Sandwiched between investor properties

jcuurthht

I am selling my late mother's property. The neighbor has students on one side, and if I sell to an investor, she'll have students/young professionals on the other side. I understand some council's have restrictions against this.

The house went on the market today, and already has a cash offer for the asking price for an investor, who wants to cancel all viewings and take the property off the market (standard practice I assume when making an offer). The estate agent is also suggesting this could be the best opportunity to get a good price. It is an investor they have worked with before.

My only reservation is selling to an investor which causes the neighbor to be sandwiched between 2 student houses. I feel a bit bad doing that.

k3lvc

All depends on how much your morals are worth to you and whether you have any ongoing relationship with the neighbour.

Personally I'd be taking the money 

user1977

Or you sell to somebody else for a worse price, and six months later they sell to a landlord...

jcuurthht

user1977 said:

Or you sell to somebody else for a worse price, and six months later they sell to a landlord...

Great insight.

jcuurthht

Yeah, as this investor is so keen, perhaps I can increase the asking price, or reject their offer and see if they come back with a higher offer. The property already has 4 other viewings booked

SuseOrm

I am in exactly that scenario in that are my property which is an investment property is sandwiched between a property that to Brother zone and they quite regularly make me a stupid lowball offers because they like to own everything in a row.  I guess only you know whether the price is fair reasonable etc etc.  But whether it’s students or tenants they have to behave in a Nayborly like mana otherwise they got a rocket up their *** from the local authority so I wouldn’t worry too much

eddddy

jcuurthht said:

The estate agent is also suggesting this could be the best opportunity to get a good price. It is an investor they have worked with before.

That might be a bit of an alarm bell.  There could be a conflict of interest.

The EA has some kind of ongoing business relationship with the investor. The EA has no ongoing business relationship with you.

Maybe the investor buys and sells a number of properties via that EA. Maybe the investor uses the EA as a rental agent.

So maybe the EA is more interested in securing a low price for the investor to keep them sweet, rather than achieving a high price for you.



For what it's worth, another poster mentioned that an EA was trying to push an investor's offer hard. And it turned out that the EA was also turning away other people who wanted to view the property - presumably to stop them offering more than the investor.

TBagpuss

It would be perfectly reasonable to tell the agents that you would like to go ahead with the other viewings which have already been booked in.

It may be than the investor will be the best choice, but if you've got multiple viewings booked and an offer on  the first day it's on the market then I wouldn't assume that he investor is automatically the best.

That said, if there are a lot of student / HMO properties in the street that may put off some potential buyers if they are looking for a family home.

how does the offer the investor has made compare with the asking price and with sold prices for comparable properties? what kind of condition is the property in? Is it likely to need significant work and/or redecoration

jcuurthht

Other agents suggested an asking price a bit higher. Property is livable with redecoration, new floors etc. No major modernisation needed.

TBagpuss said:

It would be perfectly reasonable to tell the agents that you would like to go ahead with the other viewings which have already been booked in.

It may be than the investor will be the best choice, but if you've got multiple viewings booked and an offer on  the first day it's on the market then I wouldn't assume that he investor is automatically the best.

That said, if there are a lot of student / HMO properties in the street that may put off some potential buyers if they are looking for a family home.

how does the offer the investor has made compare with the asking price and with sold prices for comparable properties? what kind of condition is the property in? Is it likely to need significant work and/or redecoration

Rejecting the offer may cause them to increase. Or I could just ask for a higher offer from the investor considering the interest. It's a hot area.

jcuurthht

eddddy said:

jcuurthht said:

The estate agent is also suggesting this could be the best opportunity to get a good price. It is an investor they have worked with before.

That might be a bit of an alarm bell.  There could be a conflict of interest.

The EA has some kind of ongoing business relationship with the investor. The EA has no ongoing business relationship with you.

Maybe the investor buys and sells a number of properties via that EA. Maybe the investor uses the EA as a rental agent.

So maybe the EA is more interested in securing a low price for the investor to keep them sweet, rather than achieving a high price for you.



For what it's worth, another poster mentioned that an EA was trying to push an investor's offer hard. And it turned out that the EA was also turning away other people who wanted to view the property - presumably to stop them offering more than the investor.

Yes I've considered this. EA has booked in a few viewings a week in the future. They mentioned already that this investor would likely be interested. Perhaps they have already been told about the property before today. Maybe even seen it, but it's empty I wouldn't know

TBagpuss

You don't even need to reject the offer, you can just say to the agents that you want to proceed with the other viewings which are already booked so are not in a position to accept yet.
worst case scenario they withdraw the offer but if it's in a hot area that's probably not a major issue - if you'd had it on the market for3 months and this was the first offer then obviously it would be a bit different.
I agree that it may be that the agent is a bit too close to the investor and it may be worth you raising that with them and asking them to clarify why they are pushing this offer, given that the market is hot and there are multiple other interested people. It may be that there is a valid reason, in which case they should be happy to give you a fuller explanation.