Real Estate Love Letters

By Mark Phoenix posted July 13, 2021

Real Estate Love Letters

You may have received, written or at least, heard of a “love letter” which conveys ones’ affection toward another.   Have you heard of love letters relating to real estate?

Real estate love letters are typically written from the point of view of the buyer addressed to the seller of a home.  Real estate love letters are written in an attempt for the buyer to ingratiate themselves to the seller in the hope the seller will accept the offer the buyer made; to illustrate various reasons why the seller should accept the offer made by a particular buyer. 

Real estate love letters can be quite popular, particularly in circumstances where there are multiple offers submitted on a home for sale.   What could be wrong with real estate love letters?  On the surface of it, seemingly nothing.  However, when these letters are viewed within the context of fair housing laws, there could be items contained within that letter that might be concerning.

To explain why a seller might accept a particular buyers offer; the buyer attempts to convince the seller why they should accept their offer.  Prospective home buyers may include pictures of their loved ones, pets, children’s Halloween photos, wedding photos etc.  They may write things such as “I can see my children seated in the dining room on Easter Sunday.”.   In short, such real estate love letters that contain items such as these and others, often reveal personal information such as race, religion, or familial status, protected classes under fair housing laws, which either knowingly or unknowingly can create a bias which may be unlawful.

When acting as a buyer agent, I do not accept, nor do I read any such letter authored by a buyer.  Nor do I read or allow the seller to read a real estate love letter when representing a seller.  That may potentially place the sellers and me in a circumstance of violating fair housing laws.

The state of Oregon recently enacted a law prohibiting real estate buyer love letters, and other states in the union are considering following suit.

On what basis does a seller decide which offer to accept, reject, or make a counteroffer to a buyer?  On the merit of the purchase offer such as terms, conditions, the amount offered for the property, contingencies, closing date, amount of earnest money, the presence or absence of property inspections and any other relevant objective element contained within the purchase offer.

In my years of practice in real estate, I have often wondered how effective real estate love letters have been in playing on the emotions of the seller during offer negotiations.  To be fair and balanced for purposes of presenting this topic, I have researched this topic online and was unable to find any lawsuit filed under this topic.

The harsh reality is the sellers I represent make decisions based upon the content of the offer and how the many details contained within that offer relates to and affects their personal circumstances.

There is a suspicious story I have heard over the years involving a real estate love letter written by a prospective buyer’s dog.  It seems this capable canine wrote a real estate love letter hoping the home sellers were dog lovers.  Understand, there were several offers presented to the seller for this house.  As it turned out, the offer that was accepted by the seller of the home was the offer presented with the real estate love letter written by this dog. The owner of the dog, the prospective buyer, also offered the highest purchase price compared with the other offers presented to the home seller.

Here’s a fitting final thought:  “Dogs do speak.  But, only to those who know how to listen”.   - Author unknown