Renting our house off of our buyer whilst we renovate our property?

[Namechanged1800]

Hi all. Interested in a house that needs a full refurb. It isn’t really liveable until some work has been carried out. We have young children and pets so short term let’s aren’t really an option.

Anyone know if it’s possible to sell our house but to remain in it for 2 months or so? We could offer our buyer £10,000 off of the house price or something (worth approx 30% more than the rental value).

Obviously this wouldn’t suit all buyers. But say they are a non chain buyer - would this be a major big ask?

No this won’t work. Go into air b and b. Or put a caravan on the new place

10000 will buy a not-bad used caravan. If you can park on your property it gives you a clean kitchen and bathroom, and you are on hand to supervise the work.

My DD and family lived in a static caravan for three years during a massive renovation. It was hell in winter, but summer was OK especially with a huge garden for the children. If you are able to put washer and dryer, freezer etc somewhere in the new house that is a bonus.

I think the only way it would work is if your buyer was buying as a buy to let. When our purchase fell through our buyers offered this to us as they were buy to let. We declined as the rent would be more than our mortgage was.

Their mortgage company is surely going to require vacant possession? They’d need an entirely different mortgage type to have you as tenants.

just do what we did - stick your stuff in your storage and go live in an Airbnb for a couple of months

Yes.
Why make it easy, when it can be complicated.

Whilst you are waiting for this perfect buyer to come along, the house you want might be sold to someone else. Surely it's better to focus on securing your sale rather than shrinking the pool of potential buyers?

It's totally do-able.
Our house still had the old round 2- pin plug sockets when we moved in.
We totally renovated with a 4 year old and baby....(just dont drop them into the foundations when the floorboards are up)

I mean theoretically it's possible, but who would want to go through that kerfuffle? Buying/moving is stressful enough.

I think it would seriously impact the saleability of your house too, realistically who would want to buy a house with these conditions attached? And what would their protections be for the house condition as the sale was completed a couple of months prior to them gaining entry, essentially. Where would they live, too?

Why not sell and airb&b until your house is ready? Cheaper than your proposal and you're not putting off potential buyers.

Are you sure this is the house for you, OP?

It all sounds very complicated, and stressful, and expensive.

Why not buy a house that needs less work?

Op states that she can't afford to buy new house without selling current house

Think you'd be better buying a caravan (or large tent) to live in during the renovation than trying this approach.
I lived in a house being renovated whilst pregnant and with a baby. Didn't even have a bathroom for several months! Wasn't ideal but that's life!

No. This is not possible. Noone will buy a house with these conditions on it. Your options are:
move in anyway and renovate whilst there. It is not easy but can be done.
On site caravan or tent if you a re feeling brave.
Short to medium term rental
Bridging loan so you can buy and do the renovations before you move in.

We did something similar in early 2018 @Namechanged1800

We didn't set out to sell with those conditions, but our onward purchase fell through and we ended up buying a repossession, so our circumstances changed during the process.

Our buyers felt they'd messed us about as we were selling at auction and whilst they loved our (unique) house, they weren't in a position to bid on the night. A couple of weeks later they had the cash available and didn't need to sell their house to buy ours.

Meanwhile, we'd just started the process of buying the repo, which would go through in 28 days (we were already mortgage free and would continue to be so, buying with cash from our sale).

So, our buyers offered for us to stay in the house beyond completion for one month and they'd stay in theirs - which they were planning to do for three months anyway as they wanted to decorate a few rooms before moving in.

We agreed a token amount between us that we would pay per week as rent and there were no issues as we all trusted each other. In the end we moved out after three weeks as we completed quicker than planned on the repossession. However, I don't think it would have been as straightforward if there were lenders involved.

We did something similar in early 2018 @Namechanged1800

But...we certainly didn't set out to sell with those conditions, however our onward purchase fell through and we ended up buying a repossession, so our circumstances changed during the process.

Our buyers felt they'd messed us about as we were selling at auction and whilst they loved our (unique) house and were only prepared to move if they got it, they weren't in a position to bid on the night. A couple of weeks later they had the cash available and didn't need to sell their house to buy ours.

Meanwhile, we'd just started the process of buying the repo, which would go through in 28 days (we were already mortgage free and would continue to be so, buying with cash from our sale).

So, our buyers offered for us to stay in the house beyond completion for one month and they'd stay in theirs - which they were planning to do for three months anyway as they wanted to decorate a few rooms before moving in.

We agreed a token amount between us that we would pay per week as rent and there were no issues as we all trusted each other. In the end we moved out after three weeks as we completed quicker than planned on the repossession. However, I don't think it would have been as straightforward/possible if there were lenders involved.

No one in those situations would go for this. Your only option would be to sell to someone who is looking long term for a buy to let. Is your current house likely to be a good prospect for that? Is there a thriving local rental market? Do you want to subject your current neighbours to that long term.

You'd be better off buying a static caravan and living in that, then you can sell it on once you are done.

I think you will need to find a short let to move into while you do the renovation. Limiting yourself to buyers who will agree to this will drastically impact your ability to sell.

How would this work? She can’t renovate her new house if they don’t own it, ie haven’t completed. You can’t complete on your purchase without completing on your sale unless you can afford both properties at the same time (which OP said she can’t).

OP it’s not that simple. Your buyer will have to register as a landlord, have the correct buy to let mortgage, insurance etc. No one’s going to want that. I don’t think you’ll find a buyer who will allow you to stay with such a casual agreement.

Then what would you do if the renovations are delayed but the buyer needs their new house? Where would you go?

People who renovate (we have twice now) either factor in costs to rent elsewhere or live in the chaos. I don’t think staying in your existing home is a realistic option unfortunately.

Just buy a different house, OP.

The house is a probate property. The sellers are actually completely fine with letting us in and out prior to completion. Would help with the tradesmen issue.

Yes, this is the sort of thing that would be ideal!

I still think you're being massively naiive about how long it takes to source building professionsals, get quotes from them, compare quotes, agree work, then discover they can't start for eg two months.

This, op!
You really haven’t thought this through.

You can ask but I expect the answer will be no. I would run far away from this house if the sellers started up with this carry on. The only way I can see it would work is if your buyers were landlords and buying to rent it out the they would go for it probably.
Just put your stuff into storage and Airbnb for 6 months or find a short term rental. Otherwise you can’t buy the house that you want.

Also totally illegal unless they had a proper tenancy agreement, the required rental insurance and their mortgage lender knew that they were letting the house.

A massive risk to them if the house had burned down, or the people refused to move out. They would have had to get them evicted via a court order which could take months and would certainly cost. Only a fool would agree to that kind of risk OP but you might be lucky and get the perfect fool come along.

There were no lenders involved. We continued to insure the property, as did they from exchange. Luckily no-one needed to make a claim though.

I agree it was extremely risky...but they wanted the house so badly, I believe they'd have offered us any incentive to get it.

Fortunately we were all decent people and despite living hundreds of miles apart these days, are still in touch.