Did anyone ever asked their landlord if they want to sell?

mimimt

I asked my landlord, who said no. At that time, I had already looked for two months with no suitable properties.

Must say I'm so happy that he said no as the flat I ended buying is so much nicer I ended up buying a flat in the same block I used to rent, but my flat is significantly cheaper than the other two flats (same layout) sold around the same time and is even better in condition. I finally got lucky after having no luck for 4 months.

millym

Do your research first, and check how much your LL paid for the property on Land Registry. Also, check how much similar properties have sold for recently. This may give you some extra insight.

In my case, I know that my LL paid about a third more for my place than it is currently worth (bought in 2007 at peak of the market), so it would make little sense for him to sell just now.

sirmosh

Always worth a try but depends on the situation of the LL really. I know someone who rented a property and the landlords lived next door, they wouldn't sell as they wanted to control who there neighbour would be and if they sold then it could be sold on again to someone they don't want living there.

On the other hand I know someone who lives in a flat only rented out because they couldn't sell it and so would love for them to offer to buy it.

I would say, just as a guess that many landlords could be tempted to sell to a tennant since there would be no need to pay estate agent fees, no chain behind the buyer and no effort is required to market the property. Of course that still depends on their situation, the property could be in negative equity or may have been purchased 15 years ago and could be a nice earner should the landlord sell it.

Slinky

My friend bought her cottage from a friend she was renting it from. You can but ask.

Clearlier

We asked our landlords. They did want to sell but not at our price. Having lived in it for three years we have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done to the house so we weren't willing to go above a certain price which others who just come to view the house might well exceed. They asked a few estate agents to value it and they came in predictably high with no realistic possibility of meeting in the middle.

Unfortunately they decided they were going to put it on the market anyway which focused our minds and we recently agreed on a smaller house in a better location.

Interestingly there hasn't been a single viewing of the house we're renting despite this being an area where correctly priced houses move very quickly. The moment the vendors drop the price by 5% they'll have a flood of viewings so we're pushing to move as quickly as we can. Ideally we'll move before there are any viewing as it feels pretty intrusive but we've agreed in order that the landlord doesn't serve notice on us.