Leaflet drop

ndi149

Some background, we had an offered accepted on a place during the Easter Bank holiday weekend, (£287,500, asking price was £295,000) thought the fact the place said SSTC was enough, so got my mortgage offer all sorted.

Fast forward to last week and the mortgage company said they can't get hold of the EA to sort out the survey. I finally get hold of them and they tell me, a person who had seen it before us who hadn't been in a proceedable position, dropped a letter saying that they now were and as they offered the asking price, the vendor has now decided to go with them!

Really gutted, but what can you do! I thought the amount I was offering anyway was a bit high, so don't want to match asking price even though we can afford it and don't want to start a bidding war, which is what I think will happen.

So, as we really like the area, we're considering on doing a leaflet drop of the other properties in the area, but not quite sure what we should and shouldn't put in the note, should I handwrite it, type it?

All I know is we will set up an email address for it. We are however thinking something along the lines of this.

Hi we are J & N, and we are looking to buy a maisonettes in this area, we are in proceedable position and ideally would prefer a place we can move straight into, but would consider a place requiring work.
If you are interested please drop us a note on email j&n etc, so we can try and discuss some more.

Should we even get a number, opposed to an email address?

We have registered with the estate agents local to the area, but part of the reason I think we lost this place might have something to do with the EA involved, so we're a bit weary of waiting to hear from them when properties come up.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Bossypants

I would definitely handwrite it. In my experience it is more likely that people will read a handwritten note than a typed one, because it immediately makes them feel like they are talking to a 'real person', and also taking the time to write it out by hand will make people feel like their house is 'special' and that you haven't just been leafleting the entire street at random (even though you probably have).

I would also definitely include a phone number, again for the 'real person' feel of the thing. I've noticed that many people are a lot more inclined to call/text a phone number than send an email, even in this day and age.

Good luck!

ndi149

Thank you Bossypants, I started writing out the letters got half way and realised the email address I created just for this was slightly wrong. D'oh!!

20 to go :-(

ellie27

I would not put the bit about.....ideally would prefer a place we can move straight into, but would consider a place requiring work...... I just dont think it sounds right and it would be best to leave it as we are looking to buy a home in your area and are ready to procede.

We posted notes through doors last year, probably around 40 doors, and had 5 responses, 2 by telephone and 3 by email.

Good luck

ndi149

Oh ellie27, wish I'd seen your response earlier, all written and I'm exhausted! Lol

ndi149

Final draft was

Dear homeowner

My name is N with my partner J we are looking to buy a 2 bed maisonette within **** Drive and are looking for potential sellers, maybe, like yourself.

We are in a proceedable position with finances in place and solicitors details ready. Ideally we would prefer a home we could move straight into but would consider a place requiring work.

If you are interested in selling directly to buyers like us and avoiding estate agent fees, please contact us on the details below.

I included an email and phone number.

westv

Unless you have excellent hand writing I would print it.

questionss

westv wrote: »

Unless you have excellent hand writing I would print it.

I agree - print and hand sign. Use A5 not A4 so it looks more like a personal note.

rosie383

If you are going to print it, or have space in your handwritten letter, I would put a wee line making it clear that hour are private buyers, not a quick sale company.

I only suggest this as we have had letters in through the door in a similar vein but when I Googled the contact details, they were an actual company rather than a private buyer. Admittedly they were handwritten then printed if that makes sense.

ndi149

Thankfully, I do have lovely handwriting and they are written on some lovely writing paper (Cath Kidston fold and mail job) so I don't think anyone will think are they are scam or from anyone other than a private buyer.

Wish me luck, I'm off to drop them round the houses

Red-Squirrel_2

ndi149 wrote: »

Hi we are J & N, and we are looking to buy a maisonettes in this area, we are in proceedable position and ideally would prefer a place we can move straight into, but would consider a place requiring work.
If you are interested please drop us a note on email j&n etc, so we can try and discuss some more.

I would completely leave out the bit in bold.

You aren't giving these to estate agents, with several properties to show you, they are going to one homeowner who has one home and you are asking them to consider selling to you out of the blue. Wait and see if anybody is interested before deciding if there's too much work to do.