Writing a letter to prospective sellers aka, "are you selling your house soon?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at the responses you've gotten here: 70% would be irritated or offended, 30% would be unoffended but trash the letter. Even if you don't understand why it would bother people, you should recognize it won't help you in your house hunt. Post something in the neighborhood listserves (try to get someone who lives there to post it for you), but recognize that you're only this desperate because what you want in this neighborhood seems unlikely to materialize. You're hoping for a miracle.

Wrong analysis. How many people are in her position, or have been? My friend wrote a letter to an elderly couple describing her family, why she loved the house, what she would do, etc. She got the house.

I live in a "tear-down" according to the builders who write me almost weekly. If I received a letter from an individual who would add on and renovate - and keep the beautiful trees - I would definitely listen to that offer rather than the developers who are changing the character of my much loved neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

I get these letters from time to time and am not offended by them. I'll confess that they have prompted greedy thoughts...as in, maybe they are desperate enough to pay WAY over market value...which might be tempting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at the responses you've gotten here: 70% would be irritated or offended, 30% would be unoffended but trash the letter. Even if you don't understand why it would bother people, you should recognize it won't help you in your house hunt. Post something in the neighborhood listserves (try to get someone who lives there to post it for you), but recognize that you're only this desperate because what you want in this neighborhood seems unlikely to materialize. You're hoping for a miracle.

Wrong analysis. How many people are in her position, or have been? My friend wrote a letter to an elderly couple describing her family, why she loved the house, what she would do, etc. She got the house.

I live in a "tear-down" according to the builders who write me almost weekly. If I received a letter from an individual who would add on and renovate - and keep the beautiful trees - I would definitely listen to that offer rather than the developers who are changing the character of my much loved neighborhood.

Writing to an elderly couple might be the only scenario under which I see such a letter working in a hot neighborhood, esprecially if it's a teardown neighborhood where people might be looking to have their house preserved. Please don't send them to young families who only recently bought in hot family-friendly neighborhoods and are unlikely to move, and also are likely to know that they will almost certainly be better off putting their house on the open market and drawing a bidding war. That's really like 'hovering over the table', while hoping to somehow being able to afford the neighborhood by circumventing the competition and realtor fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at the responses you've gotten here: 70% would be irritated or offended, 30% would be unoffended but trash the letter. Even if you don't understand why it would bother people, you should recognize it won't help you in your house hunt. Post something in the neighborhood listserves (try to get someone who lives there to post it for you), but recognize that you're only this desperate because what you want in this neighborhood seems unlikely to materialize. You're hoping for a miracle.

Wrong analysis. How many people are in her position, or have been? My friend wrote a letter to an elderly couple describing her family, why she loved the house, what she would do, etc. She got the house.

I live in a "tear-down" according to the builders who write me almost weekly. If I received a letter from an individual who would add on and renovate - and keep the beautiful trees - I would definitely listen to that offer rather than the developers who are changing the character of my much loved neighborhood.

Writing to an elderly couple might be the only scenario under which I see such a letter working in a hot neighborhood, esprecially if it's a teardown neighborhood where people might be looking to have their house preserved. Please don't send them to young families who only recently bought in hot family-friendly neighborhoods and are unlikely to move, and also are likely to know that they will almost certainly be better off putting their house on the open market and drawing a bidding war. That's really like 'hovering over the table', while hoping to somehow being able to afford the neighborhood by circumventing the competition and realtor fees.

I'm the OP. I've said repeatedly that this is not a hot neighborhood and I'm only sending letters to people who have been there a long time (right now I'm looking at 1995 and earlier). I also never said I wanted special pricing or a non-competitive environment. I just want notice before you put your dream hous on the market so that I can hold out, rather than buying a fixer upper, and getting stuck with an addition and kitchen gut-job.

[Anonymous]

NP here. I honestly can't se why some people would be offended to receive such a letter. If you're not planning to sell, you won't care, and if you were planning to sell, you might be interested in avoiding the hassle of listing, showing, etc.

In the past 1-2 years, 2 houses in our (new) neighborhood sold this way -- without realtors. We bought ours the old fashioned way, but during that time had been watching the ares for two years, and never saw those homes go on the market -- then we moved in and learned from the neighbors that the houses were sold person to person.

[Anonymous]

It's a one in a million shot, so why not? That said, I get a letter like that about every other month and put them in the trash.

[Anonymous]

I've gotten such letters and googled the people who sent them. One was a guy who wanted to flip houses, but was posting on real estate boards asking what to do if someone actually responded yes- where to get the money, how much to offer, what if he didn't have the money to actually buy the house... ??? I always throw these letters away now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine you own a house and some stranger sends you a letter asking to sell it to you.

No, I'm imagining I'm planning to put my house on the market soonish, and an agent sends me a letter that says "I have a client interested in your neighborhood/your home model. Please let us know if you are planning to sell it soon."

I'm not seeing the awfulness??

We received such a letter and contacted the agent. She brough the client over twice and we had a k for above market price. Was a great experience as a seller to not have to list, have a lot of strange people in the house, worry about showings, etc. oP go for it bc you have nothing to lose. Id recommend an agent doing it on your behalf though bc it shows you are serious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've received one and nearly went ahead with a sale. Buyers/ letter senders had a big life change and things didn't go through.

I didn't think the letter was rude at all. The prospective buyer was both apologetic about wanting to buy and very complementary about the house.

Finally: money is green. A private sale saves both parties lots of costs. It makes more sense for non-standard properties, but to everyone pinching their pennies, just think of what standard costs are on selling a $1M home.

Exactly. Don't listen to these people OP. There is no reason why you should not exercise all available options to you to try and buy the house that you want. The worst that could happen is that they say no. Stay positive.

We have a range [narrow] of what our house would list. If I got such a letter and the writer was a cash buyer or a renter putting at least 50% down...I would consider working on a deal. I would not do it for a person contingent on sale of a property etc. Nice clean deal with a quick close.

Letter on 11-23-16 and they could be in by Christmas. Look at it as fate.