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Original poster

'Please sell me your lovely house so we can have babies' letter

34 replies

30andLurking · 21/02/2010 15:57

Well, not exactly word for word, but that's the gist.

Having finally realised that we've been total spanners passing up on 2 houses in our dream road (not entirely due to circumstances in our control, but hey ho), and there being BUGGER ALL else on the market, we've now got desperate enough to do a letter drop to all the houses on the street we'd love to live on, asking if anyone would consider selling?

Anyone ever written one - or received one - with any success?

OP posts:

BariatricObama · 21/02/2010 16:01

i received one recently. i think it is a good idea.don't say it is because you want babies though.

janeite · 21/02/2010 16:03

Ha! DD has literally just this minute picked one of those up from the doormat - it's not you is it? I'm afraid we just stick them straight into the recycling.

Ivykaty44 · 21/02/2010 16:05

you have nothing to lose - do you?

JaynieB · 21/02/2010 16:06

I think its a good idea - you might be lucky and it land on the doorstep of someone thinking of selling!
We got one of these a few years ago - some people were looking for a house in our area for their Mum.

pinkteddy · 21/02/2010 16:08

We got one of these a few years ago and ignored it (we'd not long bought our place) but next door but one decided to sell theirs. It was something they'd been pondering for a while and the letter gave them the kick they needed. So definitely worth a go!

brimfull · 21/02/2010 16:10

we get these type of letters
we are not thinking of selling yet but would welcome one if I was

lisad123wantsherquoteinDM · 21/02/2010 16:15

I bin the ones from estate agents but would consider if a personal one if i was considering selling.
We plan to do this when we move as there is one little area I love and is beutiful.

Original poster

30andLurking · 21/02/2010 16:21

No, didn't say it was because we want babies! Just said we were a young couple looking for a family home... Although not sure at what point we stop being 'young'!

Thanks for the encouraging words! (Not in your neck of the woods I don't think Janeite!)

OP posts:

RobsessedWithKellanLutz · 21/02/2010 16:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

101damnations · 21/02/2010 20:51

Good luck- my friend bought her dream house this way.It may be that someone is thinking of selling,but worried that the slump in sales would prevent them from doing so.A letter like yours may just give them the push-plus they won't be paying EA fees.

PCPlumIsMyHomeboy · 21/02/2010 20:56

My Granny did this, as she only wanted to live on one partic road in her chosen town. One person said yes, and she bought their house.

Worth a punt, for sure.

cranbury · 21/02/2010 21:32

You have nothing to lose - and as long as you can afford the prices the houses are going down that road then you won't be wasting anybody else's time.

jenniepanda · 21/02/2010 21:39

We sold our last house in response to a letter like this, a lovely old lady who was recently widowed and wanted to live in the same street as her daughter and grandchildren - it all worked out perfectly for us as it arrived the same week we had just viewed and fell in love with this house!
You have nothing to loose by trying it.

justbeme · 21/02/2010 21:58

We bought our current house this way, as we knew what road we wanted to live in.
I think I put at the end of the letter something along the lines of
"Sorry for the intrusion if you are not thinking of selling".
We viewed 2 houses from our note drops and bought the best one!!
Good luck.

FimBOW · 22/02/2010 14:14

Phil and Kirstie did it a couple of weeks ago on Relocation.

oldenglishspangles · 22/02/2010 14:21

We did it after losing out on our dream house. One person was interested and allowed us to come and view. In the meantime our dream house came back on the market and we bought that instead. Definitely worth a shot - dont do it through an estate agent (we get load of 'we have a client' letters and never respond).

GrendelsMum · 22/02/2010 14:47

Someone came round to my Grandpa's a few years ago and asked if he was interested in selling his house. He said, in a really cheery tone of voice, 'oh yes, I'm sure I'll die before too long. How about I pop a note in the will?' Apparently, they backed off down the path looking horrified. And Grandpa is now 94.

Original poster

30andLurking · 22/02/2010 15:11

Loving all the positivity! Unfortunately phone is yet to ring...
Will check on Kirsty and Phil on 4OD, not sure how I missed that one given I got more excited when their new series came on TV than I have done about seeing actual real-life friends for the first time in ages . I need help... well actually, we just really really need a house!

OP posts:

Sunshinemummy · 22/02/2010 15:21

A friend of mine did this recently. She got quite a bargain in the road she wanted to live in close to the best local school. Definitely worth it I think.

minipie · 22/02/2010 16:01

we are in same position as you - just done a leaflet drop. No replies yet...

We did it before when looking in a different area. Only got one response, who decided to rent not sell in the end. hopefully this time we will have more success!

The only downside we could see is if it came to agreeing a price. If someone does want to sell they will know that you really, really want that location and so will have the upper hand in any negotiations. Also you may get some people responding who don't hugely need to sell and so ask a ridiculous price. But on the other hand we decided that we really, really do want that location so are prepared to pay a little extra...

Bettymum · 22/02/2010 16:12

We got a letter like this (although it was through an agent) and did sell to the couple, although in the end it all fell through as their buyer pulled out.
My parents had a personal letter put through their letterbox - they were sceptical but got in touch with the guy and he bought their house, even though they weren't actually seriously thinking of moving at the time. Because it was a private sale they saved on all the estate agent's fees which they were pretty happy about.

FimBOW · 22/02/2010 16:24

30 and lurking it wasn't last week's episode it was the one prior to that. They were in Scotland.

Original poster

30andLurking · 22/02/2010 18:32

Okay, all those of you with experience in this... How long did it take from the letter drop to get a 'We might be interested' call? Or those of you who sold, how long did you think about it before calling the buyers?

I'm not just being outrageously impatient (well, obviously I am, but...) but there is an entirely practical house that we SHOULD buy currently on the market, and we're trying to work out whether to hold out for the one that makes our heart leap.

OP posts:

oldenglishspangles · 22/02/2010 19:30

We help out for the street we wanted. We had already decided to send an identical letter a month after our original letter to the same people, if we had no replies. We figured that people might be suspicious, the people on this street get letters all the time often turning out to be developers.

Mins · 22/02/2010 20:30

We did this and had 2 calls within a couple of days - ended up buying one of the houses. so yes it did work for us but it was a little awkward to say the least negotiating on price and I think we were messed around a little by the vendor. Although we do all moan about EA I would have welcomed one in this case!

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