Putting a letter together for Informal Tender

lovehols

We have seen a property that is informal tender which we want to make an offer on. We are not in a chain and have a mortgage in principle agreed (the house needs some TLC but it also has planning permission to rebuild and extend anyway).

We have been to see the area and house a couple of times without the agent and went again with the agent yesterday. They told us that they had advised the owners to put it up for auction as they felt they would get a lot more money, but they insisted on informal tender as they "wanted to know who would be buying it".

We would be making an offer that is £13k lower than the starting guide price having had rough quotes from builders and looked at what we would need to spend etc and I really don't think we have a hope in hell of getting it as I imagine it will be popular with investors looking to make money, where the appeal to us is a sympathetic restoration and retaining as much of it as we can. The property is what I imagine would have been the old lodge or gate house to a big hall/manor which is still owned I believe by the family.

With this in mind, would you make clear your intentions, what you really love about the property and hope to do, as well as the obvious like position and offer. Do you think a kind of pouring our heart out letter would make any difference or is this frowned upon. Any EA give me your opinion?

My view is that they can only say no, we won't lose anything. But it's an EA that we are likely to see other things on in the future with as they deal a lot in more quirky properties. Do you think they'd almost see us as time wasters if we do that - inform want them to not take us seriously in future.

Doozergirl

I think your letter sounds lovely.

Make sure that you include all your practical bits and pieces and even include your mortgage in principle if you like and proof of deposit.

But do say why you are buying (because you want to restore it) and why you have offered less.

People can be really hard nosed about buying and selling but people buy from people. Would you be more inclined to do a deal with someone who was friendly or someone that was purely professional or even stoney faced?

I've sold a lot of houses and the most succesful deals were the ones that I felt good about. The buyers that I liked the most. That doesn't mean I would accept an unacceptable offer from a nice person but I certainly wouldn't be insulted by someone who pointed out that they weren't offering as much because they weren't standing to gain as much.

I think it's great to follow your heart and I think you will feel good about your offer if it is made honestly. You know it is with good intention.

Doozergirl

Oh, and good luck!