How do we find off market properties?

[Detachedalltheway]

Hello,

We have been looking for a detached house in or around South Woodford area that is not stupidly expensive (less than a million) for a year, but with no luck. Is there any way to look for off market properties that we are missing?

We have registered with most estate agents in the area, but nothing is coming to the market. We have been checking Facebook Marketplace, asked friends and family living in the area if they could spread the word, but none of it has helped. Maybe we are looking for a unicorn, but it seems that quite a few sold properties in the past would have been within our budget if they were to come to the market again. Is there a way to look for those off market properties that we have not thought of? Maybe someone on here knows someone who’s thinking of selling a detached house in the area?

Thank you for you thoughts.

Because we don’t want to displace anyone from their home (unless they are leaving of their own accord, which I guess is rare). We have also heard that landlords sometimes need to take a court route to evict someone, and that can take a while. So, from both a moral and practical perspective, this is not something we would like to get involved with.

Thank you! We have been checking PreMarket GetAgent, but nothing of interest so far.

I guess we can try Facebook again.

Okay, we will definitely try this again. Thank you!

Potentially, yes. I mean, we already live in the area, so I wouldn’t want to move too far out, unless we had to. But then it’s location vs house.

We would have chosen a 2-bed detached versus a 5-bed semi/terraced. Any day of the week. I know that’s crazy, but we had issues in the past that I hope to never experience again.

Leaflet drop.

Why are you afraid that they will take offence? What do you think will happen if they are offended? They weren’t selling you their house before they were offended, and they’re not selling it to you afterwards. In fact; there will only be a change if they’re not offended and do decide to sell to you.

You are right, that absolutely makes perfect sense. The issue in our case is that all available properties that are outside of our budget would need to be reduced by 100-200k to be within our budget, and I do not necessarily feel that they are overpriced (and certainly not by that much), so I think there is no point in offering what we could afford when that’s not realistic.

I prefer to not look at properties that are way outside of our budget. Sure, up to 50k, I might have a look, but not more than that. Does that sound reasonable or do people do things differently?

Ask the estate agent. They’ll have a view on whether the seller would consider it.

That’s good advice, we’ll do that going forward. Thank you.

Goid luck, OP. We're in a very similar situation - frustrating, isn't it?. I've picked up a few tips though, just need to get DH on board first! Hope you find something soon.

I hope you are not looking in my area. 😂 Just kidding. Best of luck to you too! I hope you find what you are looking for. 🤞

Absolutely not! I'm hundreds of miles away and in a different price bracket. Should have said, to stop you worrying.

There's 3 detached houses on right move for 1m or less - have you viewed them or is there an issue with them?

No worries, it really was just a joke. Good luck with your search. ☺️

Yes, you are correct. We have not seen any of those three: one is tenanted, one is super close to the N Circular, so we eliminated it based on that (we had issues with noise before), and the third one is perfect - it’s a dream house - but it is at 1-1.1 million guide price (reduced from 1.2), and we cannot afford that unfortunately. With the current interest rates, we can stretch to 900k, but it’s a stretch.