Flattery Will Get You...

Flattery is a tried-and-true negotiating strategy, but homebuyers in hot markets are making a bizarre art form out of kissing up. In hot markets, it’s common for homebuyers to include a personal appeal along with their offer paperwork and financing details. Usually that means a letter, to introduce the seller to the buyer’s family and wax on about what the buyer loves about the house. But buyers are stepping up their games: Recent personal entreaties have included YouTube videos and baked goods, says Andrew Vallejo, a Redfin agent. “After they toured the property, they left a note for the seller on the kitchen counter about how much they loved the house,” he says of one recent couple. “The next day they came back and hand-delivered cookies to the seller and to five or six of the seller’s neighbors.”

Cookies might be new, but the offer letter is an old staple of hot markets. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to indicate that the strategy works, though only in certain regions. The Internet, meanwhile, is awash with advice for prospective homebuyers. So there’s a good chance that a house-hunter attempting to sweet-talk will be going up against another one with the same strategy, which usually involves a variation on a common theme. The first step is flattery: “I love those drapes! I won’t change a thing!” The second step is more flattery, by way of aspiration: “Your lovely home is key to the life I want for my family.” These can be powerful sentiments but probably less compelling if the seller is receiving several letters that all say the same thing.

Source: Bloomberg News