Has anyone ever flyered a street they wanted to move into? What did you put in it? Did it work!?

[Cazwa]

We have just exchanged today on the sale of our house but at the same time our seller took his house off the market, even though we were supposed to be moving 2 weeks today. Gutted.

He claimed he couldnt port his mortgage like he thought he could and the penalty fees were too expensive. He also managed to find a friend to rent his house out to (he had already moved out). Very convenient.

After feeling angry/upset all afternoon we have decided to sell anyway and move in with my parents. Its taken us 8 months to sell and I dont want to wait any longer.

Trouble is, Im quite fussy as to where I want us to live, down to a handful of streets in the same area as we live now. I was thinking of flyering houses in a couple of streets we like that are usually just out of our price range. Has anyone done this with any success? Ive tried writing a flyer just now, how does this sound:

Family looking to buy a home in this street

"We are a family who have just sold and moved out of our house nearby, and want to buy a house on this street ASAP. We are not in a chain and can move at any time. If you are considering selling and want to avoid estate agent fees and chain problems please give us a ring."

[goldenpeach]

There was a thread about this before and some people had success stories to tell.

Didn't work for us. Although we got houses to view that were not on the market, the owners had unrealistic expectations. Most needed work done on them so we were not impressed with their demands. One man suggested a ridiculous price because a house in the same road had that asking price and was flummoned when DP told him that the said house had sold for at least 50K less.

[HeadFairy]

Hi Caswa, sorry this has happened to you. Something similar happened to us, we were due to exchange on a new house and the owner decided to take it off the market the day before we exchanged! We decided to sell our place anyway and we're moving out on Wednesday, all our stuff is in storage and we're off to my parents too.

I haven't done what you're suggesting, but a friend did and it worked, but they leafletted a few streets. I think they said they would only offer sensible prices (ie wouldn't make stupidly low offers as you usually do when you're buying through an agent). I think they also put a few details about how lovely they were - not in those words, but more like they were a young professional family, quiet, friendly and absolutely loved the area, and loved the houses in it (including yours). But he was a journo so he loved talking about himself!

Luckily we've found a house that we're happy with but we can't move in for about 8 weeks, hence our homelessness state.

Good luck with your search.

[maggievirgo]

It's worth trying..... nothing to lose except a few bits of paper imo

[NoseyHelen]

We flyered c.250 houses and had 1 response. Vendor wanted c.£100k more than it's worth. He's now selling through an estate agent and it remains unsold.

An agent flyered the same houses for us and had 1 response. We liked the house and are hopefully going to buy it so it could be worth flyering yourself and getting EA to do it too - you have nothing to lose.

1 word of caution though, in this market there are lots of sellers who want more than a property is worth and I have the feeling from the 2 we saw that the vendors felt they were doing us a favour letting us have houses at inflated prices.

[Mins]

Cazwa - we did this and just successfully moved in a week ago so it does work! We targeted quite a lot of houses in our chosen village. We did a flier on bright orange paper just saying we wanted a 3/4 bed house with character features - didn't give any details of price. We had two calls and luckily one of the houses was suitable - the buyer had previously had it on the market and did get it valued again. We felt the price was a little high and negotiated but still felt we paid a little over the odds for it. However the advantages for us were that the house was not going on the open market and so would not be subject to sealed bids, offers over the asking price etc as many other houses in the area were - also the seller could move quickly. So it was definitely worth it for us - we did have a few problems when things weren't moving very fast and we had no EA to chase things up but it all worked itself out in the end. I'd definitely go for it - you have nothing to lose!
Mins

[NoseyHelen]

I would say that you are happy to proceed with or without an agent because some people may prefer to have an agent act as an intermediary.

[Cazwa]

Thanks for all the useful tips, will give it a go! We would be offering slightly under what houses have recently gone for, so might end up facing urealistic vendors.

[AllotmentMum]

We sold our last house to a couple who put fliers through the door. We had been thinking of moving but hadn't put the house on the market because we had been considering advertising the place ourselves. It was the height of the boom and houses were being snapped up within days, so we didn't see the point in paying an estate agent 1000s to do very little. Fate intervened and a flyer came through the door. THe couple had their mortgage arranged, we had a realistic idea of the worth of the house and didn't ask any more, and the sale went smoothly. So, give it ago - you never know!

[fruitstick]

Cazwa, exactly the same thing happened to us earlier this year. We exchanged on our house and were then told that our vendor had changed his mind about selling . We had a 5 week old DS and 4 weeks to find a place to rent.

We have been looking for 6 months to no avail so I am considering something similar. Am slightly concerned that we end up looking desperate and pay over the odds though.

[fridayschild]

It's how you spin it, fruitstick.

We didn't flyer but we did sell, rent, then buy. This was the only reason we got the house we were in at the moment TBH. We offered the vendor a price, all we could afford, knowing he would get higher offers. But we also offered a quick exchange and then a flexible completion date - vendor could give us a month's notice at any time up until one month before our tenancy ran out, and we would complete. So he could find a house to buy without needing to co-ordinate a long chain, and we knew that we would move in 6 months' time at the very latest. This sort of flexibility might help if you are putting flyers through doors.

[SellingUp]

We put flyers through 3 streets & haven't received any calls. Infact one house recently came onto the market & sold within a day so I guess they were not keen to do it w/o an EA. But our flyers looked cr*p so my advice would be to ensure yours do not! Good luck

[susie100]

We put flyers through the houses we liked on 5 roads and got 3 responses. One we really liked but they ALL had unrealistic expecatations on the price and were in a 'make me an offer I can't refuse and I'll sell' sort of a place.

It did help us in that we got to see more stock on the roads we like which should make it easier to make a decision when the right seller comes along (i.e. not delluded)

[NoseyHelen]

Susie's right. You think you know which roads you like but going door to door leafletting reveals which houses you like (or not!)