love letter

Definition

A personal note from buyers to sellers describing their emotional connection to the property and how they'll cherish it forever. They're increasingly discouraged or banned due to fair housing concerns, but still occasionally work to sway sentimental sellers.

Example Usage

Against my agent's advice, I wrote a love letter about raising my kids in that backyard—and apparently it beat out two higher offers from investors.

Origin

Real estate transaction practice from the early 2000s

Fun Fact

NAR now discourages love letters because they can introduce unconscious bias about buyers' race, religion, or family status—making these emotional pleas potential fair housing violations.

Source: Real estate sales and negotiation terminology

Related Terms

Beginner

price per square foot

A metric that pretends all square feet are created equal, whether they're in a penthouse or a basement. It's the real estate version of judging a book by counting the pages without reading any of them.

🏠 Real Estate

Beginner

shag

A thick, deep-pile carpet style wildly popular in the 1960s and '70s, characterized by long fibers that feel luxurious underfoot but trap everything from crumbs to small pets. These plush floor coverings defined an era of interior design before people realized how impossible they are to clean. Austin Powers would approve.

🏠 Real Estate

Intermediate

buildout

The process of customizing and constructing interior spaces to meet a tenant's specific needs, transforming empty commercial shells into functional offices, restaurants, or retail spaces. This construction phase involves everything from framing walls to installing specialized equipment, typically negotiated between landlords and tenants with someone inevitably paying more than expected. It's when architectural dreams meet contractor reality and budgets start sweating.

🏠 Real Estate

Intermediate

takeoff

In construction and real estate, the detailed process of measuring and quantifying all materials needed for a project from blueprints, basically turning drawings into shopping lists. Also known as "quantity takeoff," it's the unglamorous math that prevents contractors from discovering mid-project that they're three truckloads of concrete short. Get it wrong, and someone's explaining cost overruns to very angry people.

🏠 Real Estate

Advanced

cash on cash return

A performance metric showing the annual pre-tax cash flow divided by the total cash invested, expressed as a percentage. It's how rental property investors measure whether they're getting a decent return or just being a charity for tenants.

🏠 Real Estate

Beginner

eviction

The legal process of forcibly removing tenants from a property, typically because they stopped paying rent or violated the lease in creative ways. It's the landlord's nuclear option, requiring court proceedings and often resulting in awkward encounters with sheriffs and moving trucks. Essentially, it's the formal way of saying "get out" with paperwork.

🏠 Real Estate

Translate This Term

See “love letter” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Beginner

accused

The person on the receiving end of criminal charges, standing in the uncomfortable spotlight of allegations before guilt...