A love letter might be the key to getting your dream home. It might be a way to say goodbye to the place you’ve lived for years, as you pass it on to a new family. It might be a gift to your children or your family that lays out the joys the house has brought to all of you.
Expressing your feelings for your home is a great way to communicate with other people and share a piece of yourself with them. Here are two ways to get started.
Love Letters That Get Your Bid Noticed
In a seller’s market–really, in any market–buyers need to set themselves apart from the competition, and sometimes a financial offer alone isn’t enough to do that. And what if don’t have the financial ability to match the highest bids?
Tell the seller why you care. Write them a love letter about the home.
Writing the seller a home love letter tugs at their heartstrings and establishes an emotional connection. Most sellers have an emotional investment in their home. They want to know it will be loved and cared for after they leave. Writing a letter can prove that you are the person or family to carry on their investments in the home.
A successful letter conveys the reasons you love the home and the ways you expect that love to deepen over time. Keep it short–no more than three paragraphs–and make sure to include specific examples. What will you do with each of the rooms? What improvements can you imagine yourself making? How will the house change with you and your family? What does the neighborhood mean to you? If you’re moving as a family, consider having each family member contribute something to the letter, proving to the sellers that everyone is equally excited about the home.
This technique can also be useful for sellers. If you want to catch buyers’ attention with the best pieces of your home or if you’re finding it hard to let go, consider writing the potential buyers a brief letter about why you originally bought the home and what its meant to you since then.
Love Letters That Connect Family Members
Love letters about your home aren’t just good for communicating you feelings to strangers. They are also a powerful way to cement family bonds and create lasting memories.
When you are looking for ways to memorialize life milestones, like leaving a home you have lived in for years or watching a child move out, love letters are another great way to express your feelings. Again, specificity is important. What do you remember best about your time in the home? What particular room or location means the most to you? How has the space–and your family–changed over the years you have lived there?
These personal recollections highlight all the important emotional ways a home is part of our lives. They are an evocative, insightful, and meaningful tool to record and reflect the relationships we all have with the places we live.