Is it ok to send a letter to a flat that you want to buy that's not on the market

MICK970409

Hello - my partner and I currently live on a very desirable street in a tenement flat. There are rarely flats for sale in this area due to it being so desirable, people often buy and tend not to leave for a long time. We have looked at old sales listing dating back to 2014/15 and have found some lovely flats & their sales prices online via Google. We know we could offer significantly more than they paid for the property to help them make a profit and were wondering if it's appropriate to send a letter to the flat? We are aware that people do this a lot for houses - however with flats being inside a block, with no readily accessible letter box bar knowing the address, we are worried this may come across inappropriate?

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated!

housebuyer143

Of course you can. But make it general, as in, I'm interested, if you are planning to sell please call or email. Do not go into detail on price etc. 

user1977

No particular harm in doing so, though bear in mind the owner might not live at the flat. You can check the property on the landlord register to see if that's likely (I presume given the reference to tenement you're talking about Scotland?).

What matters is whether they're at all interested in selling (and if so whether they want to do a private deal rather than expose it to the market), not whether the property value has gone up since 2014 (which in almost every case it will have anyway).

dimbo61

Are you based in Scotland ?
You can of course post a letter to anyone you want but they can equally ignore it.
What a property was worth in 2015/16 can be a guide to current house prices however you have already stated its a highly  desirable  area and property so you may need to offer a lot more to secure the flat.
Will you need to sell your current home in order to buy the new place ?
Could you improve the saleability  of your current property ?

EssexHebridean

The home we currently live in was bought a good many years after we identified the area we wanted to live in, realised there were 6 flats that suited our requirements, and we dropped flyers through the doors asking if anyone was interested in selling and outlining our rough position (ie FTB's, mortgage agreed in principle etc). From 6 flats, it turned out that two were council owned still, and of the remaining 4 we got responses from 2 of them saying that actually, yes, they were indeed looking to sell. 

I would suggest that in similar circumstances now I would not be in the least offended by a similar approach, however if someone went into financial detail and had clearly been looking information up online that might make me a little uncomfortable as it could feel rather intrusive - so maybe stick to presenting your own position and not mention anything specifically financial in that first approach. On reality anyone who IS looking to sell will already have a shrewd idea of what their property is worth in any event.

I would say also that we were incredibly fortunate - as we now know how relatively rarely these flats come up for sale! I'd certainly not expect a similar hit-rate if we did something similar again in the future. 

caprikid1

"We know we could offer significantly more than they paid for the property to help them make a profit"

I think it's important to remember that everyone has access to the same data, making a profit is largely irrelevant for them, they need to want to move / have somewhere suitable to go to. What someone paid is rarely IMHO a great starting point for negotiations , it feels like "I'm doing you a favour". Focus more on comparables and recent sales.

Wherever they go to they will need to pay market rate so you really need to try and ensure that any conversation is based on market rate and not what they paid. If I went to buy a classic car offering double what they paid 10 years ago could easily get the door slammed in my face and the conversation ended !.

If the flats are that desirable and don't come up that often they could easily go to a bidding war so your opening bid really needs to be realistic.

theoretica

I have had a few notes like that - they wouldn't offend me if I were looking to sell. Though I would of course consult with the local estate agent about whether they could get me a higher price.  But I did laugh a bit at the one which carefully described the property they wanted to buy - clearly about 3 times the size of mine!

mi-key

I have had a few letters like that for my house ( bungalow in a sought after coastal area ). It never offends me as long as its genuine and not those 'we will buy your home tomorrow for 50p' merchants! 

MrsStepford

MICK970409 said:

Hello - my partner and I currently live on a very desirable street in a tenement flat. There are rarely flats for sale in this area due to it being so desirable, people often buy and tend not to leave for a long time. We have looked at old sales listing dating back to 2014/15 and have found some lovely flats & their sales prices online via Google. We know we could offer significantly more than they paid for the property to help them make a profit and were wondering if it's appropriate to send a letter to the flat? We are aware that people do this a lot for houses - however with flats being inside a block, with no readily accessible letter box bar knowing the address, we are worried this may come across inappropriate?

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated!

My parents bought a Colt house and they would regularly get envelopes through the door with blank signed cheques ! 

AskAsk

i get letters like that all the time from estate agents, so it wouldn't offend if i got it from an individual.  when we bought our previous house, the owners lost their new house and the sale process was delayed as they said that they were going to send letters to the properties in the street where they wanted to live.  we thought this was a silly way to get a place as they are unlikely to find anyone that wants to sell from receiving a letter from an individual, but they did actually find some where using their method, so it does work.

DullGreyGuy

You certainly can but you should be less thinking about they'll make a profit over price paid 8 years ago and more that people will almost certainly be wanting above market value to make it worth their while.