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This matches my anecdotal experience. Last week my parents, who live outside a big US city, got a letter out of the blue from a buyer’s agent asking if they’d w
by neartheplain 6y ago
This matches my anecdotal experience. Last week my parents, who live outside a big US city, got a letter out of the blue from a buyer’s agent asking if they’d want to sell their home. They don’t; it wasn’t and isn’t listed for sale. They’ve lived in the home for decades, and never before received this type of solicitation. I see it as a marker of a tapped-out housing market.
- supercanuck 6y agoThis has been relatively common for me in Southern California during the 8 years I’ve owned a home.
- lotsofpulp 6y agoI love the various attached stories about people’s personal lives and tribulations, almost all of which I assume are fake.
- nickthegreek 6y agoI live in an upcoming area in Columbus, Ohio and get calls for cash offers of my home every week for a year now. It is infuriating.
- Scoundreller 6y agoBut this $149 super-selective top-secrets road-to-wealth program told me I need to cold-call and ask, no, demand! what I need to acquire wealth.
- rwmj 6y agoWhen I lived in London this happened regularly. Even now we live out in the countryside we get these unsolicited letters from time to time.
- jandrese 6y agoI get those letters every other day now. It's pure spray and pray from agents.
- triceratops 6y agoI get calls from telemarketers asking me. I don't even own a house.
- SoylentYellow 6y agoA lot of these letters are also from real estate "investors". Their tactic is to go after properties before they are on the market and use the seller's lack of pricing information to score a substantial discount.
- sidlls 6y agoYeah, you can thank the modern versions of Carlton Sheets peddling their "courses" on BiggerPockets, YouTube, etc. It's the same as it ever was: desperate people wanting desperately to get rich and going after anything that seems like it might help.
- nostromo 6y agoThis is the wrong conclusion. This is a very common scam. People will reach out to people not selling their house and offer them below-market prices. A small number of people (often elderly) have no idea how much their home is actually worth and will sell it for a lowball offer because the price seems so high to them.
- atwebb 6y agoThat's been fairly common for decades, some are genuinely looking for a specific neighborhood/house for a client. Some are looking for a deal, some are looking to find sellers to represent. You'll also see realtors blanket mail recent sales in the area, implying that it is a good market and what you might be able to get. Some of the tactics get very greedy/nasty, especially when someone, who was an owner of desirable property, passes.
- jccalhoun 6y agoMy parents live in rural Indiana and get people asking if they want to sell or if they want to sell part of their land once every couple of years. Two years ago my cousin sold his house even though it wasn't up for sale(in a small town in Indiana) because someone liked it so much that they kept offering them more and more money.
- BeetleB 6y agoI get a few of those every month for years. It's not a sign of much. I hang out in real estate investing circles and this is purely marketing. The majority of times, they're looking for people who have a lot of equity in the house and are in trouble financially - so they'll sell at a discount. Maybe only 1% of people who get such mailings fall in this category, but they are the ones who will pick up the phone and call, so the money to mail was well spent (if the mailer did some market analysis).
- matwood 6y agoI get those letters all the time, and have lived in my house for quite awhile. Thing is though, I consider my house always for sale for the right price. One RE agent I know came close to my price, but her buyers were a bit crazy and ended up moving to a completely different state.
- JeremyNT 6y agoThis is essentially a scam and you'll find it anywhere that housing prices are on the rise. These people are looking for older / less clued in owners who are easily confused and in need of cash. They can trick these people into selling well below market rate by going directly to them. Sadly it works. If you have an older relative who may be in cognitive decline try to make them aware of this trick!
- dlp211 6y agoThis isn't always a scam. I'm not saying one way or another what this was, but I have been solicited for a purchase on my home as well and I'm not old and certainly not in cognitive decline.
- masonic 6y agoThis is essentially a scam Not always. I just got a hand-written letter from a losing bidder on another home in our small complex that sold last month. You learn to differentiate the home seekers from the property flippers.