Dropping a letter to an owner

AskAsk

Mickey666 said:

Doozergirl said:

They can only say no or ignore you!  Just write it.  

Agreed.  I was in our previous house for about 20 years and we received two such letters.  Very polite and apologising for being so direct but just enquiring if we were considering selling our house and if so they would be very interested.  We weren't so just ignored it.  They didn't write twice.

We also regularly (well once every few years) received flyers from local EAs asking if we were considering selling.

I can't see a problem with a direct approach - just appreciate it's a very long shot.

my dad lives in a beautiful house that is pretty unique.  unfortunately it doesn't belong to him but a housing association.  one day he even had someone knock on the door and ask if he would consider selling it as they were looking for properties to buy in the area and they have fallen in love with the house, lol.

Marvel1

Crack on, but if you cite the reason as save on estate agent fees and stamp duty, is expect a much higher offer.

mariad2004

need_an_answer said:

Can I then play devils advocate here and ask you why you think that just because the house is attached to your "dream" property it will be easy to transform?
I'm guessing that you have not even been inside this house so even though it may have originally been the mirror copy of its attached partner it may be far from that now....it only takes one owner in a properties history to change a few things and suddenly it could transform the house into something totally different inside....remove the period features for example and if thats what you want to put back it could cost you a fortune in time and money sourcing them....if someone has gone down the removing wall or blocking up doorways it suddenly reconfigures the house....or you could end up purchasing the property where nothing has been done to it for many years and it needs stripping right back before you can even begin to think about the cosmetic changes you want to make to turn it into your dream home.
At the monent you are simply being seduced by a property location without really knowing what lies behind the front door

Can you afford extensive remodelling on top of what may be an inflated price that the vendor could ask for because they know you "want" this house....can you live easily in the house whilst the potential changes are carried out...and at the end of it theres no guarantee that you have a house that is worth the purchase price and what youve spent in time and money to achieve your dream home.
I'm a great believer in a property being a home rather than something you make money from but even I  would be cautious about overpaying for something...unless you have a substantial deposit that wouldnt interfere with a mortgage application....I can perhaps understand you calling it your dream home but unless you plan to live there for many years you would be unlikely to gain back what youve spent on it if you were to sell say in the next 10 years.....i appreciate no one knows which way house prices will go but to overspend now would tie you to the property for longer than you might want to be there.
 Are there genuinely no others within say a half mile radius that are currently for sale that you would consider.
If you havent already then i would contact the selling agent of the one under offer and register an interest in the property should the existing sale fall through.

Thank you for a very fair challenge.  I have done everything that you mentioned in the last paragraph. And no,  there is not much selling around.  We, as many buyers,  are tied to certain locationa due to schools,  transport links etc.  

In terms of dream property.  All I am going to propose in the letter is to have a chat, I am not making an offer.  We are very pragmatic in this process, and while we are aiming to buy or make our forever home,  so want to go be a home and not an investment I do not want to pay more for smth than it is worth to me at the moment. We are very picky and don't jump on properties just because we can.  
I do appreciate your good points, but we will never know if we have an option to convert this into our dream home unless we ask.  

need_an_answer

so are you prepared and able to pay £10k over the market value for this property?
That would cover the owners costs to move ...if not then I really think you should forget this property....whatever you say there will be others that come with far fewer conditions where you are in control of the purchase rather than being held hostage by a vendor who knows you want their property at whatever cost.

I dont believe that there are simply no other properties on the market that you need to target this one.
To you it seems the easy option to approach the neighbouring property but you could just be opening a whole new can of worms and not be focusing on checking properties that come up in the area...
Just because "dream property" is sold doesnt mean you wont find another....its just a case of waiting and keeping up to speed with whats actually available,maybe changing your focus slightly and save your money to spend on something where the vendor actually wants to sell.
What happens if vendor has a chat with you and you all agree to sell,you start all your searches etc and vendor drags heels because they cant find something to move into...unless of course you up the financial bribe....they then have you over a barrel...you either have to pay them or pull out at expense to you.
unless the incentive is there for this person to want to move you face a very uncertain purchase where they call every shot.

Honestly...go and find something thats actually for sale and forget this one.

need_an_answer

OP... post a link to the sold house...there are quite a few of us on here who have done extensive remodelling to property and may be able to give you ball park figures on the likely costs etc...from that you may be able to evaluate if its worth even approaching the neighbour or not....renovating and adding extentions can cost a lot more than you think.
its worth remembering that extending doesnt always increase the value of a property so even staying longterm you may not get the return you want from it 

I agree in principle with what Micky says above however define "near future"...it would seem to me you need a pretty conclusive answer within a short timeframe...near future could mean within the next year...by which time you have moved on with your search and hopefully are in your forever home.
until you set a deadline for them to decide or you to forget then you are in limbo.

JGB1955

Absolutely go for it - you have nothing to lose/loose (sp?).  One of our neighbouring friends sold their house to someone who posted letters through all the houses in our cul-de-sac.  Our friends took the bait and sold for something like £40K less than the house was subsequently valued at.  Having said that - they DID agree terms which meant that they (our friends) could live in a caravan on the drive until THEIR new build was ready.  And they did! Perhaps not your normal conveyance but both sides seemed happy with the arrangement. I wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole!

peterhjohnson

I did this and although no deal  resulted I had some interesting and pleasant conversations with people who eventually sold through EAs. Well worth doing if (as I was) you are looking for something special. I think the problem I was up against was that I picked the houses that looked nice from the outside and they sold for more than I could afford

Mickey666

JGB1955 said:

Absolutely go for it - you have nothing to lose/loose (sp?).  One of our neighbouring friends sold their house to someone who posted letters through all the houses in our cul-de-sac.  Our friends took the bait and sold for something like £40K less than the house was subsequently valued at.  Having said that - they DID agree terms which meant that they (our friends) could live in a caravan on the drive until THEIR new build was ready.  And they did! Perhaps not your normal conveyance but both sides seemed happy with the arrangement. I wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole!

Perhaps a little foolish to agree to any unsolicited offers without doing a little checking first, but each to their own.

JGB1955

Mickey666 said:

Perhaps a little foolish to agree to any unsolicited offers without doing a little checking first, but each to their own.

Absolutely!

ElizabethRose

Our old neighbours did this. They sold their house and then leafleted the streets they wanted to move to. It has worked put but the vendors were a nightmare and it took a year and neatly fell through numerous times. No harm in trying so give it a go.