The personal touch

Within hours of finding their dream house after a frustrating year of hunting, JJ Owen and Lori Rudolph-Owen put in a full-price bid. But competition was fierce for the spacious Colonial in West Medford. There were two other full-price offers on the property, and the young couple needed an edge in order to land the deal.

So the Owens decided to market themselves -- with a personal letter to the sellers.

In a note addressed ''To the owners of {hellip} " the couple wrote that they were both scientists at a Boston pharmaceutical company, where Rudolph-Owen developed drugs to treat cancer and Owen created computer models. They detailed the extensive improvements they had made to their condominium in Jamaica Plain and explained they wanted a larger home in which to raise a family. ''Many weekends were spent looking at open houses but none have impressed us as much as your home," they wrote.

Not only were they preapproved for a mortgage, but their offer was negotiable, they emphasized.

It worked. After the Owens got the house, they learned the sellers were moved by the gesture. ''They said a couple of times that they loved the letter," recalled Rudolph-Owen. ''It was the personal touch. I don't think they felt like they were just selling it to an anonymous buyer."

Not that the letter was a silver bullet to the woes of home-buying in the Boston area. The Owens still got into a bidding war and ended up paying about $20,000 over asking price. But in the end, the letter was the reason the sellers chose them. ''They loved their house and loved the neighborhood" but were moving out of state for work, said Rudolph-Owen. ''So when we submitted the letter, they felt we would also have a connection to the community and to the home."

In today's market, buyers are desperate for any competitive advantage -- besides paying more money. Adding a personal touch to an essentially impersonal transaction (buyers and sellers typically don't meet until the closing) can work to a buyer's advantage, especially when a seller feels a strong emotional connection to the house.

Some sellers feel responsible to bequeath their neighborhood or local school with a compatible new resident or are terrified a beloved homestead will be razed. A so-called buyer's letter, in which a buyer describes the reasons he is interested in a particular property, may influence the seller to select him or even knock thousands of dollars off the purchase price.

While this strategy has been around for decades, buyers' letters have become more common in the past few years with the advent of buyers' agents, whose job it is to help their clients land the deal. Some realtors are seeing the letters in about 30 percent of house sales; others say they're still quite rare. And just how effective they are is open to debate. Most realtors say they are useful only when there are several identical or close bids and a buyer wants to stand out.

''The majority of the time, money does talk," said Kate Moscatel, a realtor with Sweeney & O'Connell Real Estate in Arlington. ''But if it's a close race and someone sends a truly honest letter, it does make a difference because it's a very emotional time for the seller and the buyer."

Others have seen a letter work financial miracles.

Margaret Palau of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Brookline represented an investor-client who offered $10,000 more than a family looking to settle in. ''The family wrote a letter, and even though their offer was not as high they got the property," Palau recalled. ''The seller really wanted an owner-occupant."

Last year, Susan Donahue sold her home in Arlington for $10,000 less than she had planned because she and her husband were so impressed by a buyer's letter. ''It said how they'd been in our house and could envision their kids playing in the yard and going to school down the street," recalled Donahue, who lived in the house for 20 years before relocating. ''I think what really did it for me was the fact they had two young children, which is what I had when I started out in the house."

The Donahues quickly accepted the deal; Donahue says a higher bid would not have changed her mind. ''We had done a good amount of work to it through the years, so it was nice to know a young family would start out and live there," she said.

Selling to someone who will appreciate the home -- instead of tearing it down or renting it out -- is the key factor in many cases; that's where a letter can make a difference.

''I always recommend it," said Palau, ''if they're a family and can use that sort of allegiance as an owner-occupant or to the neighborhood or town as part of their offer. It definitely makes them a stronger buyer."

Indeed, the people from whom Palau bought her own home selected her because she wrote a letter detailing her ties to the neighborhood.

''I said if they sold me the house, my dog could go to the same park, my cat could chase the same squirrels, and my daughter could go to the same school. And I know that made a huge difference -- because they told me so."

Others insist it's the rare seller who cares about anything but the money.

''I've never found [letters] to hold a lot of strength," said Bobbie Botticelli, co-owner of Colonial Manor Realty in Reading. ''They're expecting sellers who don't know them from Adam to take $30,000 off a house because they feel bad for a stranger.

''It may work when you have multiple offers, if everything else is equal, but it's not going to get you a house unless you're willing to pay for it."

Unlike 40 or 50 years ago, sellers nowadays don't have as much emotional connection to their houses, because the average person relocates several times in a lifetime, added Laura Shifrin, a realtor with Townsend Center Realty in Townsend.

''In most instances, sellers don't want to be attached to the new buyers." For that reason, she said, the sole factors are ''price and terms, and not always price if the terms are attractive."

Not so, counters Fred Meyer of University Real Estate, in Harvard Square, a realtor for 41 years. ''Selling one's home is seldom just a straight money transaction," he said. ''The advantage to the buyer is the ability to humanize oneself, to flesh oneself out for the seller who may not have met you. If offers are identical or close, I have seen it make a difference. Because people like to know to whom their house is going."