Have leafleted (looking to buy), what next?

QTPie

Ok, after finding looking for a property through estate agents very frustrating - very little in the way of "large family homes" available in our area, at the moment, for our wide/generous budget... - I have identified a few areas that I am particularly interested in and have sent letters to the owners of about 50 properties.

If we are lucky enough to get someone interested in selling to us (cash buyers, ready to proceed), then what next? How to you go about viewing and negotiating?

I have given both my email and mobile number and stated that we are cash buyers, interested in large family homes in their area and ready to proceed. Presumably it would be good to get the owners to describe their property and then arrange to go over and view? When should we bring up money? Although our budget is very generous, it might be a waste of time if they want several £100k over what we can afford. Would you ask their expectations before viewing? Most of the houses that we would be viewing would be quite "individual" (so most often not as straight forward as looking up recent sales in the same street).

Then how would you negotiate price?

Any tips much appreciated.

QT

QTPie

*bump*

(before it gets burried...)

lellow_lorry

If you get any responses, the key is to be polite and build a rapport with the owner as most of the dealings will be between you with no agent involved. If you find one you are interested and they are keen to sell then either find out what the valuation would be ie numeruous valuations to see what the ball park figure is. One thing i would say is i tried this and got a couple of viewings. Both tried to squeeze more than its worth knowing that leafleting meant little choice out there. You got to decide what a house is worth then stick to it. See it from their side and yes you would squeeze every penny and beyond, but they are also saving thousands in agents fees so use this as bargaining as well. Good luck

QTPie

Thanks

We sent out about 50 letters on Friday, we have had 3 replies so far... one isn't interested in selling, one might be if the price is right (but I under-estimated the size of his property... and it is beyond our budget!) and one is promising.

The promising one phoned yesterday and I had quite a chat. She is "just beginning to consider selling": I get the impression that she is fairly recently widowed (she is downsizing after living there, with her husband, for 25ish years). She has chatted about downsizing with her daughter and will phone back early this week (she has visitors this weekend) to arrange for us to look around. Her property sounds VERY promising, but I appreciate the huge physical and emotionally upheaval of leaving a family home following being widowed (I helped my Mum do that 5 years ago...).

Assuming she doesn't change her mind, I will go around with my husband, my very cute 3 month old son (on best behaviour) and plenty of empathy and rapport... :cool:. If we like the house - and she is still interested in potentially selling - will encourage her to get some valuations and see what we can negotiate. Then pray that she doesn't change her mind regarding selling...

I appreciate that we may end up paying "over the odds"... I live in an incredibly desirable city and any "very nice large family homes" get snapped up ridiculously quickly... For the right property, it would be worth paying over the odds. We would be staying there for 25+ years and, longer term, it would still be a great investment...

Hope that we get more replies to our speculative letters...

Any more tips much appreciated.

QT

lellow_lorry wrote: »

If you get any responses, the key is to be polite and build a rapport with the owner as most of the dealings will be between you with no agent involved. If you find one you are interested and they are keen to sell then either find out what the valuation would be ie numeruous valuations to see what the ball park figure is. One thing i would say is i tried this and got a couple of viewings. Both tried to squeeze more than its worth knowing that leafleting meant little choice out there. You got to decide what a house is worth then stick to it. See it from their side and yes you would squeeze every penny and beyond, but they are also saving thousands in agents fees so use this as bargaining as well. Good luck