Rent to buy - Cork

calerbass

Is their any developments around doing the rent to buy? their is not much in the Cork Area on their website.....Any info would be appreciated, thanks.

JohnK

I've a feeling the place across the bridge from Mahon Point (Jacobs Island?) had a sign up a while back about rent to buy so that could be worth a look.

Monty Burnz

Rent-to-buy is a con. Avoid.

murphym7

Monty Burnz wrote: »

Rent-to-buy is a con. Avoid.

Do you want to expand a little?

Outkast_IRE

murphym7 wrote: »

Do you want to expand a little?

idea of rent going toward you deposit on house thats fine .
however no doubt the contract will have a set price that the house will cost and trust me that price will not be market value or even near it thats the con, you get people nice and settled in the house and then they will be more likely to purchase it.

Monty Burnz

murphym7 wrote: »

Do you want to expand a little?

The information is in the public domain. Try www.thepropertypin.com.

Basically, it's a way of getting you to pay way over the odds for a property.

Learpholl

Not a fan of rent-to-buy either but I know Castlelake in Carrigtwohill were doing this during the summer anyway. Not sure if they still are.

Evonatron

I was doing this scheme up to last year. It was e3k deposit upfront and then you rent like you would anywhere else. So you pay a deposit and then pay every month as normal.

I would advise that you employ an extremely good solicitor as there is both a house contract and letting agreement and both should be looked at in detail. Do go to Threshold and have them look at your letting agreement, as this is something that we did not do at the start and there was no break clause.

The purchase agreement is the agreement that you use when you go to purchase the house in 3 years so you have to make sure this is perfect and exactly what you would expect if you are buying it. You also need your snag etc done before you move in. Even though its Rent 2 Buy, as you are renting it they do need to provide floors and the house should be painted.

Part of or all of your monthly rent will go toward the deposit on the house. Normally the contract states that you can negotiate the price down but not up. It doesnt make sense if you sign a contract now stating the house is worth 190k and in 3 years when you want to purchase its worth 150k - no bank is going to give you a mortgage more the what the house is wortha and the developers no this as well.

HTH

Learpholl

Out of curiosity, why did you drop out of it Evonatron? Was your rent much above what it should've been for the house/area?

Evonatron

The main reason was the area to be honest. The area was lovely but about 30 mins away from the city centre. When going there I thought it would be great, the house was fantastic and everything we have wanted had we be buying straight away. But about 6 months into living there my partner mentioned in passing that it was grand but not great, we are both very close to our families and although we were not to far away it still was further out then he wanted. I think when one person in the relationship is having doubts then you have to move, I probably would have stayed there a bit longer but I was very of the belief that we had to buy a house straight away so I would have bought for the sake of it more then anything.

The rent was about e200 more expensive then if we were renting normally but I was okay with that as I figured it was going into savings as such, about 75% of our rent a month was going towards the deposit so you are losing a bit but again I thought it was all worth it in the long run. And maybe it would have been worth it if we stayed there for the duration.

Another couple that we lived near us did purchase about the time we moved out, they had signed a contract for e280k first day which was negotiable and by the time they purchased it was e150k because that was all the bank would give them so they went to the developers and they took the offer- sure it would have been crazy for them not to who else was going to buy the house?

I am currently renting about 5 mins from the city for e100 cheaper then was paying in the rent2buy house but not only am I saving time I am saving money on petrol as well. At this stage we have decided just to save, probably for the next 5 years, as much as we can and go and buy a house we really want, we may be older getting on the propertly ladder but its worth it to live somewhere that you love. And as well houses are only getting cheaper all the time. I did thing it came to a head last year and no way were prices going to drop and sure they are. My advise forget all the schemes etc and just save and at least then you have the buying power at all times, it will take you longer to get started but it will be worth it in the long run.

HTH

Learpholl

Thanks Evonatron. I'm not looking to do rent-to-buy myself at the moment but came very close to it about a year ago only to back out at the last minute when it didn't seem like they would be willing to renegotiate the agreed price if the value of the house had dropped. Was just curious to hear from someone who did go ahead with it but dropped out. Reassuring to know we made the right choice.

FunkyMissMonkey

I'm in the process of Rent2Buy at the moment, just over 1 year into our contract. We did mull the whole thing over for a good 18 months before we went for it though. The houses they tend to have available are further out, and since we're newish to the area, we were unsure about moving so far from the city. After a year, I can say it was a good choice, I love the area, and the house is really nice for the price we're paying.

It was made very clear in the initial process that it is in the developer/owners interests to renegotiate the price should the value of the house decrease at the end of the contract. Obviously, the point of the scheme is to save your deposit, so they know you'll have a finite amount of money. The banks are also not going to give you a higher value on the house, than what it's actually worth, which means that you'd personally have to make up the shortfall between the amount the bank were willing to lend, and the purchase price.

The owner/developer wants the house sold, if they don't sell it to you, they have to put it on the open market, and chance it against other houses in the area. When they already have a buyer willing to buy right there, with a deposit they'll almost always take the deal. They'd be cuckoo not to really. Since the buyer is under no obligation to buy, if the price isn't right, we can move on.

I wonder Evonatron if we ended up in the same area? It certainly sounds about right!

Sofa King

JohnK wrote: »

I've a feeling the place across the bridge from Mahon Point (Jacobs Island?) had a sign up a while back about rent to buy so that could be worth a look.

I think you're right there, think i passed a sign for it when heading to the tunnel not so long ago, because i passed comment about 'why would anyone do that',as another poster mentioned it's a con and that's my thoughts about them schemes also.

Just save for a deposit is my recommendations to the OP, sure that's what we all did.

mdix

has any one ever purchased there house in the end? did the developer come down to the market price?