I have not but I know someone who did and they did get the house.

We have not sent one, but we have recieved a couple of letters from realtor telling us they were working with people who wanted to buy on our street -- at least one speciffically wanting our home. It's kind of weird to get one, especially when it is specific to your home. It makes you wonder if they mailed one of those, 5 or 10 -- or one to every house on the street.

I did once and it was "Returned to Sender" unopened. Maybe they'd guessed what was inside the envelope and didn't want to deal with it at all.

I do what ncrealestateguy does.

I got one for my first house. He was the back-up bidder at the auction when we purchased. He still wanted the house.

Interestingly, 8 years later, I put a sign in the yard. I went back inside and heard a squeal. Someone stopped to get the number off the sign. Got a call right away and yes, it was the back up bidder again! What are the odds. He offered slightly above asking price (which had increased considerably) and I never even showed it to anyone else.

So it could work, I suppose.

We received a letter. In our case the family's son had overheard our son talking on the school bus about moving. The boy knew his parents wanted a larger house in our neighborhood so he told them and they wrote us a nice letter. We let them look at the house about a mouth before we planned to list with a realtor. They didn't end up buying so we sold it through a realtor for a higher price.

It doesn't hurt to ask!

We did it last year - couldn't find a house that we wanted or land we wanted to build on through all the conventional methods. There wasn't one specific dream house that we wanted but a house/land type within a certain location so sent out about 30 letters. We're now building on our dream property. You have nothing to lose. Introduce yourselves in the letter and tell a bit about who you are and what your dream is - your timing may be perfect for someone who hasn't yet committed to selling. Good luck!

We did that last year but did not get any results. Have also had letters from realtors when our house was not on the market. A few years ago, my father received a letter from someone who wanted to buy his house when he was ready to put in on the market--when he was, he called that couple and they bought it.

Thanks for the feedback! I did a little research on this and I guess it does work if you're lucky. From what I read, it's good to send handwritten notes so the current owners know you're legit instead of a realtor. I've also read that some people do use their realtors to find expired and withdrawn listings and use that information to approach those owners. The community that we're interested in is an established one and we are interested in a certain model design within it, so who knows. First, we need to sell our home!

It doesn't hurt to try. Obviously there are no guarantees it will work but if you don't send out the letters, then I can guarantee that the homeowners won't randomly approach you! :)

Wrote once to the owners of a stunning Italianate farmhouse on a great piece of land showing interest in either the house alone (with the intention of moving it) or the whole property. Never heard back from them and two years later it was a shopping center :-(

We sold our house without listing it once to the parents of one of our daughter's friends. That was a nice win-win!

One of my really good friends did this to get her house. And it worked.

We've received nice handwritten cards, letters from an agent saying they had a "buyer" that wanted to trade for a lakefront home, and a cold caller knocking on the front door. It felt a little creepy at the time and they all went into the trash. But, if I'd had any thoughts about selling I'm guessing I would have responded.

I like the approach used by ncrealestateguy.

I've never sent a letter, but I've received them from agents who have clients who are looking for house like mine. Just got a letter like that today, of course my house has been demo'ed and a new one is under construction, so I know that agent was fishing. I did often receive calls and letters about an apartment building we owned, we did contact one agent and sold our apartment building for a good price and reduced commission.

This is how we bought our Maui condo. We'd tried Realtors here -- who were evidently all out surfing instead of finding us a condo! Weird, as we were doing a 1031 exchange, meaning we had to identify a property within 180 days, so were not 'just looking'.

We obtained a list of all of the owners of 1BR 2Bath Ocean View condos in the complex we wanted -- about 30 condos. We got four replies. Two people were just fishing, but two were serious sellers. We bought direct, sight unseen (just photos). The seller gutted and refurbished to our specifications. We arrived just about 15 years ago to date. Moved in for a month's vacation stay. Closed the next day.

We did this again when we moved our main residence, but in this case there were only about six properties we were interested in -- each would be a remodel or teardown. That time we identified a Realtor we would use to do the contract and closing work -- seller only needed a lawyer. That effort failed, but we were able to buy direct from another party whose home we'd seen two years earlier.

We didn't start out looking to buy direct either time, but that's how it worked out.

Not only have I sent letters, I once sent a purchase and sale agreement signed by my buyers. The sellers returned it signed! It was crazy but my buyers were abutters and knew what they wanted so it was easy.

newgardenelf -- No home inspection before closing? Buyers just wanted the land?

Exactly- they wanted to expand their summer lakefront home to their year round home but didn't have the setbacks. Neighbor's house was a tear down.

I forgot about a recent purchase, also bought a a teardown. I'd seen a for sale sign and wondered who would buy the small 1,110 lot, after setback there is no room for a house. After some thought I realized I could use that land for redevelopment of my lot. By then it was off the market, I did some research and found the owner's name and new address, delivered a letter to the owner, he soon called and we did buy it.

We got our house this way 20 years ago! The sellers had been "thinking about it" but had not made any concrete steps. We lived the next neighborhood over (with starter homes) so maybe they felt more comfortable with that. A lot of people move from our first neighborhood to this neighborhood as their families grow.

I remember this is how Kathleen Turner acquired a magnificent home for herself and Michael Douglas in the movie "The War of the Roses".

I thought of sending one to homeowners in my neighbourhood, then the house came on the market and the interior was a poorly remuddled nightmare! I was so happy I didn't send that letter.

I have a friend who's trying to do something like this now, but not by letter. The house is owned by the people next door who use it as a VRBO and she stayed there and desperately wants to buy it.

But I think her odds of succeeding are very low, since one reason they bought the neighboring property in the first place is that it has a pool and they have no room for one, so when they're not making money they have a pool. I'm not sure any amount of over paying will make them let it go right now. It generates a huge amount of income for them, since it's a very charming property that fetches top dollar and they have it rented most of the time.

writersblock -- You've given me an idea for selling our vacation rental condo when the day comes that we don't want to use it ourselves in winter!

Is the house your friend wants a licensed rental? (I'd hate to have one of my neighbors start renting it out. This is why we have zoning laws!)

Is the house your friend wants a licensed rental?

Kinda sorta. It's in an area that is designated to allow them, but they just do VRBO. There was some talk a couple of years ago about the town cracking down on VRBO and Air BnB and such, but they opted to tacitly allow them to continue till they deal with the much more serious problems the town has. The owner of this house was one of the most active opponents to the crackdown, so it's not like it's under the radar.

Personally, I think a change of attitude on the city commission's part would be her best bet to get the house.

I should say that this is a town which gutted code enforcement entirely for several years when most of the commissioners were anarchists, and so you never really know what will turn up next door. There's a similar un-upgraded house for sale a few blocks away for at least $100K less than she'd pay for this one, but that's one of the appeals of this particular property--it's surrounded by much larger very expensive houses that are highly unlikely to rent out more than the garage apt, if they have one, whereas the other house backs up to property that is currently residential but is zoned to allow commercial, too.

Decades ago, I sent dozens of letters to homeowners in an area where I was seeking additional rental properties. (I didn't mention rental.) One responded, we agreed on terms and he took it to his solicitor. Who then crossed off most essential terms and arbitrarily jacked up the price. No deal.

A few months later, the owner listed with an agent and sold it for the same price I had offered. Less, of course, the 6% commission he would not have had to pay by selling to me.

Never wrote such letter myself, but did get several letters, mostly from agents on behalf of their buyers, but one or two from buyers themselves..they weren't interested in our home per se, but they loved the community and sent letters to all the homes in the community. Actually, we got another letter just several days ago. And we are going to sell soon, most probably. But they mentioned their favorite is a specific model within the community-ours is a different model. Also we're not ready quite yet, and they mentioned their desire to move as fast as possible. But maybe they will get lucky with another homeowner, who knows. I was still tempted to call their realtor, by the way..

I forgot to mention that this is essentially what happened to me in the last place I rented. The unit next door was on the market. Someone came to see it and decided he liked the location of mine better, contacted my landlord and it was a done deal in three weeks from their first thinking of trying till the closing. Great for both of them, not so great for me.

We got our current house that way. Our street is unique so we wrote everyone on the street. One guy owned two houses. He lived in one and rented the other. Turned out the lease was expiring a few months after he got our letter.

I'm surprised more folks don't try it. Minimal effort and inexpensive. All info is in online tax records and it's only 49 cents a pop!