together to do that, and the software system is now available to other landlords under the Juicy Property banner. The system has been in development since 2006, running on a very long-term trial, to evaluate its effectiveness and gather feedback from landlords using it.

http://webwhois.nic.uk/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=juicy-property.co.uk

and that does have his details, i would proceed with a lot of caution!
WN

giddypenguin

MobileSaver wrote: »

In this case, rent to buy seems to mean pay rent plus 50% extra every month on a house with an over-inflated value. The 50% extra allegedly goes into a pot that you get back in 5 years to use as a deposit to buy the house...

...If I were in your shoes I would avoid like the plague.

I don't understand, why sign up for this scheme? Why not just put the amount into a savings account?

MobileSaver

giddypenguin wrote: »

I don't understand, why sign up for this scheme? Why not just put the amount into a savings account?

I'm sure NPG Lettings don't want you to ask sensible questions like that!

To be fair the incentive is that they pay a £5k bonus in 5 years time, of course the risk is that they're not around in 5 years and so you lose not only the bonus but also the £200 a month extra you've been paying towards the deposit. Although the incentive is meaningless if the property is already over-valued by £40,000!

Each month you pay an additional £199.99 top up towards your future deposit ... The purchase price is fixed at the outset ... Move in and buy later - or walk away! You don?t have to buy if you change your mind!

Similarly I'm sure they don't want anyone to ask what happens to "your future deposit" if you decide not to buy the property in 5 years because it is still massively over-valued. I couldn't see anything that said you get it back...

giddypenguin

MobileSaver wrote: »

I'm sure NPG Lettings don't want you to ask sensible questions like that!

To be fair the incentive is that they pay a £5k bonus in 5 years time, of course the risk is that they're not around in 5 years and so you lose not only the bonus but also the £200 a month extra you've been paying towards the deposit. Although the incentive is meaningless if the property is already over-valued by £40,000!

Similarly I'm sure they don't want anyone to ask what happens to "your future deposit" if you decide not to buy the property in 5 years because it is still massively over-valued. I couldn't see anything that said you get it back...

So, by doing some quick sums, your risking 12k of your money, for a 5k bonus? And possibly buying a hideously expensive house? Hmmmm... I think I'd rather give my 12k to a load of bankers thank you very much.

aless02

They don't pay the bonus...it's payable (under legal contract) by the vendor. It seems that even if they went out of business, the legal contract b/t you & the vendor would still stand and protect all your monies (since the bond is paid into an insured ARLA account and the vendor is bound by a full sales contract at the end of the 5 years). The houses do seem overvalued, and that may be the catch - I wonder if they go for less like a normal house would though? That would mitigate it a bit. I think it's a pretty viable option for some people who are desperate because they can never hope to have a deposit any other way.