buying the flat we rent... advise please

sandraa_2

Hi!

My husband and I are very interested in buying the flat we are currently renting.

We are renting privatle, via an agency.

We have no idea if the landlord would even consider selling...

Could anyone tell us if contacting the landlord directly sounds like a good idea? Does anyone ever done that?

We really like the flat and would offer a good price for it.

Any advise please.

Sandra

Doozergirl

You should have been provided with your landlord's details when you took out the tenancy. Of course, approaching them directly would be the way to go. I'd be confident about what you think it is worse and I would not make an offer straight off, I would see if they are interested in selling.

One 'but' is that it might be quite a bit more expensive per month than your rent. I'd look at the Land Registry and see what has been happening to house prices of late. If they aren't rising, then there mightn't be much point in you buying right now. You could keep saving and reduce the amount of the mortgage when you eventually take it out

Phirefly

*gets comfy and takes a deep breath*

This is my specialist subject

We bought our rented property this april. Doozergirl's right, we pay almost double on our mortgage than we were paying in rent. This sounds like madness, but it was a calculated choice. While I was renting I was saving a wedge a month for a deposit, and now my outgoing is the same, only rather than half going into a savings account and half to rent, it all goes on the mortgage.

Last August we approached our landlord directly obtaining his home address from our tennancy agreement papers. We did not let the agency know at any time what we were doing. At first, our landlord was not remotely interested in selling. I used my special powers and made it happen. We agreed a price in February this year and completed in a month.

We stressed to him our positives as buyers, he would not have to pay agency fees, we were FTB with a deposit and mortgage in place and it would be extremely stress-free and painless for him. We stumbled a bit over the valuation, and the end of the tennancy was like something out of a Farrely brothers film, but it was all worth it times a million. Plus we got it for 6K under value as our landlord was making considerable savings by selling to us.

I could explain the finer points in great detail to you but it might bore our fellow mse-ers but I would be happy to chat to you over PM. I can send you a draft of the letter I wrote making inital contact with the landlord if you like.

if buying the place you rent makes you even half as happy as my house makes me, you should definitely do it! All the best

sandraa_2

Thanks so much for your replies.

Here is the details:

We have about £10000 towards deposit.

Mortgage is no problem.

We are first time buyer.

A very similar flat in our building just sold for £195000, althought it was in better condition than the one we currently rent.

We were thinking about offering £180000... what do you think of it?

Phirefly

As Doozergirl says, make the contact first and find out if he's interested in selling and don't make any mention yet of what you're planning to offer.

When our landlord finally decided he was interested, we waited for him to invite us to make an offer, then we based the figure we offered on an identical house in the street that recently sold and offered just below that. We we pretty gutted when our LL got his letting agents round to value the house and they valued it 12k more than our offer. Plus they gave him all sorts of ridiculous guarantees that they could get him that price instantly, infact they had buyers lining up (righto).

Anyway after a months' wrangling to and fro (and sleepless nights) we settled on a price midway between our first offer and the agents valuation. He was prepared to let us have it for that bit lower as he wouldn't incur estate agency fees and he's have no loss of tenancy income during the sale period.

go for it

pickles110564

It depends whether the LL is in for th elong haul or waiting till he gets a good return on his original investment.
We are in for 25 year term so it would have to be a very special offer for us to sell any of our properties
HTH