If you should find yourself in a competitive market then REALestate Letters Make Difference is something to keep in mind.
AND today’s blog post I am concluding with The Money Pit movie trailer.
REALestate Letters Make Difference
In this Time.com article from two years ago it describes how in a competitive real estate market a family was able to customize a personal letter to include with their offer to a seller and they won – even though one of the four offers the seller received was $11,000 more. Here is an excerpt from The Letter That Saved $11,000. Really. :
“So when Alison walked in to a beautiful four-bedroom house in Alexandria in May, she knew her family needed to do more than make a fair offer. “They need to feel like we’re their friends so they’ll give us the house,” said Alison.
After noticing the seller shared the couple’s love of the Washington Capitals hockey team, Alison rushed home to write a letter. The result was a textbook example of a tactic many home buyers—especially those in competitive markets—are using to get an edge. Alison’s note, attached to her offer, gave a personal account of the couple’s love for the neighborhood, nearby schools, and the property itself (“we have a baby boy who is about to turn 1 year old… we can already see him playing in that big back yard with our dog!”). She also gushed about the family’s Capitals fandom and included a picture of their 11-month-old son at his first Caps game.
Despite four other offers—one $11,000 higher than their own—the Fitzgeralds got the home. Alison still remembers the sellers’ agent’s call, conveyed to them by their broker: “You got the house. Your letter definitely had something to do with it.” <-End of Excerpt
If the above story was a little too Disneyesque and you are looking for more of a vintage-TV-Episode-of-Dragnet-with-Joe-Friday and his “Just the facts, ma’am” approach then this article from realtor.com shares the Top 10 Tips: How to Write a Home Buyer’s Offer Letter to a Seller.
You’ll want to read for all the details of each of these 10 items: “1) Flatter First; 2) Get To The Point; 3) Paint A Picture; 4) Don’t Remodel The House; 5) Show Stability; 6) Show Humility; 7) Don’t Whine; 8) Close With Clarity; 9) Sign with Appreciation;and 10) Spell Check. Grammar Check. Buddy Check. Do It Again.”
The Money Pit
Thinking of real estate gets one to thinking of pursuing getting your dream home and has me having to lookup up the 1948 film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy.
For fun today I’ve included this movie trailer for the 1986 film The Money Pit with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long.
If your weekend plans call for doing any house hunting best wishes to you and here’s to avoiding any money-pit type models!
Anchors Aweigh,
Helen
Attribution & Thank you to the following who are referenced today REALestate Letters Make Difference
Excerpt from Time.com article: The Letter That Saved $11,000. Really. June 19, 2014 by Jacob Davidson @JakeD
Realtor.com article: Top 10 Tips: How to Write a Home Buyer’s Offer Letter to a Seller by
Image above promotional photo of Cary Grant and Myrna Loy for the film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) by RKO radio pictures (eBay item photo front photo back) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
YouTube The Money Pit – Trailer (1986) posted by elcosquillero84 uploaded on Jan 21, 2008
You may also enjoy reading this from AnchoredScraps by Helen Rittersporn: REALEstate Writing Letters to Sellers and Buyers 5-18-2017
