Not if the asking price is already 4 mil. OTOH, a property worth $100K would sell rapidly if $120K was offered. It’s all relative.
You may not need to offer an insane amount, but there’s no way around offering them enough that they’d rather have the money than the house. That’s more or less a natural law.
There’s a quote from “Yes, Minister” that, "“The surprising things about [people] is not that they have their price, but how low that price is.”
So your quest isn’t impossible. You just need to figure out whose price is the same as yours.
There are two other quotes that apply here. “Three moves equals one fire,” and “If people remembered pain nobody would have a second child.” Moving is a pain in the butt and it takes awhile to forget how much pain that is. I’d start by crossing anyone off your list who has moved in the last ten years, as they haven’t forgotten the pain yet.
Second I’d cross off anyone with school aged kids. Moving with kids is much harder than moving as a single or couple. Look for child free or empty nesters to focus on.
Finally, keep in mind that the national “neighborhood turnover” rate, meaning the average time a home is owned between sales, has been bouncing around 12 to 14 years. So, maybe if you find an empty next couple who have owned their home for 15+ years you might have a real shot at convincing them to sell for not too much more than the market value of their home.
When I was house hunting for my first house, I saw what I wanted while I was driving around with my realtor. Last house on a dead end street with almost an acre lot and a pasture next store. It wasn’t for sale. My realtor knocked on the door and told them I was interested in the house, where they interested in selling it? They asking for 30 minutes to get things straightened up and invited us in to look at it. We had a contract written that night.
It turns out they’d been thinking of moving because they’d outgrown the house (small 3 bedroom and 5 kids). They just hadn’t gotten off their duffs to get it ready to list. They rented it back for 6 months after closing until their new house was built.
StG
The way the seller’s market is here, if someone offered me assessed value I’d probably take it. My house is too big for me.
We’ve gotten these kinds of things stuck to our door before, and it honestly creeps me out a bit. Our area of San Diego is known for having some of the best schools these days, although that wasn’t the case when the neighborhood was brand new 20 years ago, so the houses have all doubled (or more) in value and the area is very near many of the large tech companies in the area.
Personally I would not be interested in moving any time soon, but many of my neighbors have recently because of the large offers being thrown around. I would assume anyone offering not to use a realtor to provide me more money was a scam artist simply because I’m not an expert in real estate law or contracts and would assume it was an attempt to swindle me.
Are any of these homes available for rental?
We rented our current house and the landlord/previous tenant, a 70+ year-old man named Clarence, took a liking to our family and offered the house to us at a very attractive price.
It took an extra 7 million for Mark Zuckerberg to make a family move.
There are a bunch of stories like that from the late 90’s boom in the Silicon Valley. Newly minted multimillionaires wanted a certain house and paid big to get it but that’s not our OP.
Another vote for “money talks”, but it would have to be cash. With the markup I’d need, you’d never get a loan approved.
No you couldn’t. Not in a location desirable enough to already be built and occupied.
My ex-bf sold his condo that way once. He had been toying with the idea of moving up but hadn’t really done anything about it yet (except retile over the crappy linoleum in the kitchen).
I’m sure it’s happened a few times. But most people aren’t thinking about moving, and those in specially desirable locations presumably even less so.
It can’t hurt to ask. What have you got to lose?
I have often seen a car sitting in someones drive or garage. When I asked if it maybe for sale, they were more then happy to sell me their “junker”. I would guess that about 60 percent of the time I ended up with the car.
It is the same with houses. one of my good friends in high-school would do just this. He would knock on the door and ask if they were interested in selling the home. Often they had been thinking about moving, but just had not got around to getting it ready to sell. He always had the money in the bank before knocking. He also brought some “earnest money” when he first visited them. IIRC, he said that about 8 out of ten people he talked to were not interested. Although, one family called him two years later and said that they were ready to sell.
If you’re prepared to offer 15-20% more than you think the house is worth, just realize that you’ll probably have to cover that difference on your own, plus have enough cash for a decent down payment. Just because you’re willing to pay extra for a property doesn’t mean that a bank will be willing to finance it. They will only finance what the property is appraised at.
My friend had a house that she planned to put on the market in 6 months, after completing a few projects. One of the real estate agents that she knew approached her to sell immediately, because she had a transferee who wanted 5 bedrooms in that particular community. (The community has excellent public schools.) They agreed on a price of $730k. Then the appraisal came back at $700k. The buyer requested that my friend reduce the sales price accordingly, since the S&L would only finance 80% of the appraisal. She declined, and the deal fell through.
A year later, she sold the house for $750k. She actually made it a condition of the sale that the buyer cover any difference between the appraised price and the purchase price.
Plus, you live in Santa Barbara, once described as “the California of California”. 
I live in the Bay Area, but I could live in Santa Barbara.
I once asked if a Escrow company if they would assist me in selling my house - which piecs of paper, who does what, whan, etc.
The answer was: you bet! They don’t care where their commission comes from, and they are the one that do everything after the offer/acceptance.
The Realtor ™ has some nice forms and all, but they are (probably) not required, as long as the paperwork covers all it needs to.
Some states (at least used to) required a lawyer to handle things and insure title) other use escrow and title insurance (what if there is an ancient lien that nobody noticed, and now the great-great-grandkid fially goes through the old papers? - title insurance).
You just might try writing up real, liv,e binding offers (have all required financing pre-approved) with a short window - maybe 5 days to accept. After that, you may or may not still be interested (if you have 2 people accept, you need a way to decide which - unless you are in a position to buy both).
Include a brief cover letter explaining that you are real, this is a real offer, and you really want that specific area.
Emphasize that this is a real, binding offer and are prepared to act as soon as they accept.
This form is very likely either online or through an Escrow company.
Who knows, you might find a Realtor ™ with a sense of humor and provide you copies.
A nice touch would be: Have real, offset press business cards printed showing you (pic?) as 'future resident of (neighborhood name)" or some such.
Whatever, use real paper, not printer paper - for both the cover letter and envelope.
Try this on your top choices, and offer at least a 20% premium above estimates.
You might get to specify “where” and “when”, but don’t expect to also get “how much”.
I have never heard of this being done, so I have no idea if it works.
Aye, there’s the rub! Do you feel qualified to write the legal language for such an important document? The title company cannot give you legal advice, and they cannot assist you in writing purchase offers. Do you know how to protect your interests? Do you do this every day, as agents and lawyers do? Are you really willing to accept responsibility for errors on your part when so much is at stake? We’re not talking pocket change here.
Well, first, I’ll need some time to buy a house that I can sell you… 
Offer me the balance of my mortgage rather than the current value of the house.
Of course, if you did that, I’d wonder what you knew was buried in the basement.
Last night, as I lay under the bathroom vanity with the faucet hoses disconnected, water cascading around my ears, pondering the ironic humor of angle stopcocks which did not, in fact, actually stop anything, let alone water, and whether this particular plumbing problem was the final straw or just the penultimate one, you could have had my house if you’d shown up on the doorstep with two cents cash.