Letterbox drop for potential purchases

hazyjo

Letter drops can definitely work. Plenty of stories on here about them.

Would bin one from an EA though.

Lots of drafts on here on previous threads. Perhaps try searching for things like "letter drop" or "leafletting". Should bring up a few.

[Deleted User]

We did a form of this with two houses. Both were houses that I found had been on the market at some point in the last year or so and had removed from the market. I approached both to see what their situation was now and that we were interested. One I approached via a hand written letter and the other I could see the estate agent they had previously marketed with so approached through them. The first responded and said still potentially interested and would be making a decision in the next few months on whether to sell. The second said they weren’t going to bother but for an easy, non market sale they’d be interested. We moved in to their house less than three months later. Vendors chose to move in to rented as they wanted to take the time to wait for just the right house and it suited everyone. A lot of people also really hate the ‘for sale’ bit and having the house immaculate for lots of viewings etc and so this approach can work for some. I’d definitely do it again.

sheramber

My mum's next door neighbour accepted an offer to buy from someone who put a letter through the door. 

They were not looking to sell bit took advantage of the situation to buy a new house on the newer part of the estate.

lookstraightahead

I think they can work if you're in a good proceedable position, but you're not yet.

I had a friend who did it years ago but she had nothing to sell and she was ready to go.

by doing it in your position, not only do you still have your property to sell (even though you have a potential buyer), but if it's a new idea to a potential vendor they will need to find somewhere to buy (potentially) which will make the process even longer for your buyer who is likely to get fed up at some point (especially with the market being so fickle now).

you say you won't move into rented as it's of detriment to yourself, yet you could have been half way through a rental period already, time flies!

if I received such a letter it might put the idea in my head, but you're not offering anything more to me than if I put a for sale board up.

I think for it to work in your favour you need to make your position as attractive as possible.

bouicca21

A letter drop worked for my ex. It was targeted on, I think, about 100 maybe 150 houses in a particular area.  It got one response, and that’s the house he bought.

trakky14

I feel for you, we were in a similar situation last year...sold ours straight away, lost our purchase 2 months in and our buyer was waiting for 6 months. We couldn't find anything, bidding wars (we offered significantly over asking price for most), houses sold before listing online...it was madness (just before the stamp duty freeze ended) I was checking rightmove every hour and begging agents to let me know of anything before it went online...we just weren't as appealing as the hundreds in our area looking who had already sold or were cash buyers sadly. We couldn't find a rented house either as we had 2 dogs, a cat and a young child...we did try but again there just weren't any suitable properties to rent as they were all full of prospective buyers! We even tried airbnb options for 2 or 3 months but it was last summer and everyone was having a UK staycation with covid so thet were zero short term rental options. We live in rural Herefordshire where there has been a massive influx of buyers post coivd, the market is still nuts here even now. I tried Facebook local groups asking if anyone knew anything coming up for sale privately or rented...I did actually get a few possibles that way so that's worth a try too.

In the end we found something else, paid for another survey then our buyer decided they'd had enough and pulled out!!! 6 months wasted and several thousand in surveys and various applications! 

We decided to stay put, we'd had enough. Anyway...a year on and we put it on the market again, sold right away again and somehow got lucky and found a house the same week so we are in the process again...fingers crossed this time! 

So my advice would be to go into rented if you can find something, it will make you more appealing to prospective buyers whether its a letter drop or a bidding war. Letter drops may work but in honesty the decent agents do that anyway here and they all go in the bin...perhaps also try the local community pages on Facebook as we had a few possible houses that way and people often hear of things word of mouth. We did view 2 houses we found on Facebook wanted ads but they had no idea of value and ended up being massively out of our budget once they had had them valued by the agents....Good luck!

J1one

The other thing to consider is, I don’t know what the rental market is like around you but as a LA we don’t tend to select people in your situation because after all - our duty is to our client to make the most of their asset. It won’t make much to have you moving out in 6m/1yr and then having to pay our fee again…

jenni_fer

lookstraightahead said:

you say you won't move into rented as it's of detriment to yourself, yet you could have been half way through a rental period already, time flies!

Can always count on you for this insistence that renting is the only way!
If we'd moved into rented a year ago when our original purchase fell through we'd be a year into a rental agreement....and have about £75k less to spend on our next home....and still have encountered flaky sellers and being outbid by record breaking over-asking offers....I'm good thanks.

trakky14

jenni_fer said:

lookstraightahead said:

you say you won't move into rented as it's of detriment to yourself, yet you could have been half way through a rental period already, time flies!

Can always count on you for this insistence that renting is the only way!
If we'd moved into rented a year ago when our original purchase fell through we'd be a year into a rental agreement....and have about £75k less to spend on our next home....and still have encountered flaky sellers and being outbid by record breaking over-asking offers....I'm good thanks.

Same for us, our house price went up by 75k from last year...however we are as a result now having to spend a lot more than we were going to last year...so swings and roundabouts! 

I wish you luck and hope your buyers are more patient than ours were!! 

74jax

I wouldn't consider a letter drop unless you are in rented.