Buyer “love letters” are not generally prosperous and not beneficial if the seller is an investor somewhat than another person leaving a property with sentimental price. When most people assume that a love letter is harmless, the Nationwide Association of Realtors (NAR) alerted its users in 2020 to the likelihood that the letters could violate the Good Housing Act.
When sellers might accept any give they pick for their property centered on the cost and terms, Honest Housing guidelines prohibit discrimination dependent on protected characteristics these as the faith, race or household status of future consumers.
Frequently, customer like letters are written to tug on the heartstrings of the sellers. For case in point, if the prospective buyers know that the sellers lived in their residence for 25 decades, raised their family there and hosted holiday seasons and weddings there, they could reference those people ordeals in the context of their programs for the household.
If customers produce a letter about how a lot they glance forward to web hosting Passover seders or that they can image their daughters posing for prom images in front of the fireplace, then they have exposed their relatives configuration and their faith to the sellers. If their supply is not chosen, the sellers could be accused of earning a determination primarily based on all those components in violation of Good Housing guidelines.
Customers are not barred from producing these letters, of course, but to avoid likely discrimination, they may want to adhere to describing their enthusiasm for the attributes of the residence or neighborhood fairly than revealing also considerably private data.
NAR proposed that its members reveal the pitfalls of really like letters to their purchaser purchasers and remind their seller purchasers that their conclusions about any gives should be primarily based on goal standards this sort of as the conditions and rate relatively than on the purchasers on their own.
For extra information and facts about the Reasonable Housing implications of letters to sellers, click right here.