Welcome Home Letter To New Homeowners
When you Sell Your House, a Welcome Home Letter To New Homeowners creates an extra step for you in the middle of one of the most stressful times of your life. However, the gesture will likely not go unnoticed and will certainly be appreciated by the new owner!
We sold our home to people who we knew absolutely nothing about. We knew their names, only because names were on the paperwork we signed. It was weird! Weird that a new family would be moving into our home of 13 years and we hadn’t even met them. We had no clue if they had children, how old they were, what they looked like, nothing!
You are probably thinking it doesn’t matter, right?
To me, it mattered! I asked our realtor to find out a little about who was buying our home. She must not get this request often because she seemed a bit shocked. According to a conversation on Reddit, it isn’t common for buyers to meet sellers.
A few days later we got ‘they were married in Hawaii a year ago and have not started a family yet’. That was it!
The home we had cared so meticulously for would have new owners and those owners would not know anything about the history of our home.
Of course, the new owners had explored our home before making that initial offer but they didn’t know that the Christmas lights we left were cut to size specifically for the peaks of the home. They may have laughed at the little flip lock on the front door. The flagstone path we had so carefully laid would not be appreciated if the new owners didn’t know how we had built it. What about our mailbox number or the code to the garage door keypad?
I was determined and made it my mission, amongst the craziness of moving, to let the new owners know the history and important information about their new home. I also wanted to share about us, the family that had lived there!
One tired night, I sat at my computer and wrote a letter to the new homeowners. There are many other things I could have and wished I would have said, however, I left good enough alone and left my letter on the island along with a poinsettia, keys, garage door openers, and mail!
You may also want to include a Welcome To Your New Home Sign and here are Gift Ideas For The People Who Purchased Your Home.
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We were featured in ApartmentGuide’s Saying Goodbye to a Home article where we shared about the importance of writing a letter when you move!
Welcome Home Letter To New Homeowners
Welcome Home, John and Sally!
This home is filled with much love and many memories! We hope you will enjoy it as much as we have!
If walls could talk, this is what your new home would tell you:
In 2003, an awesome family moved in and quickly made this house a home! Their daughter, Justine, was just three years old and their son, Jack, was one!
They came up with extra money to have the builder upgrade to white doors and trim and to put cupboards above the washer and dryer. They also had extra outlets installed in the garage. Bridget was quite the organizer and knew she wanted to install EasyClosets in every closet space so she asked the builder to not install the normal wire system so she could start with a fresh slate! She and Steve measured and designed closets that would work for them, and ordered, and installed them themselves. You will find many of the shelves to be interchangeable and will find extras here and there!
Shortly after moving in, Bridget and Steve discovered little Jack could easily let himself out the front door. One particular day, they decided to follow Jack to see just how far he would go. He made it a full two blocks while repeating over and over he was going to Abby’s house (one of his friends who lives close by). At least he was going in the right direction! Needless to say, that’s when the flip lock was installed on the front door! That flip lock has stumped many visitors since!
This hot family also had air conditioning installed which kept them cool throughout many summers!
Then came garage organization! They installed the Onrax in the garage for extra storage, gladiator hooks for tools, and, what Bridget liked to call, the Wall Of Wow for all the kids’ outdoor and sports equipment. You will also find a large hook in the center beam of the garage which was used at Birthday parties for pinatas!
Eventually, the landscape became a focus, and Bridget and Steve hired a landscape designer to draw up plans. They purchased plants and planted the back hill. Next, they tackled the flagstone pathway to the side of the house being careful to dig, add just the right amount of gravel, and then sand before carefully placing each flagstone and the elfin thyme between them. The front hill was done much later by a landscaping company!
Steve and Bridget loved to garden and created a yard full of life! Frogs, butterflies, bees, and even bunnies were often seen and heard. Teddi Bear, their Shihtzu Bichon, absolutely loved chasing after the bunnies and would get horribly dirty on the back hill, which is why they put up a barrier on the back hill.
Steve and Bridget built the cinder block raised garden beds and grew green beans, tomatoes, strawberries, onions, zucchini, lettuce, pie pumpkins, and potatoes. Potatoes aren’t too friendly with anything other than green beans so they were grown in the garden at the side of the house.
One Black Friday, they upgraded to stainless steel appliances, and boy, do they look good!
Justine is now 16, and driving! She attends high school and plays the electric bass. Jack is now 14 and has always loved LEGOS, Star Wars, and playing the electric acoustic guitar. He also has a YouTube channel!
Your new home has seen many Birthday parties, Christmas parties (even an ugly sweater one), sleepovers, laughter, music (did I mention Steve plays the drums?), fun, and more Nerf wars than we can count!
On the rare occasion we have snow, the road makes a perfect sled run! I can still hear the screams of joy when yet another snow day is called, another sleepover is planned, and sledding and hot chocolate were on the agenda!
We trust and pray you will experience your own fun memories in this awesome home!
Steve, Bridget, Justine, and Jack
The code to the garage door keypad is:
The mailbox is #:
The security keypad and sensors are from:
Garbage day is Wednesday!
Our Welcome Home Letter Was Appreciated!
A friend and I had meticulously cleaned the house from top to bottom including blinds, baseboards, window seals, and doors. Every cupboard was wiped inside and out, the closet shelves were wiped down, and the appliances were left sparkling!
Steve gave the grass a fresh mow, we left a three-ring binder with appliance manuals and the gas key in a drawer, and we topped it off with a poinsettia and this Welcome Home letter!
The next day, our realtor called and told us the new homeowner’s realtor had called and wanted to be sure they thanked us. The realtor said he had been in this business for over 20 years and never had seen a home left like this.
Our realtor said, ‘whatever you did, they sure liked it’!
Letter To New Homeowners Printable
If you have a move on the horizon, I have created a Welcome Home Letter Printable, along with a House 411 information sheet that provides space for you to share information the new owner of your home will need!
Buy Your Welcome Home Printable Here
Although the moving process was incredibly tiring, busy, and emotional, I found peace in knowing I had shared with the new owners a little of the history, information, and FUN we had in the shell of a house we once called home!
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I left a welcome to your new home letter with detailed information regarding use of some systems like the alarm etc. along with information on who we used for sprinkler turn on/off and landscaping and the pricing over the years. Also a plant.
What I *didn’t* do was leave a letter like this that tells the family details of who lived her and why certain selections are what they are. I know many new buyers who appreciate this but I also think some WOULD NOT LIKE TO READ THIS. Why? I think many buyers want to view their new house as THEIRS. Not meeting the previous owners leaves them out of sight and out of mind and they don’t have to envision their child’s new room used to belong to a 16 year girl or that the garage cabinets were the dream of the Dad who spent hours their with his tools etc. For some I would imagine that’s a bit off putting and a reason why some want to build new in the first place.
So… I know to each their own, but I personal vote for an warm thank you and welcome, “enjoy your new house” and the info for all the appliances, etc. but leaving out the personal details that cause the new owners to maybe feel they are living in someone else’s house.
Thank you for your perspective on this, David!
Thank you for the nice letter idea.
That was wonderful! We did something similar for the last 2 houses we sold, but nowhere near as detailed! 🙂 For the first one, we left a picture of the house from 1890 when it was built with the original family posing in front of it. We got it from the previous owner who lived down the street. In that home and the next, we left all of the booklets for the furnace and other appliances in a 3 ringed notebook on the kitchen counter. In the last house we sold, we also left a welcome note and a bottle of champagne. We knew the guy that bought the house from when he came for the inspection. He was so nice and so funny, we were thrilled for him and his family. They had moved up here from NYC and said a house like ours would have been out of their price range down there. Anyhoo! Keep spreading the joy Bridget! If we ever sell a house again, I’m going to adopt your extra touches! 🙂
Aha! Yes! I skipped the three-ring-binder part! We left the three-ring-binder with the appliance info along with the gas shut off key in the drawer! I’m sure they found it eventually;0)
I LOVE the touch of the picture from 1890! How fun!
That’s awesome you actually got to meet the new homeowner! It’s surprising to me how little you know about buyers.
I was determined the new owners would know something about us whether they wanted to or not! Ha!