Ever Thought about Doing Research on the Seller of a Home?

You see the home of your dreams.  You prepare the offer with your mortgage pre-approval and bank statements.  Then you write your buyer letter.  Sure, you can write about how great the home is and how you appreciate the work they put into it.  But why not make it more personal?  We are in the age of social media, where you can find out a lot of information about a person (whether we like it or not).  You can find out their hobbies, interests, and familial status.  A few sources to use include the following:

• Google
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Instagram
• YouTube

Here is a great example.  Let’s say you are a fitness trainer.  And low and behold, through your research on Facebook, you find out the Seller is a big fitness buff.  As a matter of fact, through your Google search, you discover that the Seller has a blog all about fitness.  With this information in hand, you can write in the personal letter about how you see yourself using one of the bedrooms as a home gym.  It can tie an emotional connection with the Seller.  This is an example of people liking others similar to themselves such as interests and general background.

The UK newspaper, The Telegraph, sums it up nicely: “It is all down to a brain region which categorises people as being like us, even if all we know about them is that they have one thing in common. What is surprising is that the work suggests that when we know someone has a similar political leaning to us, we tend to think of them as being like us in a host of other ways.”

Here is another example.  Let’s say that through your research, you find out that the Seller is an executive with a Fortune 500 company.  Generally these people are pretty busy and cut to facts, not emotion.  If that is the case, the best strategy may be to explain in the letter the great points of the offer, and how well qualified you are to buy the home.  That way the Seller can review it, and make a quick decision.  The executive may also appreciate how you too, care about the results, which is to close on the home with no delays.

Whatever scenario it is, it never hurts to do a little research ahead of time.  It can be helpful even once under contract and you need to negotiate on the request for repairs.