Your Ultimate Guide to Crafting a Real Estate Offer Letter that Gets the House

When you’ve found the house of your dreams and you’re ready to make an offer, how do you make sure your offer stands out? While the primary factor that determines which offer a seller chooses is financial (in other words, the price you’ll pay to live in the house), if two or more offers are comparable, an appeal to emotions may allow fate to tip favorably in your direction.

One tactic that many agents recommend for just that reason is to write an offer letter to the seller. When making such an appeal, however, there are many factors to consider — and even a few legal concerns to carefully navigate. Read on to learn more and discover how to write a real estate offer letter that will get you the house.

Why write an offer letter?

As it turns out, most sellers are human beings, and as humans, they favor a good emotional connection. The business of buying and selling a house involves a lot of paperwork and a lot of numbers, and if the seller has competing offers that all look pretty similar to each other, they may find themselves looking for some sort of sign or feeling as to which one is the “right” one.

A letter that helps the seller make an emotional connection to you by sharing a little bit about yourself and what you like about the property has the potential to make your offer stand out from the crowd like a glowing beacon against the darkness of paper and math. Especially in seller’s markets, where there is lots of competition with other buyers, an offer letter can give you an edge.

Consider what the home means to the seller. It could be the house where they raised their children, full of countless birthday parties and the family dog running around the backyard. It can mean a lot to them knowing that they’re selling it to someone who will take care of it and (hopefully) love it the same way they do.

Top New York real estate agent Stephanie Morgan, who has more than 22 years of experience, says that “Real estate is a highly emotional transaction,” and that whenever she got the sense that a home held sentimental value, she would work with her clients on crafting a letter.

Offer letters aren’t appropriate in every circumstance, however. If a house is being sold as part of a divorce or under some other traumatic or contentious circumstance, then it might be best to avoid stirring up potentially conflicted emotions. Such letters may also make little difference if the house being sold was an investment property or if other offers are significantly higher than yours.