What to write in a closing gift card: 22 notes to copy

They have never done this before. Say how big it is.

• Welcome home. You never forget the first one, and you earned every square foot of it. Thank you for letting me be part of it.
• Congratulations on your first home! Not long ago it was a saved search on your phone. Now your key is in the door.
• You did it. No more rent, no more asking before you hang a picture. Enjoy the first night, even if dinner is on a moving box.

These work at the closing table or with a gift that arrives the week after. Our guide to closing gifts for buyers covers the gift itself.

• Welcome home. Thank you for trusting me with a decision this big. I hope this house is good to you for a long time.
• Congratulations on the new place. It was a pleasure from the first showing to the last signature.
• The keys are yours. I knew this was the one when you stopped looking at the house and started placing the furniture. Enjoy every room.
• Welcome home. Thank you for letting me help you find it. I cannot wait to see what you do with the place.

A seller is leaving something. Thank them for the house, not for the listing. For the gift, see closing gifts for sellers.

• Thank you for trusting me with a home that held so much of your life. It was a privilege to help you pass it on.
• A lot of years went into that house, and it showed in every room. Thank you for letting me help you say goodbye to it well.
• Closing the door on a house like yours is no small thing. Thank you for your patience and your trust. The new owners are lucky to follow you.

Two for a buyer arriving somewhere new, one for a seller leaving town.

• Welcome to town. Buying a house in a place you barely know takes nerve, and you chose well. I am glad to be your first call here.
• Welcome home, and welcome to the neighborhood. Call me for anything, starting with where to get a good coffee.
• Safe travels to the new city. Thank you for letting me look after the sale while you looked ahead. This town will miss you, and so will I.

Say that you noticed they came back. That is the whole note.

• Here we are again. Thank you for calling me a second time. That means more to me than any closing.
• Welcome home, again! Helping you once was a pleasure. Being asked back is the best compliment I get in this job.
• Another house, same good company. Thank you for your trust, then and now. I hope this one fits the life you have built since the last.

Name the difficulty once, plainly, then move on. The last one is for a sale nobody is celebrating.

• We made it. After the offers that did not go our way, this is the house that was waiting. Thank you for not giving up, and for not letting me give up either.
• That was not an easy one, and you were steady the whole way through. Thank you for your patience with every delay. Welcome home, at last.
• I know this sale came at a hard time. Thank you for trusting me with it. I am thinking of you, and I am here if anything comes up later.

1. 01

   Write it by hand

   A printed card reads like a mailer. Your handwriting, however bad, shows you sat down for two minutes and thought about them.

2. 02

   Put your name in the card, not on the gift

   Sign the card with your first name and leave the gift unbranded. Our guide to personalized closing gifts covers why a logo on the gift backfires.

3. 03

   Mention one memory from the deal

   The third showing in the rain, the offer written at a kitchen counter, the inspection that almost ended it. One true detail from the deal does more than three warm sentences. Swap it in for the middle line of any note above.

The note is a thank-you. The moment it asks for something, it is a pitch with a gift attached.

• A request for a referral or a review. Not in the card, not as a postscript. Ask another day, in another message.
• The price, the commission, or anything else with a dollar sign. What to budget is a separate question: see how much to spend on a closing gift.
• A full page. Two to four sentences fit a gift card and get read.
• A joke about the hard parts, unless they made it first.

A portrait of the house already says which house and whose. Say why you chose it and stop. The first and third are for buyers, the second for a seller.

• Welcome home. I wanted you to have the house the way it looked the day it became yours. I hope it finds a good wall.
• Thank you for trusting me with your home. Here it is as you kept it, to hang wherever you land next.
• Congratulations! This is your house, framed and ready for the first nail in the wall. Thank you for letting me help you find it.