Tenant wants to buy house

Eithneangela

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My property is a 4 bed semi in D14. Current tenant is a family - 6 months into a 2 year lease. They have asked about the possibility of purchasing the property.

The house hasn't been valued since 2006 and that valuation reflects Celtic Tiger prices.

I would be disposed towards selling at the end of this year even though I have the sense that holding on for another couple of years might result in another €50 - €100 in the sale price.

It was my family home for over 30 years prior to letting it out initially 8 years ago.

In order to progress, obviously I need a current valuation. Any advice on how to get it valued and that valuation confirmed? I do not want to go to a real estate agent.

Thank you in anticipation, and for any other advice from seasoned property investors.
 
Have you thought about looking at the property price register for similar houses in the area and what they sold for.
 
There have been no recent sales in the area which makes comparisons very difficult. Also, I suspect that the prices on the Daft, Myhome etc. sites are optimistic asking prices and do not necessarily reflect market value or even realistic price.
 
We are about to sell the old family home. We got 3 estate agents to value it and pitch for our business. No charge. All very interesting. They all expect to get a high price for the house and one of them put his money where his mouth was and based his commission percent on the expected amount received. Also Dublin 14.
We had the house valued two years ago and the valuation was €120k less than the latest valuation.
We could also hold off selling and expect a further €60k+ per annum going forward however we have been told that a lot of house purchases at the moment are cash purchases or purchases with small mortgage. The banks are still not lending. Will this cash supply eventually run out?
Maybe if I was younger I would hold off selling as getting circa 10% pa for letting the house sit there is a no brainer really. However timing is everything. I have got some things wrong in the past and I have got some things right. The one thing that I have learned from my various investments over the years is that it is not real money until it is in your bank account.
 
As a matter of interest i assume you have valued it for LPT purposes? So is this the actual value give or take a few thousand?
 
Do you?

Rather you should decide how much you want first and work from there.

I think it would be crazy not to get a professional valuation. Just suppose you "decide how much you want for it", and that number is (plucking a number from the air), €200k. Say it turns out the open market value is €300k, and the tenant buys at the agreed €200k and sells the following week for €300k. I think you'd be more than a little upset in this scenario.

Of course, no valuation is 100% accurate, but as I said, I think you'd be crazy not to get at least a couple of valuations, and work from there. You can of course choose to offer to sell it at below, at or above the valuation, but given it costs nothing to get, the knowledge gained has to be of use, no?
 
A valuation is only the opinion of a person on how much it will sell for. An estate agent will have more information on recent sale prices in the area to help you do this, but it is still a guess. There is no way to have it verified.

You say that there have been to recent sales in the area, but 4 bed semis in D14 is one of the more active parts of the current property market and whatever houses do come up for sale are selling quickly and according to anecdotal evidence, for more than the asking price.

If I were you, I would do some more research on recent sales in the wider area and talk to a few estate agents.
 
Perhaps you would consider getting a quantity surveyor. They are continually valuing
properties for Banks etc and they have no vested interest in selling etc. They usually are not too expensive.
Good luck Browtal
 
Many tx to all who responded to my query, specially Browtal (didn't know about that!), cos my initial query was coloured by less than good experience with estate agents and surveyors paid by financial institutions who perhaps value based on higher fees.

I have researched the property register and also the various online real estate sites and there is a fair gap between the estate agent prices and actuals received.

Negotiation is probably the key here.

Thank you all.
 
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