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When offers are neck-and-neck, the deciding factor is not always the extra few thousand dollars. We get into a deceptively simple tool many Kiwi buyers overlook: a letter to the vendor. If you are buying at a deadline sale or tender, and you are competing with similar deposits, similar conditions, and similar settlement dates, a thoughtful note can help the homeowner feel confident about who they are handing the keys to.
We share what actually works in a vendor letter, including how to make it personal without making it awkward. Think specific details you noticed at the property, the intention you have for the home, and the reassurance that you will care for what is already there. We also talk about why handwritten letters can stand out, the role of sentiment (especially for older sellers), and how gardens and long-held memories can influence a decision more than buyers expect.
We also cover what not to include. Talking up big renovations or spare cash can backfire fast, and it can leave vendors wondering if you can pay more or if you will wipe out the character of the place they love. We answer the question about adding a family photo, what happens to letters when an offer is unsuccessful, and why keeping a copy of your own words can be a powerful reminder once the realities of home ownership kick in.
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Letters to the vendors. Hello, Megan. Hello. I often tell my clients when you're putting an offer, and if it's like a deadline sale or tender, you know, and if multiple offers get presented to the vendors, write a letter, make it personal. Do they still work?
SPEAKER_00
They do. They do. It's a it's quite a little thing that people, especially first home buyers, often ask me, they almost look like I'm going to say no or something. They're like, would it be okay if we include a letter to the vendor in our offer? And I'm like, great idea. Absolutely. Sometimes if two offers come in at a similar level with similar conditions and a similar deposit and a similar settlement date, just hearing from the buyers can help a vendor make that decision. Yeah. So
I've actually done it myself. And I don't think I did it on my first house because we didn't know about it. But with the second house, I already knew that the person who was selling was elderly. And I actually wrote it on a yellow piece of paper because I was so surprised when we sold out we sold our house first and then we went tried to buy this house. And all the offers that came in on our house had letters, and the agent just put them to one side. I was like, no, no, I want to read these. And he was like, no, but you'll be probably just selling based on the price, which we ended up doing. But I was just like, I don't want my letter to be put aside. So I got a yellow piece of paper, went down warehouse stationary, and had to buy this special piece of paper. And I hand wrote the letter. And I just thought that way, if they're looking through the papers, they'll be going, What's that? What's that yellow? Yeah. What's that? And that's a happy colour too. It's a happy colour. And in the letter, I had taken note of some things that were in their garden because his wife had passed away, but she was an amazing gardener. So, you know, I'd said, Oh, you know, Daphne is my favorite flower. And I'd noticed that there were two Daphne bushes at the property and commented on their roses and said, you know, we'll do our best to learn to take care of your garden and and upskill in our gardening sense. You're gonna make me cry. But I have not done a good job with your garden. FYI. Yeah, it's we're too busy to garden. So I've I've simplified it a lot. But in the letter, we, you know, we wrote what our intention was for the home, that it would be a a family home for our children, and we were planning on being there long term and raising them.
There are a couple of things though you shouldn't put in your letter. All right, tell me. What is it? So things like I'm holding back heaps of money to renovate your house wouldn't, you know, like if you're writing about your plans for the house, like, oh, long term, we're gonna build an extension, we're gonna like do this, we're gonna do that, and pimp it out basically. And then the homeowners go to us as agents. Do you think they've got a bit more money? So maybe don't cover that off in your letter, just keep it personal about what's there right now and what you love about it and how it's going to be living in the house for you.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00
Not like focusing on what you're going to do to totally change the character of it.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, because that's another thing, right? Like, especially if it's an older person selling to downsize or to move to a retirement village, they have certain sentiment tied with the house. Yeah. And the last thing they want to know, obviously, like somewhere subconsciously, they know that whoever buys the house will knock off that wall or renovate it, change it, renovated the kitchen, upgrade the bathroom, whatever. But they don't want to see that. They don't want to hear that. They they still want to keep that image in their head that the house is going to be that original memory for them.
Well, I've got uh a lady at the moment who's got this beautiful garden that she set up with all these permaculture principles. If you don't know what permaculture is, majority of people don't, but it's all to do with companion planting and not spraying like sprays on plants, and I think that's roughly what it is, but you can Google it. And she made the comment of, Oh, I hope the person who buys it won't just rip it out and put grass down, like, you know, tries to keep a little bit of the spirit of the garden alive. And it's been great because a lot of the buyers that we've had through her home have been like, Yeah, this garden is too much for us right now with busy full-time work, but we would try and keep it essentially the same. So it it's it's a really nice thing to tell a homeowner if you are planning on honoring the spirit of their home and just saying, like, we will try and keep, you know, these things and and really enjoy
Yeah. What about photographs? Someone asked me one time, should we include a family photo for them to see who they're actually dealing with, you know?
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I've only had that once. I don't know if it makes a difference, to be honest. The letter itself can just be enough sometimes. Maybe putting in a photograph, you know, I'm just wondering what they would do with the photograph afterwards.
SPEAKER_01
Well, that was going to be my next question to you is that can they put the photographs and ask the agent to return back the photographs?
SPEAKER_00
Oh, absolutely. And we've had that with unsuccessful offers as well. I I've just said to the buyers, oh, you told me that there's a letter. Would you like me to take the letter away if they don't accept your offer? Because if they accepted the offer, they might like to keep the letter and put it in like a little memento box or something. But if they don't keep the letter, you know, that person's shared from the bottom of their heart and they may want it returned to them. So sometimes buyers like, oh no, just put it in the shredder. Or sometimes they're like, Yeah, I'll come and pick it up from you at work.
You know what I see suddenly? I see this mental image of if the offer is successful, return the letter back to the purchasers and then frame it and leave it in like hallway. So every time when, you know, once they bought a house, they walk into their house and they see why they bought that house.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I love that. As a gentle reminder to themselves, you know, because we all go through periods of time. I had so many first-time buyers buying a house and then suddenly the hot water cylinder bursts, or you know, something happens, right? And they get quite angry going, Oh, why did we buy this house? or you know, blah blah blah. Yeah. And I think having something physical there to remind you why did you do that? Yeah, is quite a good one.
SPEAKER_00
That's really nice. Yeah. Having some kind of like, okay, this was our goal, and look, we've achieved it. And a little kind of moment in time where they've just gone, yeah, we did this before life got
But also it's quite sweet, isn't it? Like I'm looking back into my first home when we first bought our first house, and that was what, 14 years ago, 15 years ago. And you know, who I was back then is slightly different to who I am now. Yeah. And if I had something like this to look back at and go, oh my god, like those things were important to me, you know? Like, for instance, the first home that we bought, it had a beautiful fireplace. It was an absolute matchbox of a house, it was 69 square meters, three-bedroom, tiny as, hardly any section. But what captured me was the fireplace. Beautiful. And I always wanted to have a fireplace. So when we were talking to the vendors, because it was a private sale, we were talking about the fireplace and how we really love it and you know how easy it is to take care. So that's one thing I really remember. And that's one thing I always would treasure in my head and about that house is that it had that beautiful fireplace.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, that's really nice. And then the vendor can go, oh, they appreciate what I've got, and they're gonna really love living here. I've often heard elderly people say, Oh, I'd like to give it to the young family, because I can imagine them running around on the lawn and bringing joy back in. Sometimes they've lost a partner or something, you know, like they might be kind of in not great health and they might be moving for a variety of reasons.
And us agents tend to share that with permission from the homeowner. So, you know, if there is something that you know about the homeowner and you wish to acknowledge it in your letter, that's a nice little thing that if you want to, you can just touch on there and say, I hope you're happy in your new home, or I'm sorry to hear that the reason you're selling is, you know, you wouldn't say mortgage e-sale or something like that. But you know, like maybe sorry you can't afford your mortgage. Maybe, maybe you say something like, Oh, um, you know, I'm sorry to hear that your partner passed away, or but have a human touch to that, right? Don't ask AI to write it for you. You know, you're a person there. There's a person there, and and there's a buyer, there's a person as well. And those two people can connect over a letter. It's quite old-fashioned in a way, isn't it? I love that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
I love that because I feel like this is something that we get really disconnected by.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
You know, and having that human touch to it, yeah, it's just beautiful.
