What would you want a letter to say that was posted through your door to ask if you'd sell your house to us?!

[userblah]

Hi
The question pretty much speaks for itself
My dh and I are keen to move but live in a house that's far too small
We live in a lovely town but property here is too slow paced for my liking so we are now considering posting letters through about 20ish houses doors to ask if they would consider selling.....

Is this crazy?! What should it say without sounding desperado?!

X

We did exactly this 22 years ago - had been looking for a couple of years, and our own home had sold.

Popped a letter through half a dozen doors, and had a call from an Agent saying we'd put a letter through the door of one of their clients - the 'For Sale' board was going up that day.

It has been our home since then.

Go for it, as long as you apologise for troubling them if they're not interested, I don't see why anyone would object.

Friends did this down a particular street they wanted to live in and it worked - go for it.

I've had a couple of these; mix of private and estate agents asking if I want to sell.
Personally I find them annoying and intrusive, if I wanted to sell then it would be on the market.
We also had the same guy ask twice if we'd sell our classic car that my DH was working on in the driveway. Was annoyed when he asked the second time after already being told no.

I suppose you could get lucky and get someone thinking of selling. Be polite and apologise for troubling them.

I'd be happy. I would like to move but dont want the agro of marketing (and the neighbours having a good old look on rightmove). Private sale for me all the way!

I have no wishes to sell so I would just bin the letter. Wouldn't bother me at all

I think you would have to make it clear it is a genuine desire to live in that particular house from a real family - make it personal. I say that because we get a lot of letters like that, and they are just estate agents touting for business.

My friends did this and introduced themselves - a young family who wanted to stay in the village but needed a bigger house. They tried to make themselves sound good people (which they are). They were successive but I have no idea if the personal statement make a difference or not!

What's to loose? (We get these a lot and they always go in the bin - never give them a second thought)

I'd think that you were a shameless chancer and would be disinclined to respond, even if I were thinking of selling up.

Hello

We are looking to buy a family home in this area. If you are thinking of selling, we would be very grateful if you would consider contacting us first for a chat.

Best wishes, Dame Julie
Tel no and email

I'd ignore it unless I wanted to sell, when I'd expect you to pay top end price. My mother gets a lot of these and finds it annoying and intrusive.

Why a shameless chancer? Genuinely interested! It's not like they are breaking the door down and getting you to sign a sale contract at gunpoint. We get these a lot and though we aren't interested, it seems a fair strategy to me!

Oh and mention you already live locally.

DameJulie, if that's addressed to me - make me an offer.

@frogsoup Because I dislike being directly approached at my home address for anything - salesmen, chuggers, energy switchers etc. If you opt to try and disturb the sanctity of my home, uninvited, without a damn good reason then I will instantly be fucked off with you and will assume that it's only because your service/offer isn't good enough to stand on it's own merits in an open market without trying to appeal directly to my (non-existent) better nature.

And, yes - for context, I live in an area rife with cold-callers.

It might be helpful to explain whether yiu are chain free/ under offer able to wait until they find a property etc too

I'd think that you were a shameless chancer and would be disinclined to respond, even if I were thinking of selling up.

That's mad! If you were thinking of selling, think how much you could save on agents' fees!

We are not shameless chancers but there was a house in our town which we both loved the look of. It overlooked the cricket ground where DH had played all his life. We were not looking to move really but we were going to put a note through their door to say if they ever were looking to sell in the future, please would they consider letting us know.

At that point, our circumstances changed quite drastically (for the better I'm glad to say) so we didn't but I certainly wouldn't rule out doing it and I really can't think of anything wrong with it.

We put a card through saying that if they were going to sell we would like it and one year later they contacted and we have lived there ever since.

Offer to pay their moving fees as an incentive?

You have nothing to lose. You could also mention the possibility of a house swap. There might be someone in the road you want to live wanting to downsize.

chain free & able to proceed and I might consider.

I would love to receive a letter like this! We'd like to move but the thought of having a house on the market for a long time not selling is so off-putting we have never done it.

We've done it successfully. The lady we bought from had already done it twice herself and then again after we'd agreed we would like to buy her house - she managed to buy in her desired location. It was a win win - we were happy to pay the market value for the house and it saved her the estate agent fees -and having to allow all the nosy neighbours in to look around-.

We wrote a short note - saying we were serious buyers, moving on a (insert name of large employer) relocation scheme. That we loved the style of house and wanted to live in that particular street to get our son into the very well regarded school at the end of the road. Turned out she also worked for the same large employer and therefore knew that the relocation package would mean that we could move to suit her timetable with no chain involved.

We actually had more than one positive response to our mail shot to the one road that we wanted to live in. I'd take this approach again in a heartbeat. If I received a note and had no desire to move I'd just put in in the recycling and forget about it.

I'm not wedded to our house, but currently can't be bothered to go through the whole buying / selling process. If I was told someone wanted to buy it, I'd definitely consider it if the price was right.

One thought, though, it really would have to be a good price. If I was so keen to move that I'd accept an OK price, I'd already have it on the market.

I find the ones from estate agents annoying. But I don't mind ones from real people. I've had I think 2 or 3 in the last couple of years and was never offended and did read them and wished them well.

One of them was a friend of my sister's and they got lucky and now live a little down the road from me. So it obviously does work sometimes. I don't think you have anything to lose.

The one they wrote was along the lines of
"Hi, we are a family with young children and are really hoping to buy an x-y bed house and we love this area as we have family links to the village. We really want to be able to raise our children in this area but haven't been able to find suitable properties through the estate agents. If you are considering or would consider selling your house to us please contact me on [email address] thanks [full name]" just printed in a normal font on a slip of plain white paper (like an A4 page cut into strips)