Pick Me, Please: Home Buyers Writing Letters to Sellers

Some buyers are solving housing woes with prose.

They’re not writing poems or romantic novels — just short notes to sellers, telling them how happy they’d be to buy their homes.

The simple gesture is paying off in today’s market, where inventory is tight and bidding wars are typical.  “Money talks, but a letter gives a human element to an offer,” says Michael Citron, a real estate agent in Broward and Palm Beach counties. “Sellers want to sell to a Buyer who they’re comfortable with and can relate to.”

Cynthia Kelley fell in love with a four-bedroom home in Coral Springs, Fla., as soon as she saw the “doggy doors” and the big back yard.  But four other buyers also wanted the home. So her agent suggested she write a letter, explaining to the seller how much the home would mean to her. “I have three golden retrievers myself and know they would be in heaven with all that fabulous space to run and play,” she wrote.

Kelley, 48, included a photo of herself with the pooches and also explained that she is a reserve Army nurse who is ready to buy after enduring some financial hardships when she was called to active duty from 2005 to 2007.