To put notes through letterboxes of these houses?

[makeupforever]

My DM has finally decided she wants to move, I am overjoyed as her area has been deteriorating for a while and I just want her to be able to enjoy life somewhere nicer. She owns her house outright but she is limited as to what she will be able to buy as her house isn't worth tons.

We have found a quiet street of small houses that are absolutely perfect for her, they appear to be mostly owned by older people. And they historically are within her budget. We've just missed one up for sale as an offer has been accepted, I asked the estate agent and he said they get snapped up quickly.

She's got her heart set on living there which means a lot to me. I'm well aware that you can't have everything you want and there is a huge chance it won't work out and she won't be able to live there. But I'm willing to do everything in my power to try and help her as she has not had an easy ride and I just want her to enjoy her life now in nice surroundings.

I was thinking of putting notes through the doors of the remaining houses with my name, contact info and some context, and asking if anyone had plans to put their house on the market soon. On some nice note cards? Just on the off chance someone was putting theirs up for sale so it would give us a head start to get everything lined up.

WIBU to do this? Or has anyone ever done this before?

She is a 'hot buyer' though, I'd use that term.

I probably wouldn't Google it, though

YANBU. My friend's mum received a letter like that- just so happened she was about to sell her house as was moving into sheltered accomodation. Chuffed to have it all lined up and not have to deal with estate agents fees.

I would mention she is a cash buyer as that can speed things up too.

If I was planning to sell and got a note like this I'd be delighted not to have to pay an estate agent. Definitely worth a try.

Go for it. Good luck!

I'm genuinely interested as to why people seem so keen to avoid estate agents. Is it the fear of getting a dodgy/sharp/shifty one or mainly the fees? I get that you'd rather not have to lose 1% (ish) of the total you get, but buying and selling houses is an expensive business, and you still have your legal fees.

Even so, I'd be very surprised if using an estate agent to advertise your house on the open market wouldn't increase the best price you could get by significantly more than that 1% over just striking a deal with a note-poster - unless, I suppose, the note-poster was mega rich, had fallen in love with your house and was willing to pay twice as much as the best valuation you could get.

In fact, I don't work for an EA, although I realise I might be coming across as a bit of a cheerleader for them; but when people sell to a note-poster, how do they arrive at a value/price? I'd be really interested to hear how they do this.

Presumably, they still use an EA (or several) for a valuation? Are they honest about their intentions - i.e that it's a standalone valuation for which they expect to pay, or do they lie/pretend/imply that it's with a view to appointing an EA to act on their behalf and thus free of charge? Are you still using their time, expertise and services, but just intending not to pay them for it? That doesn't really sit well with me.

I think there is an assumption that estate agents do little more than stick it up on right move and watch the pounds roll in.

I've certainly never had an estate agent work as hard for me when I've been selling, as you suggest upthread.

They email their list of clients (who will already have noticed my house for sale on right move anyway) and organise viewings.

They email everyone looking for a 3 bed semi in my area (for example), they don't go specifically to couple a who want a kitchen diner and close to a good school, or couple b who wanted an enclosed garden and a garage big enough to double as a workshop. I know they don't because when I want a 4 bed house in this particular area, I get notified of every 4 bed house in the town regardless of if it meets my particular requirements.

I just don't think they do as much as you're saying they do. Maybe I'm wrong.

I also think people generally have a good idea what their house is worth by keeping an eye on the market in their area. Unless their house is very unique, in which case estate agents struggle to value it anyway. All they do is look at similar houses in the area, selling prices and maybe test it at slightly higher.

A good estate agent does help keep the process moving if there is a long or complicated chain and that is when I think they're worth the money.

Thats just my thoughts on the matter

Also i thought of another reason I'm going to note drop my preferred streets.
Its because I'd be damned annoyed if I decide to by in my second favourite area because nothing coming up in the preferred one, only for something ideal to crop up 3 months later.

Don’t do what my friend did and was on a walk with another friend and saw an elderly acquaintance gardening in her desired road. My friend made small talk enquiring about properties for sale the lady said Joan at number 12 had died recently then at that moment the hearse drove past and they all stood heads bowed but my poor friend felt such a ghoul asking before the lady was cold!

I just don't think they do as much as you're saying they do. Maybe I'm wrong.

I also think people generally have a good idea what their house is worth by keeping an eye on the market in their area. Unless their house is very unique, in which case estate agents struggle to value it anyway. All they do is look at similar houses in the area, selling prices and maybe test it at slightly higher.

A good estate agent does help keep the process moving if there is a long or complicated chain and that is when I think they're worth the money.

Maybe we have just struck lucky and found one of the very good ones. They've been so helpful, proactive, been in touch with us a lot and been happy to answer our calls and emails straightaway.

There are a lot of bad and/or lazy EAs who just want to sit back and let the house sell itself, but I think, for the good ones, they're a little like funeral directors, in that people think it's easy money for little work without having a clue about all of the many things they have to do to make it all go smoothly. I also gather that it costs them quite a chunk of money upfront to put it on Rightmove.

As for value, I looked carefully at what else was for sale and had been sold in the local area and came up with what I thought would have been a realistic value. The EA advised marketing it with 'offers over' £55K more than I had originally reckoned and we went on to accept an offer for another £20K again on top of that. This isn't London - just an ordinary town in the Midlands and the actual final price was almost 50% more than I'd reckoned myself.

I wouldn't have trusted myself as a complete amateur to value it anyway, but it's made me pause for thought that, had somebody originally offered £20K over what I reckoned, what if I'd bit their hand off and then ended up losing £55K of its true value - all for the sake of avoiding £2K in EA commission.

In crude terms, I also think that EAs can be, in a sense, the housing equivalent of eBay - you have to be proactive, but you might be able to easily advertise to a few hundred people at most, whereas they have the shop-front and the brand and can reach tens or hundreds of thousands (millions in the case of eBay).

I've known people complain about having to pay eBay fees when they perceive that they've done nothing to earn it, but maintaining their web platform and brand is expensive and no simple task - by all means canvas 65 million people individually yourself if you prefer!

I'm not suggesting id try and sell without an estate agent. But I am going to try and buy without one!

I did this for a property and I'm now living in it!

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I'm genuinely interested as to why people seem so keen to avoid estate agents. Is it the fear of getting a dodgy/sharp/shifty one or mainly the fees? I get that you'd rather not have to lose 1% (ish) of the total you get, but buying and selling houses is an expensive business, and you still have your legal fees.

Even so, I'd be very surprised if using an estate agent to advertise your house on the open market wouldn't increase the best price you could get by significantly more than that 1% over just striking a deal with a note-poster - unless, I suppose, the note-poster was mega rich, had fallen in love with your house and was willing to pay twice as much as the best valuation you could get.

In fact, I don't work for an EA, although I realise I might be coming across as a bit of a cheerleader for them; but when people sell to a note-poster, how do they arrive at a value/price? I'd be really interested to hear how they do this.

Presumably, they still use an EA (or several) for a valuation? Are they honest about their intentions - i.e that it's a standalone valuation for which they expect to pay, or do they lie/pretend/imply that it's with a view to appointing an EA to act on their behalf and thus free of charge? Are you still using their time, expertise and services, but just intending not to pay them for it? That doesn't really sit well with me.

It's a bad idea to use EAs to assess price... As mostly they over estimate to get you in their books and will force a price decrease when it doesn't sell.

There are professional valuers who aren't estaré agents... They are often surveyors too.

There are professional valuers who aren't estaré agents... They are often surveyors too.

Ah, yes - good point. We had to get three valuations for probate (all EAs) and one of them was a complete cowboy. His first words were to ask me what figure I was wanting (erm, the actual value, please?!) and then he went on to tell me how he could get tens of thousands more than the others (he actually named the other two that we'd asked for values, out of quite a few EA options - not that he knew which we'd chosen - and claimed they weren't really selling anything, unlike him). He really was the EA equivalent of Jay from the Inbetweeners!

The other two were a lot more sensible and gave values/'starting' asking prices (offers over) of quite a bit less than we ended up being offered. Surely we haven't found the only good EA in the country, have we?!?!?!

Do it. Someone put a note through my dad's letterbox when we'd just had the house valued but not yet put it on the market. We shook hands on a sale at the full asking price half an hour later!

@User57327259

If anyone wanted to buy a house over which I have control without using an estate agent and going to a best and final offer position would need to be willing to pay an extravagant amount over the asking price. You will only know the real value of a house if you go to best and final offers.

I was approached along similar lines. I have never said that I would sell the house. It was not the proposed purchaser but another neighbour who has bought several houses from people who died or went into long term care. I noticed that every move in the street is watched. The locals have their tongues hanging out if an old person gets older and more ill or they go into long term care or dies. It is disgusting. As far as I am aware I am not about to die or move to elderly care nor am I losing my marbles. I am very short on temper with these people.

I wont be selling the house any time soon and I would not sell to please neighbours who do not have the manners or ability to watch discretely if that is what they have to do.

I think this method is very grabby and I am concerned that some older people would feel they have to sell or should sell and sell at a very low price to a chancer

Sometimes it’s a relief. I have found myself unexpectedly looking to sell my mother’s house to move them closer to me in am impossibly short timeframe. A neighbor of hers who knows about her sudden health condition, dropped a note that he has a friend looking to move into the neighborhood. I’m quite honestly not opposed to a quick private buy situation.

I’m currently 600m away and trying to do all this. I don’t have time or energy to go the normal route. Honestly neither does my mother, as she needs to be in a permanent retirement/assisted living place soon in order to get her out of rehab.

So yeah, one person’s vulture may be another’s savior (as long as the price is right, but I’m willing to concede on ‘convenience’).