One word of advice:

Don’t buy anywhere that is a flood risk.

When I bought my first house, I called everyone in my target area. Not everyone with a house on the market. Just everyone in the online reverse phone listing. I kept careful notes. One lady said, “Make it worth my while!” So I showed up with a contractor, a lawyer, and a checkbook. Inspection was completed on the spot, agreement made and signed, and deposit check was cut.

When I moved in, neighbors were outside saying, “We didn’t even know this house was for sale!” My response “It wasn’t.”

This is the dream! I just worry people these days won't be as receptive... I feel like people are scared!

Lots of people hung up on me or said no. A couple said to come and look but decided not to sell. Some were definitely scared. But it only takes one!! By the way, I get a lot of postcards about selling my current home, and I ignore them. But my elderly mother is interested in and reads them. Perhaps try both phone calls and postcards.

"we are finally ready to buy in Waterbury" 😂 so are you and half of the state

Let me add to this. It's almost impossible finding a RENTAL unit in Waterbury, let alone buying a house. Sure, they're out there. But are you willing to pay $150-$250K above what it's worth? Raised interest rates really haven't budged the Waterbury housing prices... just stabilized them. There's too high of demand and no supply.

Waterbury "village" you're very liked to have to pay for high flood insurance. "Waterbury Center"... Stowe is going to drive these run down spots up well above their worth.

If you're a high baller (looking for houses over 700K) and can afford Perry Hill, Blush hill, or Kneeland Flats, I'm sure there's some of those for sale that are stagnant on the market. Real estate agent could assist in those ones.

Good luck. I can't fault you for wanting to live there.

Check in with your friends parents who are at retirement age. That's how we bought an affordable house in Montpelier at the peak of the market last year. They might be already considering downsizing

Thank you!

Great idea!

Yeah, that was 1979.

No one in their right mind cares if YOU say you're ready. What does the BANK say?

Make a post on Front Porch Forum.

If I had a dollar for every time one of these posts were made, I’d actually be able to afford a house in this bloody state.

When my husband and I were shopping (in the last 2 years) we asked our realtor about this. She pointed out that for her, letters are ethically a no-go. It's too easy to wind up in a discriminatory place - like, hey - we're a nice straight family, or a nice white family, or a nice Jewish family so you should sell us your house. I thought this was a really interesting perspective that I'd never really thought about before, so I wanted to share! Good luck finding your home.

They might be ready if they don't need to ask the bank.

I've got to ask, what does "The Waterbury area" mean for you?

We sent a letter to the seller only after making our offer. There was almost no inventory in the town we were living in, and so this was pretty much the only house in our budget that wasn’t falling apart. I do think it may have swayed the seller a little— I’m a pastor in a small town who was determined to stay in said small town, which made for even slimmer pickings than your average homebuyer; and so I was probably a much more sympathetic buyer than someone trying to buy a second home or an “investment property” ugh.

Anyway, I dunno. It’s rough out there.

ETA: I moved up here from Philly (though I’m originally from New England) where there were TONS of postcards and letters being sent to homes offering to buy— more often than not they were super predatory, trying to screw struggling Black families over so they could flip their house. It’s obviously(?) different here, but it would put a real gross taste in my mouth if I got a letter or a postcard like that randomly 🤷🏼‍♀️

This is an important perspective and something I'm very conscious of. We want to be fair but I fear that others aren't as kind so we would get beat out! Damned if you're do and damned if you're don't kind of thing..but thank you!

Housing is everywhere right now? I'm surprised you even have to ask. Why, just the other day I was walking down the street and my neighbor offered me one of his spare houses if I'd help him bring in the groceries

I tried to buy a house in Waterbury recently and got outbid by 100k. Best of luck

I bought my current house ("in the Waterbury area") last year and sold my old house (closer to the NEK) this year (well, 2022). I would absolutely send postcards and even knock on doors and ask people if they'd consider selling.

I think the normal market is fucked. When we sold our old house, we had four bids over our asking price and we never put it on the market (it never hit the MLS). Instead, we had been getting it ready to sell for a year, so everyone in town knew we were selling, and people just started reaching out. By the time we were done fixing it up, we had offers already, so we skipped the whole realtor/MLS thing.

Same when we bought our current house. A friend/colleague of mine mentioned that she was moving and I asked if we could see her house before she listed it. We made an offer, she accepted, and it never hit the market either.

Lots of places are selling that are never showing up on Zillow/MLS and not even showing up on realtor's radars. If you don't participate in the "off-MLS" real estate scene, you're missing a significant portion of the stuff that's out there.

Halfway between skiing and civilization probably.

No you wouldn't. They're too expensive.

I got a random call by a realtor asking if I wanted to sell my house and it rubbed me the wrong way. Not sure "cold calling" is the best approach

While I’ve heard of and can see validity in this concern, it’s important that this perspective is coming from a realtor who is getting essentially getting cut out of a deal here. Not saying it’s total bs but there might be a touch of bias there.

If you won't say it, I will. It's totally BS due to the bias. If someone wants to drop off a bio about themselves and say they are buying a home, great, go for it. Personally a bit weird to me to have random people know about you, but all's fair in love and war home buying.

I'd chalk it up to the realtor wanting their 3%. If someone has a little bit of time, a broker, and a real estate lawyer for documents, a realtor is worthless. If someone wants to be assisted during home buying, a realtor is great, but they aren't as necessary as they try to act.