Leaflet an area we want to live in?

krishna

We are looking in a very specific area for a house. It's actually a 1920s council estate but half the houses are privately owned. It happens to have the only affordable houses in the area we are looking in. There are only five streets and we are thinking about dropping a letter through each door to let people know we would like to buy. Anyone done this. Any recommendations?

nick22abdn

Never done this myself but wouldn't be too sure about it being successful. Most would probably think that it was some sort of scam or company trying to profiteer off of them. As it is a small area I would think that walking round and talking to everyone would stand more chance of success.
Good Luck

Nenen

I've seen previous threads about doing this and, from what I remember, the general consensus seemed to have been that it's worth a try but not to hold out too much hope. How about putting an advert in a local shop window or posting an ad for free on your local gumtree?

Nicki

We did it, and with no success unfortunately. We've also had people do it to us, and also not been interested in selling. You are banking on someone having just decided that morning that they want to sell, but not yet instructed an Estate Agent, so the odds are fairly low. If they decide a week later they want to sell, they will already have binned your flyer and won't know how to contact you.

HelzBelz

Personally I'd phone round the estate agents, asking them to send you details of any houses on the roads you want, they'll probably do the leafleting for you, it seems to be what the ones round us do and if they are good will give you a ring if they get anything in (it's to their advantage to do so, they get a sale and commision by only making 1 phone call instead of actually markeing a property)

vivatifosi

I haven't done it myself, but I have sold my previous house to someone who posted a note through my door. I was absolutely thrilled. I got someone to buy my house without having to pay for an agent or having loads of people traipsing round. Made the whole process quicker too - put an offer in on my new house within 4 days of their approaching me.

You may want to make them aware of those potential upsides in your note.

cattie

I've recently done this with no success. I'm registered with all the ea's in the locality I'm interested in buying in, but no suitable property has come along yet.

The leaftleting at least helped me feel a bit more proactive in trying to find my next home though.

krishna

We are registered with all agents and I ring them once a week. Just trying to cover all angles. Found this thread on a similar discussion. Seems like it has worked for some people. So I have letters copied and ready to deliver. Hadn't realised quite how big the estate was. Doesn't look big, but turns out there are around 400 houses there! So knocking on doors really isn't feasible. I'll feed back with the results after we have given it a try.

krishna

Yesterday we dropped letters into all houses on the estate we are interested in (around 400 houses).

There was one side of one street that we were particularly interested in (around 60 houses) and we started off knocking on doors. Virtually everyone was very pleasant. One person even complimented us on our "panache"! But in the end it was going to take too long, so we gave up and opted to shove the letters through the letter slots.

Just waiting to see what kind of response we get. One response today by email. Not sure it will work for us but we'll take a look.

So not an entirely wasted exercise.

vivatifosi

Good luck Krishna. I hope you get the outcome that all your hard work deserves!

krishna

Had another call yesterday from someone who had received our letter. House sounds like exactly what we are looking for and in the part of the estate we would most like to be in. Only thing was they were looking for tenants. I said no. He did say that they would keep us in mind if they decided to sell, which they may do if they can't raise as much through renting as they are hoping they can.