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When I bought my house I wanted as little contact as possible with the sellers and gave as little personal information as possible about myself. Here is an example how it worked in reverse. Their agent tried to contact the sellers about a question we had. She came back and told us he was unavailable...."attending the U.S. Open". When it came time to ask for repairs I held my ground when he balked at some minor things. My thinking was, if he can afford to go see the U.S Open then he can afford to fix what I asked for if he wants to sell the place.
I don't do love letters for the houses I buy or for the clients I represent. I do justification letters to the listing agent telling how I arrived at the offer showing what comps I used ( and how those homes differed)and what repairs the house needs and what the repair costs will be.
As a seller, my reaction is irritation. It irritates me when people try to manipulate my emotions to gain some benefit for themselves.
Everyone who makes an offer on the house loves the house. If they didn't like it, they wouldn't have made an offer on it.
If there are multiple equal offers, the house doesn't go to the buyer with the best letter. It goes to the buyer who wants the house badly enough to increase their offer.
If the offer is good enough, I accept it, letter or not. If the offer isn't good enough, I will counter offer, letter or not. If you love the house and want to make pancakes in the kitchen, make me the best offer.
I will add, though, that investors don't generally make offers on my houses. I clean them up nice and price them at market rate. Investors don't buy houses unless they can get them substantially under fair market price. My buyers all intend to live in the house themselves. Not that I wouldn't sell to an investor if he made the best offer.
As a seller, my reaction is irritation. It irritates me when people try to manipulate my emotions to gain some benefit for themselves.
Everyone who makes an offer on the house loves the house. If they didn't like it, they wouldn't have made an offer on it.
If there are multiple equal offers, the house doesn't go to the buyer with the best letter. It goes to the buyer who wants the house badly enough to increase their offer.
If the offer is good enough, I accept it, letter or not. If the offer isn't good enough, I will counter offer, letter or not. If you love the house and want to make pancakes in the kitchen, make me the best offer.
I will add, though, that investors don't generally make offers on my houses. I clean them up nice and price them at market rate. Investors don't buy houses unless they can get them substantially under fair market price. My buyers all intend to live in the house themselves. Not that I wouldn't sell to an investor if he made the best offer.
I don't understand the irritation. I would welcome it as leverage. I'm not going to sell the house for a song because of a letter like that, but with a good offer I think you can use it to help smooth the closing process.
"What do you mean you want me to do X, Y, & Z? You sent me a letter telling me you loved the house. Were you lying?"
It really seems to me like it could make things awkward for the buyer, you need a skilled RE Agent to make it work though.
FWIW, I imagine RE Agents love these letters. I'm sure it makes closing a lot easier and they can make their money and move on to the next place.
I don't do love letters for the houses I buy or for the clients I represent. I do justification letters to the listing agent telling how I arrived at the offer showing what comps I used ( and how those homes differed)and what repairs the house needs and what the repair costs will be.
That has been far more effective.
I don't doubt its effectiveness. But it isn't the same thing. Apples and oranges.
As a seller, my reaction is irritation. It irritates me when people try to manipulate my emotions to gain some benefit for themselves.
Everyone who makes an offer on the house loves the house. If they didn't like it, they wouldn't have made an offer on it.
If there are multiple equal offers, the house doesn't go to the buyer with the best letter. It goes to the buyer who wants the house badly enough to increase their offer.
If the offer is good enough, I accept it, letter or not. If the offer isn't good enough, I will counter offer, letter or not. If you love the house and want to make pancakes in the kitchen, make me the best offer.
I will add, though, that investors don't generally make offers on my houses. I clean them up nice and price them at market rate. Investors don't buy houses unless they can get them substantially under fair market price. My buyers all intend to live in the house themselves. Not that I wouldn't sell to an investor if he made the best offer.
Oregonwoodsmoke, I believe that you are a real estate investor. You are selling houses. That's very different than when someone sells their home. Even when selling a home, it's a business transaction; but it's sometimes hard to keep emotion out of it.
My friend is selling her house and was telling me how moved she was by a letter a prospective buyer sent her. The letter mentioned things about how the buyer loved the house's decor, how she looks forward to making pancakes for her kids in the kitchen, and the neighbors that she met were so very nice. My friend was downright weepy over this "lovely" letter.
This strikes me as blatant tugging the seller's heart strings and would turn me off the buyer. But perusing the web, I guess real estate "love letters" are the going thing now. Comments?
As a mortgage broker in Florida, I have seen so many prospective buyers lose out on deals and the heartbreaking ones are when it is to an investor.
As a seller of a home, I would certainly read the letter and would be taking it into consideration. It would almost make me feel better to know someone is going to love the home as I did.
When I worked at the bank, a very successful long term real estate agent told me that old adage -- Money talks, bull walks. And we use it in our business today. Very valid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeJaquish
Funny how few people in this thread do counter offers.
Here we often negotiate between buyers and sellers until a mutual agreeable position is attained.
Maybe it's different in NC?
In our crazy real estate market, the lower end beginning buyer tends to loser out on house after house after house. they are the ones who are writing these letters in order to get their foot in the housing door. It must work, but it wouldn't with me. Because -- see below.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WVREDLEG
How does a seller know the "love letter" is genuine? Simply because I tell you I love the home, see my family growing in the neighborhood, and so on does not mean I will not move in there with a pack of loud dogs, allow my kids to terrorize all the neighbors' kids, let weeds grow 3 feet tall in the yard, or rent it out to the first tweakers with a roll of hundreds.
If you've lived more than a minute in this world, you know that ambitious people without character or morals will use every advantage and angle to beat you soundly, or just enough. Sorry, but every person on the other side of a capital transaction is instinctively working in the opposite direction. Not only buyers and their agents.
Like the 90+ DOM listing I made a full price offer on without contingency and pre-approval. Magically, 2 hours later, the listing agent had a better offer. Not a decent showing history or a serious offer for months, then suddenly, without a price change or any mod to the listing, I am in a bidding situation? Please. I withdrew and moved on. That house stayed on the market for 2 more months.
This -- so so much this! And people seem to adore drama and creating it any way they can.
When I worked at the bank, a very successful long term real estate agent told me that old adage -- Money talks, bull walks. And we use it in our business today. Very valid.
LOL
It is trash talk. Fun stuff, but smart agents and consumers work in the real world with open minds. They seize opportunities that emotional sellers discard in pique.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom
In our crazy real estate market, the lower end beginning buyer tends to loser out on house after house after house. they are the ones who are writing these letters in order to get their foot in the housing door. It must work, but it wouldn't with me. Because -- see below.
I have seen very good letters accompanying offers over list price. From my buyers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom
This -- so so much this! And people seem to adore drama and creating it any way they can.
Yeah. Some people even think that writing a letter makes one a liar. Melo-drama, indeed!
We all have ways of cutting off our noses to spite our faces, and emotional people employ those methods routinely, to prove that no matter the cost to them, they take no crap.
How does anyone in any transaction ever know that the other party is truthful or lying?
Does not writing a letter guarantee honesty? I would think that would be a very unreliable method of culling out honest vs. dishonest buyers, but several posters in the thread seem to disagree with me.
It may be smart for consumers and agents to withhold trust from people who see liars everywhere they look. They either may be projecting, or their instincts may be very out of tune with the world.
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I think they work...
