Making an offer to Landlord

berrecka

Myself and my partner have been living in a rented house since just after Christmas. Our plan was always to start looking for somewhere to buy come Springtime. We love the area our rental is in and would really be basing our search around there. The house we rent is fine but is in need of a lot of work - internal walls knocked, extension, fixing up a bad previous extension. That said, we think it has a lot of potential and is perfectly liveable in the meantime. So we are now thinking we would like to put in an offer on it, an offer which perhaps could allow us to do it mortgage free (or with a very small loan/mortgage) and do the work as and when we can afford it.

To date all of our dealings have been via the estate agent (a lovely man but not the most reliable of gents!) but with my stalking prowess I have found an address (work) for the owner. We have no idea whether they want to sell. We know (from internet research/stalking!) they have quite a few properties in the area, one of which has been on the sales market for years but needs an awful lot of (expensive) work to make it liveable; and some they rent out. We also think they may have sold a couple over the past few years.

Im looking for advise on how to approach it. We know they may not be looking to sell at all. Or they may not consider selling at what we would like to offer. That's fine, but we would like to find out. Should we ask the estate agent to approach them for us? Or so we approach them ourselves in an attempt to cut out estate agency fees? If the latter, do we lay an opening offer down or do we request from them how much they would consider selling for?

Sorry about the long winded post but just wondered what people have done in similar situations or if anyone has any suggestions before we get the ball rolling.

whomitconcerns

no experience of it but I think I would call him and speak to him..cant see how it could do any harm..and cut the agency out if at all possible.

Rasmus

I wouldn't deal with the agent at all. If you send your landlord a letter outlining the situation, he can decide how to move forward. If the post gets redirected from the house you live in, you can even just drop a note with your mobile no saying you are interested in the property - no need to even explain you are the tenant.

berrecka

Thanks guys. I fully anticipate that the landlord will respond negitively to the request - after all its not a great time to sell and there is nothing to tell me they are in a situation that they need to. But no harm in putting the feelers out. We spend so much time imagining what we would do with the place if it were ours. Ill be happier once I know one way or the other.

gaius c

Some good discussion on this very subject on the pin.

berrecka

So we went with talking to the estate agent. He has approached the landlord on our behalf. The landlord has said he could be interested and has asked that we make an offer.

We have a ballpark of how much we could pay, i.e. how much we have cash plus what we hope we could borrow without the banks. Its not that far off what the estate agent suggested off the top of his head it would be worth - he suggests 15-65k off what we have as his ballpark figure, without having done any searches or investigations.

We'll be getting an engineer around over the next few days, but having been living here since Christmas I have an idea of what the issues with the house are.

So, does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed? I really don't know if we should just offer what the estate agent suggested as the landlord may not be interested in cheeky offers, considering they aren't particularly looking to sell. I know at the moment, many are suggesting you offer 15-18% under asking, but I don't want to turn them off by doing so. Also, is there any advantage to being a cash buyer in this situation?

D3PO

offer what you want but bear in mind they weren't looking to sell you approached them so in all likelyhood unless its a relatively attractive offer why would they accept ?

I don't see how being a cash buyer is of any advantage in this scenario as again they owner isn't looking to sell and will likely only consider it if its attractive to them cash or not.

berrecka

Yea that's what Im feeling too.
Im just afraid that because we know they aren't particularly rushed to sell, that we will end up paying over the odds for it.

D3PO

berrecka wrote: »

Yea that's what Im feeling too.
Im just afraid that because we know they aren't particularly rushed to sell, that we will end up paying over the odds for it.

Don't put yourself in that position. Make an offer your comfortable with and feel reflects its value. If its accepted great if not wait till something else in the same area comes up. Your not tied to this house don't get an emotional attachment to it.

Business is business.

killers1

berrecka wrote: »

We'll be getting an engineer around over the next few days, but having been living here since Christmas I have an idea of what the issues with the house are.

Don't go paying for an Engineers Report until you have an offer accepted on the property. Too many people waste money doing this and their offer either isn't accepted or someone else offers more and they lose out. You should only pay to have a survey carried out once your offer is accepted and you have finance in place to complete the purchase. Any serious issues with the property can be renegotiated further down the road.

belcampprisoner

why would he want to sell it its montly rent for him,but you can ask what have other properties sold for in the area look at property register and offer a bit more

berrecka

Its a funny sort of an area. I guess cos its quite old. A lot of properties on the market here are totally unliveable. Then on the other end of the scale there are some Celtic Tiger builds. Its like comparing lemons and limes in terms of estimating house values - and Im no valuer.

They have had a bit of trouble renting in the past - including with us. They had to give up a few weeks rental income due to issues when we moved in. Im sure they are aware that without proper maintenance, the same will continue to happen. They don't live in the county and are getting on in years, retired. They have a few properties about the place that I believe are starting to get into bad shape. It seems their hearts just aren't in it anymore, that's why I imagine they would be willing to sell. At least, why I hope they might be.

berrecka

Oh and thanks for that advice Killers1. I have free access to an engineer. That is the only reason I would get one involved at this stage. He would like to give it all a once over and give me an idea of value (though he is not a valuer either, he would have a better idea than we would) before I put an offer in

the_syco

berrecka wrote: »

Oh and thanks for that advice Killers1. I have free access to an engineer. That is the only reason I would get one involved at this stage. He would like to give it all a once over and give me an idea of value (though he is not a valuer either, he would have a better idea than we would) before I put an offer in

In that case, get him in before you offer a price, in case he finds that you'd have to put serious money into it.

carpejugulum

You can estimate the value from your rent.