Love letter to seller?

[Anonymous]

In our case, we were up against one other offer - and our agent said the offers were essentially identical. The difference was the letter we wrote. I think it humanized us. Sellers obviously want the most money they can get, but after that, they want to feel good about the sale. A letter can only help a strong offer.

[Anonymous]

We did this years ago -- wrote a letter about how we were a young family looking to raise our kids in a great neighborhood, wanted to renovate, but wouldn't do a tear-down, loved their restored Steinway grand (which realtor had said would be for sale in a separate transaction) and would give it a good home, yadda, yadda, yadda. They took a lower offer from another couple who wrote a similar letter, but who also mentioned that the husband was a psychiatrist as was the seller. That clinched their deal.

But . . . they sold us the piano, we bought another house in the neighborhood, and -- here's the kicker -- the couple who bought the house divorced after 3 years and sold it to someone who is now tearing it down. We do love the piano, though, and hope someday to pass it on to our youngest, a dedicated pianist. And, having lived in our house for 15 years, with kids now in HS and college, we're starting to think of downsizing (maybe in 5 years, when DD graduates from college). You better believe we're selling to the highest bidder -- we've had many happy years in this house, but I'm hoping to buy a small, mid-century modern gem for our retirement years. Of course, it will have to have enough room for the grand piano.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did this years ago -- wrote a letter about how we were a young family looking to raise our kids in a great neighborhood, wanted to renovate, but wouldn't do a tear-down, loved their restored Steinway grand (which realtor had said would be for sale in a separate transaction) and would give it a good home, yadda, yadda, yadda. They took a lower offer from another couple who wrote a similar letter, but who also mentioned that the husband was a psychiatrist as was the seller. That clinched their deal.

But . . . they sold us the piano, we bought another house in the neighborhood, and -- here's the kicker -- the couple who bought the house divorced after 3 years and sold it to someone who is now tearing it down. We do love the piano, though, and hope someday to pass it on to our youngest, a dedicated pianist. And, having lived in our house for 15 years, with kids now in HS and college, we're starting to think of downsizing (maybe in 5 years, when DD graduates from college). You better believe we're selling to the highest bidder -- we've had many happy years in this house, but I'm hoping to buy a small, mid-century modern gem for our retirement years. Of course, it will have to have enough room for the grand piano.

I like your story. Life is fascinating. Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

In all my sales, I have never once allowed the letter to play a part. In fact, most sellers I know do not read them at all.

[Anonymous]

trashcan

[Anonymous]

We had two identical offers. One criticized our house and we heard about it from the buyer's agent. The other wrote us a love letter. Guess which one we picked?! The love letter people were less qualified and their move dates weren't the best, but we couldn't stand the thought of our house going to someone who would criticize and not love it like we did.

Of course money mattered the most!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did this years ago -- wrote a letter about how we were a young family looking to raise our kids in a great neighborhood, wanted to renovate, but wouldn't do a tear-down, loved their restored Steinway grand (which realtor had said would be for sale in a separate transaction) and would give it a good home, yadda, yadda, yadda. They took a lower offer from another couple who wrote a similar letter, but who also mentioned that the husband was a psychiatrist as was the seller. That clinched their deal.

But . . . they sold us the piano, we bought another house in the neighborhood, and -- here's the kicker -- the couple who bought the house divorced after 3 years and sold it to someone who is now tearing it down. We do love the piano, though, and hope someday to pass it on to our youngest, a dedicated pianist. And, having lived in our house for 15 years, with kids now in HS and college, we're starting to think of downsizing (maybe in 5 years, when DD graduates from college). You better believe we're selling to the highest bidder -- we've had many happy years in this house, but I'm hoping to buy a small, mid-century modern gem for our retirement years. Of course, it will have to have enough room for the grand piano.

This is like a perfect short story.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends. But probably never again to be quite honest.

[Anonymous]

we sold to a letter writer over a higher offer though the higher offer was for less than 2%. Similar background so we sympathized. Prob would not have taken 10% less but we even countered and told them what they needed to meet to be acceptably under the higher offer. They'd lost two houses before. Sometimes it's really great to be able to look beyond just money if you can...so, yeah, give it a shot!

[Anonymous]

We did this and the seller agreed to a contingency clause to give us time to secure a contract on the house we were selling. Now we have a house we love.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

In all my sales, I have never once allowed the letter to play a part. In fact, most sellers I know do not read them at all.

We sold last year and we definitely appreciated the letter we received from the buyer. The house was a bit dated so we were fearful of teardowns. In the letter, the buyer said they loved the house and the yard and wanted to raise their family there. It sealed the deal for us. And we have heard from our former neighbors that the new family fit right in, so we are happy we sold to them. The house meant a lot to us, and we were glad to see it go to a nice family. Didn't want it to become a mcmansion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

In all my sales, I have never once allowed the letter to play a part. In fact, most sellers I know do not read them at all.

We sold last year and we definitely appreciated the letter we received from the buyer. The house was a bit dated so we were fearful of teardowns. In the letter, the buyer said they loved the house and the yard and wanted to raise their family there. It sealed the deal for us. And we have heard from our former neighbors that the new family fit right in, so we are happy we sold to them. The house meant a lot to us, and we were glad to see it go to a nice family. Didn't want it to become a mcmansion.

I think that it's very nice when it works that way. And I'm happy that it worked that way for you. I would be very careful assuming that all letters are equally sincere though...

[Anonymous]

Seriously? I've just moved to the DC area and would have never thought of writing a letter, and would never give any weight to such a letter if I was the seller. It's nice to feel a connection with the buyers, but that connection doesn't mean the buyers can't just do what they please with the property after they assume ownership.

If our Realtor says it would be advisable to write one of these letters to have an offer accepted, I guess we will do it and try to say what the sellers want to hear.

[Anonymous]

We did that and it worked. The sellers turned down a higher offer from a developer since we wanted to keep the house a single family home and raise our kids there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we sold to a letter writer over a higher offer though the higher offer was for less than 2%. Similar background so we sympathized. Prob would not have taken 10% less but we even countered and told them what they needed to meet to be acceptably under the higher offer. They'd lost two houses before. Sometimes it's really great to be able to look beyond just money if you can...so, yeah, give it a shot!

This makes me wonder how close to the line of Fair Housing Act violations people can get if they go with the letter, see people of similar backgrounds as the most (maybe only) desirable replacements. Not to criticize you PP but do you recognize the risk?