Doing a leaflet drop as potential purchasers

[ghislaine]

DH and I have been looking for a new home since May with no results. We are keen to buy in a few particular streets where houses don't come up that often. Has anyone successfully tempted anyone into coming on to the market with a leaflet drop? What sort of of information did you include and how did it go?

Any tips gratefully received!

Our leaflet drop caught our vendors at exactly the right time - they were making plans to move and on the verge of contacting estate agents when our very simple ("We're first time buyers who have always thought the location and houses in your road would be ideal for us. If you're considering putting your house on the market in the near future, please let us know" -type thing) note went through their door. We had already researched likely sale prices, mortgage offers, etc. Both parties benefitted from the deal; we both had good solicitors and we communicated with the vendors quite amicably throughout. Give it a go, and see what happens, ghislaine!

We did too!! We'd been looking in a specific village for over a year and not much comes up that's suitable, so after looking at about 6 not quite right houses, we leafletted the streets/ houses we liked and two lots of people responded - we viewed them both and offered on one and it was accepted - we had already got an offer ours. We have kept in touch by by email all along the way. Everything was going well in the chain and we were ready to exchange then we found out that the people at the bottom suddenly put in for a mortgage a month ago and we're all waiting for them.
Apart from the leafleting we have asked all our friends etc to look out for us and let us know

We got leafleted over the xmas hols. Very tempting! I like the idea of a "private sale". No signs up in the garden etc. We're in Scotland, however, and would maybe miss out on the potential for a bidding war since it's "offers over" system up here.

The note was handwritten on a nice posh notelet and gave mobile number and email. I think it's genuine.

Our next door neighbour has just agreed to sell to a couple who leafleted our road. He was just in the middle of estate agent visits and valuations so the timing was perfect. They've agreed a sale at the mid point of the various valuations and all seems to be fine. Definitely worth doing.

It's important to have an idea of the value of the property you're after - both the ones we viewed had got estate agents in to value them and we went for an offer midway. We also checked out the average prices for similar houses in the area on Rightmove and zoopla so we knew we were in the right range. Then it was a question of getting a solicitor for the conveyancing.

My sister did this and got what she was looking for.

I also know someone else who was leafleted and ended up selling as a result.

Well worth doing.

Yes, my friend did this and ended up with the most beautiful home .

That's interesting I used to get these all the time in my last house, and I've had one since I moved to this house two years ago, sometimes from actual people, others from estate agents, I assumed they were just some sort of campaign, I didn't realise they may be real. That someone actually maybe did want to buy the house. Wouldn't have changed my course of action, but genuinely I never know there really was a real family looking.

Thanks very much for this, all. I'm very encouraged by your stories.

Did anyone state their budget/price range? I don't want to get into a pointless exchange with people who have an inflated idea of their house's price (we've done our research and I am confident that the sort of house we want falls into a £75k range) but on the other hand I don't want to effectively encourage a vendor to think that the minimum price they'd get would actually be the maximum we'd offer.

Would you also state things like: we're under offer, mortgage arranged etc?

Our vendors got valuations from two or three estate agents and we agreed to go with the average. Any information about your ability to proceed without undue delay (current home under offer, mortgage agreed etc) should be to your advantage, but I'd avoid any emotional appeals (our little girl has always loved to point out your red front door when we pass, etc) purely because it's irrelevant.

We didn't state our expected price range on the leaflet but we know the area v well - zoopla gives you average prices for houses by street and postcode and rightmove has previous sale prices for houses by street i used this and found a very similar house to the one we offered on that was sold a year ago and added a 10% increase - this is how much house price have increased in this particular area. We said we were looking for 3/4 bedroomed properties and selected only the houses we liked. If they then contacted us we asked them to have it valued and also that they will benefit by avoiding estate agents fees. Both houses we viewed had got estate agents valuations and showed us them. Throughout the whole experience people were honest and fair.
It's more personal without an estate to mediate for you - the owner of a house we went to see that we chose not to make an offer on sent me a snidely email back - which ignored - my oh sees him as they use the same pub and he gets ignored by him.

Another one without my contact details peeking through the biro scribble. I put a line on about not being estate agents - now cut off the pic

Going to do our leaflet drop today. Fingers crossed!