has anyone experience of leaflet dropping in an area you want to buy? getting desparate here!

[Twobusyboys]

We own a house in a sought after city centre location. Its great if yoy havent got kids or if you send kids to private schools which are very close by.
But we want to move to a very popular area with great schools.
The area we want to move to and from are probably equally sought after but for different reasons. We have been waiting for a property to come up for sale in the area with good schools but there is just nothing available. I am beginning to wonder about doing a leaflet drop to see if anyone wants to swap for our house. Thinking someone whose kids have grown up may want to move to city location. Anf hence buy our house.
But i am not sure if this is a crazy idea!

This happened to a former neighbour of mine. I saw her as she was moving out, and commented that I hadn't realised that her house was up for sale. She said that it wasn't, but someone had knocked on her door and said they would like to buy, and she had signed within the week! So it does happen.

We tried in when we wanted to move to a particular street. Didn't have any joy, but met some nice people. We moved there eventually as a house came up for sale, and now have a leaflet drop through the door about once a year.

Go for it. You have nothing to lose. Offer to buy or to swap - you never know, it might just work.

Why not? You've nothing to lose.

You needn't make it a straight swap. Headline with wanting to buy; describe where you're selling as a separate item.

We bought ours in similar circs - try talking to people in the area. Work out who is likely to know a lot of people - vicars, teachers, etc.

I spoke to the lady who runs the nursery in the village we bought in, thinking she knows most of the mothers in the village - turns out she wanted to sell, but hates estate agents, so we got it for a song!

Assume all local estate agents know you're very keen and know to contact you? Might be worth ringing them every week, probably on a monday morning.

I don't think it can do any harm. People may be thinking of moving, but put it on the backburner. Selling privately means more money and they may get in touch. I wouldn't offer the swap idea though!

You could make it a bit funny. Like an ad in a dating column:

Friendly couple searching for 2-3 Bed House in ..... blah blah blah

Sorry mind is not engaged, but you get my drift and could make it much funnier.

I think its a great idea.

For example, we are doing up my old house but hopefully won't need to put it on the market. Its a small terraced in a run down area and we were leaflet dropped by a housing association looking for homes to buy. Although the price will be lower than on the open market, it would save estate agents fees, and be an instant sale instead of me still having to pay council tax and insurance etc till its sold.

So that's one house that could be sold by leaflet drop.

When its sold we are almost certainly buying a house in a better area, to rent out. And that isn't going on the market either, its already owned by an work colleague of mine who is happy to wait till mine is done up and sold, because she is still getting rental income from it until we complete. (will be sold with tenant in).

A house on our street sold by word of mouth last year, someone happened to mention to a friend that her daughter was looking for a nice starter home and the grandmother of the person she was talking to was about to move into sheltered housing.

Moving with no Estate agent can save you a lot of fees, no chain etc. Although I would add some incentive in, like all legal fees to be paid by you etc, independent valuer to be used, as even with a swap you will still need to do it all properly.

Thanks. Maybe not such a crazy idea then. I was going with the swap idea rather than just buying cos i think anyone with a house in the area we want to buy knows they could sell in a week easily if they put it up for sale. Its a crazy popular area. So if they wanted to sell they would just do that. But if they wanted to buy in our area it could be difficult to find a place. Our house is likely to generate a lot of interest too. So if they knew they had somethibg to move to in the city they may be more keen to sell iyswim.

We had someone come around a year or so ago to ask if we would consider selling our house - we didn't but the neighbours were looking to sell up and so they ended up buying the house next door!

Definitely a good idea to leaflet drop and avoid agency fees if you can.

Good luck

Oh yes, definitely a good idea to mention where you're selling. If someone sees a connection they can use, they'll leap at it.

But as described above, there'll be a lot more possibilities if you're clearly flexible about someone's grandmother's cat's hairdresser's cousin than if you appear to be requiring a straight swap.

Another idea, we contacted letting agents and offered to buy houses that were being let. We tried three landlords and one said yes. Letting agent may expect a fee though.

A friend has just leaflet dropped and got a house through it. She wanted something on one of two specific streets, and got it. She's renting, so no chain her end.

Where I live we get about one of these letters a month. It doesn't bother me at all and if I was thinking of selling I'd think it was a good way of cutting out estate agents and saving money - so def do it, you never know.

Thanks guys we'll maybe go for it

Yes, we just did this. Leaflet dropped 3 specific roads, got 4 hits out of about 75 drops - very impressed. This is also an area with very fast moving market, family houses are attracting multiple offers and ending up with best and final fights in almost every instance. We lost out so many times! However, 2 of our hits had a pathological hatred of estate agents so jumped at the chance to cut them out of the equation. Our completion day is 3 weeks today! This is what we wrote:

Hello,
We are a young family looking to buy a home for us to live in long-term near here.

We already live locally but would like to upsize to a house with 3 bedrooms and a garden such as the ones found in this area. This is also our preferred location as it means we would be closer to relatives.

We have accepted an offer on our current house from first-time buyers who are willing to wait for us. We have a mortgage and a local solicitor in place so are ready to proceed as soon as we have found somewhere to buy.

Please forgive our direct approach, but if you are thinking about moving and feel you would be interested in selling your house privately and therefore avoiding estate agent fees then please call/text xxxxxx or email xxxxxx to discuss further.

We bought our current house privately so do know how successful and straight-forward it can be!

Many thanks,
Me and Mrs Fermin

If your current house is in a very rentable area, then maybe going through letting agents is a good idea. If you leaflet drop to a rented house, the landlord will never see it. But if he thinks he could get more rent on our property than one in the area you want, he may be very interested in a swap.

Meant to say Mr and Mrs Fermin!

Great. Sounds like it really does work!

Fermin that is a great letter.