A woman that I work with bought a house a few years ago in a similar manner. I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, though. There was a townhouse development that she was interested in, specifically end units. She saw one that looked like what she wanted, and she stopped to talk to the guy outside of it. Turned out that he was renting, but was moving soon. Somehow she got in touch with the owner, and eventually bought it.
I do get flyers like that now and then, and feel it’s legit, in that it’s a real estate office and not some kind of scam. As big as commissions are and as cheap as flyers and minimum wage help or stamps are I’d expect if they got a single listing it would be worth it.
I also get letters from a car dealership saying potential buyers are interested in purchasing my car so they could give me an awesome deal if I wanted to trade it in. I assume this is just a tactic to maybe sell me a new car.
In Canada the post office will deliver unstamped advertising to an entire neighborhood (or city for all I know) at a flat rate. So the fact that it is unstamped means nothing. And I regularly get such flyers from legitimate real estate brokers either with that message or that they have sold a nearby property. Hell, I used to run into the guy who sold us our house (42 years ago) and he would often ask if I wasn’t ready to move. These are likely legitimate solicitations for listings, probably don’t actually have a buyer.
If loads of people are willing to pay 3-4 times “market” value, doesn’t that make it the new market value??? 
Meh. Where I live (in Oz) I get two or three of these per week.
Real estate agents make their money by convincing some people that they want to buy and other people that they want to sell. I have a house and they would love me to sell. They don’t necessarily have a particular buyer, but it is likely that they have had enquiries from people who might want to buy in this general area. So if you were able to challenge them on their claim of having a buyer, they could point to someone. I would ignore it unless you really do want to sell.
This.
I live in Canada too. Canada Post makes much of its money (still not enough, apparently) by delivering paper spam. The RE advertising is made up to look like a personal letter. However, 90% of these are folded paper not in an envelope. I get about one or two a week for the last several years, they’ve been from almost every RE agent or agency in the city. The message is pretty much the same - “we have buyer(s) for a house like yours.”
I think they are just trying to stir up new clients. You want to sell, or even are thinking of selling, they want you to contact them rather than another agent. I don’t believe they have someone looking for a house like yours or mine, except in the most general sense that they have clients who are shopping for a house.
I got these one or two a week; while the neighbour had a house with the mirror image floor plan to ours, and a 3-car garage, and spent 2 agents and a year trying to sell it before finally selling it on ComFree.com - for less than what the city assessed it at, in a “hot” market. So, no they don’t have buyer(s) dying to buy your house.
It’s an advert. Consider that sellers are the estate agent’s customers: they are simply looking for more customers. I get several of these a month, and most people on my street rent.
I got one today. Nice white envelope through the door with a printed letter “To the Householder.”
I don’t want to move and the fact that an almost identical house, three doors away, has been on the market since October last, makes me think that demand is not THAT strong.
I don’t know if you remember the era - this was when a Japanese firm bought a Van Gogh for $81m, which was something like ten times the previous record. “Market value” of these homes was one thing, but the immensely wealthy tier of Japanese were happy to let piles of dollars make things happen (or happen more quickly, or on their terms).
They’re paying the price for it now - almost twenty years of a stagnant economy because NO ONE declares bankruptcy or fails to pay debts, even on property that’s gone massively upside down.
Time to go re-read [del]The Yellow Peril Returns[/del] Rising Sun for a few laughs. Besides the howlers Crichton included.
It’s a reasonably common thing to happen. Common enough hat this question has been asked here a few times in the past. I live in a nice neighborhood in Santa Barbara and I get one of those every few years.