My aunt used to live in an upscale area of CT. After her husband died, she stayed in the big house. Then one day, reading her mail in the sunshine at stone wall at top of her driveway, a car driving by asked if she knew any homes going for sale in the neighborhood. She ended up selling to them, though til that point I’m not sure she had thought about moving.
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I remember receiving a letter from an agent who was representing clients that were interested in buying our house. At the end of the letter, it said, “If your house is currently listed for sale, this letter does not constitute an offer to buy.” I wonder how many of these letters are legitimate.
We received a letter like this, only more of a form letter/less personal. My family is in real estate so I assumed it was a scam but had my mom do some research of the agent. It was actually an agent from slightly outside of our area. She called several of the agents of previous deals he had closed and got good reports, saying that he was representing a legitimate investor from out of state. Our property was a rental that had been trashed for years. It needed a new roof, HVAC and total interior remodel. We sold it for top price to this investor who asked for no repairs. Fast, easy closing. I still can’t believe it happened and that it was that easy. I’m sure that most of these are not legit, but it does happen!
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We sold our home in May. After selling 5 homes in our marriage, this was insane. Put it on the market the day we were considered fully vaccinated and left town for 5 days. Wording in listing was something like “multiple offers expected…best and final by date/time”. We went out of town and started getting calls from neighbors and HOA complaining about traffic. Showings scheduled every thirty minutes from 9-9. To be fair, the neighborhood is very affordable compared to other places and I understand how buyers are panicked.
We got 54 offers. My agent said most came with “sell to us letters” that she did not share with us. She said some bordered on illegal due to fair housing…I am assuming it was related to veterans as we had many VA loans in the mix and the home had very wide hallways and an easy to enter pool. We went with one of several cash offers.
Two days later, there is someone at the door while we were watching TV. A woman was waving a piece of paper so I asked my husband to go to the door as the neighborhood was circulating petitions to change some rules and I assumed that was the reason for the visit. Instead, it was someone who had put in a bid on our house. She was saying she was going to sue our agent because she was sure we had not seen her offer, it was the best, just kind of crazy talk. It took him 20 minutes to get rid of her. Turns out they were #2 on list of offers. So glad for my former neighbors we went with someone else. She was scary.
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Or the wedding photo could even be a stock photo.
I was thinking it might be fun to Google image search the photo.
Oh he did put in the names of the clients.
Of course he did, any name will do. 
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Realtors make their money from representing clients. The rules on this vary by state. In mine, they will get paid by representing either the buyer or seller… Whether there was a real couple looking to buy or not, if he could become the listing agent for your house, he’d make some money when it got sold. It’s an interesting way to drum up business.
If you aren’t interested in selling, throw out the letter. If you are, hear what they have to say. You might find this realtor distasteful. Or maybe not, and it might be good to have someone with some hustle in your camp!
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We lived in a relatively affordable neighborhood of an affluent town with among the better school systems in the state. The neighborhood is sought after. It is 5 minute walk to a very good elementary school, parks, rivers, relatively affordable, etc. We got letters like that periodically and assumed there was an interested couple. In the year we were going to sell, we got the same letter about a couple who desperately wanted to move to our neighborhood. The realtor who found our new house told us that it was highly likely that the realtor with the couple who desperately wants your house is hoping to talk you into thinking about selling and then represent you in the sale. The couple is, as everyone suggests, likely fictitious. So, our agent concurs with @gardenstategal. I don’t think I could trust an agent who was deceptive in trying to get the listing to be honest and straight with me rather than manipulating me. I think the potential hustle would be outweighed by the likely deception.
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I got a text the other day from a realtor asking if I’d be interested in taking offers on 32xx XXX street. I texted back that sure, I’d love offers but since I didn’t live at that address and didn’t own the house, I wasn’t sure the owners would appreciate my selling it out from under them.
I do live at 32xx YYY street, about 6 blocks away (and in a different type of neighborhood, I think that house is probably worth twice mine). Oh, and I don’t own the house I live in either.
I’m not sure what method they used to match up my phone number and that other address.
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Interesting, I just throw these letters in my compost bin, let the worms enjoying them at least. It doesn’t bother me. I never bother to shred them even.
Or the couple in question are Wall Street real estate investors.
https://ui.charlotte.edu/story/wall-street-backed-landlords-now-own-more-11000-single-family-homes-charlotte
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The ones that I see don’t mention much about the theoretical buyers. They probably know that appeals to “white and straight and slim and fertile and conventionally attractive” might not work in a neighborhood that is now probably more than three quarters people of various shades of brown.
My assumption is that the letters are fronts for Wall Street buyers who want to turn the house into a rental.
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That is a plausible explanation. Last year, 1 in 7 houses sold in the US were purchased by institutional investors:
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/investors-bought-a-record-share-of-homes-in-2021/
ETA: also this:
We just got two in the mail the other day. One showed a picture of a couple with two cute kids. It looked like a stock photo and the letter went on and on about how they really wanted to move to our neighborhood to raise their family and give their kids an amazing childhood. We just threw it away. The other we got, just showed a couple of houses in our subdivision that had just sold and for how much, we usually just get those…
Both of these were from real estate agents who advertise in our HOA magazine
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Curious how many realtors have left the profession. If you get a listing, percentage may be high (because prices are so high), and sales are fast, making them quick sales. BUT, there are so few homes on the market that I’m wondering if it provides a suitable income.
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Wondering the same. The market in my area is unbelievable-it seems like the markets I always heard about in NYC and San Francisco. Houses hit the market in the morning, get 80 showings and multiple offers, ask for “best offer” by 5 pm, and are sold within 24 hours. “Best offers” are many many thousands over asking, often with failure to appraise waivers, all cash, and/or no inspection. Nuts.
That sounds great for realtors until you learn that the reason for this frenzy is complete lack of inventory. It’s at an all time low here. We have never seen anything like this before. Realtors can’t get commissions if they can’t get listings, and they can’t get listings if there ARE no listings. Buyers agents can’t get paid if their clients keep losing out to other crazy offers.
This has to be tough for real estate agents right now.
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We have received similar letters in the mail. DH actually called the agent listed on the 1st letter and the letter was basically a ruse…the letter said that the agent had buyers willing to pay over market value, but that was not the case. Then my DH got all excited over the possibility of selling our house for way more than we paid for it and I said heck no…because, well, then we’d be in the same boat as all of the other buyers.
That was over a year ago and now Zillow says that our house is worth $100k more than it was at that time.
Since then, we’ve received other letters in the mail. One was from some ‘investor’ based in Oregon…that guy had a return address that was a UPS Store post office box. I then looked him up thanks to Mr. Google and found the ‘investor’s’ home address, which was in an apartment complex in Oregon.
I regularly get text messages from a boatload of different phone #s from alleged ‘investors’ who want to buy a house that we haven’t owned for over 15 years. I just ignore it all and add the #s to my blocked callers list on my phone.
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We just finished interviewing several realtors as we make plans to possibly move. Two sent us beautiful succulent arrangements and I also thought - “we are thinking about moving and you give us a plant?” I think we are going to go with the realtor who sent us warm cookies and ice cream. 
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