It feels offensive because it feels like I'm being stalked. It feels like you walked up and looked through my windows when I wasn't home. I have to say that the letter idea feels significantly more intrusive than just the realtor saying they have a client interested in buying in my neighborhood. That's a more general message that is sent out to all homes fitting a certain real estate wish list (X rooms, Y bathrooms, Z sq ft, etc). Whereas a personal letter from a potential buyer family sounds like they've cased my house.

I would throw it away, but frankly, I would never respond to that and I frankly, I'd be going a lot of research into the name on the letter to try and figure out who this was and see if I found you hanging around the neighborhood.

OP here.
Well, i sent the letters. Brief, two lines of hand-written text saying pls contact me if you are considering selling.
I used my personal address stamp on the envelope so it's obvious that there's nothing formulaic about it and I'm not a flipper.
The area we're buying in isn't nearly as hot as DC. Maybe I'll make someone's day.
At worse there will be a few families a few states away that throw darts at the letter and curse me as an "entitled, offensive, tacky Washingtonian who dared to write them about their home".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP how much over appraisal are you willing to pay?

+1. Some rich guy in Potomac offered a million dollars over valuation to buy up some houses in order to tear them down.

really hate people like that

why? They are making the area much better, that old stuff should have been torn down in the 90s. Don't stop progress.

Because people who live in them may have very happy families and memories there. In fact, if this is in potomac, there's still a huge baby boomer generation there where lots of them are now grandparents and not ready to give up their home yet. How can you be so heartless to just say it's old stuff and should be torn down in the 90s?

AHH the asshole boomers at it again, please hurry up and leave the area you are ruining the world

Troll much?

I'm far from the baby boomer generation, I just have more heart than you do.

They have their houses paid for, they may have families back for the holidays and they have built their community and friends in their quaint neighborhood. Why the hell should they have to move and how the heck are they "ruining the world" ?

Are you a house flipper or developer who just uses cheap materials to turn a quick buck so you want to raze the "old homes" and build up McMansions that in less than 5 years goes into foreclosures or better yet sit on the market for over 145 days on the open market because it won't sell at the ridiculously inflated price tag you have slapped on it for a "profit" ?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP how much over appraisal are you willing to pay?

+1. Some rich guy in Potomac offered a million dollars over valuation to buy up some houses in order to tear them down.

really hate people like that

why? They are making the area much better, that old stuff should have been torn down in the 90s. Don't stop progress.

Because people who live in them may have very happy families and memories there. In fact, if this is in potomac, there's still a huge baby boomer generation there where lots of them are now grandparents and not ready to give up their home yet. How can you be so heartless to just say it's old stuff and should be torn down in the 90s?

AHH the asshole boomers at it again, please hurry up and leave the area you are ruining the world

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP how much over appraisal are you willing to pay?

+1. Some rich guy in Potomac offered a million dollars over valuation to buy up some houses in order to tear them down.

really hate people like that

why? They are making the area much better, that old stuff should have been torn down in the 90s. Don't stop progress.

In truth, he torn them down (8 to 10 homes) to build his own personal museum to store his art.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP how much over appraisal are you willing to pay?

+1. Some rich guy in Potomac offered a million dollars over valuation to buy up some houses in order to tear them down.

really hate people like that

why? They are making the area much better, that old stuff should have been torn down in the 90s. Don't stop progress.

Because people who live in them may have very happy families and memories there. In fact, if this is in potomac, there's still a huge baby boomer generation there where lots of them are now grandparents and not ready to give up their home yet. How can you be so heartless to just say it's old stuff and should be torn down in the 90s?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP how much over appraisal are you willing to pay?

+1. Some rich guy in Potomac offered a million dollars over valuation to buy up some houses in order to tear them down.

really hate people like that

Well, if someone wanted to pay me $2.5M for my $1.5M home, I would sell it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP how much over appraisal are you willing to pay?

+1. Some rich guy in Potomac offered a million dollars over valuation to buy up some houses in order to tear them down.

really hate people like that

why? They are making the area much better, that old stuff should have been torn down in the 90s. Don't stop progress.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP how much over appraisal are you willing to pay?

+1. Some rich guy in Potomac offered a million dollars over valuation to buy up some houses in order to tear them down.

really hate people like that

Anonymous wrote:OP how much over appraisal are you willing to pay?

+1. Some rich guy in Potomac offered a million dollars over valuation to buy up some houses in order to tear them down.

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why everyone feels like this is so offensive. We did not use this tactic but we bought privately and it was so easy and saved everyone time and money. We sold through the open market and it was the biggest pain in the ass. Having to purge and stage and keep your house pristine while people come through and comment about every little thing and then deal with offensive low ball offers and then once you have an offer, haggle over the inspection while dealing with realtors. I would have gladly lowered my price by 5% if someone had just offered to buy my house from me without any of that hassle. If you are not in the market, throw the letter away.

You would have to enlighten me on how to do about buying a home through private channels. We are house hunting and haven't had any luck with the properties on the market right now. We're waiting until spring to do anymore open houses. We know where we want to be, but haven't fallen in love with any specific neighborhood. We know more about where we don't want to be. If you have suggestions for buying privately, I'm all ears.

I'm not sure why everyone feels like this is so offensive. We did not use this tactic but we bought privately and it was so easy and saved everyone time and money. We sold through the open market and it was the biggest pain in the ass. Having to purge and stage and keep your house pristine while people come through and comment about every little thing and then deal with offensive low ball offers and then once you have an offer, haggle over the inspection while dealing with realtors. I would have gladly lowered my price by 5% if someone had just offered to buy my house from me without any of that hassle. If you are not in the market, throw the letter away.

I don't understand how you would know that you liked the interior layout unless it was a house you saw at an earlier point in time.

I thought about doing this with one house that we lost a while back that we really liked. A, just in case you were thinking of selling for whatever reason type of letter. DW talked me out of doing it.

We ended up buying a different house but it turns out that house is now back on the market. Who knows, it might have worked out for us had we tried.

Anonymous wrote:We get these letters a lot. I usually just throw them out, but we are going to be putting our house on the market soon, so I would respond if we got one now.

We get them a lot too. No harm, I just toss them. I truly don't understand what is rude or entitled about them.

We get letters all of the time. I have gotten the kid picture letter. I mostly get mass mailings. I am in very low inventory neighborhood in Clarendon area.

I own a rental house in Georgetown and one realtor keeps sending me a $1...she upped it to $2 recently---it's a letter of interest in selling my rental home.

It did work for my friend in Arizona about 5 years back. They sent a personal, heart-felt letter about a home they loved and the couple was looking to retire/downsize and sold it to them.

I'm flattered to get the personal ones. The other ones are business and glad to see my homes are in demand.