I would like to buy your house

[WatchyMcWatchdog]

There's a house in my village which I've had my eye on for a long time. It's owned by an older couple (early 60s) who have lived there for over 25 years. It's not in great condition but it's in a lovely part of the village, is good size with a big garden. Nothing else in the village matches our requirements but I absolutely appreciate it may well continue to meet theirs now and in the future. I would like to put a note through their door and be as polite as possible about it. Here's my current draft:

Dear Homeowners,

Apologies for contacting you out of the blue. We hope you don't mind us taking this direct approach of writing to you to see if you might be interested in selling your house at all?

We have taken the unusual step of contacting you as we are a local couple with young children who are very keen to stay living in the village. We have been looking for a long term family home in [village] for the last 2 years. Our children are # and # and we would love them to have a house with the space to play in and a garden big enough to run around in. From the outside it looks as though your house would be great for that. I am [involved in local thing] so living within walking distance of it whilst they grow up would be lovely for our daughters.
We would really like to hear from you if you are thinking of selling, or perhaps keep our details if you are considering moving in the near future. We haven’t contacted any other homeowners as we think yours is just right so if you aren’t looking to sell if you could let us know we would really appreciate it.

Thank you for taking the time to read our letter.

WatchMcWatchdog

I think you should just keep it professional and impersonal. It sounds like you're trying to pull on the heartstrings. Sharing so much about yourself also might make them feel like they have to give you reasons why they don't want to sell. It might irritate them and backfire on you. Just ask in a straight forward way if they have any interest in selling their house at this time.

I would bin your letter (whilst feeling mildly disgruntled - it's my house and I will decide when I am ready to move thanks very much) - but I guess you have nothing to lose by posting it

I don’t think you should keep the personal bits either.

If you’re ever considering selling, we’d appreciate it if you’d let us know.

It's very split isn't it! I wanted to keep in a small amount (only) of personal information because 'people sell to people' and I wouldn't want them thinking I'm looking to do it up and sell it on. The idea the garden is big enough to build a house in is fantasy unfortunately. It's twice as big as ours but ours is mid terrace 18m long 6m wide so I'm fairly sure 30m long and 10m wide would be of no use for a cul de sac!

It's at the end of a dead end but you can see it from a high point in the village which is where I look at it from (don't ever pass by it and definitely won't be telling them I stalk them from the graveyard )

I don't want to emotionally blackmail them or wheedle/pull at heart strings, but I do want to go for the personal approach. There is only 1 other house in the village of the same design and that's been lived in since it was built. That has a north facing garden though and ours is currently due south so don't want to lose that aspect.

Fair enough about not obligating them to respond. That was DH's idea as he doesn't want to be on tenter hooks forever but that's thinking about us rather than how it would make them feel so I will take it out. There's 2 threads on 2 boards because different people have different perspectives and I'm genuinely looking for 360 views so I can make the best first impression.

Thank you all for your input. Draft 4:

Dear Homeowners,

Apologies for contacting you out of the blue. We hope you don't mind us taking this direct approach of writing to you to see if you might be interested in selling your house?

We have taken the unusual step of contacting you as we are a local couple with young children who are very keen to stay living in [name] village but as yet we haven’t managed to find a house that’s right for us.

If you are considering selling, we’d appreciate it if you’d let us know, or perhaps keep our details if you are considering moving in future.

Thank you for taking the time to read our letter.

WatchyMcWatchdog

We had some so very similar not long ago. DP got the house valued out of curiosity and a few weeks later the estate agent contacted us saying a lady whose mother lives on our road wanted to move to the road but there were no houses for sale. We weren't looking to sell right now, maybe in the next 2 years, but if the price was right (I.e over market value or would pay all fees etc) we would have strongly considered it, as it was already worth 20k more than we paid. We let the lady come and look around, she loved the house as soon as she walked in but wouldn't pay more than the value the estate agents gave so we said no, don't think she was too happy to be fair but I think that's more down to what the estate agents must have told her, as we made it clear it needed to be worth our while. Awkwardly, next door will be putting his house on the market, so she might be our new neighbour soon

I would go with WifOfBif's brevity. I wouldn't mention your children and I wouldn't start by saying to see if you might be interested in selling your house. They'll either want to move or not - it won't suddenly occur to them as a good idea just because you've sent them a letter.

In all honesty I don't like it at all, although the last letter is a vast improvement.
It comes across as a "you've lived there long enough, now it's my turn". Moving out of a house after 25 years will be a wrench-even if they find a more suitable/nicer place. It's not just a building to them, it's the memories.

It would be different to me if you were popping a few notes through doors, but one looks targeted, and makes it feel pressurised. "We're after your house..." They may ask their neighbours if they'd received one, so don't bank on them not knowing that.
And come to that, are you really saying you won't move unless that house is available? No, I doubt it. Are you then going to hold out on other houses in the village just in case this one comes up?

people sell to people

Not necessarily OP. When I sold my old house, I couldn't have cared less who bought it. All I wanted was the market value, a quick sale and a buyer that wasn't a pain in the arse.

For what it's worth, I received a couple of letters like this when I lived in my old property and it made me even more sure that when the time did come to sell, I wanted the estate agent to do everything because I really didn't want to engage in negotiating a sale myself. I also didn't respond to say I wasn't thinking of selling at the time because I didn't want to encourage any dialogue with the sender. Not saying that you shouldn't enquire, but please be prepared for these people to hold a similar mindset.

There really are no houses in the village that meet our criteria no. I will only be note dropping through this door so they can ask their neighbours who will tell them they didn't receive one. I do know their neighbour 2 doors down as I worked with him on a project which went very well and he thinks well of me (apparently!) so if they do ask around I have a good reputation so it would work in my favour.

At the moment yes we won't move until this house becomes available because any other potentially suitable ones I've researched and ruled out through price, asking if they're interested in selling or finding out facts that make them unsuitable (anti social neighbour was one of the four we looked at, my friend who was his other neighbour moved to Scotland to get away from him! Another wanted £50k over guide price, other had massive tree in neighbour's garden with TPO on that blocked out all light, other one was taken off market and extended themselves).

I like draft 4. Friendly but not pushy at all.

ReginaGeorgeous thank you for your perspective. My experience has been different as I know 2 people (one of whom was my dad) who took a lower offer to sell to people who would treat their home well. So those people sold to people, but yes not necessarily.

We've had notes like that. It's funny and annoying to get them. "We've been looking for a house to renovate and yours looks perfect" fucking cheek! Another banged on about young family blah blah - yes, and we are looking forward to having our grandchildren playing here in time, thanks a bunch.

What is a house to you, is their home. If they want to sell there will be one of those helpful signs outside that say "for sale".

Draft 4 is perfect! Good luck!

Nope I would still be binning if if I received it.

Opinions are split which is not surprising. You don't know the owners so you have no idea how they would take your note, but if you don't ask you will never know!

Many years ago we put a handwritten note through the letterbox of a house we loved in an area we were looking to move to. I received a phone call from a lovely chap who was flattered that we admired his home and he told me all about what a happy place it had been to raise a family. They had been considering moving, so he arranged for a valuation as they were interested to know the market value. Unfortunately it was out of our budget, and he seemed genuinely disappointed that we wouldn't be able to pursue the purchase.

Go for it OP. What have you got to loose?

One was put through the door shortly after FIL died, it didn't go down well mixed in with condolences cards.

Why would the op be offering over market price? If they sell they’ll save £££ in estate agents fees
Op letter 3 or 4 are fine, my parents bought a house after putting a note in the door, vendors were happy to be able to move without the aggro of viewings & estate agents fees.

people sell to people, I really don’t think this is true. I’d expect a figure and in your situation an explanation that your house wasn’t on the market yet.

Moving house especially if you’ve lived somewhere for years is very expensive. I’d offer 1% over whatever you think it’s worth and expect to rise a bit from there.

No no no! You are still going down the emotional blackmail route!

Replies are very split. I can only speak from personal feelings.

We have a home that could very likely attract this kind of interest. We absolutely love it, but we would like to downsize if we could have a fuss free sale and if we could find a house we were happy to move to. We've raised our children here and had them coming back as adults for long enough now. We don't want to move because it's so lovely, but we need much less space, much less garden and less work.

If someone were to put a letter through our door I'd want it to be reasonably concise and to have an email address and phone number.
I would certainly be drawn by the idea of a family wanting to be in the area and someone who'd enjoy the house like we have. We've kept making improvements and doing maintenance over the years but it's obvious that a new family would want to do more so it was their own taste.

I'd like to read something like

Dear X House Owners

I hope you don't mind me writing directly to you but we have always admired your house. If there's any possibility you might be interested in selling please do get in touch.

For background we are a family of four, live locally at the moment and are looking to stay in the area long term. We have a house to sell in Y/have our house on the market/would put our house on the market should you be interested in selling or whatever the situation is.

Apologies if this is too intrusive, but if you would like a conversation we can be reached on.......

You never know other people's situation and if you don't try then you'll never know.

My experience is similar to what chinup said. Both the people who sold us out current home and the owners of one we viewed recently waxed lyrical about how nice it was that a young family were going to be moving in and making memories in their previous home, so you never know.
I can't see most people having an issue with you asking. If it was me, I'd laugh, but I'd stick the letter in a drawer, just in case.

My mother is slowly working towards selling up. She's in a totally different situation (not in a village, not even in the UK); also at least 15 years older than you think the owners of this house are.

She would probably welcome a letter of enquiry - she's been in her house nearly 50 years, made it a family home, and really hopes to be able to sell it to someone who will keep it that way.

Good luck with your enquiry, but equally I wouldn't get my hopes up very much if I were you. I hope you can spot some other ideas that will help you find the house for you.

StarJumpsandaHalf

There's some good wording to consider thank you.

Thank you to everyone telling me it would be received well by them/they know it has worked for someone else. It's giving me hope.

Thank you also for the people urging caution and not to be too emotional. It's giving me ways to think differently.

You're welcome Watchy and good luck. Obviously from what's been said other people would think very differently from me, but nothing ventured, nothing gained in my book.

Will be interested to know what you do and what transpires.

It would be rude not to give an update so I promise to come back and let you know what happens. I'm away for half term so I'll discuss the wording with DH during the holiday and pop it through the door the first week in June.