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Original poster

Buying a house that is not on the market

160 replies

NaomiBlues · 10/02/2022 13:32

My husband and I are interested in buying a property that is not currently on the market. It has a lot of sentimental value (family reasons) and we'd really like to approach the current occupiers (who we know a little but not well) with an offer. They have not lived in the property for a long time (less than six months) and do not have any emotional attachment to that particular house as we do. Does anyone have any experience of doing anything like this? Any advice that you'd give in our situation?

OP posts:
YingMei · 10/02/2022 18:48

I would not accept anyone trying to do this to me. The house we've recently bought was hard to find - it fits our desires space wise and is in the catchment for a good school. there is no way I'd go through the stress of moving again unless someone offered me millions!

WonderfulYou · 10/02/2022 19:00

I’m interested to know how you and your husband both feel the house has sentimental value.

I don’t think there’s any harm in putting a note through the door like many estate agents do - saying something like if you’re ever planning to sell please let me know my contacts details are…..

But unless I was planning on selling soon anyway then 50K wouldn’t make me want to sell, especially at the moment when property is more expensive.

Summerfun54321 · 10/02/2022 19:11

It’s a no from me. Someone would have to offer me double to cost of my house to move again when I’d just moved in.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 10/02/2022 19:17

Do you have any inkling that the current owners may be amenable to moving?

Motnight · 10/02/2022 19:27

@flashbac

I'd take the offer if offered over asking price.
There is no asking price. The house isn't on the market.
WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 10/02/2022 19:49

I wasn't suggesting doing anything illegal @FancySusan. If it can't be done, then ok. Was just an idea.

Frightening that you'd even think about it, though. Almost as if the present owners are not actually people but just junk and debris that will need to be tidied up and cleared out before the house can be used 'properly'. That's a very dark mind you must have there.

We have a number of (often obscure) laws that prevent people from doing absolutely outrageous things and you hear about them and wonder just why there actually needs to be a law to stop it - I think I understand a bit more why now Sad

ShallWeTalkAboutBruno · 10/02/2022 19:55

I wasn't suggesting doing anything illegal @FancySusan. If it can't be done, then ok. Was just an idea

Regardless of whether it can or can’t be done (and of course it can’t), would you genuinely suggest someone turfs people out of their home just because they fancy someone living there instead?? Do you really think that would ever be a good idea?

mummabubs · 10/02/2022 20:00

My main thoughts are-

  1. Have they given you any indication at all that they want to sell?? What's led you to believe this?

  2. Unless they've actively told you that they want to sell I really wouldn't offer them money at this stage, it might majorly irk them. As someone else suggested, if you really want to communicate your wishes I'd write a letter saying how much you love the house and if they ever decide to sell you'd be very keen to hear from them.

  3. We moved house 8 months ago into a doer upper. I'm not a fan of the house as it currently is, but I can't tell you how much someone would have to pay me to consider going through the stress of finding somewhere else and all the hassle associated with moving.

3luckystars · 10/02/2022 20:07

I don’t think it was on the market at all. She said she was thinking of offering 50k over the current market value.

So I’m guessing it was like: Mumsnet poster grew up in the house. Family home was sold about 15 years ago to a landlord who rented it out for years.
Owner died a year ago and left house to niece and she just moved in 6 months ago.

Mumsnet poster had hoped all along to buy the house when it came to the market but it didn’t and is now trying to strike before niece gets too attached to the house (or finds the treasure)

I would offer £40k above market value and see what happens. Good luck!

MindyStClaire · 10/02/2022 20:08

Presumably Sauvignon has always rented and was seeing the bank as being like a landlord.

Unless I regretted the purchase it would have to be a massive offer for me - enough to buy a better house for the same mortgage plus costs. Hundreds of thousands.

CorsicaDreaming · 10/02/2022 20:19

I'm currently in a similar place to the position of the people you are proposing approaching - we bought this place a bare year ago.

There is literally no way I'd entertain selling it for 50k over the asking price. I'm not sure there's a realistic figure I would entertain. Double the asking price and I might... and I don't mean that flippantly.

It's been a huge upheaval, we thought long and hard about the move and have many reasons why this house is right for us. We've already put a lot of time, effort and money into making it feel like home.

I'd feel quite unsettled - and to be honest a bit pissed off - if someone just knocked on the door and said, "Go on sell me your house, it means much more to me than it does to you...I will give you 50k over asking price"

And the asking price seems such a movable feast at the moment - the market is bonkers around here - that I think it would be tricky to quantify.

So it's a No from me 😉

Remytherat · 10/02/2022 20:30

@Ishouldreallybeonholiday

If I'd brought a home and 6 months later someone approached me saying they want to buy it because they are emotionally attached to it I'd be quite upset. The reason being that at that point it would be my new home, maybe my forever home that I spent years working toward. So I think you need to wobble your head on this one.
Yeah same. It would make me feel weird about the house I think, knowing someone was out there planning how to take it off me after I'd just bought it and fallen in love. If I'd been there 10+ years I might feel differently.
newbiename · 10/02/2022 20:54

Again , why didn't you buy it six months ago?

3luckystars · 10/02/2022 21:20

It might not have ever been on the market. She just said ‘other occupiers moved in 6 months ago’

Starseeking · 10/02/2022 21:23

If I had successfully completed my purchase of the home I recently tried to buy, I'd need a lot more than £50k to move on after 6 months; probably more like £500k (70% of purchase price) then I'd think about it...and still say no. It would be mine and my DCs home!

That said, you've got nothing to lose. I've recently written a few letters to houses in the area my sale collapsed in. I only wrote to properties where people have lived for more than 25 years, in the hope they might be thinking of downsizing.

Writing a letter is worth a shot if you think the occupiers may be regretting their purchase. Only ask once though, and don't keep chasing them up!

CorsicaDreaming · 10/02/2022 22:12

@SauvignonBlanc23

"I don't really know, I was just trying to help. The OP asked if there was a way she could buy the house that's not on the market, I was just trying to come up with an idea. I don't even know if the mortgage company can sell the house? Can they?"

No the mortgage company absolutely cannot do this unless the present owners got into financial difficulties and stopped paying their mortgage.

The legal owners are the house owners. The mortgage co lend money to help people buy, but only have any right to take the property and sell it if this is triggered by the actual house owners stopping paying their mortgage interest to the lender. The bank does not own the house just the loan - and a right to start possession proceedings if the owners fail to pay off the loan and interest as agreed.

Cocoaone · 10/02/2022 22:56

We moved 7 months ago, we're doing up the house so it's far from our dream house at the moment.

But - £50k is less than 10% above what we paid and definitely less than 10% now. Stamp duty would be £15k to move. We have a 5 year fixed mortgage rate, which would cost £10k to get out of. Plus moving costs and solicitor fees. The hassle - we moved ourselves so the stress is very much still raw! And........the main reason is that there is nothing on the market at the moment we'd even consider. Even if we settled for something, those houses seem to be worth about £100k more than ours now, and crazily high.
I just wouldn't entertain it unless the amount offered was enough that we could buy somewhere outright and be mortgage free!

Matpayhelp2022 · 10/02/2022 23:46

Some really personal answers on this thread. I get it’s a bit of a “cooky” question but I guess the op is coming back!

Matpayhelp2022 · 10/02/2022 23:46

*is not coming back!

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 11/02/2022 00:14

It might not have ever been on the market. She just said ‘other occupiers moved in 6 months ago’

Plus she also confidently asserted that the new residents had no sentimental attachment to it, so it could be something like it was OP's childhood home that somehow ended up bequeathed to family-by-marriage (e.g. her step-parent survived her actual parent and then left it solely to their own child/DN having recently died, disinheriting OP and any siblings).

Cornygirl · 11/02/2022 01:59

There is absolutely no harm in trying if you send a polite letter. I'm in the business of finding houses and we do this all the time - it doesn't matter how long they have been in the property, they may be loving it, or they may be thinking they have made a mistake and already want to move on. You won't know until you try. As someone suggested, word it gently by saying that you aren't expecting anything but you have always loved the house and if they are ever thinking of selling please would they contact you. No harm, no foul.

Original poster
NaomiBlues · 11/02/2022 10:41

To answer the burning question from yesterday, we didn't have the chance to buy the property six months ago because it was a private sale.

We certainly aren't going to say anything rude to the current occupiers or dismiss/make assumptions about their emotional attachment to the house. I said that just for context (as I explained, we do know them slightly and without going into specifics, there are justifiable reasons that lead us to believe that they see the property as just 'a house' and not 'a home', that's the best way I can describe it). If it sounded impolite or worse, then I can only apologise, I really didn't mean for it to be.

Our initial offer will be:
market value + their costs of moving (solicitors fees, removals etc) + their stamp duty + £50k.

We are willing to go up from there depending on what they say to us. I understand that they might say no, but we have to start somewhere.

The experiences other posters have had either in this situation, or having been approached by a potential buyer were really helpful. Thank you everyone.

OP posts:
Original poster
NaomiBlues · 11/02/2022 10:49

@Cornygirl

There is absolutely no harm in trying if you send a polite letter. I'm in the business of finding houses and we do this all the time - it doesn't matter how long they have been in the property, they may be loving it, or they may be thinking they have made a mistake and already want to move on. You won't know until you try. As someone suggested, word it gently by saying that you aren't expecting anything but you have always loved the house and if they are ever thinking of selling please would they contact you. No harm, no foul.
Out of interest, do you have a link to, or details of, the company you work for that you are willing to share? I have seen several companies that do this kind of work and I wouldn't mind taking a look.
OP posts:
Motnight · 11/02/2022 10:49

Good luck Op, let us know how it goes!

HaggisBurger · 11/02/2022 11:01

[quote ShallWeTalkAboutBruno]@SauvignonBlanc23 would you then expect the mortgage company to evict the owners?!

Honestly this is one of the most batshit things I’ve read on here, and that’s saying something. How would you expect that to work in practice?[/quote]
Luckily er mortgage companies can’t sell your house out from under you (unless you are in arrears and even then you have significant protection when it’s a primary residence and they have to go through a large statutory hoops to repossess.).

As others have said this might be the most stupid thing I’ve ever read on MN 😂

Could only trump that by suggesting that OP bribes the neighbours either side to become neighbours from hell (like a bad sitcom plot) …