Letter-dropping an area

jonny_power

Has anyone done this, and was it a success?

We're keen to move to an area, which has a relatively new estate on it. Sadly houses rarely come up for sale, and recently we were badly burned with a gazump.

A suggestion was to post letters around the estate just to say that we're looking and if they are potentially looking to sell then a private sale could be mutually agreeable. Personally it makes me cringe but we're getting to the point where we're willing to try anything!

Has anyone done this before? What did you say? Did anything come from it?

Any other views?

bobobski

Not personally, but a friend's family member did and they were successful.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

We did it when we were FTB's. We got gazumped, then months later the next seller pulled out a day before exchange, so like you we were exasperated. Nothing cringe about it - we didn't give any personal details (other than first name) and set up an anonymous Gmail account. These people don't know you and are unlikely to ever meet you.

Out of about 600 leaflet drops we got 3 leads, one turned out to be a time waster, one was unsuitable for us, and the other we bought.

jonny_power

thanks so much for your helpful posts. Are you able to remember what specifically you said in the letter?

GolfFoxtrot

We did this. We were specifically interested in 1 street as the houses (mostly) have 90ft gardens.

We leaflet dropped early January and got 1 person who came back to us. They had purchased the property to do up and sell on and were mid way through renovating. Unfortunately it had the smallest garden on the street, around 25ft so we decided not to purchase.

Around 6 weeks later our current home came on the market a short distance away.

I'll see if I can find the template we used and post back but I specifically remember we mentioned we were FTB and liked that area etc.

There's not usually that many houses on that street for sale, in the last month however there's been 3 listed and all sold straight away. We've only had our current house 2 years and wouldn't consider moving.

Sedge123

We did. We said we particularly liked that street and were looking for a family home. It worked and we now live in our house which we bought in a private sale.

jonny_power

Sedge123 wrote: »

We did. We said we particularly liked that street and were looking for a family home. It worked and we now live in our house which we bought in a private sale.

fantastic, was there anything particularly harder/easier about the private sale? because we've been badly burned with a gazump we've quite liked having the EA as an intermediary, but also we probably didn't get a chance to develop any relationship with the vendor or understand the situation.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Andypandyboy

I think it depends on your personality and that of the vendors to some degree.

The EA does the negotiating on your behalf, in a private sale all that is down to you. If you offer low you risk offending the vendor who has an emotional attachment to their house, but obviously you want it at the best price. That said, you are certain the vendor is being given all the information not just drip fed what suits the EA.

So, if you are reasonably confident that you can present an offer in a manner that the vendor will see in a favourable light, and they don't see you as a "banker" (as you have effectively approached them) and hike their price accordingly, then you can achieve a good outcome.

I think they key is establishing a rapport with the vendor and wanting them to want you to buy and that is never just about money.

theGrinch

Interesting thread as I was thinking this route for two particular roads I like.

What do you tend to write on these leaflets and do you keep it handwritten or is it ok to print?

Sedge123

jonny_power wrote: »

fantastic, was there anything particularly harder/easier about the private sale? because we've been badly burned with a gazump we've quite liked having the EA as an intermediary, but also we probably didn't get a chance to develop any relationship with the vendor or understand the situation.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Well for us it ended up that we actually already knew the people selling. The difficult parts were talking money although they had it valued and we ended up paying 40k under our maximum we had decided on (I practically skipped out!). The nice thing for the vendors is that the sale was more personal so they knew who would be living in the house, it was also great when their solicitor was being slow that we were able to ask the vendor yo have a word.

Sedge123

theGrinch wrote: »

Interesting thread as I was thinking this route for two particular roads I like.

What do you tend to write on these leaflets and do you keep it handwritten or is it ok to print?

I printed but signed them by hand. We did 4 streets so that would have been a lot of writing.