A personal letter with your offer on a Dutch house: template and what the seller really reads
With two nearly equal bids a personal letter can decide; with unequal bids the highest bid with the fewest conditions almost always wins. So write briefly and concretely about the house and your situation, and leave the price and the conditions in the official bidding form. In the Netherlands such a letter goes to the seller through the selling agent, with your bid.
Written by Jiri, estate agent in Maastricht and founder of DoorLetter.
Updated on 7 October 2026.
As a selling agent I have had hundreds of bids on the table, and a fair number came with a letter. I will be honest: the letter rarely changes the order of the bids. But when two bids are close, and that happens more often than you think, a seller chooses the people he can picture.
This is the letter I would recommend. It is short, it is about the house and not about your setbacks, and it leaves the seller with something he remembers. For an expat it has one extra sentence: that you are here to stay.
The letter in English
Dear [De Vries] family,
Today we made an offer on your house at [Sint Pieterstraat 8] through our agent. We wanted to tell you something ourselves as well.
I am [Lotte], my husband is [Tom], and we have a daughter of [three]. During the viewing she stopped at [the windowsill in the back room where your children's heights are marked]. That was the moment we knew we wanted to live here. We came to the Netherlands [five years ago] for work, and this is where we want to stay.
We plan to keep the house as it is, with [the wooden floor and the conservatory], and to stay for a long time. Our mortgage is arranged and we are flexible about the completion date.
Whatever you decide: thank you for letting us see your home.
Kind regards, [Lotte and Tom]
In square brackets: fill in your own details.
The same letter in Dutch
Line for line the same, so you know exactly what you are saying. Send this one to an older owner or outside the big cities, or print it on the back of the English page.
Beste familie [De Vries],
Vandaag hebben we via onze makelaar een bod uitgebracht op uw huis aan de [Sint Pieterstraat 8]. We wilden u daar zelf ook iets bij vertellen.
Ik ben [Lotte], mijn man heet [Tom], en we hebben een dochter van [drie]. Tijdens de bezichtiging bleef ze staan bij [de vensterbank in de achterkamer waar uw kinderen hun lengte hebben bijgehouden]. Dat was het moment dat we wisten dat we hier wilden wonen. We zijn [vijf jaar geleden] voor ons werk naar Nederland gekomen, en hier willen we blijven.
We zijn van plan het huis te houden zoals het is, met [de houten vloer en de serre], en er lang te blijven. Onze financiering is rond en we zijn flexibel in de opleverdatum.
Wat u ook besluit: dank dat we uw huis mochten zien.
Hartelijke groet, [Lotte en Tom]
Tussen vierkante haken: vul je eigen gegevens in. In square brackets: fill in your own details.
Why the letter is built this way
- One detail from the viewing
- The windowsill with the height marks. This is the sentence a seller remembers, because it is about his house and not about your search.
- What you will do with the house
- Sellers who lived there for a long time want to know the house is in good hands. "We are keeping the conservatory" says more than "we are very enthusiastic".
- Here to stay
- A Dutch seller who sees a foreign name may wonder whether you will resell in two years. One sentence settles it.
- Flexible, mortgage arranged
- Next to the price these are the two things a seller weighs most. Name them briefly. The amount and the conditions do not belong in this letter but in the bidding form.
- Not about the bids you lost
- Leave out that this is your sixth bid and how hard it has been. The seller is not a counsellor, and pity is a poor basis for a sale.
- Thank them, whatever happens
- A letter that ends without conditions comes across as sincere. That is because it is.
What to change before you send it
- Keep it under 150 words. A long letter reads as a plea.
- Send it through the selling agent, together with your bid. A letter straight into the seller's letterbox after a viewing feels to many sellers like going around their agent.
- Write it in Dutch if you can; the selling agent will pass on an English letter too, but the seller reads the Dutch one himself.
- No photo of your family, unless the agent asks for one.
- Write nothing you cannot make true at the notary.
Frequently asked questions
How long may the letter be?
A hundred to a hundred and fifty words. On the evening of the bidding deadline a seller may read ten such letters; the short one is read, the long one is skimmed.
Do I send the letter to the agent or to the seller?
Through the selling agent, as an attachment to your bid. The agent is obliged to present every bid to the seller and almost always passes such a letter on. Ringing the doorbell or putting a letter through the door after the viewing is seen by many Dutch sellers as improper.
May I include a photo?
You may, but I advise against it. A photo makes it more personal than most sellers find comfortable and can weigh in ways nobody wants. Your words are enough.
Does this also work for a house that is not for sale?
No, that is a different letter. For a house that is not for sale you make no offer at all and ask only for a conversation if it ever comes to that. That is what the letter to a homeowner is for.
Use this letter as a start.
The letter is already in the text box. Replace what is in square brackets, choose the address and send it. The first letter is free, printed and delivered by PostNL.
Open the English letter in the send form