When Ilan and Sarah Harel bought their first home in Pleasant Valley, New York, last year, they decided to get creative. The couple, having already been burned by the competitive pandemic housing ...

Get guidance from trusted mortgage experts. If you want to make your offer on a home stand out when there are multiple competing offers, one tactic you can use is to craft a well-written offer letter.

All of the advice about letter writing can be flipped on its head if the seller is an investor, and not someone who actually inhabited the home. “You can’t pull at an investor’s heart strings as ...

Once Head has written the letter, she reaches out to the seller’s agent, and tells them there’s an offer coming. She makes a point to also tell the agent the buyer’s story, over the phone, so the ...