Struggling first time buyer

fair21comic

Hello all

I'm a first time buyer looking to buy a flat in Manchester somewhere central. I have all my financing in place but the problem is that all the flat I find are listed as 'investors only'. (As a side note I have to say I find this commoditisation of homes pretty revolting).

I was wondering how difficult it would be for me to buy as an 'investor' and then after completion get rid of the management company and move in myself?

Thanks in advance.

HouseBuyer77

Investors only usually indicates the seller is looking for an investment buyer, either because it's got a tenant in and they don't wish to evict or they only want to deal with investment buyers (because they consider them simpler to deal with than resisdential buyers).

Could be worth ringing the agents concerned and asking why they are investment only.

G_M

'Investers only' usually =

1) unmortgageable property so cash purchasers only

2) tenanted property so buyer would become a landlord on Completion

ognum

fair21comic wrote: »

Hello all

I'm a first time buyer looking to buy a flat in Manchester somewhere central. I have all my financing in place but the problem is that all the flat I find are listed as 'investors only'. (As a side note I have to say I find this commoditisation of homes pretty revolting).

I was wondering how difficult it would be for me to buy as an 'investor' and then after completion get rid of the management company and move in myself?

Thanks in advance.

You may feel it's 'commoditisation' but it's just the EA being honest in describing the property.

It will either be un-mortgageable or have a tenant in situ that has a contract to remain in the property for a long period.

It has to be considered good to give tenants security of tenure but that does mean that unless you have cash you will be unable to secure a mortgage on the property unless you have vacant possession.

Is there a way you can get around this, borrow cash wait for vacant possession and then mortgage, offer to buy out the tenants?

fair21comic

Hi all

Thanks for the very useful answers here so far - much appreciated.

It will either be un-mortgageable or have a tenant in situ that has a contract to remain in the property for a long period.

It has to be considered good to give tenants security of tenure but that does mean that unless you have cash you will be unable to secure a mortgage on the property unless you have vacant possession.

Is there a way you can get around this, borrow cash wait for vacant possession and then mortgage, offer to buy out the tenants?

What are the reasons a property might be unmortgageable? I may be able to get the cash together, but would then need to take a loan out against the property after purchase to pay it back, which I guess is just another kind of mortgage?

I guess that if I did buy a flat that had tenants, once the purchase was complete I'd be able to negotiate with the tenants and find a date for them to vacate? Any one have any idea how easy this is to do contractually-speaking?

Many thanks again.

HouseBuyer77

What are the reasons a property might be unmortgageable?

Non-standard construction, uninhabitable (no useable bathroom & kitchen), short remaining lease (60-70 years or less), no right of access to property (freehold has the ownership of the land house is on but is surrounded by other land you don't have a right of way over), or various other structural or legal problems.

If you needed a loan to pay someone back for the cash to purchase an unmortgageable loan you'll either need an unsecured loan, a loan secured on something else or make it mortgageable after moving in (e.g. renew lease so it's long enough or install functional kitchen & bathroom, depends upon the nature of the problem).

I guess that if I did buy a flat that had tenants, once the purchase was complete I'd be able to negotiate with the tenants and find a date for them to vacate? Any one have any idea how easy this is to do contractually-speaking?

Depends what kind of tenancy they were on. Whilst they were in you would be a landlord with the all the responsibilities that comes along with. If they're on an AST (which they almost certainly are) it's fairly straightforward to get them out, but can take a long time.

HouseBuyer77

I should also add that buying a tenanted property with the express purpose of evicting to then occupy it yourself is generally not recommended (I maybe made it sound more benign above than I should have). For one thing you'll need a buy to let mortgage which is more expensive and you may not be able to qualify for.

G_M

If it's unmorgagable and you still want to buy, you'd need to know why it's unmortgageable:

* you may be able to make it mortgageable later (as suggested, install kitchen, extend lease, whatever), but if that's not possible then your alternative funding would need to be long-term

* if you can't make it mortgageable, but can fund the purchase, you'd need to bear in mind the difficulties you'll have later trying to sell, as once again you'd be limited to 'cash buyers' only

* if it's tenanted, you'll become a landlord, so read:

* New landlords: advice, information & links

sann420

fair21comic wrote: »

Hello all

I'm a first time buyer looking to buy a flat in Manchester somewhere central. I have all my financing in place but the problem is that all the flat I find are listed as 'investors only'. (As a side note I have to say I find this commoditisation of homes pretty revolting).

I was wondering how difficult it would be for me to buy as an 'investor' and then after completion get rid of the management company and move in myself?

Thanks in advance.

As other posters have said if its investor only then the seller has severely limited his market and there must be a good reason why he/she is doing that. Surely in a big city like Manchester there would be a big flow of properties so all you need to do is to sit tight, dont obsess about one or two properties and wait for the right one to come along.

PasturesNew

If you post links to flats you can't buy, people might be able to suggest why those particular ones would be "investor only", so you might start to be able to spot problems and why.... to aid you in understanding what the problem in when you're looking at others.

There's a huge range of reasons why, specific flats help people to be specific.

alchemist.1

Most of these places are tenanted and hugely in demand by investors n central Manchester and usually on 12 month leases.

They don't need to worry about about vacant possession with demand for property from investors ( a lot of are cash buyers)