Approaching home owners directly offering to buy - has anyone done this successfully

bobthedambuilder

steve1980 wrote: »

But isn't this just luck of the draw? Your neighbour introduced them to your property, they didn't just turn up and knock on your door did they?

Yes and yes. The neighbour didn't actually introduce them (he turned them away from his property with the sign up), all he did was mention that he thought we might be entering the market sometime on the future and point them down the road. The eventual buyer did all the follow-up, i.e. he walked along the road and knocked on our door unannounced:D.

Fizzymartini

The world of property sales beyond EAs sounds pretty daunting! Are there may pitfalls to buying without them?

I'd never even thought of leaflet drops, until an EA offered to draft and post some through the doors on a street I really like on my behalf.

Would it help matters if I also wrote a personal one, if that would appeal more to homeowners? But I don't want to spam people...

Also, it's all ex-council there (though it doesn't look it) so I don't know if it'd be well-received. Any thoughts?

WATTY1978

Go for it. i'd did this with a couple of houses but got no response but i'd try it again if i needed to. just be honest with them.

An alternative might be to advertise in local shop or paper. i put my plea on our bulletin board at work and had two responses. very good ones too. relatives passed on my details.

might be another option for you. good luck x

kidmugsy

SpongeBobHexagonPants wrote: »

Is it worth approaching home owners directly offering to buy? It would be nothing more than a leaflet through the door.

Seems reasonable to me, but a word of caution. Elderly neighbours of ours got such a leaflet a few years ago and went into blind panic. They thought the government was going to seize their house. They'd already had all their assets seized twice, once by the Nazis and once by the Communists. It cost me a lot of sherry to calm them down. So please phrase your leaflet with great care.

Fizzymartini

Thanks guys. Have just printed off almost 100 letters, signed and folded... phew! I'm nervous about it, but we'll see what comes. I'm just hoping I won't receive too much abuse.

WATTY1978 wrote: »

An alternative might be to advertise in local shop or paper. i put my plea on our bulletin board at work and had two responses. very good ones too. relatives passed on my details.

might be another option for you. good luck x

Nice idea, thank you. Will also look into this.

ellie99

Hope you receive some replies.
I bought my house by knocking on the door. I wanted to move to a particular area, and heard through gossip that a guy was moving abroad to work, so just knocked and asked if he was thinking of selling. He'd planned to rent it out, but after I spoke to him, he thought about it, and sold to me. I even bought his furniture

lauraland

Keep us updated OP. I am looking for somewhere to buy at the moment although have yet to see something that I love - I have however found a couple of streets that I feel would be ideal, although with very little up for sale and I am seriously considering doing a letter drop like yourself.

Wishing you luck!

Vegeta

Any tips on what to write on the leaflet or envelope so the homeowner doesn't just trash it without reading it?

So far I've come up with mentioning I am a private buyer (not a property developer) seriously looking for a home for my family and also leaving a phone number and email address.

I also think maybe it's a good idea to use handwriting on the envelope and write something like "Dear homeowner" (are people using envelopes for the leaflets or just posting leaflets only?)

Please share your ideas, I'd especially like to hear from those who were successful as to how they written their leaflets and whether they printed them or handwrote them.

Thanks.

Tinkaf1

Hello

I hope youdon’t mind that I have put this note through your letter box.

We are a family looking to buy a property in this area. We have already sold our house and are currently renting, and therefore in an excellent position to buy as weare chain free, but sadly none of the houses we have already viewed seem totick all of the right boxes for us.

*insert anyblah blah here personal to your own situation etc.*

If you have no interest in moving house I apologise for taking up your time. However if it is something you had considered but were put off by the shortage of suitablebuyers in the marketplace at the moment, please consider either calling in an agent (as we are registered with all of them), or contacting us directly as we would be happy to make an offer on any suitable property without going through an agent if it were the right house for us, thereby saving thousands on agents fees for yourself. If you were planningto market your house anyway in the next few weeks I would be really grateful if you could let us know. We are not looking for a bargain, we are just looking for a suitable home and are happy to pay a genuine market value.



Many Thanks

Tinkaf1

I should say we tried this and had 2 responses.
House 1. Lady with an "interesting" style of decor, but sadly a very VERY overinflated view of the value of her house. During our conversation she mentioned she had arranged a valuation with an agent. I did explain that we had been looking for a house for a while and I had a list of recently sold properties like hers with me. I left it with her, in a slight hope she might realise her expectations were way too high. The house wasn't right for us (she had done very strange things with the layout that would cost thousands to put right) and as it turned out it has never come on the market since either. I am guessing the agent probably said very similar to us.
House 2. Owned by an ex builder. He said he was thinking of marketing in next few months and would be happier to go through without an agent if we liked it. He just said "have a look around" and sat back at his computer. We looked around and LOVED it. But as we went from immaculate room to immaculate room, then into the extension, it soon became very apparent that he was going to want more than our budget. I was gutted. I walked back to him and said "look, it is fab, really. But honestly this place could sell for 20k over our target budget really, you are going to want more for this than we could pay" We told him our budget and he said that yes he was looking for more. His has since come on the market, it is overpriced really but he bought and refurbed and extended and he is trying to get his money back. I would say he has priced it about 20k too much and it has been on a while now. Unfortunately extended or not, there is a ceiling price for 3/4 bed semis with a kitchen extension, and he has gone into the realms of 4 bed detached versions. So, nice as it is I dont think he will get it. The market is tricky for those buyers who bought at the peak times.
We are still looking.