Rent before buying?

[GreenMarigold]

Our house is on the market and we have found a private sale property that looks like it could work for our next step. It is owned by friends. We have made an offer on it that has been accepted. We've had 3 months to find a buyer for ours before the vendors will open it up to the market and consider other offers.

2 of those months have now passed and we have had no offers on ours. However the vendors are very caught up with other things and are dreading the thought of having to get the property ready for open market. From what we know of their financial situation, they aren't in a huge hurry. Currently the property is empty.

It has occurred to me that we could offer to rent the private sale property from the vendors until we get a buyer for ours. Emptying ours of at least most of the clutter would mean that we could redecorate more easily and make some improvements. We could leave in token furniture.

For me I think the main things would be to make clear the what ifs - what if we don't get a buyer for ours, what if they find another buyer for theirs, etc.

Does this sound like a terrible idea or one worth pursuing?

What’s in it for them to agree to this? At the moment, if you don’t sell, they can hand over to an estate agent to do the marketing.any time they like. If you move in, viewings have to be agreed to by you etc etc

I take your point. In my view what’s in it for them is that they start making an income from the property rather than having to pay council tax etc every month.

The property also needs quite a bit of work to get it viewing-ready and they don’t have a great deal of time or money to spend on it at present.

Wouldn’t it be cheaper to lower the price of the house you are trying to sell?

If you’re brave enough you could share the link of your house and get mumsnet advice on how you can make it more marketable.

I viewed a house a while ago where the sellers had initially rented until they sold their house so it does happen. You need to ask the vendors what they feel about the proposal.

Sorry I’m not brave enough! 🫣

Reducing the price probably is the answer.

I think I’m just feeling so fed up with keeping the house ready for viewings and living like I’m walking on eggshells!

Thank you. It’s good to hear it is a possibility.

Buying from friends?

are you prepared to lose them as friends?!

I know! It’s a high stakes move! It does honestly tick a lot of boxes for us though and we’ve not seen anything else that works better.

How long have you been looking?

Do you mean that the vendors let the property to you before you buy it? That would be very complicated for them… they would have to remortgage to a let to buy and if they are buying another place, would have to pay higher rate stamp duty.

do they have a mortgage on it?

That’s what I mean. The property is owned outright so I don’t think mortgages would come into it.

Around 6 months.

And how long has your property been on the market?

They’ll have to change their insurance, and get gas inspections cert and electrical inspection cert

And ensure that fire regs adhered with

The risk to the seller would be that you rent for a few months and then decide that you don't actually want to buy their property after all.

It could work really well if you can afford the rent. You can make your house look really desirable, maybe paint it all white, clean the carpets etc. Your purchase will be guaranteed and someone can move straight in to your old house.

Those are good points. Thank you.

Thank you so much everyone for the helpful comments! I’ll take these away and discuss with dh before deciding our next move.

I think there is only a certain amount of time that a property can be rented to a person without tenancy protections applying, no matter what a rental contract says eg rights around an eviction process and minimum notice periods

It’s definitely possible, the question is more whether it works for your friends.

The risk to them is that you decide you don’t want to buy their house after all, it all turns sour and they have to evict you with a whole load of hassle before being able to sell their house.

I assume they don’t need to sell the current house in order to move?

I think you’d need to make the rent very attractive in order to make it worth it to then. And still pay the full agreed price. So it depends if you can afford that. Especially if your house takes a long time to sell.