If someone wanted to buy your house, which is not on the market, wwyd?

[housewanter]

I'll try to keep this brief but... about 3 years ago, before we bought our current house, we viewed another house on the same street. We liked it, really it was/still is ideal for us, but at the time didn't have enough money, the house was a bit tired and the vendors wouldn't budge on price, so we found a cheaper house on same street and bought that.

The vendors tried to sell the house for another 6 months or so with no luck and have ended up staying put - don't know why, but I assume other people were put off for similar reasons to us or the vendors changed their minds.
They are a family with kids, primary and secondary, and were moving to another part of the country so changing jobs too.
Fast forward to now... we would like to move again and could probably afford to buy that house (going by what similar properties in the area are on the market for) But it's not on the market - we like it more than any of the others we've seen - the vendors have done no work to it, so it's more tired than it was 3 years ago.

Although, we bought a house on the same street, we live about 20 doors away from them, so have only ever seen them in passing, don't know if they even remember we viewed their house (suspect they do) but it was 3 years ago and we didn't move here until a few months after viewing their house but we are very distinctive looking ha ha!!! - we don't say hello or anything though so who knows.

If you were in that situation, wwyd? (as buyer or seller) Should I knock on the door and say 'you probably don't remmeber me but I once viewed your house, I know it's not for sale now but if you were thinking of selling, I would be really, really interested.....'

Should I put a note through the door - to the owners...(don't know names)

How would you react if you were the vendors - up the price and try to thumbscrew me, tell me to f off or what?

Despite liking the house, I wouldn't want to pay more than the market value ... and the vendors wouldn't have to pay any estate agents fees... the house would probably be marketed at 220k to 250k tops. I reckon anyone else would try to get it for about 215k ish because of the poor condition. Others in the area are on the market and not selling at 230k. Most recent similar sale was 218k two years ago.

Ahhhhhhhh....!

What was the price you couldn't afford 3 years ago?

What did you pay for yours and what do you expect to get for it now?

I think you need to forget about it being "tired". As you found out before, being tired (but still habitable) doesn't seem to affect the value very much, on the assumption that most people plan to re-decorate/replace the bathroom IDC anyway, so it doesn't really matter if it was done last year or 10 years ago.

If you're sure your price is realistic, then a formal latter through the door wold be the way to go IMO.

I agree - put a note through the door, expressing interest, and see what happens. It's not rude, they can ignore if they want.

not paying agent's fees won't affect the price. If they are interested in selling, offer what it is worth to you.

We viewed a house we liked but didn't end up buying (our circumstances changed and we stayed put). The house never sold. 3 years later when we were able to move again we mentioned the house to the estate agent we'd viewed with before and they were more than happy (of course) to put a call in to the vendor and sound them out on whether they were thinking of going onto the market again.
It might be a way to go if you don't fancy a direct approach and the potential vendor might be more candid with the estate agent rather than seeing the pound signs when you show up on the doorstep...

Thanks guys

@ PrivateJourney - it was marketed at a variety of prices between 190k and 210k three years ago. Ours has probably gone up less than theirs as it's not a 'family' home but we've inherited a few quid and can make up the difference.
I go on about it being 'tired' because I want to communicate how it compares price/value wise in relation to other houses on the market at the moment which are not 'tired'.
Tired means: shot double glazing plus new kitchen and bathroom. It does make a difference whether it was done one year or ten years ago because some things lose function as well as appearance year by year.
For example a 10 year old boiler is not as good as a 1 year old one or a 5 year old one, same with wear and tear on a bath or shower cubicle or wooden flooring or any wallcoverings - it's not about taste or design or fashion tiredness - it's about proximity to functional collapse which increases as every year passes.

Would you actually mention price in your intro letter? That's something I would have thought best done after (on the basis that they are interested) they've had a chance to look at the local market and gauge what they want and then we could haggle from there.

@specialsubject - I agree, not paying agents fees won't affect the price for them, however it is an incentive they didn't have when they last marketed the property and (on the basis that they are interested) then if they want to sell to anyone else, they would have to pay agents fees - so it does have a monetary consideration.

To us, it's a lovely house and if we had to, we would pay the same as for a 'non-tired' house, but that's because we're thinking with hearts rather than heads - to an investor or bank it would have a market value only.

It's difficult to assess because although we like the house more than others, we still only want to pay what we have to, not more than we have to.
Obviously expressing desire for the house via a letter puts the vendor in a stronger bargaining position, but it only makes the house worth more to us, not to the market or any other buyer, so it's a matter of gauging the right price - the vendor was immovable on price 3 years ago so maybe they will always value their house at the top of the scale - in which case we will struggle.

@ MILdesperandum - that's a great idea, I hadn't thought of that....

Although of course, the estate agent's fees will then be a factor for the vendor and they would undoubtedly increase the price accordingly.... but that is certainly a possible way of doing it

When we bought our first house 8 years ago we had our wish list down to only a few roads.
We printed out notes (first time buyer, interested to buy your house, we live around the corner etc) and put those notes through all the letterboxes of the houses we would consider buying.
One of those people answered, we ended up buying their house privately.
They had 3 estate agents round to value it and we paid the average of that.

We were just lucky that they wanted to move on but hadn't quite finished doing it up. They were retiring and moved out of the area.

Go for it, put a mobile number on and your names. If they don't want to sell they'll just bin it and forget about it.

Yes, I understand what you're saying about old double glazing and boiler, but our experience when we bought this house was that it really doesn't make much difference to the price people are prepared to accept. One habitable 4 bed, 2 reception house in a street is worth much the same as another, regardless of how new the boiler is. If it's a buyer's market that may be different but in most places ATM, it's not.

Specialsubject is right, the fees are irrelevant to you. OK, so the vendor may save but by not marketing it "properly" they may also not get the best price. It won't make any different at all to the price you pay, only to the likelihood of you being the lucky bidder.

No, I wouldn't mention price in the letter.

House buying is an emotional thing. The kinds of houses that make people fall in love with them are worth more than those that don't, regardless of number of rooms or condition.

No, I would not mention price to them. Let them come out with it after you've met and seen it again.
You have to have a price in your head you won't go above. See if you can agree. If not, it was worth a try.
Don't let them know how much you love the house. Tell them you put that note through a lot of doors.

If they ever contact you, that is.

Actually I think you just need to approach them and not worry too much about the detail yet. As their original move was to enable a re-location and new job isn't it most likely that he job fell through/they changed thier minds rather than that the house proved difficult to sell?

Everyone I know who's been in that position has rented until the house was sold so that they could take up the new job.

@ Vanillepudding - I think you're right - we'll put a note through with first names and email/mobiles - I wouldn't want our interest to become public to others on street. If they're not interested - they'll bin and that's that.

@PrivateJourney - I see where you are coming from I think - I'm not sure what went wrong - they seemed reluctant to move on price - I actually thought they were going to take up an alternative lifestyle but it could be job based or not - I got the sense they needed a fixed figure of money to achieve this and nobody, not us or anyone else was willing to pay it for the house in the condition it was in. They were not flexible sellers it seemed.

I take on board it is not a buyers market everywhere, but no house will sell above what the market will pay and at the moment the market on this type of house in this area is saying no to paying 230k so I would not pay more than that and the market would pay less than that for their house.
It is not a unique house in the area - but because we want to stay on this street - it is unique to us if that makes sense.
But, it's a preference not an essential, and I do think they are the sort of vendors who might try to roll us over.

My thoughts were that they got their ambitions burned when they tried to sell before and the experience might have made them more 'realistic' - that there might still be a simmering desire to move even though they abandoned the marketing before.

But I don't want to stoke that fire at any cost - only if they are realistic.

Well if they're still not realistic you don't have to buy it. If its still not priced at an acceptable level just politely say so and walk away. You've lost nothing by asking.

We sold our last house privately and reflected that in what we accepted for it (about £30k below 'market value'). It was well worth it to us not to have the hassle of viewings etc and our place needed a lot of work, completely new windows, heating etc.

Thanks all - that's decided - that's the weekend written off - practising note writing!

I would also write a note, but how do you know they have done no work on it in those three years? We have done loads on ours but I bet the people 20 doors down wouldnt know that, we have never had a skip or anything like that either.