Should I put a note through the door of the house I want to buy?

[Fourthmusketeer]

Is this a weird thing to do?

Our house isn't actually on the market yet, as we don't want to do that until we find another house we like. They so rarely come up - I've been looking for a year now and just nothing is quite suitable. But, there's a house I've loved for years. I just love everything about it. It's the perfect location, great size, perfect layout for us (DH is quite particular). It's a beautiful house. Once I'd looked it up on Rightmove I fell in love with it even more.

The current owners bought the house in 2021, so it's probably unlikely they'd be looking to sell. But, you never know?

Is it weird to put a note through their door to find out? Do I keep it fairly simple? So...don't let on how much I love their house and how I've admired it for years? 🤣😬

There is of course a chance they contact us off the back of the note, allow us to view their property, and then once we actually see it we decide it's not what we thought. That feels really awkward...having contacted them to begin with 🫣

I'm not sure how much it would be worth now. It was close to the top of our price range back in 2021, but I'm not sure whether COVID skewed values somewhat?

Thanks!

Why?

They’re just putting the feelers out to see if you’re considering selling in the near future. If you were, it could potentially save you thousands in estate agent fees.

Worth considering and giving them a chance to sell first, rather than instantly binning it. Especially as you’re obviously not on a particular rush to sell if you don’t already have it on the market.

People do it all the time but unless you name a figure and are ready to proceed it’s fairly pointless.

You’ve got this totally the wrong way.
If a house was on the market, they really wouldn’t consider you as a buyer unless you have your house on the market too. Usually they won’t to accept based on offer and if your house has a buyer so you are seeking yourself up to fail!

Sold my pil house (after they died) to someone who did this.
They were renting though so ready to go

Going to out me BUT, we have just completed on our dream house we found this way. Owners were wanting to sell (to a family specifically) but hadn't made steps yet. They got valuations after seeing our note, turns out they owned our dream home, we agreed a price and we're now in! We actually got quite a few more responses from the notes than we thought we would so I'd definitely recommend it - didn't get any negative responses at all, only helpful ones.

I would make the note personal by writing it on the back of a photo of the owners.

I get these sometimes from estate agents - but they always talk about a couple who have just missed out on something similar and are very motivated FTBs or have already sold etc, so it's a very serious potential sale. But you're proposing that the homeowners let some total strangers come and poke around their house, just to see if it might be their dream house when theirs isn't sold or even on the market. I can't imagine anyone would agree to that.

This was how we sold my dad's house. It was empty though, so not quite the same. He'd moved into a nursing home and we were slowly getting it ready to sell and had been given a valuation by an EA. Went round there one day and there was a note through the door. I rang them, they came straight round, and we shook hands on the full asking price half an hour later. It saved us huge amounts of hassle.

My parents bought their house like this and theirs was not on the market yet.

I did this and the phoned offering to sell it.

They had bought it at auction in 2021 (after 3 failed attempts to sell at auction), I could buy in 2021 but had seen and loved it. I got an inheritance and straight away offered to buy it beginning of 2023. I offered £20k MORE than they paid (they paid £70k I offered £90k because I LOVED it) and to cut a long story short they fucked us around for over 6 months and never instructed a solicitor to sell it.

Whole thing was a nightmare, they kept getting in contact and saying they would sell it, asking us round to view, discussing price, getting our hopes up and then taking it back with a 'we changed our mind' or 'we're not sure' then doing it again a month or so later etc...

They ruined the house, it was beautiful in 2021 and they turned in into a slum with a dozen people sleeping on mattresses on the floor, ripped wallpaper and graffiti etc... and its such a shame and we offered them 20k more even after they ruined it.

The last time the contacted to sell, all lets do this quick, well it turned out the roof had blown off in a storm and obvious they have no insurance. I just washed my hands and walked away.

Why would you have photos of the people that live there?

That goes from 'if you are considering moving then can I buy your house please' to 'stalking'.

Oh FFS really?

It's very clearly a joke.

What on earth do you mean really?

Where would you get photos of the couple from? would you stalk the interenet? or wait outside and take it? and why would you write a note on it?

A letter saying 'I'm looking to buy and this house is in the perfect location, please consider me if your looking to sell' and a photo of yourself/family posted by a random stranger say is WILDLY fucking different.

The latter is literally stalking.

I did this once, to no avail. A house I wanted to buy was on the market, but didn't sell. A year later I sold my house and put a note through their door, they had just invested in a new kitchen and weren't interested in moving. ETA, but they did call me and we had a chat. It was only about 500 yards from my home (smaller).

On a thread where several people already have posted they felt watched and upset by people taking it too far... no not really.

Except it actually is a joke.

It's no one else's fault if you can't pick up on it.

We had one the other week. Didn’t respond, but it was nice to know there’s interest in our money pit!

Nobody is going to wait for you to sell your house after accepting an offer from you.

@Itsallgonesideways You may well be wrong, it depends entirely on the situation (and possibly the life stage) of the owners. We intend to put Carew Towers on the market in the next few months. We're in no hurry to sell, it's a decent sized property in a conservation area, but it's time to buy something slightly easier to manage, not least because we're abroad half the year nowadays. I'd personally be delighted if somebody attached to the area approached me and saved me all the hassle and uncertainty of putting it on the market, I'm in no hurry. We don't intend looking for our next house until we've sold, we'll put the stuff we want to keep in storage for a while if necessary.

Here's hoping! 🤞

I know someone who did this and ended up buying the house.

We did this. We knew where we wanted to live, identified which houses we could possibly afford and had south facing gardens (!) and popped a note through the doors. Got a call a few days later from an estate agent who was renting the house, but the owners wanted to sell and house was going on the market in few weeks. We got our house on the market, sold it, had a viewing of the house, put it in a decent offer and they never put the house on the market as owners wanted a quick sale , and we are still here 8 years later.

I would hate someone doing this. I found it bad enough getting notes through the door to buy my car!!

This is really creepy. How would the poster get a photo of the owners without stalking them?

A friend bought their dream house because after the owner died their daughters found a note he had sent several years before to the owner whoch the owner had kept. Not weird at all but if it is your dream house be prepared to wait.

Realistically, how much can you afford to pay for this house? And how quick can you close the deal if they are interested? I think you need to have this clear for yourself before putting notes through a door. If they are thinking of selling there has to be something beneficial in it for them to sell it to you as a result if your note- either they save time by making a very quick sell or they will get more money for the house because you are willing to pay a higher price. If you can’t deliver something that makes it worthwhile selling to a person without putting it on the market they’re losing out and would be stupid to sell it to you.