Buying from landlord

Emmas_grandad

We've recently sold our house, our onward purchase fell through, so rather than losing our buyer, we decided to rent until we found our forever home, we're currently renting a house, the landlord knows we're house hunting, and has offered us to buy this house from him, he said he was looking for £600k, (vastly overpriced imho) so i asked him to get 3 or 4 independent valuations and then we'd talk.
The house needs completely modernising, externally it seems fine, but internally - everything is dated and on it's last legs, windows, kitchen, bathrooms, heating, electrics, plumbing, you name it - it needs replacing.
The landlord sent an 'agent' round, who is related to him, and runs an estate agency (i think you can see where this is going) he practically repeated word for word what my landlord said, it's £600k. i laughed at him and showed him out, the second agent came and agreed the house needs a lot of work and money spent, he'd already been advised by the landlord that he was looking for £600k, but added he's going to be very disappointed if he wants £600k, but then he wouldn't give us a valuation figure, he said he needed to do some 'research', a week later i went into their office to try to get the valuation, again he couldn't tell me as he still needed to 'research' some more, this was 3 weeks ago now, and still no valuation. We would like to buy this house but only if the price is right, houses similar to ours, in far better condition market for £100k- £150k less, so he's obviously trying to have us over.
My question is am i able to engage agents for my own valuations as i'm not the owner? is it legal?

davidmcn

Emmas_grandad wrote: »

My question is am i able to engage agents for my own valuations as i'm not the owner? is it legal?

It's "legal" yes (why wouldn't it be?), but you might be better to get an actual qualified surveyor round rather than just someone in a shiny suit from the estate agents.

phill99

Get a surveyor in who will give you a valuation and an adea on refurbishment costs.

Moneyminded

So other than the inflated price tag aside, do you actually want to live here long term? You said you sold your previous home to enable you to buy your forever home, is this it? Do you want a big renovation project?

You are in a great position in that you are now chain free and can move quickly if you found the perfect home. Given that your landlord seems to be living in a dream world in terms of the money he wants for the house I would be tempted to make it clear that you are still actively looking at other properties. If he was looking to sell anyway then selling directly to you could save a lot in EA fees.

If you have decided that this could be the perfect home for you then you need to show the landlord comparable sold prices locally to negotiate on the price. Given that it isn't on the market yet (by the sounds of it) your landlord might prefer to go to the open market if he genuinely thinks that will generate a higher offer.

Good luck

Emmas_grandad

davidmcn wrote: »

It's "legal" yes (why wouldn't it be?), but you might be better to get an actual qualified surveyor round rather than just someone in a shiny suit from the estate agents.

i've only ever owned my own home, renting is new to me, so i'm not sure of all the ins and outs, what i am and am not allowed to do etc, i didn't know if agents are only allowed to value for the actual owner, not the tenents etc.
I did think of a surveyor, but looking at the cost to engage one against a free agent valuation, bearing in mind that we've been viewing a lot of properties around here for a few months, so i know roughly what the house is worth.

Emmas_grandad

Moneyminded wrote: »

So other than the inflated price tag aside, do you actually want to live here long term? You said you sold your previous home to enable you to buy your forever home, is this it? Do you want a big renovation project?

You are in a great position in that you are now chain free and can move quickly if you found the perfect home. Given that your landlord seems to be living in a dream world in terms of the money he wants for the house I would be tempted to make it clear that you are still actively looking at other properties. If he was looking to sell anyway then selling directly to you could save a lot in EA fees.

If you have decided that this could be the perfect home for you then you need to show the landlord comparable sold prices locally to negotiate on the price. Given that it isn't on the market yet (by the sounds of it) your landlord might prefer to go to the open market if he genuinely thinks that will generate a higher offer.

Good luck

I'm quite happy to have a project, i can do most of it myself, so i'm not phased by the work needed, this could be a very nice home, but has been neglected for a good few years.

I don't think he'd get what he wants on the open market, the second agent already told me it's unrealistic, all i want is a sensible price to go back to him with.

Cakeguts

How did the landlord find out you were house hunting?



What this sounds like to me is that the landlord was not thinking of selling until he found out although I don't know how that you were looking for a house to buy.



It sounds as if the landlord will sell the house to you but only if you make it worth his while to sell it. So the £600k is the price he wants to part with it. He obviously doesn't need to sell it.



He doesn't sound as if he actually wants to sell this house so you will do better to forget about this house and find one that is actually for sale.

Emmas_grandad

Cakeguts wrote: »

How did the landlord find out you were house hunting?



What this sounds like to me is that the landlord was not thinking of selling until he found out although I don't know how that you were looking for a house to buy.



It sounds as if the landlord will sell the house to you but only if you make it worth his while to sell it. So the £600k is the price he wants to part with it. He obviously doesn't need to sell it.



He doesn't sound as if he actually wants to sell this house so you will do better to forget about this house and find one that is actually for sale.

A relative of the landlord runs the agency we're renting through, so they're aware of our position, our landlord lives in the house behind us, so we've spoken etc.

G_M

First, do you really want to buy this house? Yes?No?
Next, have you looked at the 'sold' prices of recent similar local properties? They went for how much? In what condition?
What is your estimate for the cost of works needed? How have you obtained this estimate? Now double it!


OK - why are you allowing the LL to get the valuations, clearly after 'prompting' the agents? Get your own valuations.

Either get 3 estate agents round, and make sure they distinguish between what they would market at, and what they really expect it to sell for.

Or pay an RICS Valuation Surveyor for a written valuation (which is what a mortgage lender will do).

davidmcn

Emmas_grandad wrote: »

I did think of a surveyor, but looking at the cost to engage one against a free agent valuation,

Hold on - why would anyone give you a valuation for free? Estate agents only do "free" valuations as part of their sales pitch if you're thinking of giving them some work. You wouldn't be.

You might get a cheaper valuation from an estate agent. But like I said, they're (probably) not qualified, and if you proceed with the purchase you'd want to get a proper surveyor in anyway so why not do it at the start?

Emmas_grandad

davidmcn wrote: »

Hold on - why would anyone give you a valuation for free? Estate agents only do "free" valuations as part of their sales pitch if you're thinking of giving them some work. You wouldn't be.

we sold our house using EA, we had 5 up to give us valuations, only one EA was used to sell our house, NONE of them charged us for valuations, even though they didn't get the job. and ALL of them were in the right area as far as the valuations went.