Has anyone approached a house that's not for sale?

[insertimaginativeusername]

There's a house I pass regularly, it's lovely and in a perfect location for school and work. We are looking to move but there is nothing in the area that we like and we want to stay within school catchment for DC2, so I thought about asking if the owner would consider selling or consider contacting us if he planned to sell in the near future.

Is this ok to do? Has anyone done it and got their dream home? I would hate to offend or upset him. I've wanted to say something casually as I've passed but I never see him and wouldn't want to knock the door.

I wouldn’t want someone asking to buy my house unless there was a 'For Sale' board outside.

Yep, and we're living in it now. I wrote a whole essay about why it would be perfect for us as well as our life history. DH suggested we cut it down to the basics and they wrote back straight away.

Do it!

Don’t ask, don’t get, as my mother always said. They will most likely just say no, but you never know. Do you know what the inside is like though? It might need a lot of work.

I’m not sure if it’s OK to do as I’ve never bought a house and probably never will, but if I were you I’d speak to them.
You’re not trying to force anyone of out of their home, just enquiring if it’s a near future possibility; you’ve nothing to lose really.

Just do it. Put a (polite) note through the door. If they're not interested they can put it in the bin, no harm done.

Someone posted a letter through my parents door expressing an interest I their house. It was a converted bungalow and the family needed a downstairs bathroom and bedroom because of disabilities.
My parents ended up swapping houses with these people!
No harm in asking!

Note through the door

Same as Tattychicken.
As they say in my neck of the woods " shy bairns get nowt"!
You've nothing to lose.

I flyered an entire area of houses within catchment of a school. Out of 300 letters we received 6 responses of houses not yet on the market. Honestly, you’ve got nothing to loose.

Understood fairies but in my area we regularly have estate agents letters through the door with 'Mr & Mrs S want a house on your road, would you be interested in selling?' Surely he'd just bin it and ignore if he wasn't interested?

Slippers that's lovely and gives me hope!

Paperdoll- I suspect it needs a lot of work, it just has that look about it. If it was up for sale through agents it would say "needs modernisation" aka 30 year old green bathroom suite. But we can do that.

We did it. They said that they weren’t selling right now but would be in a year or so and would contact us.

Slightly different situation as the vendor had previously had the house on the market some years before and we assumed (correctly) from the state of the house that it hadn't sold. We put a note through the door (a long explanatory and apologetic note) and she'd left a message on our answerphone before we even got home! I think it's cheeky, but flattering. And they can completely ignore your note if they want!!

Go for it, the worse they could do is say no.

is this not done in the UK then?

Down in the older part of town near the station where all the period houses are I saw a wealthy looking loved up couple popping their letters in to houses.

NO idea if this works though.

We got this through the door the other day. We live on a road were they don't come up very often and are mid way through a renovation so not interested in selling

People regularly ask if we'd like to sell one of our properties, I think because it has a very distinctive garden. Our answer is always the same...can you see a for sale sign? We don't appreciate this kind of approach and I find it annoying that people are always checking out what you have. It's not clearly visible from the road, so they must be snooping around nosily.

My parents had a house built in the late 70s. When it was half done, a man came and gave
Dad his card, and said if they ever wanted to sell it, give him a call. Dad had no intention of selling; it was his dream house and he wanted to live in it forever. A few years later, Mum and Dad split up and the house had to be sold. Dad found this chap's card, called him, and he's still living there 30+ years on. He had to wait a bit, but he got it in the end.

I've had a note through my door saying, we used to live in this area we want to live in this street if you've looking to Move please call me. I'm not so didn't but it didn't offend me either

It's not set back or secluded, it's a house on a road I walk regularly with a reception age child that walks at the speed of a sloth. It's hard not to notice the houses, not "checking them out". We've done a lot of work on our house and it now stands out against the other identical houses. We get plenty of people commenting on it as their passing, and builders admiring the work, we take it as a compliment.

I will have a think about how I would word it so it's as inoffensive as possible.

I would much prefer a personal note then the weasely flyers from estate agents claiming that a buyer is desperate for your road.
If I had a personal note, I would keep it as so much is 'up in the air' at the moment.

We did. The house had been up for sale a year previously but not sold. We ended up paying a very decent price and no agents fees.

We fell in love with the houses on a few adjacent streets when we were looking for our first home. As it was february we put notes inside homemade valentine’s cards, thinking that people would be more likely to open a valentine than any old note.

Got a couple of calls and some amused comments. We live in one of those houses now.

We got a letter through the post, from a couple who said they really wanted to live in our road and especially in our house! And would guarantee to make an offer we couldn't refuse! Now that was weird!

We have had notes like this through our door. We certainly were not offended, even though this is our hopefully forever house and we don't intend moving ever. If someone was thinking of moving it might be just the push they need, and not having to go through an estate agent, could save them a lot of money. Just make sure you do a very polite note.

My parents put notes in a few houses & did end up buying one of them