"Buyers in your area" letters

[WeWereInParis]

We only recently moved into our house and have no desire to move anytime soon so this is more for my curiosity than anything else.

We've had one of those "interested buyers in your area" type letters through the door. It's from a large well known estate agent in the area and says (to paraphrase) "there's a financially qualified buyer very keen to buy in your road. If you're thinking of moving this year, would you be interested in a one off viewing from this buyer who is willing to pay a premium." The letter implies a specific buyer, not a more vague "we have buyers looking in your area" sort of thing.

Are these letters genuine? We are not in an area/house/road that is particularly special, although it's perfectly pleasant. Why would the buyer be willing to pay a premium (and why would they tell me that anyway)? And if the buyers are serious, does this kind of letter work?

No, I wouldn't imagine these are genuine in the sense that there is a particular buyer looking to buy in your particular road. It's just estate agents trying to drum up business at a time when the market is otherwise slow. I would expect if someone was interested, they would probably send letters themselves rather than through an estate agent. There are also property locators (who are not estate agents in the purest sense) who you can hire to search for properties in specific areas for private sales. They would also contact you directly about your specific house usually. We got one of these as well about a month after we moved in and we literally do not plan to move again until we have to go into a care home!

We get them too and while our road is nice, our neighbour’s house took several months to sell last year so I don’t think demand can be that high. I think it is just estate agents trying to lure you in.

I'm just surprised it works. If we were planning on moving and I got the letter this morning, if I rang and said "yes I'd be interested in a one off viewing from this financially qualified and very interested buyer you mention" and they prevaricated to the point that it was clear they didn't exist, I'd be more likely to be annoyed and sell my house with a different estate agent.

By the time they had come out and valued your house, signed you up to sell it etc they would probably have found “that particular buyer has found somewhere else now but you should keep it on the market, there’s lots of interest for properties like yours”

There is unlikely to be a buyer. It is just the agent trying to get leads on new properties before their competitors. We get them often, and they go straight in the recycling.

We’ve had two letters in the last month. We live near a popular school and both letters mention this, and also name the potential buyers and a price they are willing to pay, so I think they are genuine. Nope, not moving anytime soon!