I am toying with the idea of submitting a letter with our offer tomorrow. What I'd like to say to the current owners of the house is this:
Dear Owners of [address],
You have a beautiful home! We can tell how well you have taken care of it, and how much work you have put into it. It would be an honor to become its next owners and caretakers.
We are a young family of four, and from the moment we walked into your home, we fell in love with it. Our son M. will love the window seat in the living room, where he can watch cars and trucks (and pedestrians) go by. We’ll store some of the kids’ favorite quiet toys and books underneath so that he can play while he sits.
All of us (being the “water babies” we are), but especially our daughter K. (who must be part fish) will fall in love with the pool. We can picture ourselves taking many wonderful walks through the neighborhood with the kids, and heading over to the park to play. We can imagine a fire in the beautiful fireplace as we settle in for the winter, and we can so clearly picture ourselves walking the kids up to bed at night and reading favorite stories we’ve stored in the wonderful little shelves built into the wall in the smallest bedroom.
We moved from [state] in August. We waited a long time before our home finally sold (what a hard time to need to sell!), and then we began looking for our new home in [city]. We have seen many beautiful homes, but none until now that fit who we are as a family.
We will present to you the best offer we can afford, and we hope you will give us a chance to become your home’s next owners. We are hoping for you, many great things in your move. We imagine it might be very difficult to let such a lovely home go, but may whatever awaits you be just as well-suited!
Warmly From,
The G. Family
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
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4 comments:
I think you should do it! It can't hurt, right?
See, that's what I thought too. Until G. said it "tips our hand," and someone I know online said she agreed that it could tip our hand if it gets competative, and then someone else said if she was the seller it would creep her out because she likes to keep business very business-like (not at all personal). But then again, the person who agreed that the letter could tip our hand said that she wrote a letter when she bought her house (its just that in her case, she bought it from someone she knew).
My thinking was this:
When we were selling our house, we were really concerned about who would buy it. We had developed a strong relationship with our neighbors, we felt this sense of responsibility to make sure we placed the house in good hands.
At one point, we received two silmultaneous offers. One was from a woman in our neighborhood who we saw walk her kids to school everyday for the years we were in our home. She was getting a divorce, and downsizing, and she really wanted to stay in the neighborhood. We were eager to accept her offer because we knew she was someone who cared about the house, and the neighborhood. And we knew she would appreciate the little details about the house, including some of the things we'd done for our kids that her kids might like too.
We didn't want to sell to someone who was just going to mindlessly turn it into income property (we didn't mind someone turning it into income property...we just didn't want it to be mindless). We didn't want someone who was just going to tear apart all our work on the house, which in the end lost us money, without a second thought about how any changes they made would impact the people in the surrounding houses who we had come to care for.
I liked the letter.
I don't know. It's a tough call-- better with no letter or not?! Seems it could go either way, so maybe it isn't worth the risk??? Maybe I will consult our agent.
I just received a vote for sending it from someone whose parents just sold their house to someone who sent them a letter.
Two votes for, two votes against. I am going to put my offer in, in 20 minutes. No idea what I'll do.
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