Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We kind of did something like this years ago. Before the letter with contract was even really talked about.
We admired a home. We complemented the owner on the work he had done personally on it. We genuinely meant it. We decided to make an offer. No letter included.
The home had been for sale for some time. Suddenly we were told there was a simultaneous offer and the seller took that other offer. It was from an older woman. He felt she would love the house and live in it in a way he imagined it should be l ived in. Don't know what all that was about. It wasn't going to be a flip or rental for us. We were disappointed. I had felt we were going to get the house.
At any rate, I wrote a letter to the broker saying how lovely the home was and thanked him and the owner for showing us around and to keep us in mind in case the sale doesn't work out.
Six months later. Yes, six months later. The broker called. The older woman could not be persuaded to "reveal all the assets" needed for her to get a loan on the house. It was back for sale. Only this time it was in foreclosure and at a lower price. We were even able to negotiate personally with the bank that still held the loan and that bank gave us the loan. We got the house.
And that seller wound up continuing to do work for us on the house he had so loved for several years after until he retired.
It worked for us in 2010. The house is on a cul-de-sac, family neighborhood built in the seventies, and all the other houses are still the original owners. The owners of our house are good friends with the neighbors and we're staying in town. Our offer was for asking plus about seven thousand in closing costs. They got another offer for full ask no closing costs, and a third that was lower. I think the other good offer was from an older single guy, in kids.
We wrote a letter mentioning how much we loved the neighborhood and the house and how we would love to have our five year old daughter grow up there. Also helped that the realtor was the daughter of the next door neighbor (who is a good friend of the original owner), so she clearly had some interest in who would be living next to her parents.
I'm sure at some point the $$ difference would have won out, but for our sellers it was worth seven thousand dollars (on a $330k house) to feel they sold to people who would be an asset to the neighborhood. They've since told us that several of the neighbors have thanked them for selling to us. They love seeing the school bus every morning in the circle again and seeing kids out on their bikes, and we really make an effort to keep up the property.
Just our experience, but I don't think it's all that unusual. Sometimes it's not only about the money!
I am actually surprised at the stories of success with the letter writing. I wonder if they work better with a certain age group of sellers such as with the above story of the 70s cul-de-sac. I can understand the joy of bringing children back to the neighborhood.
BUT, as a seller, if someone wrote a letter to accompany their offer my first question would be to ask my realtor if the offer is significantly lower than asking, or than other offers. I wouldn't even read the letter if the accompanying offer is really low. That is very manipulative in my book. We can't afford your house, but here is a heartwarming tale to help you decide to flush profits away and feel really good about yourself!
Perhaps I would write a letter of my own in return explaining how I really need the full asking price.
BUT, as a seller, if someone wrote a letter to accompany their offer my first question would be to ask my realtor if the offer is significantly lower than asking, or than other offers. I wouldn't even read the letter if the accompanying offer is really low. That is very manipulative in my book. We can't afford your house, but here is a heartwarming tale to help you decide to flush profits away and feel really good about yourself!
Perhaps I would write a letter of my own in return explaining how I really need the full asking price.
I don't think writing a letter necessarily means that the buyer can't afford the house. Especially when going up against a cash buyer (as most developers are), the seller still wants to make sure that the letter-writer can close, which usually means that the letter-writer has to be coming from a strong financial position.
As a matter of fact, when we wrote our offer, we submitted our pre-approval and supporting financials showing that we could afford to pay 40% more in order to demonstrate that we could close almost as easily as the cash buyer.
The price we offered was what the house was worth to us as a small, 50 year-old house and if the seller had countered with a higher-price, we would've walked away. It was worth more to the developer as a tear-down, but the sellers had other priorities than selling to the highest bidder.
I think letters might work in some cases when there are two very similar offers. If you are asking less than asking price, it might get seller angry, so no letter would help. I am admitting I've done letter with the offer once and even included our family picture. We offered asking with no contingencies, but the house was sold 3% over asking, so our letter didn't help. I am not going to do it again to be honest and I regret I did it then.
I was at the doctor's office a week ago and overheard two women talking about the house one of them recently sold. She said she received a letter from nice young family, and decided not to accept their offer because house had some issues and she didn't want to put this family at "risk". I was kind of happy and shocked to hear this...
One of my close friends just had success being the winning bidder on a house, even though her bid was not the highest, because she wrote a heartfelt letter to the sellers and they liked it.
I'm not seeing what your seeing??? The highest bid was $792k and the sellers said it is yours for $800k.
Sheesh, one of the prospective buyers even pulled the "and today is my birthday!" gambit.
It is stories like this that make me see a silver lining in living in an economically depressed area.
If I'm reading the article right, winning bidders paid $800,000 for a 2BR ranch house, and they waived the right to inspect, waived the right to back out if sellers were found to be lying on the disclosures or other information, waived appraisal and finance contingencies (buyers and sellers agreed the price was way over what it would appraise at), and promised to stay dishwasher-free so as to not change the 1950s kitchen cabinets that they knew the seller was proud of.
I'm not seeing what your seeing??? The highest bid was $792k and the sellers said it is yours for $800k.
The person who got the house was actually the SECOND highest bidder.
Technically, the highest bidder was an all-cash offer with a quick close. That is, most likely developers were behind that offer. The seller chose not to accept that offer and gave the second place bidder a shot by offering the home at $800k.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
