In today’s market, buyers are battling amongst themselves in a fierce competition. With low inventory and multiple offers on properties being the norm, it’s important to know how to structure your offer in order for it to shine in the best light possible.

It is important to remember that most sellers did not go to school to study real estate and that reading contracts can be very confusing,  especially when a single offer can be upwards of 25+ pages including disclosures.  A good listing agent will be able to help a seller navigate the offer and comprehend the language in way that is easier for the seller to understand. However, not all agents are the same. The average agents will just forward the offer directly to the seller and the last thing you want is a seller to read page after page of complicated legal talk, leaving them with a feeling stressed our afterward. The seller’s initial reaction will be “No”. In order to avoid this, I am sharing these few tips that can help your offers jump off the page and make it easy for the seller to say “Yes”!

Here are three great tools to keep in your arsenal when preparing your offer package:

1. Cover Letter
2. Buyer’s Letter
3. Follow Up Letter

1. Cover Letter – A cover letter is an important aspect that is often not included with an offer, but should be in any offer your submit to a seller. Since we live in an age where technology is at our fingertips at all times, you can simply do this in the form of an email. However, I recommend including it as the first page of your offer package to really make a great first impression. This page is intended to explain all the details of your offer in an easy way so that an seller can understand what you are offering before reading the full offer.

A good cover letter will include an executive summary of the whole offer, including but not limited to: names of buyers, purchase price, initial deposit, amount due at closing, loan amount, close of escrow timeline, possession date, removal timeline of contingencies, buyer and seller costs, any personal items included or excluded from sale, any additional terms, expiration of the offer and mentioning any additional documents attached, such as Proof of Funds &/ or Pre-Qualification Letter.

The cover letter will also help point out the particulars to the listing agent, which will help them communicate clearly and effectively with their seller about the terms of your offer.

2. Buyer’s Letter – A buyer’s letter has been single-handedly one of the best tools I have used when going to bat for my buyers on a home in a multiple offer situation.

Buying and selling real estate is an emotional experience. When a seller receives five offers to purchase their home, all with similar prices and terms, it can be difficult to choose the best fit. However, if one of the offers comes with a Buyer’s Letter that gives the seller a little background information about the buyers, including photos and their plans for the home, it can make a huge difference. Talking about who you are, where your coming from, why you like the home and what you do for a living puts a face to the offer. Otherwise it is just a black and white piece of paper. Other topics like the purpose of the purchase (for family, second home, investment etc.) and being thankful to the seller for taking the time to review the offer goes a long way as well.

For instance, I suggested to one of my clients to put together their letter to include in the offer and we beat out the competition solely on the fact that the seller and buyer were both firefighters. Sure enough, they realized that they both ran in similar groups and knew some of the same people. Without this Buyer’s Letter, the seller would have never known they had this much in common and could have passed on the offer all together!

Another example where this letter closed the deal was when a buyer hired me and told me that she was planning to raise her three year old and another baby on the way in their new home. The area they were interested in was notorious for investors looking to buy, tear down, rebuild and sell. However, when I found her the perfect home to buy, she connected with the seller on the sole fact that the home she raised her own kids in would stay intact for the next family. That meant the difference between winning or loosing. Fortunately, my clients won and now they get to enjoy raising a family in a fantastic home while the sellers gets reminded of memories every time she passes by the home that could have been torn down had it not been for the personal connection they made.

3. Follow up Letter – As I stated before, it is competitive out there for a buyer and sellers can get bombarded with numerous offers. Sometimes a seller won’t respond to an offer because the listing agent is on vacation, the email bounced back, or the seller got cold feet. Thus the Follow Up Letter is a great way to confirm that the seller received your offer and remind them you are still interested. Plus, saying thank you helps to keep the door open for further communication.

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