Write a love letter about the house. Add favorable clauses to the contract. Forego any contingencies. These are often cited as tactics that can help you triumph in a bidding war. But there are other ways to seal the deal.

Admittedly, some of these maneuvers are long shots. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. So consider these steps:

-- Have your agent contact the seller’s agent to determine what points might help your offer rise to the top of the pile. The seller might want a quick close, for example, or maybe he’ll want to delay closing until his new place is ready. The idea is to find out what’s most important to the seller and give it to him.

-- In places where houses are selling fast, appraisals often lag behind the market, meaning there’s a good chance the valuation won’t be as high as your offer. So consider adding a stipulation that you’ll make up the difference if the appraisal falls short. That way, the seller knows that you won’t expect him to lower his selling price.

-- A good agent will insist on presenting her client’s offer to the seller in person. That way, she can plead your case and ask questions. She should then call you on the spot, work out any details, and not leave the property without a deal.

-- To impress upon the sellers that this is an urgent matter to you, require them to respond to your offer within a set time period: maybe 12 hours, but no longer than 24. If you get no answer, this clause says your offer becomes null and void. Calling for urgency shows your ability to move forward with the sale as quickly as the sellers want.

-- Cash is always king. A deal where there is no financing involved is far less likely to fall through than one in which the buyer needs a loan. So consider paying for the house out of your own pocket at settlement and then arranging for financing afterwards. Fannie Mae has a program for cash buyers who want to finance their purchases within six months after closing.

-- If you insist on a home inspection -- as you should -- offer a “due diligence” fee. This is essentially a fee paid to the seller to reserve the right to have the house examined for major defects. If you decide not to proceed after the inspection, you forfeit the fee; if you close, it’s credited to your side of the ledger.

-- An independent home inspection keeps you from essentially buying a pig in a poke. But if you are desperate, you can make the inspection for informational purposes only. That way, you’ll know what you are getting into -- the house needs a new roof, for example, or the air conditioning is on its last legs -- and the seller knows you won’t demand fixes for those problems.

-- Offer to pay some, or even all, of the seller’s closing costs. Pay for the appraisal, for example, or the homeowners’ association’s transfer charges. If you offer to take some or all of the settlement fees off their shoulders, it might seal the deal.

-- Attach an estimated HUD-1 closing cost statement so the sellers can see what their net will be if they accept your offer. Most sellers tend to expect to see a higher figure on the bottom line; if you show them what’s being paid and how the money is being allocated, there shouldn’t be any surprises.

-- Have your agent research the seller’s agent to ascertain if they have a friend or colleague in common. If so, perhaps that friend can reach out to the seller’s agent and vouch that your agent is a professional who’s easy to work with.

-- Submit a clean, understandable offer with all the blanks filled in. All of them. If something is missing, or if the seller doesn’t know what you mean by “leave some of the furniture,” your offer will go right to the bottom of the pile. This is your agent’s job, but you should double-check.

-- Your agent should cover your offer with a one-page letter spelling out, one by one, the salient points of your bid. That way, the seller won’t have to scroll through all 18 pages of your contract looking for all the key points.

-- If you really, really like the place, don’t give up, even if your offer is not the winning bid. Ask that your offer be accepted as a backup. That way, if the winning offer should fall through -- it happens more than you’d think -- instead of going back on the market, the property falls to you. No guarantee, but it sometimes works.

-- Another long-shot tactic: If you are having no luck at winning the bidding wars, ask your agent to research expired listings: houses that haven’t sold and have been taken off the market. If he finds one that fits your requirements, and you like it, he can approach the owner to see if she is still interested in selling. If so, maybe you can strike a deal without having to compete with other wannabe buyers.

Nowadays, you can get a mortgage any way you want it: You can apply online or in person. You can apply online, then jump off the internet to talk to a real, live person anytime you want. Or you can stick to the old-fashioned face-to-face application process throughout the entire transaction.

But what about the other important parts of obtaining financing -- the appraisal, the underwriting process and the loan servicing? These processes, too, are changing, but at a slower pace. Here’s a brief rundown:

-- Appraisals. Forget that appraisers sometimes seem to be slow to keep up with rising values. While that, in itself, can squash transactions in markets where house prices are rising rapidly, the real bugaboo these days is that it takes so long for them to complete their tasks.

The reason isn’t that the new regulations require them to be more thorough. Rather, it’s that there aren’t enough appraisers to keep up with the volume of work. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Many appraisers are leaving the business because management companies, those controversial outfits hired by lenders to oversee the valuation process, are taking such a big slice of valuation fees that appraisers say they can’t make a living. And with the average age of appraisers approaching 60, many are either slowing down or retiring.

To remedy the situation, the Appraiser Qualifications Board, which sets education, experience and examination requirements for property appraisers, has boiled down its course load. Soon, this will allow appraisers to go out on their own in a year instead of the usual 2 1/2 years, reports William Fall of Valuation Partners in Toledo, Ohio.

Unfortunately, the new program won’t go into effect until July 2018. Until then, it’s going to cost more and take longer for appraisers to get their eyes on properties. “This is long overdue,” says Fall. “I wish it would have been July ‘08. Unfortunately, you can’t go backwards.”

-- Underwriting. Waiting for word from your lender that you’ve been approved for financing can be a suspenseful period. But forces are at work to streamline the process to give would-be homebuyers an answer more quickly.

Generally, it takes eight to 10 days to hear back from your lender. But under Fannie Mae’s new “Day 1 Certainty” program, lenders are making their decisions in a day and a half. “Thirty-six hours is a big deal,” says Andrew Bon Salle, executive vice president of single-family business at Fannie Mae.

Fannie Mae doesn’t make loans, at least not directly. But it is a key force in America’s mortgage financing system. Without it and other secondary market investors, lenders would run out of money to make loans. So to replenish their vaults and keep the spigot open, lenders sell their loans to Fannie. And to keep her happy, they follow her rules.

Under the Day 1 program, lenders don’t have to worry about being forced to repurchase loans to borrowers who default if they use Fannie Mae’s electronic validation service. With the borrower’s permission, lenders using the software can corroborate income, assets and employment, all online.

“We’re enabling a more accurate, simpler digital process,” says Bon Salle. “Lenders and borrowers benefit by moving away from the manual processes prevalent in the industry today.”

In other words, with the company’s technology updates, pay stubs, W-2s and tax returns will no longer be required. And, better yet, appraisals can be accepted upfront without the need for follow-ups.

Says Glenn Brunker, president of BOK Financial in Tulsa, Oklahoma: “This is a win-win, as the customer’s experience is improved through reduced documentation and accelerated closing dates, while we receive reps and warrants and operational efficiencies.”

-- Servicing. Another major pain-point for some borrowers is how their payments are collected and their money disbursed to the loan’s owner, the property insurer and the state and local taxing authorities. Sometimes, it just doesn’t go right. And to compound matters, the companies that manage your mortgage -- called servicers -- are not terribly responsive to your complaints.

But firms like BSI Financial Services of Irving, Texas, are using big data to service loans “cheaper, faster, with higher quality -- and with fewer mistakes,” says BSI President Gagan Sharma.

With the data his company has in its system, Sharma says he can identify small problems before they have a chance to become big ones. So, if your tax payment has been routed to the wrong agency, the system will catch the error -- probably before you do.

Equally as important, if you normally make your payment on the fifth of every month and the system hasn’t received your payment by, say, the seventh, the system will flag your account and a human will call to ask if something is wrong. Perhaps it’s lost in the mail, or maybe you’re having a bit of trouble financially. If it’s the latter, the human will ask, “How can we help?”

“With automation,” says Sharma, “we can find and address problems earlier. And that makes for a smoother process for everyone.“

Much has been written about the importance of Hispanics to the housing market. But the ownership rate among Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders is even greater, according to the most detailed breakdown ever from the Census Bureau.

The homeownership rate among this group, collectively called AAPI, is 55.6 percent -- the second-highest in the country, behind non-Hispanic whites at 71.9 percent. By contrast, the ownership rate is 47 percent for Hispanics and 41.3 percent for African-Americans.

According to a report from the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA), people in the AAPI group tend to have, on average, high credit scores, incomes and levels of educations. The group is projected to grow by 1.8 million households by 2024, and will buy 33 percent more houses than non-Hispanic whites.

Until last year, the U.S. Census lumped Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders together in the “other” category, along with Native Americans, Alaskans, Native Hawaiians and people who claimed two or more races. The addition of the AAPI category will allow for more accurate and useful demographic research in the future.

Of all the key market indicators, few are more useful for sellers than the number of times their house has been shown to would-be buyers over the preceding two weeks. If no one’s come a-calling, there’s something terribly wrong.

The number of viewings will always vary, based on market conditions, the season, price range and proximity to the center of the region’s market. For example, you can’t expect as many visitors in a slow market, but you should expect lots in places where there is little inventory to compete against.

All things considered, Virginia broker David Rathgeber’s rule of thumb is two weeks: “If no one came to see your home in the last two weeks, you are in trouble,” he says.

Typically, it means that the house has been priced poorly. “No matter what the market conditions are, homes that are priced well, and show well, will sell,” says Beth Atalay, broker-owner of Florida’s Cam Realty. “No gimmicks needed -- you don’t need to offer bonuses to selling agents, don’t need to use marketing techniques that don’t work for all. If you need your home to sell, do not overprice it!”

Rathgeber suggests taking a hard look at the houses that have sold recently in your market. If houses all around yours are selling, and you’ve had no bites in the last couple weeks, it’s time to consider a price reduction.

Otherwise, look for the answer to your woes somewhere in the MLS printout of your listing. There could be a mistake in there somewhere, so check it carefully. Does it list the wrong address, wrong directions, wrong square footage, wrong price? Check everything.

“There is no magic in selling a home,” says Rathgeber. “This is not rocket science, just attention to detail, and knowing which details need attention.”

Here’s a sobering point for anyone considering buying a brand-new house: It is highly likely it won’t be finished on time, and it possibly could contain a high number of defects.

The reason: Builders everywhere are saying that finding experienced construction workers is difficult at best.

The lack of labor is always at the top of the list of problems published by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). And a recent NAHB survey found that nearly 2 out of 3 builders say their biggest worry right now is labor.

The reason: Few young people want to be carpenters, plumbers or electricians, according to a poll of 18- to 25-year-olds by trade mag Builder.

The survey found that 4 out of 5 respondents know what field they want a career in, and it isn’t construction. Just 3 percent have an interest in the trades. Even if they could earn between $75,000 and $100,000 a year, 43 percent said “no dice” -- there is no amount of money that would make them give the trades a second thought.

With few desirable homes on the market in many places, it’s no secret that would-be buyers are bidding against each other, driving the selling price above what the seller originally asked.

But the lack of inventory also means houses are selling faster. In March, according to the Redfin brokerage chain, nearly 1 in every 5 houses sold went to contract within 14 days. In addition, more than 1 in 5 sold for more than the list price.