Did you buy the house you were renting? Come and tell me about it!

[NoHotAshes]

I'm having trouble finding a house to buy and actually rather like the one I currently live in, which I'm renting. I was wondering about how to approach the owners to see if they would be interested in selling, and would love to hear from anyone who has done this. What did you do - how did you approach your landlords (did you write to them, or what?), what did you say, what happened then?

All info/stories/suggestions gratefully received!

Anyone?

Not yet but we are also thinking about it! Our landlord told us when we moved in that he would only sell the house eventually to a tenant (hopefully won't change his mind). Our main problem is it needs loads of work and prices are still way too high around here. We are waiting another year or so to see what happens to prices and then will see if we can make him an offer!

Do you know what your landlord's position is? There are a lot of forced landlords out there so you may be lucky and get it at a good price - would be a much easier sale for them as well as for you!

I don't know much about the landlords as we rent through a letting agency; however we do know that they were the people living in the house before us, and their current address (which is on out lease) is close to us. So I have been speculating as to why they moved and why they chose to let rather than sell.

Scottie do you plan to make your landlord an offer of an actual sum, or ask him to name an asking price and start negotiating from there? Good luck with it all!

Hiya
That's the bit I'm wondering about too! I think we would approach him with an offer and see what he thinks - I'm watching the market around here so have a pretty good idea of what houses are selling for (or not as the case may be!). We are also going to factor in the cost of doing it up as it does need loads of (mostly cosmetic) work.

Sounds like you're in a good position as your landlord could be someone who would have preferred to sell but couldn't. It's nice to 'try before you buy' I think - Good Luck!

Our landlords told us they were selling the flat we were renting - we managed to save a deposit really quickly and bought it.
As you say, you know the place really well so I would approach the owners and see what they say!

Good luck to you too Scottie!