Request to lease before purchasing

[Wanttobeyou]

My house is for sale, it's empty as I'm now living elsewhere.

A viewer has seen the house and has been in touch to say he wants to purchase it, he's a property investor. However, he won't have the deposit for 6 months as he's just bought another property that needs doing up.

He has proposed that he leases my property for 6 months, and then buys it.

Immediate red flags for me; is this a known 'thing'? Never heard of it before.

I won't be agreeing as I just want a simple sale but wondered of anyone has been approached in a similar way?

Why not wait for a buyer who will buy. Personally I d decline this kind of "offer" as the property is for sale. This offer sounds like BS. If you change your mind about that get the agent to market it as a rental, so that many people can look at it.

As my post states, I'm not agreeing as I see red flags; I was interested to see if anyone has been offered anything similar and what the 'game' is.

I'm guessing as soon as they have the keys they sub-let for max gains or use the property for rental scams?

Definitely avoid. Unless your house is ridiculously underpriced, or has amazing untapped potential, a true property investor won’t touch it.
I don’t know what the scam is, maybe subletting, cannabis farm, just not paying rent, could be anything.

I’d be suspicious they’ll move in, stop paying rent with no intention of buying and be a nightmare to evict

I'm really curious what it could be! Drugs related didn't occur to me but that's definitely possible too.