Anyone got the house of their dreams by putting a flyer through the door?

RabbitMad

kibs88 wrote: »

I think it is a good idea to leaflet drop. Our EA did this for us as we have been looking for a house since January!

Although nothing came of it I do think it is a good idea, most people are scared of putting their house on the market in this current climate as they do not want it on for months on end with no interest.

Good luck with the leaflet drop.

And congrats sarah sounds like it has had a positive outcome for you...hope the valuation comes back within your price range!!

The problem with an agent doing the leaflet drop (as somebody has already mentioned) is that people assume its just standard EA marketing.

daveb975

I suppose it depends on how specific a house you are looking for, and how much you are prepared to pay.

In a falling market, the cheaper houses are those owned by people who have to move, and are prepared to discount their asking price to make that happen.

I am sure that there will be a few exceptions, but I would have thought the majority of people who are thinking about selling but have never bothered to put their house on the market would be quite happy to sell to you - at the 2007 peak price.

sarah_elton

Dave - that's why we're waiting to hear what the one we like would be marketed at. We're more than happy to pay reasonable market value today (not holding out for a forced seller giving us a bargain given how small our search area is), but the current owners bought in 2006 and have completely revamped the place. On the other hand, they seemed pretty keen on moving. So we'll see...

Cliveski2009

I was going to do a leaflet drop when we were looking at the start of the year but didn't need to in the end as we found our place straight away.

I thought it would be a good idea as there were not too many places I wanted to leaflet drop.

I listed some benefits why the recipient should sell to me this way:
A buyer in a falling market (it certainly was back in January)
No advertising, discreet, hassle free
No eastate agency fees - saving up to £4,000 (on the value of property we were looking at)
Buyer ready to go - no backward chain (our circumstances)

People hate to put their property up for sale and then not sell it so doing things discreetly like this should appeal to many people?

daveb975

sarah_elton wrote: »

Dave - that's why we're waiting to hear what the one we like would be marketed at. We're more than happy to pay reasonable market value today (not holding out for a forced seller giving us a bargain given how small our search area is), but the current owners bought in 2006 and have completely revamped the place. On the other hand, they seemed pretty keen on moving. So we'll see...

Good luck, I will be interested to hear how it goes. The problem with getting EA valuations is that (in my area at least) asking prices seem to have gone back up to peak levels even though actual sold prices don't appear to.

Techno

If it was me I would go for a letter - more personal and people more likely to read - you can put in it about looking for your 'forever house' too so people can see you are serious then just pop in letterboxes of houses you like

bristol_pilot

I know some people who did this and they got their dream house this way, the seller had decided to sell but had not yet contacted an estate agent. Timing was perfect, the seller avoided agents fees and the buyer avoided the possibility of being gazumped.

However, the buyer got a lot of abuse - about 20 irate phone calls - from people who objected to being leafleted. Most did not believe it was a genuine private buyer, thinking it was the latest marketing scheme from a local estate agent.

purplebuzz

Hi,

Did you decide to re-do your leaflet drop again?

Did you have any success?

Have you found somewhere suitable now?

rj1000

Hi,

We didn't do any more leaflet drops, however this is because we had an offer accepted on a house we saw via an agent.

I didn't get any calls from the first few leaflets we sent but after reading the replies to my post (thanks everyone) I will definitely do it again if this place falls through.

purplebuzz

rj1000 wrote: »

...however this is because we had an offer accepted on a house we saw via an agent.

Cool, good luck with your purchase then, hope it all goes smoothly for you.