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Buying Your Rental Property from Your Landlord

  • 3 years ago
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Think about it, you chose your rental property because it was well-located, snug, convenient and homely, right? You love where you live and you often wish you had the security of actually owning the property so you don’t have to worry about your landlord suddenly deciding to sell up.

Your landlord could sell to you…

This isn’t a done deal, of course, as your landlord might not want to sell, or be able to sell the property. Sometimes, however, your landlord might be looking to sell and so if you can raise the deposit and get a mortgage in principle, it could be game on!

The benefits of buying your rental

You don’t have to pack up and move, which makes things a lot quicker and cheaper!
Your landlord might sell for a touch below the asking price, especially if you’ve lived at the property for a while.
Your children and pets are already settled, as are you!
There’s not much chance of a bidding war with any other buyers.

How to buy your rental

Do your maths
You need to work out how much it’ll cost you buy the property and then carry on living in it. While it’s true that your mortgage will probably be cheaper than your monthly rent, you’re also now responsible for maintenance and any renovations you might want to carry out.

Do some market research
If your rental property isn’t on the market, you’ll need to get a good idea of the asking price it’d have if it was so that you can make the right offer. Check out a few property portals and local estate agents to find the sale prices for properties like yours. Look at the sale prices rather than asking prices, as this will give you a better idea

Do some mortgage research
Once you have a ballpark figure for the asking price, you’ll need to find out what sort of mortgage you could get and how much this might cost each month.
Head to a comparison site such as Money Supermarket (although there are many others) and spend some time fiddling with the numbers. Most comparison sites will only give you the results from the bigger, more mainstream mortgage providers, so do look at smaller lenders as well, especially if you’re feeling a bit intimidated.
You can always go to a mortgage broker if your results aren’t what you hoped for. Brokers do charge a fee for their work, but if they land you a good deal, you’ll almost certainly pay off that fee in a matter of months.

Approach the landlord
This is the crunch time! There’s no need to say or do anything formal just yet, simply ask the landlord if they’re thinking about selling any time soon or if it’s something they’d consider for the right offer.
Once you’ve popped the question, your landlord will answer with a straight no, an equally straight yes, or with an offer to negotiate.
If it’s either yes or the start of a discussion, then it’s time to make a more formal offer. Ideally your offer should be in written form, either email, hard copy or both. Your offer should be concise and based upon your market research, advice from a local estate agent and, of course, what you can actually afford.

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