Generally, the time owned plays a part, with longer being better, due to lower property taxes and lower house payments.
I wouldn’t want to leave my lower assessed house with it’s 1995 mortgage and be
saddled with a modern new mortgage based on a new, high dollar assesment, just
so you can live in the location of your dreams.
This happened with one of my pet sitting clients. They had the cutest house, small but so damned cute. It was in an excellent neighborhood. Total stranger was riding by, saw the house, rang the bell and asked if they were interested in selling. They were, deal made. I lost a client, but everyone else was happy.
It never hurts to ask, the worse they can say is no.
This is how my cousin bought his house. Knocked on the door, said “I’d like to buy your house. What would it take to convince you to sell it to me?”
She should final a complaint with both your state’s real estate commission and board of realtors. Such actions are highly unprofessional and possibly illegal. In my state, a realtor cannot contact anyone more than once a year.
It’s also called “illegal.”
ETA: You can contact any homeowner and offer them any amount for their property. If they say “no,” that’s it. If they counter-offer, let the negotiations begin.
To those who have done this, how do you know what the house looks like on the inside? I’ve seen some really cute houses that were not great on the inside.
You don’t make a firm offer - you say you are ‘interested’ in the house and see if they are ‘interested’ in selling the house.
You’d be a little nuts to walk up to the door and offer 125% of its estimated value off Zillow without knowing how much meth has been made in the bathtub (it ruins the plumbing :))
125% wouldn’t get me to move. Not because I love my house, nor because I’m underwater, but because that isn’t adequate to compensate me for the hassle of house shopping and moving.
If you are just planning on tearing the place down and putting up your own McMansion, the condition of the interior won’t matter that much to you.
In any case, whenever you start a negotiation, it’s usually not a good idea to begin with your best offer.
ignore
I was thinking this example might be why it’s not legal. 
Must be a NJ thing. Never heard of that in Wisconsin.
The person harassing her is a developer who wants the land not a realtor. The board of realtors has nothing to do with it.
I have lived in my house for 40 years and a couple months and it would take more than a 25% premium to interest me. Maybe if someone offered twice the assessed value, I would think about it. After all, I could hire people to do the dirty work with that much premium. But it ain’t gonna happen.
Hijack: Where I used to live, there was a guy who made a living by offering owners of houses for sale 75% of the asking price. Most turned him down flatly, but occasionally someone accepted his offer. In that case, he bought the house, fixed it up, and resold it. Houses in that town in the mid '60s generally sold for $10-20K.
I’d move for 25% more than market value.
Wouldn’t have to think long about it. Probably push for another 3-5% to handle closing costs on the new house, but that would be all.
There’s nothing so special about my house that I couldn’t re-establish it nearby and pocket the 25% - which would amount to around $110-$120K.
Yeah, I read an article recently and must have confused the Florida numbers for the national numbers. Ignorance fought.
A percentage probably isn’t the best way to measure this in general, given how much the price of a house varies.
25% on a $100k house isn’t that much. When you have to consider shopping for a new house, moving expenses, etc, the gain doesn’t go as far. 25% on a $500k house is probably a different story. 25% on a $5 million house is likely a slam dunk “yes and do you want to keep the drapes?”
Simplest and best way is probably to just put a note in their mailbox explaining you are interested in buying their house and give your contact details. I know people who have done this and there’s no way it would be illegal unless you got to the point of harassment as mentioned upthread.
As a homeowner who is already looking at new properties, but my house is not on the market yet, I would be your ideal candidate and would bite your hand off for 25% over market value. So if you do the above, I would not open negotiations with this offer (as already mentioned above).
No legal restriction that I’ve ever heard of, and you can probably find the owner’s name online (county assessor’s office). The assessor’s office will also helpfully provide the current taxation value, along with things like square footage, number of rooms, etc. In Denver the online assessor’s office will even link you up to recent comparable sales.
I suggest you not spam the board. Reported.