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

moneyistooshorttomention

I must admit that this is my concern too - ie that I will find the seller will overvalue their house or that I will find I cant afford it.

I know there are roads where I can afford a dump of a house, but cant afford a modernised house and its not necessarily possible to tell from the outside which state of repair a house is in. I've just got these horrible visions of making a trip specially and loving the house and finding its one of the modernised/I cant afford them ones. Guess thats the advantage of finding a place the conventional way (ie through Rightmove) - as you can get at least some idea of what the place is like in advance and what the price will be.

Also wondering on how to find tactful ways of saying "not your particular house" if house itself is fine and fairly-priced - but has been done in a peculiar style that I would need to spend money to put right and I couldnt expect to knock money off the vendors' price because it was in perfectly acceptable condition (it just didnt match my own personal style).

This is the thing - there will always be horses for courses re personal taste/style. I know that if someone leafletted my particular house they would be okay for the bathroom being upstairs (as most people want) - but if they leafletted my next door neighbour they would find that the bathroom is downstairs and the house has one less reception room than mine. Yet both houses look as if they are pretty similar from the front and I wouldnt be surprised if my next-door neighbour tried to charge exactly the same for their house as I'm charging for mine....

To complicate matters even further, my next door neighbour the other side of me would want more for his house than mine because his is end terrace. So, I expect our houses would respectively charge £180,000, £175,000 (the price mine is on at), £175,000 (because I know them well enough to know that they would try and charge the same as me - though you'd get a smaller/more inconvenient house for your money).

Angela

Could I suggest you post these leaflets through the door on a Sunday afternoon,not when free local papers are arriving, when people have time to look at them and when they are not expecting a leaflet, fold it in half so they have to open it and look at it.
HTH
from an area organiser of leaflet delivery

Fizzymartini

My mum found out my plan and immediately started waxing lyrical about soliciting strangers and "asking to go round to their houses... who knows who they are... yadda yadda". I don't pay much attention to her, but admittedly I haven't yet posted the letters yet, only because I might've seen a property nearby on the market, that may be quite good. Not as immediately attractive as this street, but potentially cheaper and less work to do. Might second-view and see how that goes first, before taking to the streets; I have missed this Sunday afternoon slot, and next Sunday is Easter, so this drop may have to wait another week beyond...

justjohn

We have targeted a single empty property. And have told the owners we would be interested in purchasing. We phone them every year or year and half to see if they will sell/remind them. (complicated as they have POA for the owner)

We would not do letter drops as we are only interested in specific types of property

Vegeta

Angela wrote: »

Could I suggest you post these leaflets through the door on a Sunday afternoon,not when free local papers are arriving, when people have time to look at them and when they are not expecting a leaflet, fold it in half so they have to open it and look at it.
HTH
from an area organiser of leaflet delivery

I was thinking of posting on a weekend as it suits my schedule too.

Is it not a better idea to fold the leaflet so the writing (handwriting is what I'm going to use) is facing outwards so as soon as the owner sees the leaflet, he has a good idea that it is a personal message rather than having to open it up to see the handwriting or just grabbing and binning it?

property.advert

Pay a solicitor to draft up a letter and get Royal Mail to deliver it.

moneyistooshorttomention

justjohn wrote: »

We have targeted a single empty property. And have told the owners we would be interested in purchasing. We phone them every year or year and half to see if they will sell/remind them. (complicated as they have POA for the owner)

We would not do letter drops as we are only interested in specific types of property

I'm inclined to think that might backfire.

If I were an owner of a particular house that had been specifically targeted this way I might feel flattered/be polite/regard this as a "backdrop offer if all else failed" BUT I wouldn't sell to someone who had specifically targeted me and then kept right on asking at intervals if I could help it.

My (kept to myself and not told to this persistent person) reaction would be "If they are so desperate for my house that they keep bothering me and bothering me - then its a good chance it will be pretty appealing to other people as well then" and wonder if the person concerned was a developer rather than a home-owner (and up would come all my reservations about not selling anything to a developer ever on principle if I could possibly help it).

One ask is one thing and will probably be a home-owner - but persistent asking would feel like pressure and put my back up - but I wouldnt actually say "no" to a persistent asker. I'd grin/keep quiet and let them "stew in their own juices" until the day they saw it had gone STC - to someone else.

lessonlearned

My friend's father targeted a house that his wife fell in love with.

He wrote a letter once every six months, giving his home address and phone no. He was a local businessman, had a couple of shops, so the vendors could check him out if they wanted to.

His wife got her dream house after the third letter.

I don't think a letter once every six months is "pestering".

I sold my first house privately. My first husband and I decided we couldn't stand the sight of each other any more:rotfl::rotfl: so split. An acquaintance told an acquaintance who asked if he could buy our house. Yep no problem, no fees no hassle, quick sale.

Go for it, what have you got to lose.

Target your area, cards in the newsagents, post office and local shops. Visit the area often, go in the shops, cafes, pubs and restaurant. Talk to the locals, tell them you are house-hunting.

Have a set of little business/calling cards made up, dish them out like sweeties. You don't need to give out any personal information on your card - just a contact number and your brief requirements.

ie tel "3 bed house wanted, private buyer, tel ........." is plenty at this stage.

Put a wanted ad in your local newspaper.

But above all talk to people, yes even at bus stops. You never know they might know someone who just happens to know someone who has a property they are thinking of selling.

Never under-estimate the power of networking......

As for not selling to developers - well in this market beggars can't be choosers. As long as they give me a fair price that's all that matters.

Developers will try and buy at a keen price, of course they will, it's their business. However, if they really want it and think that they can add value and that there is enough profit then they will often pay the market value.

It is a fallacy to say that all developers will knock down the price to a ridiculously low level. They want to buy at BMV but it is not always a pre-requisite.

They are in business to make money. They look at the end product, how much they can sell it for, and then work backwards, factoring in costs etc to work out the purchase price.

If the figures stack up and there is enough profit they will buy.

smileypigface

We purchased our current home by doing exactly this.

We wanted to live in a particular road in order for my son to get into the nearest school - plus we particularly liked the layout of one of the styles of house in this road.

I wrote a short letter - saying we were genuine buyers, moving into the area because of my job, wanted to live near the school, had no chain and were looking to pay full market price for the right property.

We only put the letter through the doors of houses, of this style, that we liked the position of - and had the first telephone call before we had even got home in the car. The second and third people contacted us before the end of that day.

We already knew, from researching recent sold prices, how much we were willing to pay - and the seller also did their homework and we very quickly agreed a price.

All went through without a hitch and we are very happily living here several years later.

We recently had a similar letter put through our door. I would definitely do the same thing again if we wanted to move to a particular area again.

sinbad182

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

One ask is one thing and will probably be a home-owner - but persistent asking would feel like pressure and put my back up - but I wouldnt actually say "no" to a persistent asker. I'd grin/keep quiet and let them "stew in their own juices" until the day they saw it had gone STC - to someone else.[/QUOTE]

Why do you take such delight in being deliberately unpleasant to anyone who doesnt fit in with your bizarre behavioural standards?