When the housing market is hot, people sometimes take extra steps to try to buy a home that they are interested in. One tactic that they will consider using is writing a “love letter” to the people who are selling the home. This will essentially tell those people why they love the home and why they hope that their offer is the one that gets selected.
Many people do this with good intentions, and it sounds completely innocent. They’re just trying to make their case for why their offer should be chosen over someone else, even though the financial value may be the same. They’re hoping to connect with the buyer on a friendly level. But this can be a major problem, as well.
Even unintentional bias in home sales can be a problem
The issue is that home sales are not supposed to be biased. Certain individuals are not supposed to get preference, while others are not supposed to be discriminated against. Regardless of someone’s gender, religion, family status or race, for example, they should have the same chance as everyone else to buy a home.
These “love letters” will often address these issues unintentionally. They may give indications to the sellers about that buyer’s ethnicity, background, race, religion or the family that they have. This can influence sellers who may be more attracted to some of these qualities than others. It’s true that this may not be an intentional bias, but it can certainly discriminate against people who have made completely valid offers – but who were not selected due to some of these inherent qualities.
Buying a home may be a bit more complicated than you realized, so be sure you know exactly what steps to take. Don’t let a simple mistake keep you and your family from the home you love.