Comments on: Doctor, I have this weird …

By: Rhonda Porter

Rhonda Porter — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 06:16:44 +0000

Jeff, this person is not an agent. At least, I could not determine that he is/was. He did not leave a phone number, only a fax. We’ve decided to ignore the letter as we have no intentions of moving anytime soon.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 06:11:31 +0000

Rhonda, I got a nearly identical letter for a property north of seattle and googled the number listed which matched to a business called “We Buy Homes”. I’m not going to bother responding because I suspect its an agent using a new technique to troll for listings.

By: rhondaporter

rhondaporter — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:23:22 +0000

We did check with our neighbors and we seem to be the lucky ones. As I mentioned, we’re not interested in selling. We’re received letters before from real estate agents. Never from an individual. Thanks for the advice!

By: Jay Matthews

Jay Matthews — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 23:57:14 +0000

Rhonda,

There’s certainly something to be said for individual discernment and “gut” feeling. If the letter weighs in as genuine, I’d suggest responding succinctly and directly, but politely. If not, toss it and forget about it.

By: Jillayne Schlicke

Jillayne Schlicke — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:51:05 +0000

Could be someone in the industry trolling for leads to give to real estate agents to “earn” their business. A title rep, another lender. Look and see if the person is a licensed originator.

I received a similar letter last year from a large well known local title company doing just that.

By: Christopher Braxtan

Christopher Braxtan — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:50:51 +0000

This does happen quite a bit, even more in condos than single family homes. Someone wants to live in a particualr home in particular neighborhood or condominium building, and their ideal home isn’t listed for sale. They also know what the home is worth to them, and that price might be higher than the current market value. This prospective buyer may have sent similar letters to a number of homes. I’ve done the same for my own clients with some limited success.

By: Reba Haas

Reba Haas — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 20:31:46 +0000

A letter of intent is strictly that a letter of intent – it’s not a contract and there are probably plenty of “outs” even if they say they’ll buy it “as is”. If you don’t have an interest in selling then you aren’t beholden to contact this person unless you are just curious to find out who they are and if the letter is “real” or not. If you bought the house through a traditional listing it might be that this was a buyer that missed out buying the house when you got it. Who knows.

By: ARDELL

ARDELL — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:06:44 +0000

Rhonda,

I think he’s a for real guy who wants to live in your house. Maybe he saw your “photo while walking dog” and said, WOW, I’d like to live there If he was an investor, you likely would have pulled up more than one property in his name when you did the Title by name search. You should be able to look up whether or not he is a licensed agent at http://www.dol.wa.gov They changed their site recently and it isn’t as easy to do a license search as it used to be.

By: rhondaporter

rhondaporter — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 22:50:19 +0000

I don’t think our home is really a candidate for flipping. And our neighbors did not receive the letter either. I did google this person and if he is a real estate agent (which is what I first expected) then he’s poorly marketed.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 22:06:25 +0000

Could also be an agent using this as a come on to get a listing. Presuming you’d be interested in selling, the agent could pose as a buyer under such and such contingency, but get in the door to establish rapport and then list. This is a technique being taught by a Canadian company.