Landlord wants to sell her house to us (tenants)

[Toniiiii]

Hello,

Our landlord has offered to sell us the house we are currently renting. Bit of background, she lives in Spain and has no plans of moving back to the UK. DH and I love the house however it’s a 2 bed and we are planning to start a family soon so we’ll outgrow it pretty quickly. We’ve planned to convert the loft into a 3rd bedroom if we do end up buying.

The issue is the cost, it’s in a well sought after location, big garden, close to train station and quiet tree lined street. Landlord sent us Zoopla estimate which is £379-£463k bearing in mind budget is £340k. The 2 bed house next door with a slightly similar but smaller floorplan is on for £325 and after some googling, I discovered our house was actually on the market in 2018 at £425k so it seems like we might be punching above our weight here but we really love the location as it’s potentially going to be a great investment and this is our main reason for even considering the offer

Do you think we should go for it?
What would be the first step for a FTB to proceed? Has anyone here had or heard of similar experience? Please share

The house is in the South East btw.

Thanks all

go for it, forget about zoopla it's useless.
you can get an estate agent to value it.
remind the seller, they don't have to pay agent's fees, unless it is managed by an agent, they might ask for their share.
stick to your budget.

I agree with mumsy27. My house is on Zoopla for some daft amount. I had it valued recently and it is nowhere near the Zoopla amount. which is just a ballpark figure anyway not based in individual properties.

Get it valued by an estate agent

We have sold two properties we owned to the tenants, in each case we got three estimates from estate agents and agreed a price based on the lowest. We were saving on fees and the tenants on costs of moving, everyone was happy.

Send the landlady the next door particulars pointing out the valuation, they might not even get that in the current climate, obv you don’t want to piss her off so be nice about it, ask her if she would like to get some Estate agents round, and you would be amenable. (If she’s going to be tricky you could buy next door!)

Ignore zoopla. I bought the house I'd rented for 10 years. My landlady got two valuations and we met in the middle. I got a bargin! It saved a fortune on estate agents fees and moving costs. I did have a full survey done though. I'd looked at loads of other houses but none ticked every box, apart from this one. It was a really good decision

Zoopla is ridiculous. It doesn't reflect anything. A house that needed a full renovation when it last sold won't reflect its true value now. The only way to get a better idea of price is to get 3 estate agents round to value it.

Also have a look and see what is available for your budget too. Have you costed up a loft conversion?

Hmm. This is tricky. If the landlord has it valued by three Estate Agents and the valuation comes out as something near the price it was otm for in 2018 (and I can't see why it would be significantly lower as I'm not aware of house prices falling in the south east) then you will be, as you say, punching above your weight.

Why don't you buy the house next door?

Buy the house next door...

Usually you'd expect to get the house you rent at a small discount because the landlird avoids estate agent fees and hassle.

Agree you need valuations - not just one, but at least 2, possibly 3. Then offer 5-10% less. Obviously be charming and polite at ecery turn, not pushy and demanding, but stick to the line that you are just starting out and cannot possibly stretch much beyond the price of the similar house next door, nor risk negative equity at a time when you're planning to factor in the costs of starting a family and doing a loft conversion.

Don't use Zoopla! Have the landlord arrange their own 2 valuations and you arrange alternative 2 valuations then using this you can decide how much to offer.

I discovered our house was actually on the market in 2018 at £425k

And it didn't sell, presumably.

I wouldn't rush into this decision. Take your time and view other properties - you might see something else you want more! If not, make sure some independent EAs value the house, and then negotiate with the LL as you would any other seller.

Yes, but there's a very big gap between £340,000 and £425,000.

Have it valued and go from there.

On rightmove you can look at what the house was last actually sold for. You can put a house on the market at any price you want even if its vastly more than it's worth. Nobody will buy it, but there's nothing to stop a home owner offering a house for sale at any random price they fancy. It having been on the market at x amount and not sold means nothing except that nobody was willing to pay that for it.

Get several valuations.

Your landlord possibly wants or needs 400k for some reason, rather than the house being worth that.

If that's the case you won't reach a mutually acceptable sale price and just have to politely decline the offer to sell you the house for an inflated price. The silver lining is you can continue renting the house for as long as you want because if it isn't worth what the landlord wants nobody else will buy it either.

As everyone else said, ignore zoopla and get estate agents valuations. Your landlord should arrange this since she's the owner wanting to sell. But as she's in Spain, if you're feeling helpful you could offer to do it.

You will also need to talk to a mortgage adviser to find out how much you could borrow. There's lots of helpful advice for first time buyers about mortgages and house buying on the money saving expert website.

There's not much point negotiating until you've got some valuations and mortgage advice. And as PP said it would be wise to get some estimates for the loft conversion, which you can easily do.

If the landlord is willing to sell then I'd give it a go. If your offer is too low try and negotiate, if it's still not accepted you've not really lost anything as you'd be moving out anyway if they were selling to someone else.

And yes, the Zoopla estimation is often rubbish!

Forget about zoopla. 5 or so years ago they were pretty spot on. No so much currently.

Recently sold out house, zooplankton estimate is way out

Definitely, go for it.

Send her the brochure for flat next door and say that you've a viewing booked. It's good to compare what's available locally to see how it compares to your current home.

Don’t mention the loft conversion when you’re talking to the landlady! Makes it clear you’ll be able to get cash from somewhere, and reminds her of a potential uplift in value. Good luck.

Thank you all so much for your feedback and lots of food for thought. We'll start looking into getting some EAs round to value the house.

The house next door is currently under offer and they had a tiny garden anyway. We have the bigger plot.
I think the 2018 listing was definitely overpriced at £425k which was probably why she decided to rent it out instead.
Landlord says she's planning to sell early next year around March/April which ties in nicely with our timeline savings-wise.
I guess we'll also need to factor in what the housing market will be like next year re. Covid and Brexit.
It's all exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time!!

The landlord will have to sort out EA's coming round to arrange valuations. They will not deal with you as it isn't your house to sell. I tried to arrange them but wasn't able too.

We sold our house for more than the Zoopla estimate (also SE). If I were the landlord, I’d want at least 463k for it. Why would she sell it for a lot less?

My sibling did this last year - totally ignore zoopla prices. They got 3 local estate agents to value the house and went with the lowest price as this meant that they got it for a reasonable price and landlord didn't have to pay estate agents fees.

We bought the house we had been renting just before lockdown. The landlord wanted far more than we could afford, so we started looking at other places that were for sale near us. In the end, we decided to offer what we could afford, which was about 15% less than the asking price. The landlord wanted it all completed speedily as they had found somewhere else to buy so they accepted our offer and the whole thing went through in six weeks which suited them and us. So it's worth offering what you can afford, but also looking elsewhere. If the landlord wants a quick and easy sale, they'll consider your offer.