Hellobee Boards

I dont see why it would be wrong...we received letters when we sold our house, several of them describing their family...so I guess I dont see the harm in a picture...

A photo, no. But some information on the family, yes. My parents had their house up for sale. They received an offer at asking price. Their realtor found out from the buyer's realtor that it was a large family with multiple generations. Like, there would 12-15 people living there at any given time. My parents didn't think their neighbors would appreciate that, so they declined the offer.

@littlebug: Yeah, I agree. I think knowing more about who's buying your home is fine, but I wouldn't want anyone to sell based on the "looks" of one buyer over another!

I don't know if it's unethical. Supposedly, our current landlord met with 3 potential tenants in person and picked us. I almost think it added to our application rather than just a stack of paperwork.

I don't think our agent would have passed it along. There's potential issues for fair housing suits then, he was a pretty big stickler for sticking to the rules of what could and couldn't be discussed - like schools, he would not even remotely touch on schools.

As long as the buyer wanted to send it along I don't see the problem.

For those who say that a letter is fine but photo is not, would you disclose that you are a family? Family status is a protected class under the Fair Housing act as well.

In this day and age of social media we could have easily found the couple that was purchasing our house online. I think they were doing it more an an enticement like see what a cute normal family we are. We sent in a letter but no photo but my realtor casually mentioned to their realtor that i had just found out i was pregnant.

I've heard of realtors urging their clients to include a personal letter with information about their family with their offer. I thought it was weird, but I guess if there are a ton of offers, it makes sense. It's like personalizing a school application or resume.

@Mrs D: we moved to a different state and had to purchase or rent quickly, knowing very little about the area or neighborhoods. We found out it was had to get info from our realtor. Sometimes he could point us to sources to gather info but he couldn't provide us with info about crime or schools or stuff like that.
http://realestate.usnews.com/real-estate/articles/what-your-real-estate-agent-cant-tell-you/

we submitted a letter and photo with our offer(s). in both cases, it did absolutely nothing! ha. but we were the best offer(s).

My initial thought was that it was kind of odd, and to wonder in a purchase (rather than rental) situation why the seller would care that much about who was buying, so long as they had the appropriate financial backing for the sale.

It's actually really nice that the sellers in so many cases have cared about their neighbors enough to want to make sure they're giving them good new neighbors! Can you tell I'm a city-dweller?! But yes, I think that certain information (the number of people who will be living there, will any be children, are they bringing pets or a business that operates out of the home) is relevant, race/ethnicity/sex of the people who would be living there really isn't.