How to buy a house that isn't for sale/currently on the market

j600

Hi

I'm looking for a bit of advice. We bought our current home around 2.5 years ago and at the time there was a house further down the road which we loved but never viewed as it was £100k more than this one, and way over our budget. The house was up for sale for around a year (maybe more) but never sold and then was taken off the market. Anyway, 2.5 years on our circumstances have changed and we could now afford the dream home down the road, but it's no longer on the market (hasn't been for over a year now).

I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice who has been through a similar situation and approached/bought a house off someone when it wasn't actually for sale. I'm not sure what's best to do? We like our house, and love the location and we don't want to sell it - not unless it was in order to get this other one; which isn't for sale

What do you think I should do? I've considered just going and knocking on their door and asking outright are they looking to sell their house any time soon? But don't want to appear so keen that we didn't get it for a fair price. Also we've never actually seen it other than in photos, so would obviously need to view it properly.

Any advice would be great.

Thrugelmir

Stick leaflets through the letter boxes of a number of houses in the locality. Say you are looking to buy and provide a telephone number. You never know.

j600

It's only the one house I'm interested in. No others.

anselld

j600 wrote: »

It's only the one house I'm interested in. No others.

... yes but you said you did not want to alert the owners to that fact. Hence why you need to leaflet more than one house and hope for the best.

robatwork

Make your leaflet sound like you are targeting several houses in the area but just in fact post to their house. Something like:

We are looking for a house to buy in this street/locality and yours is one we think fits our needs and is of interest. This is a genuine enquiry and not an EA touting for business, please call John Sixhundred on 0xxxxxxx (ideally put your home number here as it would make you seem more genuine)

j600

Ah that makes sense now, great advice thank you

vivatifosi

As someone who sold their house to someone who leafletted me, I agree this works. I also benefited from not having to pay seller's fees. It's definitely worth pointing that out too.