How do people buy houses before they hit RightMove etc?

Pepperoni

Is it just a case of building relationship with estate agents? By doing viewings?

H & I mostly only view houses that we really really think we will buy. Maybe we need to lighten up just to get noticed by the estate agents and called when something comes up (before it goes 'live')?

We have emailed our 'property wanted' criteria to estate agents already.

Cakeguts

The estate agents contact serious buyers about new properties just coming onto the market. You have to prove to the estate agents that you are a serious buyer.

Pepperoni

Cakeguts - how do you do that? We are serious but what we are after doesn't come up very often unfortunately!

hazyjo

Also some leaflet the roads they're interested in.


Add their requests to FB pages, forums or twitter.


Word of mouth.


And of course the EA as cakeguts says. You have to pop in, be their friend, get them to think of you first...


And yes I would also view the 'compromise' houses. So long as the location is right, you should consider anything that can be changed.


Jx

HouseBuyer77

Cakeguts wrote: »

The estate agents contact serious buyers about new properties just coming onto the market. You have to prove to the estate agents that you are a serious buyer.

I think it depends where you are. Certainly around where I live any property that comes up that's halfway decent will have viewers queuing up the second it hits rightmove (at least that was the case when I was buying a couple of years ago, no reason that I can that would have changed). EAs have little incentive to go to the bother of ringing around potentially interested parties unless there's something about the property that makes it difficult to sell.

OP - Do you have any evidence that things are selling before they hit rightmove? Sometimes houses are sold privately so no EAs involved or tenant ends up buying off a landlord.

Pepperoni

Housebuyer77 - we recently viewed a house the day after it went on RightMove, it was the earliest the EA could get us in. We put our offer in and they said that it had sold the same day we viewed it (shortly after) to someone who had viewed it earlier in the week before it was marketed properly.

The only other reason we think it is happening is because we went to see a very popular mortgage advisor and the first thing they said was that good houses are sold before they even hit RightMove in this town and to get a relationship with the EAs. The mortgage advisor is very popular in the town so I suspect he hears a lot about how people found their property etc.

Pepperoni

Seriously considering leafleting as the areas of interest are few and far between! What sort of thing do people tend to put?

'Property wanted in the area - if you are considering selling your property then we would love to hear from you' - that sort of thing?

HouseBuyer77

first thing they said was that good houses are sold before they even hit RightMove in this town and to get a relationship with the EAs. The mortgage advisor is very popular in the town so I suspect he hears a lot about how people found their property etc.

Well sounds like a reasonable source of information, though it does surprise me somewhat. I'd expect most vendors would at least have a few viewers through the door and see what offers they get before make a descision (especially in area where they're likely to get several interested parties quickly).

I do sometimes wonder if some EAs like to priortise potential new landlords over others. If they do lettings as well (as many EAs do) then they can get a slice of the purchase price and an ongoing fee for the management of the property post sale. So a big incentive to steer vendors towards BTL purchasers who are interested in the EA mangaging the property post sale. Of course if there's any truth to my conspiracies it doesn't help you as a residential purchaser much.

Leafleting can't hurt. You may want to say something along the lines of 'would you be interested in arranging the sale privately without an EA to avoid fees'. It's pretty obvious you can avoid EA fees but good to point it out explicitly. You might strike lucky and find someone who's looking to sell but hasn't engaged an EA yet and thinks they may as well show you round, see what happens first and save themselves some money.

Hoploz

You need to visit your local EAs IN PERSON regularly. That way they will think of your face first!

However, the other part is, you need to be a proceedable buyer. So if you're a ftb make sure they know you've got a mortgage in principle arranged and are ready to proceed. If you're going to be selling in order to buy then the first on the list are those whose houses are already under offer. If you're not on the market yet you'll be lower down the list.

Yes, be prepared to view houses that don't tick all your boxes - you never know it might turn out to be right, and if nothing else it shows the EA you're keen.

I've been in the position where EAs were falling over themselves to show us they'd found something for us. Several houses we were 'first in the door' before they came to market. Some of these never came to market at all after we had viewed them, others came on at a lower price than we'd been given. So take that as a warning! Early viewers can be used as a price gauge!

It's not always an advantage ... indeed, if you're first in and you do offer, the seller may think it's hot and think they're selling too cheap! So occasionally a property has come to market at a higher price than we were initially told too!

Pepperoni

Thanks all.

We are not first time buyers but do not need to sell our property to purchase our next home. We are going to be letting it - maybe it's a good idea to get the EA round to price it up for renting, so they register the fact that if they find us a new property they may also be inline for managing the rental of our current property??

anto164

We had an offer accepted on the propoerty that we bought before even the photographer had been around to take photographs!

It was a case of that we were doing was using the in-house mortgage adviser who gets told about all the new properties and by chance the lady who was selling (who we bought off) came into branch 4 hours earlier. 2 viewings in 3 days later and we had an offer accepted. The property went onto right move and was sold subject to contract on their website 2 days later.

I echo what has been said above. Make sure you seem a serious buyer, and keep in contact with all the estate agents around the area. keep popping into branch and make sure you are seen as active.