Leaflet to find house - handwritten or printed?

[MarmaladeTeepee]

We're struggling to find a house in the area we want so we thought we'd try popping notes/leaflets through the doors just to see if anything comes up. Worst case scenario we spend an afternoon posting them and they all get binned, but to maximise the chances of this not happening do you think I should write them by hand (time consuming, but it adds that personal touch and maybe less likely to be seen as spam) or print them (much quicker and convenient)?

I was thinking of putting something along these lines:

Dear homeowner,
We are a family of four looking to buy a home in this area. We have sold our current property to first time buyers and we have all the necessary paperwork and finances in place so we can move at a pace suitable for you.

If you are thinking of selling your property, please contact us on [phone number] or email [email address].

Thank you very much for your time,

[Family member names - which I know is a bit cheesy but thought it added the personal touch]

I would print then you haven't wasted as much time when they all get binned.

I think handwritten might make it too personal and I’d be eerily wondering if you’d targeted my house specifically.

Also, make a new inbox specifically for this purpose so you’re not at risk of being scammed since you’ve mentioned (presumably) large sums of money are in place.

We did handwritten but only targeted one road - we made our letter more personal, ie saying a little about ourselves and why we liked the area / road. I think we did 41 letters but it worked! Someone rang to as they were thinking of putting their house on the market so we bought our dream house before it even went to market. So worth the few days of hand cramp! About 20% of people replied to ours to say thanks for the letter, I was amazed.

Printed please. I have had several of these and the handwritten ones are creepy. I also don't care about your kids' names.

I’d say typed as it is a business transaction. If it is an area where most of the people are in their 70s I think they might prefer handwritten but it wouldn’t make any difference to me (have a family house in a popular area).

Print the body of the letter, hand write the names.
But make them legible, not like my username which comes from a MN Christmas card!

Thanks everyone, seems printing is the way to go. @Isit2021yetplease I'm really pleased to hear it worked for you, I'm not getting my hopes up but it's at least worth a try.

We did this recently and I printed them but signed in ink and hand wrote the address on the front of each one so they would know it wasn't junk mail, and so I could keep track of which ones we'd delivered.

I would slightly up the sucking-up, something about how much you love the area and really want to raise a family there or something? That's just me.

Sadly ours didn't work, a month has gone by with no responses (well one person phoned to say sorry but they're not moving) so I think we're stuck here. 😢

If you are on Facebook it is worth posting on the local Facebook pages as well. I often see posts from people looking to buy or rent a house.

We had one last week, nicely typed and legible.

They said how much they were looking to spend as well.

We've just moved here so not looking to move but I was almost tempted to text and say good luck as I felt for them as their purchase in the area had fallen through. It's quite a popular area with not many coming on the market.

Thanks everyone I think I'll add a bit more about why we want to move there and include our budget. The area we want to be in the houses were built in the 1990s and a lot of the people living there bought them when they were first built so they'll be making a massive profit and that might sway them. Maybe. (Clutching at straws!)

I also agree don’t mention budget but do make sure you’re only leaflet dropping in areas you know you can afford. Like PP said, get an idea of the demographic you’re writing to - ours were almost exclusively retired and bloody loved the handwritten element - something all the people who replied mentioned. I didn’t go online and find out names or anything (which you can at land registry) as to me that was a bit too far and stalkerish. The handwritten made it clear we hadn’t leaflet dropped a huge area and were serious about it.
Like pp said - we said we were looking for a family house (ie were jot in it to develop and make a quick buck) and basically made it clear we wanted to settle down somewhere and why we liked the area. The area we bought peooke stay for decades (the people we bought from had been there 42 years!) and so were really invested in who would be buying their house etc. Tailor it to who you’re writing to basically! Good luck! Nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Do people hand deliver these types of letters or post through Royal Mail? I'm planning on doing this, and wondered if potential sellers might feel weird that a random person posted a letter through their door asking to buy their house! For some reason it feels a bit less intrusive (to me) to post with a stamp.

I will be printing mine, then signing with handwriting.

We posted through Royal Mail mainly as we were relocating an hour and a half away and I did them in batches!

I would handwrite one letter provided you have good hand writing and then photocopy. My hand writing is very neat and legible but if not legible and neat then type.

We hand wrote a single letter then photocopied it 50 times and hand posted through to he doors ourselves. We got 3 owners who said they would consider selling and we bought one of the houses. We already had mortgage in principle and had sold our previous house so wanted to move quickly. Vender did not have to pay estate agents fees so we got a good price. Win win.

We handwrote ours. We posted 20 and 8 people contacted saying thanks for the note but we are not moving for a few decades. And 3 said they were interested and we've just had our offer accepted on one of them!

I think if you are looking for a specific forever home then handwrite them. If you are just leafletting an entire road then print

I didn't know that this was a thing people do and tbh I would find it a bit intrusive and creepy if it were handwritten.

Definitely type it if you're going to do it... I still find it a strange thing to do but see from the thread it has worked for some people.

We’ve done this. We did handwritten but then photocopied multiple times. I like the typed but ink handwritten signature/envelope idea though.

I would not give budget but could say you would offer market value (or words to that effect) to make it clear you’re not expecting a bargain.

I agree with PPs who say handwritten then photocopy.

And why on earth would you tell the potential vendors of the house you want to buy your budget?!

I'm delighted to read of people having success with this tactic! I get a handful of these letters every year, and I always feel slightly guilty as I shove them in the recycling.

I get a handful of these letters every year, and I always feel slightly guilty as I shove them in the recycling

After our recent lack of success with this I've sworn that if we ever get another one I'll send a quick text or email to say we're not going to be putting the house on the market (or whatever). Put the poor buggers out of their misery...