v wrote:

1) If the house is going to be demolished anyway, its condition is of
no importance. The bigger it is, the more it will cost to knock down
& cart away, so that is hardly something to emphasize (same for any
improvements made, what's the point, it is going to be torn down).

Good point. I hadn't thought of costs for carting the house away,
though tear-down at the neighboring house consisted of a backhoe-type
machine banging away until it was flat, and then scooping the mess into
a dumpster. It took one worker one day. The disposal fees have to be
killer, though.


2)
snip
Why would *you* want to
disclose how much you really want to sell to the contractor?

Duh, me. All I can say is that this is an emotional subject for many
different reasons, which all boil down to "we want to get the hell out,
yesterday." Obviously, I *don't* want to let them know that we
reallyreally want them to buy the house. But hey, that's why I'm asking
my questions here, before we contact the contractors.


3) My opinion is that you are attaching too much importance to
imagined emotional issues of phrasing the letter. They are business
people and construction experts, its not like they are gonna be swayed
as to if it is a good deal by your artful pleadings.

Another good point. I don't think that my writing skills would woo them
if they'd otherwise be uninterested (Hm, perhaps if I came up with a
nice little iambic pentameter sonnet?), but I want to make sure what I
write grabs their interest. Mostly, I was thinking that a well-written
letter gets more of a response than a misspelled, poorly phrased jumble
of unintelligible ramblings.


I don't even thonk it needs to be a letter, but whether letter or
phone call, how about "Hi, remember us, we are still interested in
selling our house at 123 Elm St. (12,000 s.f. lot) for teardown."
That should serve to remind them.

Hm. I was thinking that a letter was more "concrete" than a phone call.
But I can see what you mean... a phone call accomplishes the same thing
("Hey, we're still interested"), plus we could feel them out to see if
they're actually interested as well.

Thanks for your input.


Cina