Letter to the Owners ???

DH and I fell in love with a house that we saw last weekend. According to their RE, the lowest they could go with the house is $25,000 above the highest we could comfortably go with mortgage payments, taxes, utiities, and savings. Their RE let it slip to our RE, however, that they needed to close by the end of June for another house they have a contract on and that is why other offers are falling through. Deals could not be completed in their time frame.
DH and I seized the opportunity to offer them 25k below what they 'need to take to sell the house'. We COULD get in by the end of June, as our lease is coming to an end. After a few hours, they rejected the offer.
I dont know what they are doing because I dont see how they are going to find another buyer who could get in by the end of June and whose cash flow is as liquid.

I wanted to write them a handwritten letter, asking them to reconsider, as we did not just love the house, but the karma in the house... I see myself having my first child in this house as they did, sipping wine on their beautiful deck, placing pictures all around of our family as they had done (sort of reminded me of mine). The karma was there and I could see many happy years in their house. Do you think that would be wrong to do?

As a real estate letter, I would encourage you to write a letter....I've seen it work before.

I will tell you that what their agent did is wrong and they could get in a lot of trouble for telling you all of that info about their sellers! Whatever you do, DO NOT let it slip that you know this info about them.

I would definitely write the letter, but without mentioning knowledge of their situation.

Often home sales can be emotionally driven, just as you envision yourself doing all sorts of 'firsts' in the house, they to may be feel that you remind them of when they first moved in. I know of people that bought a house and the sellers badly wanted them to buy it just because they really liked them... so its not really that farfetched and really 25k is not all that much to come down if they need to be out of there.

I guess you can write the letter, no harm right? I dont know if a sweet letter would make someone knock 25K off the price of a house but it's worth a shot, you never know. But I do have a Q - what makes you think you are the only potential buyers on LI with liquid cash flow who could be in by the end of June?? I dont mean that rudely, Im just wondering where you got that idea...there are alot of people out there shopping.

Now if they have overpriced their house, they'll see soon enough that they are putting themselves in a serious bind. Sometimes real estates get greedy and promise an owner that they can 'definitely get (them) that price'. LOL Our house, which we bought last year, was overpriced, even for this high market and I guess the owners realized it and accepted our offer which was $20K below their reduced price (they had it $25K higher than that the prior week) because they too HAD TO get out. They had already purchased a coop and the husband was getting surgery (long story) and they needed to finally make a move so timing is everything.

Good luck, I hope it all works out in your favor.

No, you are right, Elizabeth but here is my thinking. We are renting right now in the city and the house is in the suburbs, but not on LI. In Westchester.
We are fortunate in that our lease is coming up extremely soon so we could get in by June. My guess would be that other people who are looking at this house, a three bedroom house, might have children and probably another house or apartment they are already in. My thought would be that most people would need to sell one house before buying this one. Another renter looking at the house might be in a situation where they have a few more months on the lease and that would stop them from a June closing.
We might have an advantage because we don't have to offload anything to get the simple downpayment. It is in the bank not in another house, if that makes sense.
I dont know... I guess I am just hoping. But you are right. I cant think I am the only gang in town, especially since it is the busy summer months.

I say write the letter....someone on the knot board did this and it worked for them!!

Also maybe try to split the difference with them on price. The letter might not work if they feel your offer is just too low! They may need the money to roll into their new home!

Good Luck

I say write the letter!! Seriously, what do you have to lose? Good Luck!!

I think a letter is a BAD idea. All you are doing is showing them how much you want the property. This shows the seller that you are desperate. If I got a letter similar to what the people here are thinking about writing... I would think this person will do what it takes to get the house. The person that said buying a house is an emotional process hit it right on the head. Don't let emotion get in the way of good business practices.

Plus you have liquid cash. If you can afford to pay hundreds of thousands for a house in CASH... but claim to be short 25k... the seller knows you can EASILY come up with an extra 25k. All you have to do is take out a personal loan... like a 401k loan.

I would keep your position STRONG... not weak by sending a letter begging the seller to take your offer. You made your offer... let them sit on it. If they find another buyer... move on. You have cash to spend on a house... i am sure you will find other houses and your cash-deal offers will put you high on the lists.

Remember the old addage... Money talks and bull--it walks. Even if the seller says he 'needs' to close by a certain time... on the other hand I am sure he can arrange a way to postpone a closing. Its not hard to do at all.

Oh... and I am assuming when you say liquid cash you have full cash to pay the seller at closing (no mortgage required).

If you need a mortgage... even though you think you can close by end of June... there is NO way that would happen considering we are in the middle of May. Banks LOVE to take their time.

If its a cash deal... then im sure you can close by June.

its not a cash deal. mortgage required. omg, i wish. thanks for yall of your advice:)

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Posted by sept20yay

its not a cash deal. mortgage required. omg, i wish. thanks for yall of your advice:)

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Well you are welcome to write a letter... but I think its a moot point now. You need to get a mortgage... there is no way you can close by June. Are you even pre-approved? Did you fill out a loan application yet? Did you give your bank all your bank statements for the last three months and W2s and Tax forms for the last two years? Did you get the approval 'certificate' signed by one of the banks loan officers saying the bank will guarantee the loan to you for a certain amount? (pre-approval certificate)

If you didn't do this yet... thats a 2-3 week process right there just to get you approved... before it even goes to underwriting and the whole mortgage process starts. If you already have all this done... then good for you. You are partially there and any offer from you would be considered a 'strong offer' to a seller.

If the seller is continually declining offers... he may be looking for a cash-only deal which I referred to above. There are people out there that can pay for houses in cash. I had a few of those offers when I sold my last co-op... but I wasn't in a rush to close so I took the highest offer (that had a pre-approval certificate). Thats the problem with cash-only offers for the most part. They usually come in about 3-5% less than the highest offer because the ease of closing that would accompany. No need to worry about a deal falling through cause a bank declined a loan.

Don't take it the wrong way... I don't mean to burst your bubble... I just want to make sure you are educated.

Good luck with it!

My parents dropped there home for the 'right' family even though they couldn't pay as much also they could close when my parents needed too because of somewhat of a letter/

What happened was they fell in love with the house during the open house and left at the open house they overheard my mom talking with her RE agent about how they got a great offer but foxtons let it slip away by not returning phone calls.. About 30minutes later they returned to the house and spoke to my parents and gave my parents there home number and said they would be making an offer tomorrow and if they didn't hear anything from foxtons to please call them because they were very interested and didn't want to slip away.

My parents 30 years ago let a house slip away that was 5,000 more because my Dad thought he couldn't afford it so my mom understood how much it sucks when you are short and loved the family who was interested in the house and they wanted out to retire and start there lives in NC.

I say go for the letter or try to contact the owners.