Keep viewing properties with tenants

Rumana03

MovingForwards said:

Rumana03 said:

MovingForwards said:

My home is an ex-rental. I had a good chat with the occupiers while viewing and they did move out before I exchanged.

Did you ask them if they would be moving out?

I asked what their plans were if I offered and it was accepted.

Yeah that makes sense. I saw a house online today that looked good and I'm thinking we can just have a quick chat with the tenants when we go to view it and see what their plans are.

MovingForwards

Rumana03 said:

MovingForwards said:

Rumana03 said:

MovingForwards said:

My home is an ex-rental. I had a good chat with the occupiers while viewing and they did move out before I exchanged.

Did you ask them if they would be moving out?

I asked what their plans were if I offered and it was accepted.

Yeah that makes sense. I saw a house online today that looked good and I'm thinking we can just have a quick chat with the tenants when we go to view it and see what their plans are.

I viewed the flat for about an hour, initial tour by the daughter of owner, then left to go room to room, measuring up various things, making notes on the plan and my own note pad. The 'partner' of daughter wasn't that chatty, but told me which was the better pub, discussed parking but was more interested in watching TV. 

Drinks and a seat were offered, but I hadn't planned on talking long. It was the daughter who mainly covered all the questions about neighbours, noise (internal, from surrounding businesses and the road), with the occasional look at 'partner' for input. 

All the furniture was open for negotiation, oversized for the property and I was in an unfurnished rental which I'd previously kitted out with a view to everything moving with me. Cooker / w.machine was included in the sale. The parent couldn't get everything sold / moved out before exchange and I was left a few bits of bedroom furniture.

It was only due to the pandemic things got delayed. I've been living here for just over 2 years.

ProDave

Do we take from this that a lot of landlords are now selling up to exit that market?  The inevitable result of being near the top of a boom and wanting to cash in on the value before the next crash and not wanting to update older properties to meed the ever increasing rules placed on landlords?

lookstraightahead

What do the tenants say about their plans? It's their home after all.
even home owners who sell won't move out before they've found another house to buy (they think it's too scary to rent) so it's even harder for tenants and they haven't made the choice to move, it's even less likely that they will.

lookstraightahead

Rumana03 said:

MovingForwards said:

Rumana03 said:

MovingForwards said:

My home is an ex-rental. I had a good chat with the occupiers while viewing and they did move out before I exchanged.

Did you ask them if they would be moving out?

I asked what their plans were if I offered and it was accepted.

Yeah that makes sense. I saw a house online today that looked good and I'm thinking we can just have a quick chat with the tenants when we go to view it and see what their plans are.

So do you think the tenants will tell you anything? To be fair, if I were the tenant I would have expected the landlord to have had a huge discussion with me and to not have put the property on the market until it was vacant. The owner is so obviously trying to get rent as well as selling. I would be miffed about it and not offer any help (not your fault but why would a tenant even entertain a discussion - and they can change their minds. I mean, if they don't want to move they could potentially be there for a year or more)

Rumana03

lookstraightahead said:

Rumana03 said:

MovingForwards said:

Rumana03 said:

MovingForwards said:

My home is an ex-rental. I had a good chat with the occupiers while viewing and they did move out before I exchanged.

Did you ask them if they would be moving out?

I asked what their plans were if I offered and it was accepted.

Yeah that makes sense. I saw a house online today that looked good and I'm thinking we can just have a quick chat with the tenants when we go to view it and see what their plans are.

So do you think the tenants will tell you anything? To be fair, if I were the tenant I would have expected the landlord to have had a huge discussion with me and to not have put the property on the market until it was vacant. The owner is so obviously trying to get rent as well as selling. I would be miffed about it and not offer any help (not your fault but why would a tenant even entertain a discussion - and they can change their minds. I mean, if they don't want to move they could potentially be there for a year or more)

I agree with you. If it was my property I wouldn't dream of trying to sell it with tenants still inside. But some sellers are just greedy and want to rent the property until they have a seller lined up without realising they could end up with a tenant who doesn't leave. Colchester seems to be particularly bad for this. I have lost count of how many we have seen there.

I think some tenants would just be honest and say look I'm not looking to move when asked. They won't lose anythig from telling the truth. I've seen many properties come on the market with tenants but then get taken off within a week or two once the seller realises they aren't getting decent offers or any offers.

GDB2222

lookstraightahead said:

What do the tenants say about their plans? It's their home after all.
even home owners who sell won't move out before they've found another house to buy (they think it's too scary to rent) so it's even harder for tenants and they haven't made the choice to move, it's even less likely that they will.

In the past, when we were thinking of selling my late MIL's house, which had tenants, we offered them 3 months rent as an incentive to cooperate. Payable when they moved out, obviously, and only if we had a buyer lined up. 

That seemed a fair amount to me, but I would be surprised if everyone agrees.  

K_S

@rumana03 I'll sound a slightly contrary note here. Since covid, I have had a higher than usual number of FTBs buying properties from landlord vendors with tenants in at the viewing stage.

Other than the usual conveyancing delays, I'm not aware of any of these transactions falling through because the tenants wouldn't leave at all.

Caveat - we're a small firm and most of the above were flats in London where there is a high turnover of tenants anyways, so this may not be representative of the rest of the country.

The one thing I will say is that avoid taking anything the EA says about the tenants at face-value, make your own mind up based on what you see.

GDB2222

K_S said:

@rumana03 I'll sound a slightly contrary note here. Since covid, I have had a higher than usual number of FTBs buying properties from landlord vendors with tenants in at the viewing stage.

Other than the usual conveyancing delays, I'm not aware of any of these transactions falling through because the tenants wouldn't leave at all.

Caveat - we're a small firm and most of the above were flats in London where there is a high turnover of tenants anyways, so this may not be representative of the rest of the country.

The one thing I will say is that avoid taking anything the EA says about the tenants at face-value, make your own mind up based on what you see.

I agree. I think that the risks are being overstated on this forum, possibly because there have been a number of threads on cases where things have gone wrong. Nobody starts a thread to say that everything has gone ahead as planned.

london21

Might be cheaper but evicting tenants is a nightmare of a task. 

Better going for ones without tenants in them.