I’m sorry! I hate that! That happened to us at least half a dozen times when we were looking for our current home.
It’s not that this was a spectacular home in anyway - the home is modest but in a highly desired community with good schools and lots of charm and character. My realtor said right now in our area there are 25 buyers for every home up for sale - and obviously only one can snatch it!
Oof! That’s a really hard market to be buying into.
Well that is disappointing - sorry you didn’t get a chance at it. Hopefully the market situation means that someday when you want to sell existing home it will go fast.
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“Preemptive offers” are popular down here, but some listing agents and/or sellers will specifically state in their MLS listings “no preemptive offers will be accepted.”
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Per square footage, I looked at a house flyer in box in front of a for sale house. It listed total square footage, total finished square footage, finished square footage without the basement area (ie basement partially finished).
There are a lot of “coming soon” listings in our area which usually means a bidding war the second the listing goes live if the property is half way decent.
I guess Seattle is picking up again. It was like this in 2016 when D bought one. She had an inspector on speed dial who would review it quickly for major flaws. She could not compete with cash offer, no inspection.
That’s what we did. Pre-inspection! We lucked out with our house because it looked hideous from the outside. 
With obviously rotted siding that was haphazardly painted to look semi-presentable.
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Here everything basically hits any of the listings as “coming soon” - gets the excitement build up, fills up the showing spot calendar fast and therefore more likely to sell fast. It’s almost like you get a warning for the houses you might see in a couple weeks when they actually go live
My niece wrote a letter and was bidding against several others, all above list. She included a photo of her, her H and their darling toddler, also agreed to let owner stay in studio for 6 months after closing rent free (the house has 2 units that could be separate with 2 kitchens upstairs and a 2 bedroom unit and studio downstairs). They got the house, even tho they weren’t highest bidder.
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Letters and such as not allowed anymore here in Ohio and other states. No buttering up the sellers!
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Our realtor advised against us reading letters from potential buyers (when we sold our DC area house last year). I didn’t plan to read them anyway. To me selling the house was a business transaction.
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I think the letter has become a regular thing here in NJ. When we bought our first home (in 1984), our agent acted as our “letter.” There were two bids on the house and she went and schmoozed the owner telling them what great people we were (sell to this nice young couple).
My daughter in Boston included a letter (her real estate agent recommended she do that) in her latest rental application. That market is so crazy that people are putting in applications for apartments above the advertised rent amount.
My brother and SIL in Park Slope Brooklyn have their lower floor rental up - SIL said after one day they had 8 offers in hand over the asking rental price.
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My daughter’s rental “love letter” was just factual. I am leaving my current place because they are selling, I have lived in Boston for X years, I work at X, and I went to school at X. She also threw in a resume and a reference letter from her boss. Her credit score was included (required by the application). Nothing that would violate fair housing or give away her religion, race, ethnicity, etc. (nothing that isn’t on her linkedin page really).
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Friends sold house inherited from parents who had bought next door, retrofitted for wheelchair. They had multiple offers and were swayed by a letter from a family where the Dad was in a wheelchair - had a decent job but in the hot market they were having a hard time finding an accessible house they could afford. I thought her parents would have liked that.
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Rentals may be different. I know a few local realtors and they have all said a no go on any communication besides what is required like pre approval for home purchase.
Different regions may allow different methods
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Oh interesting - was not aware of the concerns on letters
After having binge-watched a boatload of tiny home tour videos on YouTube, I am now convinced that my DH will go bananas with cabin fever if we lived full time in one. I’d be happy as a clam. Especially if it was in a tiny home village and I could set up a community garden and hang out at the fire pit with other residents. If it was a tiny house where everything was on one floor, bed as well, I’d be good with that. Could go travel whenever we wanted to, go visit our kids, no yard or house maintenance to deal with.
But my DH? Today is Saturday and we live in a just-under-2000 sq ft house now and he’s left the house 3 times today just to “get out of the house” because he’s a little stir crazy. 