Letters to homeowners?

[Anonymous]

How does this group feel about letters to homeowners in a neighborhood expressing interest in their homes? We know what neighborhood we want to live in but stuff doesn't come on the market often. We were thinking about sending letters to select houses expressing interest in buying if any of them were thinking of moving. Tacky? Useless? Annoying? Desperate? Has this ever worked?

[Anonymous]

I would find it extremely tacky to do this.

I have only heard of people writing letters who have made an offer and would like to express to the homeowner their connection to the house, etc.

Please do not do this.

[Anonymous]

It's worked more than a couple of times in our neighborhood and just a few months ago as a matter of fact. We still have a fairly high percentage of older folks in the neighborhood (although lots of young families now too). I live in the Rock Creek Hills section of Kensington (BCC cluster).

[Anonymous]

I don't think you have anything to lose, and I've heard of this working. If they're not planning on selling, it's just another piece of junk mail, but you might find someone interested in selling.

[Anonymous]

My parents got a letter like this. It made them think they might want to downsize. The set up a showing and spent a few weeks sprucing up. The people loved the house and asked for a price. My parents realized they loved the house too much to sell and they stayed. They did not think it was tacky. If they had no interest they could have just ignored the letter, but I don't think it is rude at all.

[Anonymous]

We get those letters frequently. We are willing to sell, certainly, but it would be way above market price.

[Anonymous]

I would be flattered if I got a letter like this. Then again, it would probably make me think my house was super-desirable. And I'd probably want to put it on the open market to see what price I could fetch.

I thought this was about sending a letter to a seller to plead your case. I can attest this does work. We wrote a heartfelt letter to the seller of our house, which was priced about 40k above our max. She was an extremely sweet lady and the letter seemed to do the trick, because we got the house for our price. And she still occasionally stops by to say hi.

[Anonymous]

doesn't work

[Anonymous]

We are in a condo complex in NW DC and we get inquiry cards from realtors all the time. (There is one realtor group in particular that handles a lot of the properties in our neighborhood.) I'm fairly certain that more than a few units have sold as a result of those inquiries. But, it's one thing to get a mass mailing from a realtor and quite another to get a personal letter from a potential buyer who targets your property specifically. I'd be creeped out to get personal letter like that. But maybe that's just me.

One way to find out if this will work in the neighborhood you want, OP, is to find out which realtors (if any) do a lot of sales in that area. Contact one of them and see what they know.

[Anonymous]

It's like the real estate equivalent of a hostile takeover.

Ok, not really. But close.

[Anonymous]

We get form letters from realtors like that 1-2x per year. Just goes in the trash but doesn't bother me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We get form letters from realtors like that 1-2x per year. Just goes in the trash but doesn't bother me.

+1. just got one last week. I was actually happy to see that our neighborhood is hot to the point that buyers are looking for houses not yet on the markets. we are not planning to sell, so it just landed in the trash. but I we were, or of we knew of any neighboor planning to sell, I would have contact the writer or pass the letter along. definitely not tacky or anything (it would be different if we received phone calls or people showing up at the door, that wuold be a no-no)

[Anonymous]

I really don't think it could hurt. Who cares if some stranger thinks its tacky? You might stumble upon a homeowner who has been thinking about listing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really don't think it could hurt. Who cares if some stranger thinks its tacky? You might stumble upon a homeowner who has been thinking about listing.

I agree. Two of my neighbors received similar letters from a builder and sold to him.

[Anonymous]

It might work. But if you use this approach, and have really settled on an area you love, you should expect to be paying an above-market price, right?