Would EA ask a person who lets their house if they would sell?

[TweeBee]

There's a house I would love to live in but currently available to let. If I ask EA would they ask the owner if they might consider selling? They are selling our house so know we have accepted an offer and it's in their interest for us to move. But I'm not sure on the protocol.
It seems to have been last sold in 2001 according to Rightmove and was previously advertised there last year - does anyone know if that would have been for sale or let? I don't know if Rightmove shows when properties were previously listed to let.
Thank you

I would have a chat with the EA, I can’t see any harm in asking the question. However if a potential tenant is in the process of doing an application it might be too late.

When there were not enough properties on the market in our chosen area this time last year I started targeting rentals. I asked multiple EAs to ask their landlords if they’d consider selling. We looked round 5 houses using this tactic! 3 others said absolutely not looking to sell so but all the EAs were happy to ask on our behalf…if a little surprised by the unorthodox approach. The 5 landlords all seemed to want an insanely high price in exchange for not putting it on the open market at the time though/houses unsuitable and we bought something conventionally marketed in the end.

Of course you can ask.

you can always ask, why not? When we moved to the uk, we let our home abroad through a rental agency. One day we got an email from our agent asking on behalf of our tenants if we would consider selling, tenants love our house and would like to buy from us. We had no intention to sell and said no, but you never know, its worth asking.

We did this when the house next door had a sign up to re-let. We contacted the letting agent and asked them to ask the owner if they would be interested in selling as we were looking for a house for my mum who was moving to be closer to us. The owner was interested and sold the house to us.

Thanks everyone. I'll give them a ring first thing this morning!