Thinking about buying house from landlord

Update — we asked and gave a dollar amount and they weren’t ready to sell. So we used the money we were saving with hopes to buy our rental and instead bought a different old house a mile away. I never thought I’d leave the house we were renting, but slow market + a good-enough property + a favorable interest rate that was going to expire = time to buy. Thank you for the input, everyone!

I’m not sure if I’ve missed this part, but did your landlords say they’re open to selling? When a home has been inherited generation after generation, it can be hard to let go! It’s great that you know the house so well, but I’d definitely get an inspection (provided you’re not putting in a whole lot of ground work just for your landlord to say they’re not selling). I agree with umanish, you have to have your wits about you. Your landlord will be watching the market as closely as you are, so they won’t offer a low price just because you’ve been great tenants. Keep your eye on other properties just in case 🙂

Thank you all! You’ve given me a lot to think about, including some possible angles I have not considered. Two years ago, at last lease renewal, we casually asked about if they’d ever sell (risky, as we realistically were not ready to buy!) and we have spent the past two years saving and watching the market. I go to open houses tho my husband thinks it’s a little futile.

We like the house and love our block, and we know this is about the max sq ft / niceness we are likely to get; not expecting some amazing deal, just feel like we are at about the right place for us. I’m an early-ish career physician, and would be doing this with a physician mortgage (10% down) and a mountain of student loan debt (I work in community medicine with public service scholarships) so we aren’t the sort of family that can put a cash offer in and would benefit from a sale where things might go slower and where we can subsequently stay in place and renovate slowly. We are a little on the fence about buying, in general — we have been happy enough renting, but now the HVAC is dying, the weird br ick veneer in the kitchen is falling off the wall, etc) — and I think that if we can’t buy and if our preferred neighborhoods (Greenwood, Kensington, Windsor Terrace) eclipse us while we wait, it’ll drive us out of NYC.

Steve, we’ll see what happens with lease renewal this spring and start looking around the neighborhoods these coming months and I’m keeping your number on file!

Try not to get too attached to the idea of buying this particular house. Years ago we engaged our neighbor in a condo building to buy his unit so we could combine units to accommodate our growing family (he had always rented it out). We loved the building and block in west soho and didn’t want to leave. He showed openness in the initial conversations and came across as a “good guy” – in the end, he asked for an insane price and we couldn’t responsibly do it. We were crushed. Fast forward, we now live in a beautiful brownstone in Brooklyn and have never looked back. Just saying… maybe this house you live in is great, but who knows what else there is that will make more sense if you follow a market process…

I haven’t been in your position. Couple of thoughts. Would you otherwise be interested in buying a house? Have you run the numbers given the still high prices of NYC real estate and high mortgage rates? Does it make financial sense? Or are you hoping for and relying upon either good will or lack of owner knowledge to get a bargain on the property? It might be safer to make the decision to buy and do a broad search with your current home only one (perhaps unlikely) option. If indeed there are multiple owners it would seem that the price might be driven higher to satisfy the most needy or aggressive.

As people above have noted, it would be great to get an inspection before you even think of approaching your landlords with the idea – while you know the house, there may be some expensive hidden problems that at good inspection would uncover (or they could also be missed in an inspection, but that’s true with any house).

As to not a lot of good comps, you can find out what it might sell for anyway. Think like a buyer and look at what other homes in the area sell for. Also, put yourselves in the shoes of local buyers and go to open houses (if they are holding them again where you live.). You can learn at lot from this. Truly. When I was going to sell my coop, there were new condos on the market in similar sizes and numbers of bed/bathrooms in my neighborhood, and I thought buyers might prefer those for the similar price. One look at the new condos at an open house set my mind to rest – I knew most people would prefer my brownstone coop, so it helped me to be confident in setting my price.

Real estate brokers could be a good source of comps, but unless you know on e who owes you some greater loyalty than they do to their own bank account, I wouldn’t ask one to give you figures. They would be tempted to call the owner and market their services to them, and it could likely get a higher price if marketed well by a professional. If the family would be happy to entertain an offer from you and not go through the hassle of marketing it and paying a broker, you would likely get a better price. So, keep the fact that you are considering this to yourself – you don’t want word getting out to the broker community.

But know that there is a risk to even offering to buy it, as you could put yourself out of your home (which could work out fine if you are ready to move on.) It might put the idea into the heads of some of the family members that they should market it and sell it for the best possible price – which might put it our of your price range. So definitely also talk to mortgage people and see how much you could borrow (assuming you would need a mortgage to buy it; otherwise, know how much you have to spend.) But even if you can match the top offer, know that family members could just take a cash offer instead of your offer with a mortgage. Or someone else’s offer. They may not want to sell to someone who knows the problems of the house as well as you do; other buyers might be more ignorant of the issues, even if they had an inspection, and be willing to pay more. Also, when you are dealing with multiple family member owners, some may be reasonable, and yet other may be less reasonable, and they would all need to agree on what offer to take if they get multiple offers.

I think it might be good to start seriously looking at other homes, as if planning to move, before you propose this. That would take some of the risk above away, if you end up putting something in motion that necessitates your moving. Also, you never know, in the course of looking you might find a different property, or a different type of property, or a different neighborhood, etc., that you decide would suit you better.

Good luck with your attempt to purchase the home! Also know that if you propose it now, and they aren’t interested in selling, they might feel differently next year, or the year after, and come back to you.

We’ll, you already know the house, which is a big plus You also have a good relationship with the owners. I’d say to go for it. IMO Steve would be the ideal person to do an inspection. I think you need two main things: to find out if there is anything wrong that might make the purchase untenable—most unlikely, but critical and to have a roadmap for what wouube needed after purchase.
Good luck!

i should have said this, i would not have an inspector in until you at least know that they will entertain selling this house. in your case, since they have not marketed it with a price, i would do so before making an offer to them. this runs contrary to how it usually works where an inspector is called after an offer has been accepted and before going to contract.

I am not going to say anything about the finances of doing anything. But i have been working in buildings since 1980 and have been working in older nyc buildings since 1995. I became a home inspector on the back end of a restoration project at the advice of a customer after i spotted a roof leak (that the roofer could not find after multiple attempts) in two minutes of looking from the ground (that customer has reviewed me on here).

I became a home inspector to perform buyer’s home inspections but most of my work has been owner’s inspections where i look for, point out, and discuss maintenance issues (i have worked as a hands on maintenance manager in older commercial buildings and have seen it all). A month ago i did an inspection for a new homeowner and found a rotten support beam on the porch missed by the buyer’s home inspector only 3 months previous. I also found and open seam on a roof that had been missed by that same inspector. 6 weeks ago, i did an inspection for a couple who are looking for issues to address before they retire. I smelled gas in t he basement. They thought it was from the boiler. I said “no, its over here” and began looking by the meters. I never found the exact location (i was within inches) but the next day the plumber came and found it and fixed it (that customer has reviewed me on here).

Take a look at my website. Forget my experience, i’ve been doing this since 1980. Instead, look at my education. That is what sets me a part. Read the testimonials – those names at the bottom of them, they are real people.

And this: i tell everyone who hires me “if i do not know something, i will look you in the eye and tell you ‘i do not know'”. This happens two or three times during each of these in-depth inspections. In these instances, i often can get the answer by the next day but more often i say “contact a licensed…..(engineer, plumber, electrician).

For a buyer’s home inspection on a smaller home you would expect to pay $600. For me to spend 4 hours on a smaller home, with the client asking a lot of questions, expect to pay $750. For six to hours on a midsize rowhouse, expect to pay $900. For a larger home, 1,000 to 1200.

I am in the process of getting a roof certification. But know this, i have inspected scores of roofs and managed the reroofing of or the major repair of roofs on at least 6 buildings and maintain my own roof.

Steve
Www.brownstonehomeinspection.com
Brownstone Home Inspection llc