How are you handling buyer love letters? Pulse

Pulse is a recurring column where we ask for readers’ takes on varying topics in a weekly survey and report back with our findings.

Even in 2022, buyer love letters are still kind of murky waters. They’re legal in 49 states, but could land Realtors in ethics trouble. (Ethics expert Barbara Betts lays out exactly how buyer love letters can land you in ethics trouble here.)

Many argue that they violate the Fair Housing Act by paving the way for discrimination by including details pertaining to race, gender, sexuality, familial status, etc.

And currently in the state where they are illegal: The first-of-its-kind buyer love letter ban went into effect Jan. 1, 2022, in Oregon. It’s currently being challenged in the courts (by a lawsuit from the libertarian Pacific Legal Foundation seeking to undo it), and we could know any day now if the law’s enforcement will be temporarily suspended as that suit works its way through the courts.

So in a low-inventory, competitive market where buyers need every edge, it’s safe to say that some agents are still sending them, perhaps with demographic information redacted.

Are you still sending some form of buyer love letter? If not, what are you doing instead? How are you filling the void to give your buyers a competitive edge? What are other agents doing?

Please take our anonymous one-question survey to help us gauge what’s really going on in the field.

We’ll compile a list of the top responses and post them on Inman next Tuesday.