It wouldn't sway me one way or the other to buy your home. I would have seen the other house already and know what the differences are. Emotion don't enter into. To me it is a business deal. I want to purchase a house for as little money as I can. The seller wants to get as much for his/her home as they can. I would think it a bit odd as I have never heard of writing a letter to someone you don't even know almost begging them to purchase your home in a way. But it wouldn't put me off. NancyLouise

It would probably make me view you as a desperate seller, and I'd be more inclined to keep lowballing you.

I think it could help as long as you have stayed away from a hard sell. It will be obvious that you are trying to get more $ but that's ok, as long as it's done with grace and candor. If I were a buyer getting such a note I would pay attention to the letter but with an eye out for signs of desperation.

My husband and I would probably chuckle if we got a letter like that from a seller. We might even think there was a tad bit of desperation in sending a letter like that. It wouldn't affect our decision either way about purchasing the house. We do our homework before we make an offer so your letter wouldn't offend us nor would it persuade us. We would make an offer based on what we felt was a fair price for your home and we would not attach any additional value to anything you put in your letter.

It depends - when the market was on fire on the coasts the last few years, many, many buyers included these types of letters with their bids. There are reports on this forum as well as other forums that these letters did indeed work. While buying and selling should be a business transaction, sometimes the heart-strings can be tugged on.

If you are explaining your logic on why you are countering at a certain price, and can back your logic up with facts (comps), the letter may not sway the potential buyers for $15K but it may avoid confusion and hard feelings.

Letter to buyer = seller appears desperate.

I find the idea amusing. I was thinking about the "buyer letter" also; but then, I found those amusing as well.

It wouldn't sway DH or I either way. For us, the bottom line would be the number we derived not the number the seller is hoping for. We do considerable due diligence before making an offer for a piece of real estate. Sometimes, even with all the numbers...it just comes down to what we are willing to pay & not what comps might seem to support.

Good luck with your sale.

Wishing you fair winds & safe harbor.
Tricia

I would tend to agree with all the replies except for the fact that the potential buyers compared the OP's house with the smaller, less valued house. The letter, or whatever means one uses to communicate with the buyers, would help in this case to show them it's not the same house and is, in fact, a more valuable one.

Not all buyers do their homework. It could work in this case if they compared the two houses which aren't alike.

Personally, I would just use the Realtor.

or maybe a note with a 'list' of differences. That's it. No "letter".

I don't think it would seem desperate. I would view it as a further explanation as to why you feel your counter is the true value of the home and that it is priced with those "intangible" factors in mind. It will also give the impression that you are not willing to go dwon any further. I agree that the actual closing of a home sale is a business transaction but the journey of looking for a home is most decidedly not. The majority of people don't buy for investment purposes, they buy because they can see themselves sitting on a back porch on a quiet evening enjoying themselves. So I don't think it's a totally bad idea, just different. That being said I can't say whether it would influence me one way or another, it would have to depend on if you mention the important things I am considering in a home (community, etc.). Good luck!

You might want to be a bit vague when describing why your home is worth more to the potential buyers. If you go off praising your hardwood floors...what happens if the buyers don't LIKE hardwood floors...then, you're just reminding them of the money they'll need to spend to refloor? What if they are not into home entertainment...then reminding them of your surround sound might just also remind them why they don't want to pay as much for your home. These "upgrades" can and do work both ways.

Square footage is a more objective comparison providing the extra square footage isn't soley useable for something like a pool table, home theater, or other specialized purpose which may have no meaning to these particular buyers.

I wouldn't write the letter. I think it could as easily work against you as for you.

Tricia

Isn't this what an agent's for? Shouldn't they be the one that compares apples to oranges?

I'd read the letter carefully and consider it if there was any information that I hadn't noticed. For example, custom features that might have been overlooked during a showing -- like lights on dimmer switches, central vacuum, pull-out pantry shelves, of a hidden seat on der the pool waterfall. Anything that's especially nice to live with -- the way the patio catches a nice breeze in the morning and evening, or how it's so quiet in the mornings that you can hear the birds awakening... The bit about the neighbors sounds nice too, but I'd want specifics about the ages of the kids or great neighborhood lawn-mowing services.

You would have to watch the tone to be sure it didn't sound 'whiny' or 'desparate' -- but there are some houses I could easily write a love letter about. A good letter would illustrate that you're not offended by a 'low' offer, but also explain why your counter is as high as it is.

Well this is exactly what I wrote:

Hello!

We would first like to say that we appreciate your offer on our house. It is a great house with so many little extras that you just won't see in most other homes. We know you have looked over the list of features. We would like to point out what it was that sold us on the house when we bought it that made it such a great value. The hardwood floors, 9 ft ceilings & skylights - really add tons of light especially when it seems like the sun will never come out, upgraded appliances, 2700+ square feet - feels huge compared to the rest, central air(!), and extra storage in garage are the features we appreciated (and miss) the most. These are the the things that will really hold their value for resale in the future if you were to move (at any other time than now). : ) Looking at our price/sq. foot we are much lower that most of the houses on the market and all the upgrades make it an extra value. We can't forget to mention that the neighbors are really great. The neighbors on either side have been so good to watch over the house and water the yard for us. If it were not for all of our family being here in the midwest, we could have seen our family live there very comfortably without outgrowing that house, and we have three children.

Anyway, it's a hard decision, we know. Thanks for considering our home.

Best regards,

I'm not sure it had any barring on negotiations. I was trying to explain why we not willing to just take their offer, even though I was feeling desperate. I definitely wanted them to know what our house offered that the other did not without specifically dogging on the other house. After reading everyone's comments I am not sure I would do do it again. Although I would have appreciated receiving the little info on the neighbors and the things I may have overlooked. Even though I really think they knew our house was a better fit/buy but just wanted to rattle us into taking less. In the end they came up a bit and we came down. It's over and now we can finally work on building a new house in our new town/state.

Congratulations on your sale! :-)

Congrats, The letter seemed like a good idea to me... Although I paid attention to a lot in my house search, I've completely remodeled my house and I would say that there are lots of little touches etc that I spent time doing that may not be readily noticable until you live there.

the surround speaker wiring I did, the 80 year old hardwood floors that were refinished, the dimmers and 30 highhats we put in, extra thick doors full extension drawers, cast iron tub etc. etc...

Its not really the sort of thing that would appeal to me but I wouldn't take it as desparate either. I'd take it more as a serious seller pulling out the marketing stops in a tough market and there isn't anything wrong with that. I also think it says we seriously considered your initial offer.
I think it would be a good place to put in things that are concerns that you don't typically find out about till after the close. Like neighbors. I think that was a great idea. Or neighborhoods if the people aren't from the area. Or that the township just upgraded all the water pipes and now your water pressue is so much better than before - whatever might be better than some other place all others being equal (which it doesn't sound like this was).
Congrats.

When we sold our last house one of the things that helped to sell it was that I printed little notes on the computer and stuck them up on parts of the house I wanted people to notice, like the fireplace surround was imported italian marble, the hot tub had been recently serviced and we had all records for it, the wood floors were done by Joe X who's well known for his great wood floors. The house can't speak for itself, so we gave it a voice.

The letter would not have influenced my pocketbook, but I would actually have been more likely to walk away from bargaining on it if I felt that the sellers were in love with their house rather than it being a business transaction.

The one I bought was a rental and I felt like I could press hard on getting the numbers I wanted because I know he was at the end of his deducting period with the IRS and wanted to dump it.
He was NOT pleased when our stupid realtor let that one slip that we knew.