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Hi. We did not, but we had one drafted. Our agent said it would be a really smart thing to include in with the offer. The only reason why we didn't include it was because the family we purchased our home from did not speak English at all. They used an interpreter for everything for the sale. We thought it would be more work to include the letter.

If I were you, I would include the letter stating why you are interested in the house, what makes you love it, why you want to live in the area and a little bit about your family. Good luck!

I've definitely heard of it but we didn't and if we sell I probably won't even read it.

I have heard of doing this when there could be multiple offers that are relatively the same. It is something that couldn't hurt! If I had two same offers on my house and one submitted a personal letter about how much they loved my home and the other didn't, I would take that offer most likely.

In our area, it's become almost an essential part of an offer. We did ours to appear like flyer, very graphic and visual with adorable photos of DD and our dogs, and used quick bullet points to flatter the sellers and endear ourselves to them. We beat three higher offers. Our agent said the letter made a huge difference and that she'd never seen anything like it.

We didn’t put in a letter, but when we toured our house the builder was there and he mentioned that another couple had also toured but had not yet put in an offer but that he would prefer to sell to us because he would love to see children raised in the home/neighborhood (he built all homes in neighborhood). I definitely got the clear impression that LO was a useful bargaining chip lol if we needed one

When my parents sold our childhood home it was in a VERY hot market and multiple personal letters came with offers.

Yes. Not on the first offer but the second offer. We low balled the sellers but really wanted the house. So, on the second offer we came up slightly and then sent a letter saying how much we were looking forward to living in the house (and not flipping it). It helped.

@LuLu Mom: I'm with you. I must be super cynical too since I would give a major side eye to someone who submitted a letter with their offer. We just sold our condo in the city and definitely picked based on financial reasons. Maybe it's a regional thing? When we bought our house 4 years ago, our realtor never mentioned that.

Yes and it got us the house! We were one of 3 offers and they knew they wanted a family to buy it. I included why we wanted their home, he area, and describes our family. I had a picture of the 4 of us. They loved it.

No.

I agree that a strong offer is best. So unless you think there are going to be 2-3 strong offers all with similar strengths (and you just need something non-financial to make you stand out) then I wouldn't worry about it.

Or unless there is something special/unique about the house (like its historical) or something that you want to note to the sellers that you want to preserve/make it your home etc.

We put in an offer at full asking price and included a letter. The letter helped - we were against two other offers which I assume were similar. I met the wife selling and she told me how she wanted to pick us because of the letter. We talked about our infant daughter growing up there and how we'd been looking for a while for the right house.

We didn't give a letter, but someone did give us one when we sold our townhouse. At the time I had no clue people did that and thought it was unnecessary. We had two offers and the one with the letter was the best offer so we went with them anyway. In our case, the potential buyer had like 5 kids for a 3 bdrm, 1.5 bath townhome so we were confused why they were even looking at our place, let alone to tell us they loved it so much...lo and behold they backed out of the deal during the inspection over a minor issue. To this day I really think they got cold feet due to the size of the house and their large family, but who really knows. If it's standard practice, then do it, but I wouldn't go out of your way to write something if it's not. Personally I think it's a little strange to put those details about your family out to a complete stranger in a 'competition' for a house, but in hot markets, I guess it's the norm.

I was in a super tight market. What we found was money talks. Putting down a large earnest money deposit and not needing PMI made our offer more desirable. . Our real estate agent passed along info that we were a young couple with very stable jobs (the irony being that we both went on indefinite furlough 3 days after closing). He said letters don't work well in our market

Sort of, but for a very different reason. For our current home, it was clear from the first open house we went to that the house needed some significant work (ie. completely new heating system, etc). It had been on the market for a while (6 mos) due to these issues, and was priced too high. We loved the location and size, so we made a really lowball offer and included a carefully worded note that indicated that we were aware of the issues with the house and would not be asking for additional money off the selling price or backing out after the inspection unless something else major came up. We ended up buying the house for just a smidge above our offer, and I think the fact that we were really direct with the sellers was helpful as they had been burned by higher offers who had dropped out before.

It sounds like a lot of posters are assuming you put in a LOW offer with a personal letter and hope the letter convinces them. My mom is a Realtor and that's not why it's suggested. It's usually suggested if it's a well priced home that may move quickly with a lot of offers at asking price (or very close to it). She suggests submitting a letter with an offer that's at asking price or close to it if there's a lot of activity on the house. So that if they have 3 offers all at full price and all other variables equal, the personal letter can make a difference.
For example, empty nesters who assign a lot of sentimental value to the house might be drawn to a young family who wants it to be their forever home.

ETA: and yeah, it may be regional.

Our housing market is hot right now (and was when we bought) and we decided to submit a personal letter in the off chance it would make a difference. I have no idea if it helped – maybe we were just the highest bidder.

No, we did not, nor would I have if there were multiple bids at the same price. I think it was because I wasn't set on the house, to be honest. Maybe I would have felt differently if it was a unique property, I don't know.

No; I didn't even think about it honestly!

@SweetiePie: We are in very different regions and our realtor expressed the same sentiments. I think it just makes basic sense - it's a way to differentiate yourself and it might tug on some heartstrings.

We sold and received no letters. It wouldn't have made much difference to us (it was all finances for us) unless we had the same offer and we were trying to decide between people. In this case we would have gone back to both realtors and requested details on the buyers, though. Or if someone wrote a letter that said they planned to bulldoze my son's first home I might have thought twice.

We included a picture with our offer on our most recent home. Our realtor knew the sellers really well though and recommended it. Our offer was best, but it did result in them throwing in the playscape because they said our son would love it.

We did. It's very common in our area, and also the seller of our house was the listing agent (it was his childhood home and he was handling it for his mother's estate). We had chatted with him at length during the open house and wanted to be sure he matched us up with our offer. I think it made a difference -- our realtor told us there was a higher offer than ours but apparently there was something "off" about it so he took ours instead. Personally, I suspect the higher offer smelled like a developer and he didn't want to see the house pulled down and two shoeboxes thrown up in its place, which is unfortunately the reality for lots of older houses in our area.

ETA: if we sell at some point, I'd definitely rather sell to a family than a developer even if we got a bit less, so I would want personal letters.

Nope. But ours was a major fixer that had been on the market for over 4 months.

I'd send a letter and include a family photo.