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I am really turned off by letter writers. I would try to make sure that I sold the house to someone else. I find letter writers to be manipulative and entitled.
The worst real estate letter I ever saw was left by the seller on the counter to all prospective buyers. It included how happy they had been there and how their dog loved the property but at ten years old, they considered him too old to move so they euthanized him.
It was horrible. We did not buy the house, but we always remembered that letter and disliked the sellers for writing it.
It wasn't enough to sway us towards a weaker offer, but it definitely made a psychological impact. I think if the offers would have been similar/same, we'd go with the people who wrote the letter.
Hah, I wouldn't even open a letter as a seller, but one thing as a buyer I will say...
There was lotttts of drama with my house with the previous owners. Apparently it was a HORRIBLEEEEE divorce. I could feel the hate coming off of them to each other (and us too, probably...F 'em!) when we closed.
Apparently the house sat empty for over a year because they hated each other so much they couldn't even agree on a price when they got offers
Long story short, we swooped in and lowballed them and they took it after all these other deals falling through. They really got screwed, and I as the buyer was trying to find out every juicy detail about their divorce in relation to my house that I could. I have a FB friend who is friends with the previous owner and I tried to dig but she wasn't seeming like she was going tell me anything, so I left it at that.
But yes any material attempting to soften me to take money off my sale price goes right into the trash and I don't take their offer. But yes I tried to find out all the drama that went on here as a buyer, lol.
They only made $20k off this house in 10 years. I've been here for 3 years and could sell for $80k more than I paid.
It's business, plain and simple. Check emotion and friendships and crap at the door.
I had not heard of this either, until this thread. Granted, we have only sold one house - we knew nothing of the buyers until well into the process, perhaps at close, even. Didn't matter to us, we set a price, they had the best offer, their offer backed by their lender.
Really?
I used to get at least one every couple of months. Unsolicited. Typical my wife abd I have a baby and we want to buy your house etc. it’s not a mass mailer because it’s hand signed and the stamps are regular stamps not bulk mail stamp
I used to get at least one every couple of months. Unsolicited. Typical my wife abd I have a baby and we want to buy your house etc. it’s not a mass mailer because it’s hand signed and the stamps are regular stamps not bulk mail stamp
I'm close to 40 and had never heard of this until now.
I always thought like in "The War of the Roses" Mrs. Rose writing that unsolicited letter was just a thing for the movie.
A letter (or anything) isn't going to get my price down one red cent.
We had a few offers come in over the weekend. One of them was accompanied by a very nice letter from the buyers. A little about them, how much they loved the house, etc. It really tugged at my wife's heartstrings, and if I'm being honest mine a bit too. But unfortunately it was not the strongest offer. I had to remind my wife what we talked about before. We had to be like Spock, numbers and logic, not emotion.
I am curious now how common this practice is? We never did it as buyers, but when we talked to BIL/SIL they said they did. For you RE professionals, do you recommend your clients do this? And if so do you think it gives them an edge?
It wasn't enough to sway us towards a weaker offer, but it definitely made a psychological impact. I think if the offers would have been similar/same, we'd go with the people who wrote the letter.
I once did something similar - and it helped turn things around. It seems like a nice idea if there are identical offers - and even for a lesser offer, for some sellers there are things that trump money.
"I wrote about fishing in my last one because there were poles in the garage. I don't fish."
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