The process of selling your home is not always as simple as it sounds. A lot of homeowners believe you just hire an agent, they put a sign in the yard, you get a buyer and you get a check. These homeowners come to realize that this process can become a long drawn out process. When selling a home, there are many different challenges that can arise throughout the transaction and even before you’ve listed your home for sale. There are many challenges when selling a home that are more common than others. These challenges can consist on many roadblocks that we will discuss later on the post. Here is a list of some of the challenges that homeowners will face when trying to sell there home the traditional route.
1) Market Conditions- This can be a challenge that takes place prior to putting your home on the market. If there is a very large supply of homes that are up for sale and not a lot of demand for these home it is possible that your home will sit on the market just because there is not a sufficient amount of people looking to buy. Now this is something you have no control over but could possibly effect the speed and price of your sale. When you decide to sell your home, you should do some research on what state the market is in (buyers market or sellers market)
Buyers Market - a buyer’s real estate market is one in which the home buyer’s who are in the marketplace have an advantage over the seller’s (supply greater than demand)
Sellers Market- Home sellers who are in market place have an advantage over the buyers (demand is greater than supply)
2) Choosing a Realtor- If you are selling your home the traditional route, your choice of realtor has the ability to make or break your sale. The process of choosing a realtor is not difficult but can be time consuming. You need to go through interviews, get referrals, ask questions and pick the perfect realtor for your situation (they dont exist). You also have to avoid the realtors who promise the world, promising the highest price for your home and the quickest sale. These are the individuals who usually rarely deliver on there promises.
3) Getting your home ready to sell- If you want top dollar for your home, you will have to put the necessary money or time into making the needed changes within your property to produce top resale value. This part of the process can also take a lot of time and money. If you are unfamiliar with construction and have trouble doing things yourself you could be in thousands of dollars out of pocket to make these changes. Changes like repainting the interior, landscaping, changing/ cleaning the flooring, replacing fixtures, replacing doors, making renovations to bathrooms/ kitchens. All of this rehab costs money and will hold up the sale on your home if you are looking for top dollar.
4) Pricing your home- Finding the perfect price for your home is a difficult challenge and a challenge that not to many people can master. Without the proper pricing of your home, you face the challenge of having your home sit for a long amount of time. Overpricing your home can be devastating. An overpriced home will usually not recieve many showings or inquiries and this will effect how long your home sits on the market.
5) Mainting a show ready home- Now if you have decided to sell your home the traditional route, you now face the challenge of having to maintain your home while still living there. This can be very difficult if you have children or just dont clean your home on a consistent basis. The longer your home sits on the market, the longer you will have to TRY to keep your home show ready.
6) Unrealistic Home Buyers- One of the top challenges that homeowners face when they are trying to sell there homes are unrealistic home buyers. The biggest difficult with these home buyers comes to the offering price. In todays market no matter if your home is priced right or not, you will have home buyers that offer you disrepectful low ball offers. Another challenge that arises from these unrealistic home buyers is the fact that they want the home in perfect condition. So if you do not want to make the necessary updates to your property it will be hard for you to find a buyer that is willing to pay top dollar for your home
7) Commissions- Now that you already had to put a bunch of your own money into making the proper updates to your home, maintaining these updates throughout the sale, now if you ever do sell your home, you will have to give your Agents & broker about 7% of the sales prices. Now these commissions are negotiable but you will have a very hard time finding a great agent if you are offering anything less than 7% in this area. The only way to avoid these commissions is to either sell the home by yourself or take a cash offer from a buyer before you list the house.
8) Passing Inspections- A top challenge for home sellers is passing the extensive list of inspections that a home buyer can issue. Whether its home inspections, pest inspections, or radon tests, a home buyer wants to ensure everything is perfect when they purchase a new home. There are no set guidelines on if a home passes inspection or not. The home buyers have the final say in if they are satisfied with inspection process or not. Believe me when I tell you, they will have a nice extensive list for you to take care of.
9) Closing the Deal- So you made it through all the difficult challenges, the closing should be easy right?? Just sign a couple papers take your check and your headache is over with... Wrong!! There are many different things that can de- rail a property closing. One of the main issues that can arise is the buyer getting disapproved. Now this is nothing that the seller can control but can still be a deal breaker. Some other items that can derail a deal at closing are Title issues or survey issues.
As you can see the process of selling your home is no simple feat. There are many different aspects to the sale of your home and there are many different challenges that can arise. The best way to avoid all of these challenges is by taking a less money and doing a cash deal. A cash deal will save you all of these hassles and will allow you to close on a property within 7-14 days. If money is not the main reason that you intend to sell you should consider selling with a cash buyer and relinquishing some of these challenges you may face.