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

You haven’t got anything to lose. As you say, you’re not friends and you bump into them rarely so if they find it a bit impertinent it won’t really matter. There’s certainly nothing offensive about your final draft, so they won’t have a row with you or anything - they’ll just ignore it.

My parents sold their cottage (their first home) in the 1970s to a couple who did this. Then, they sold their second home (large Victorian town house) in the same way. Then, their third (split level house with sea view). I’m not exaggerating. They didn’t use an estate agent until their fourth and final house sale after 46 years of marriage, because buyers always approached them.

We did this exact thing.

As a result now living in our dream house, in our dream street and bought it at below market price.

Keep it short and sweet - good luck!

GnocchiGnocchi and ConfCall

What's the secret wording used to make this magic happen?

My brother did this and they sold the house to him. He just left the letter in the letterbox and even though the house was never on the market the owners decided this was the sign they needed to up sticks and move back to the town they both grew up in and they just sold it to my brother as it saved them putting it on the market

@WatchyMcWatchdog

I can't remember exactly what we said as was a few years ago now, but something along the lines of hope you don't mind me getting in touch, apologies if you're not interested, said we were looking for a house specifically in the street and wondered if they might be selling.

We did have a slight clue they may be interested in selling though as the house had been empty for a while.

Give it a go. You'll never know if you don't try. The worst that can happen is they think you're CF (unlikely to be honest) and if that's the case, so what?! At least you'll know you've tried.

Draft 4 is the best.
I do think you need to look at more houses though. At only 4 viewings in 2 years you haven't really been seriously looking. You need to be viewing house to get an idea of what your compromises can be.

My parents bought a house in a similar way many years ago.

It's unusual but worth a try.
Your note, as others have said, is too detailed but the simplified suggestions are fine. Short and sweet. Wishing you luck!!

strawberrypenguin but given I only want to live in my village and only four houses have come up for sale that are bigger/better than my 3 double bedroom mid terrace in the last 2 years I can't view any more houses unless I put notes through people's doors asking for them to sell them to me

Living in my village is the only non negotiable thing. The house we put an offer in on was actually smaller than ours but with an enormous garden to extend into unlike ours. We're not going to buy a worse house; we'll just stay put. I am very seriously viewing! On rightmove daily plus on the look out for boards which often come before listings. Currently there is only 1 4+ bed house for sale and it's over £1 million! The others are 2 or 3 and the same or worse than we have.

Why are you apologising?

Dear House Owners,
we have been looking for a house in x village and think yours would be perfect for us.
Would you consider selling it to us?

Get rid of the ‘at all’. They either want to sell it or they don’t. They’re not going to sell it a little bit!

I think Star has suggested good wording.

Please be careful. I had a “hi’ would you like to sell?’ Note through my door once and it terrified me.

@Orchidoptic

If it doesn’t upset you further, please would you expand on your post?

Did they threaten you?

Why would a note through the door terrify you?

Just vulnerable-feeling new mum with unexpected letter through door. I felt like someone was watching my house. My point is, they might be pleased to have the letter, but then again, maybe not. If you are feeling vulnerable, it doesn’t take much to make it worse.

I regularly get these. The best is a full A4 page in hand-written fountain pen from a prospective buyer accompanied by a brochure from a house search agent.

I simple note gets nowhere. I now require a ribbon bound scroll as a minimum.

It's not in great condition but it's in a lovely part of the village, is good size with a big garden.

Condition is probably immaterial. Here the houses with 1960s interiors sell for at least as much as the recently done grey slate looks. More rationale for developing to your own taste.

To buy a house through a letter you have to be prepared to pay a large premium.

I think draft 4 is the best. The first ones were like you are stalking their house and obsessed with it and want them out and I would not like a note like that especially in a village.

I do think if you don't hear back you need to move on.

We did this and ended up buying our house because of the letter we put through.
We were only interested in 2 roads where the houses are highly sought after.
I said we were a family looking for a house on x road and that we had an offer on our house and would be happy to purchase privately or through an estate agent moving to whatever timeline suited them (if they had plans to sell).
I suspect it unlikely you’ll get a response. I would say from about 50 letters we had replies from 4 saying no plans to sell but good luck and one call to say they were putting their house up for sale (we would not have known about it as they didn’t want it on Rightmove).
I’m surprised people are so offended by the idea of a letter surely it’s like any other junk mail if you’re not interested just chuck it out.

Definitely draft four, the first three sounded very me me me - especially the bit about 'your house looks just right' like Goldilocks and the porridge!

@nancy75

I want to know why a not terrified that poster too!

I was thinking it must have been a threat if some sort!

Sell me your house or we will make trouble for you kind of thing!

Are you going to put your address on the letter so they have info on you like you do on them so it isn't stalkerish?

Also they can check you out like you have checked them out

When did the house last sell?

I would offer to pay at least 1% over the price they are given by estate agents

If it goes on the open market you might lose out to somebody else who will pay more money

We live in a desirable area and get notes from time to time - difference being that ours flyer the whole street. Also get notes from agents when they have a buyer. I don’t really mind as it’s good to know the house is still desirable.

That said, when we sold it, we didn’t ask around and maybe should have because we ended up selling to friends of our neighbours. We could have saved a lot of money in agents’ fees. BUT we were in a race to sell to get our onward property, and being with the same agent meant that they pulled out all the stops to sell quickly for us.

It can work well, but some agents really love to make a single agent chain and you become very high priority for them when that happens.

Their house isn’t on the market, but definitely worth your trying. They might decide to use an agent anyway and give you the nod beforehand.

There is a village near me that I know well. Very few houses come on the market there and they sell quite quickly. This is unusual for the area which is in a very cheap part of the country with a slow property market. (You don't buy a house round here with the expectation that it will increase in value).
I recently found out that there are actually lots of houses bought and sold in that village but the majority are private sales within the village.
Clearly this is a convenient way to sell if it can be done but the owners will only be interested if they had already planned to move.

I think the specific wording’s slightly less important than your obvious intention I.e. keen and genuine interest without being too pushy and, the owners’ feelings and intentions.

One you can control and the other you have no way of knowing.