Speculative letters from prospective buyers

eddddy

propertyhunter said:

I know from selling myself that we can't approach houses already listed, as the EA would just say we found the house through them and the fee is payable. Plus I know the market well enough and don't like what's on. I do know that the seller can tell the EA about us before they sign on the dotted line, and if we buy no fee is due provided the EA has our names/details - but this has to happen proactively. 

Fwiw, the Court of Appeal and the Property Ombudsman have confirmed that seeing an EA's listing doesn't count as an 'Introduction' by the EA.

The Property Ombudsman says that the EA has to do something like arrange a viewing, for an 'Introduction' to occur.


Alternatively, if the seller wants to instruct an EA after talking to you, the seller could give the EA your name, stating that you have already been introduced, and with instructions not to deal with you or negotiate with you - and stating that no fee would be payable if you buy. (And ask the EA to agree to those terms.)


A lot depends on the precise wording of the EA's contract - including whether it's 'Sole Agency' or 'Sole Selling Rights'. 

[Deleted User]

Main thing is to include what you are offering. If it was just "I'm interested in your house" I'd be expecting a low offer and probably ignore it.

JuanBallOfWimbledon

We haven’t done this with houses already up for sale, but did post letters through to 2 houses we had heard would be going up soon. Both called, both allowed us to view with them before the houses were marketed, and both said they would happily do a private sale. As it turned out, neither were right for us (one needed too much work, one had removed a bedroom to extend the bathroom and so was too small for our needs). I’d do it again in a heartbeat, worst that can happen is they don’t call, but you may just get lucky and skip the competition/EA bullshirts, plus save them fees. 

We wrote a little about us and our situation:

 ie. “Hello,

We’re a local family of x number, looking to buy our first home. We’ve heard from neighbours that you’re possibly looking to sell soon and we wanted to let you know that we’d be very interested in viewing, if this is indeed the case. We’re no chain, have a large deposit & MIP and can move fast. 

We hope to hear from you soon,

Kind Regards,

Mr & Mrs JuanBall”. 

babyblade41

I've posted a letter through a door and ended up living in the house ..it can be successful 

propertyhunter

[Deleted User] said:

Main thing is to include what you are offering. If it was just "I'm interested in your house" I'd be expecting a low offer and probably ignore it.

We probably can't include an offer without them telling us what they are asking and negotiating from there. These are going to be completely speculative letters addressed to owners of houses not listed for sale. If one of them calls back, I'll then ask them what they would be willing to accept before going to see it. 

propertyhunter

It's good to know that there are some positive experiences of speculative letters. I'll do my research this week using Google maps and send letters appropriately. Thanks to everyone for their contributions. 

If I have any luck I'll let you know. 

ProDave

I did try sending such letters years ago but it did not work.

I was looking for my second house, All I wanted was 2 bedrooms and your own off road parking aka your own driveway.  99.99% of the houses in my price range at best had an allocated parking space in a communal car park.

Then I found one house, semi detached that had a driveway up the side.  Probably even enough room to build a garage or at least a car port.  The one I found had sold but it was in a street of perhaps 20 similar houses so I dropped a letter through the door of all of them asking if they are thinking of selling to get in contact with me.  I never had any replies.

london21

It can work.

My friend recently tried it, dropped letters in the area she was interested in but the seller contacted her that property will be going on modern auction.

So could have worked but vendor choose the route that he thought would be better.

Just that might have to drop so many to hit the potential property, many will be binned but then again only need 1 property.

retepetsir

Just to add to what has been said, we actually did this in 2020, when we had semi-lockdown and the stamp duty holiday was put in place. However, my partner wasn't overly keen on the idea!

We'd sold our house within a couple of days during August, had missed out on two other houses and then couldn't find anywhere in the local area for a number of weeks, which is where we wished to stay. This was during the summer so not exactly a quiet market. Our buyers had first said 'no rush at all' but then started pushing after 3 weeks. 

I'd heard of friends of the family trying it before so thought it was worth a shot. I typed up a friendly letter with some contact details and posted to around 100 houses, explaining our current situation and what we were looking for. I'd also checked to see which homes had sold quite recently so made sure I avoided those.

In the letter I explained our position (buyer in place, short chain, ability to proceed) and what we were looking for (xx bedroom detached home for our young family) and that we'd love to stay in the immediate area.

Honestly didn't expect anything back but received a phonecall a week later from a guy who was trying to sell his mother's home - she'd recently gone into a home and it was vacant. It meant they avoided fees and he really wanted it to go to a nice family so he liked the personal approach. It did mean a bit more work for them (no EA to chase for you) but we got their in the end.  

The house hadn't been on the market for over 30 years so we agreed for them to get a few valuations and went from there. We felt we couldn't really put in a low offer but were happy with the price they told us. 

We moved last February so have been here almost a year, no regrets

Definitely worth trying if you fancy it. 

LindyScan

We had such a letter put through our door and thought it must be a scam!  We were thinking of selling and my husband thought let’s give them a call and just see what it’s all about, anyway long story short, it wasn’t a scam and we actually sold to them, so definitely worth a go.