OP - can you ask your buyer for a rent back period of a month or two so you can stay put while you look?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can always put letters in the mailboxes of the neighborhoods you're targeting.

"Greetings! We're a family of four who loves this neighborhood and are hoping to buy a house here. If you have been planning or considering selling, please contact me at larla.jane@gmail.com to see if we can work something out. We may even save the 6% agents' fees."

Does this actually work?
I've thought about doing this it then I think I look like a stalker. Plus, in this market, wouldn't you rather take your chances with a bidding war than selling to some weird, stalker family?

(Sorry if I'm negative, I'm nervous)

Yes, always go with the open market if you're in a desirable market. But some older people don't want the fuss so might be willing to sell their dated shit shack to someone like this.

My neighbors (2) just sold to developers this way. It seems sellers prefer developers with cash in hand. Older people know their house is a knockdown - they don't care because they are likely leaving the area, anyway.

OP, sounds like maybe you should look for a short-term rental situation. I had a six-week gap between houses (mine sold quickly with a short close and when I finally found a good place to buy, the seller wanted a long close.) So I had to pay more to move the stuff into storage for 6 weeks, and I had to pay to live with a friend for the 6 weeks, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a big deal. I had the security of not having two mortgages, and really wasn't out a lot of extra money.

Anonymous wrote:
I put these letters in the trash without even reading through them - I find them really intrusive, plus houses naturally sell for more on the open market. No need for private sales.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can always put letters in the mailboxes of the neighborhoods you're targeting.

"Greetings! We're a family of four who loves this neighborhood and are hoping to buy a house here. If you have been planning or considering selling, please contact me at larla.jane@gmail.com to see if we can work something out. We may even save the 6% agents' fees."

Does this actually work?
I've thought about doing this it then I think I look like a stalker. Plus, in this market, wouldn't you rather take your chances with a bidding war than selling to some weird, stalker family?

(Sorry if I'm negative, I'm nervous)

We have received stacks of these letters. It doesn't work with us, and probably not with most people.

I think a lot of people don't want to have to move before the end of the school year, and a lot of buyers won't allow a rentback. (sounds like you wouldn't either.) So if you're assuming a standard 45-day or even a 60-day close, you've still got at least another month until most families are going to want to move out since schools in VA go through the end of June.

I get letters all the time because I bought my house on the low side for my 'hood and developers may assume it's a potential tear-down. (It's nicer and bigger inside than most of the tear-downs in my area.) I don't mind the letters, and use them as evidence that if I ever had to sell quickly, I could.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I don't understand why you sold your house without some place to go?

You could have put a home contingency on offers you make on other houses or you could have made home-of-choice contingency in your selling contract.

Your agent must really suck.

Because people are not accepting contracts with contingencies so we have to sell first. Our realtor has been very optimistic that there are about to be many houses in the market so we followed his lead

And we do have someplace to go, just not our own house yet.

Your agent has served you poorly. Just wanted to push you to sell for the commission. You can buy houses with home contingencies.

Congrats on selling your place OP! Agree that home contingency offers don't look as good to sellers, and if you don't want to risk the potential of two mortgages, you did the right thing by selling first. Good thing you have a place to go temporarily, although it may be inconvenient. Just saw some new listings this week in one of your preferred zip codes, so maybe you have some potentials now.

We are closing next month in a nearby zip code (20850) and decided to find a house first before selling our current place (because we thought it would sell quickly and didn't want to be rushed into finding a new place). And we found a seller who accepted our home sale contingency offer. But, it took longer to sell our place than we expected, and we were very close to losing our new house. In fact, we had pretty much accepted that it would happen and we would be out the $ for appraisal and inspection and starting back at square 1. Fortunately, an acceptable offer came through within a few days of the contingency period running out and we are back on track. Very stressful though and I wouldn't recommend it. You will be able to move quickly once you find a place you like, since you have already handled sale of your current home!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can always put letters in the mailboxes of the neighborhoods you're targeting.

"Greetings! We're a family of four who loves this neighborhood and are hoping to buy a house here. If you have been planning or considering selling, please contact me at larla.jane@gmail.com to see if we can work something out. We may even save the 6% agents' fees."

Does this actually work?
I've thought about doing this it then I think I look like a stalker. Plus, in this market, wouldn't you rather take your chances with a bidding war than selling to some weird, stalker family?

(Sorry if I'm negative, I'm nervous)

I have gotten such letters (we are in a low inventory, fast selling NWDC neighborhood), and I did find them a bit weird. For one, we only bought a few years ago, so it's kind of unlikely we are already planning to sell, and secondly, currently many houses around here get bid up like crazy, and I would want to know what the highest bid for our house is. So I think you have the right intuition if you are looking in a really hot market.

You realize that people were just putting letters out to everyone, and not doing research on who bought when and trying to decide if enough time had passed that they might like to sell now?

This. Some of you are incredibly self-absorbed.

So they just randomly litter people's mailboxes with trash? How rude. (And illegal by the way, unless they mail the letters by USPS.)

NP. Ok, so put the flier in the door, not the mailbox. ?
Personally, I wouldn't find it rude, I would be flattered/excited that my area is so in demand. I'd probably play the market as a seller, but I could see a case for those that wouldn't (older people, dated home, no-hassle folks).

So you litter their porch? Or their yard, since these often blow away? Seriously, if you are going to do this with any hope for success, at least try to find out if the owners might be the type of people who might be interested in this (i.e. older, have owned the home for a long time, haven't renovated recently, etc.). If there are strollers on the porch and the house sold three years ago, don't do it.

Anonymous wrote:hey OP, you're okay.... i would always sell first before buying. Worst come to worst you rent it out for a few months... But you have the money, you won't face foreclosure on two properties...The right house will come.

Exactly.

hey OP, you're okay.... i would always sell first before buying. Worst come to worst you rent it out for a few months... But you have the money, you won't face foreclosure on two properties...The right house will come.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can always put letters in the mailboxes of the neighborhoods you're targeting.

"Greetings! We're a family of four who loves this neighborhood and are hoping to buy a house here. If you have been planning or considering selling, please contact me at larla.jane@gmail.com to see if we can work something out. We may even save the 6% agents' fees."

Does this actually work?
I've thought about doing this it then I think I look like a stalker. Plus, in this market, wouldn't you rather take your chances with a bidding war than selling to some weird, stalker family?

(Sorry if I'm negative, I'm nervous)

I have gotten such letters (we are in a low inventory, fast selling NWDC neighborhood), and I did find them a bit weird. For one, we only bought a few years ago, so it's kind of unlikely we are already planning to sell, and secondly, currently many houses around here get bid up like crazy, and I would want to know what the highest bid for our house is. So I think you have the right intuition if you are looking in a really hot market.

You realize that people were just putting letters out to everyone, and not doing research on who bought when and trying to decide if enough time had passed that they might like to sell now?

This. Some of you are incredibly self-absorbed.

So they just randomly litter people's mailboxes with trash? How rude. (And illegal by the way, unless they mail the letters by USPS.)

NP. Ok, so put the flier in the door, not the mailbox. ?
Personally, I wouldn't find it rude, I would be flattered/excited that my area is so in demand. I'd probably play the market as a seller, but I could see a case for those that wouldn't (older people, dated home, no-hassle folks).

Anonymous wrote:OP, I don't understand why you sold your house without some place to go?

You could have put a home contingency on offers you make on other houses or you could have made home-of-choice contingency in your selling contract.

Your agent must really suck.

Because people are not accepting contracts with contingencies so we have to sell first. Our realtor has been very optimistic that there are about to be many houses in the market so we followed his lead

And we do have someplace to go, just not our own house yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can always put letters in the mailboxes of the neighborhoods you're targeting.

"Greetings! We're a family of four who loves this neighborhood and are hoping to buy a house here. If you have been planning or considering selling, please contact me at larla.jane@gmail.com to see if we can work something out. We may even save the 6% agents' fees."

Does this actually work?
I've thought about doing this it then I think I look like a stalker. Plus, in this market, wouldn't you rather take your chances with a bidding war than selling to some weird, stalker family?

(Sorry if I'm negative, I'm nervous)

I have gotten such letters (we are in a low inventory, fast selling NWDC neighborhood), and I did find them a bit weird. For one, we only bought a few years ago, so it's kind of unlikely we are already planning to sell, and secondly, currently many houses around here get bid up like crazy, and I would want to know what the highest bid for our house is. So I think you have the right intuition if you are looking in a really hot market.

You realize that people were just putting letters out to everyone, and not doing research on who bought when and trying to decide if enough time had passed that they might like to sell now?

This. Some of you are incredibly self-absorbed.

So they just randomly litter people's mailboxes with trash? How rude. (And illegal by the way, unless they mail the letters by USPS.)

Anonymous wrote:
I put these letters in the trash without even reading through them - I find them really intrusive, plus houses naturally sell for more on the open market. No need for private sales.

It's not for everyone, but saving 6% and not having to deal with the hassle of prepping/staging/listing/showing is worth it to some people. We've also found that homeowners have really enjoyed getting to meet the families that may come to own the property they took care of for the past 20+ years.